No. 161.] 
131 
river. One of these immense beds lies on the east side of Lake 
Sandford at an elevation of 200 feet above the lake. This bed 
has been traced upon the surface for more than a mile in length, 
from N. N. E. lo S. S. W., and is more than 300 feet in width. 
At a point about three miles farther north, ore of similar quality is 
found in the side of a hill ; and it is not improbable that it may be 
the same bed extending to this distance, (more than four miles.) 
About a mile north of the inlet to Lake Sandford, in the bed and 
on both sides of the stream, is a bed of ore which cannot be much 
less than 500 feet wide, and in all probability far exceeds that 
breadth. This bed, with one or two minor ones on the east side 
of the stream, has been traced for three-fourths of a mile in a 
northerly direction, and probably continues much farther souiher- 
]y, as the great numbers of boulders and angular fragments of ore 
lying on the surface and imbedded in the soil, seem to indicate. 
Some of these boulders of ore cannot weigh less than three tons. 
These inexhaustible beds of ore, with regard to water power and 
wood for charcoal, are as favorably situated for working as they 
are superior in point of magnitude. The water of the north branch 
of the Hudson river, in its passage from Lake Henderson to Lake 
Sandford, (a distance of more than a mile,) can be employed seve- 
ral times, there being sufficient fall to allow of the erection of dams 
within short distances of each other. And should more water 
power be required, the water of the east branch of the Hudsoii 
can be turned into the north branch at a trifling expense. The 
water power thus obtained, if applied to forges, would be saffi- 
cient to propel machinery for the manufacture of many thousand 
tons of iron annually. 
This superior water privilege, together with the immense qcan= 
titles of ore and timber for charcoal, give this place a decided su- 
periority over any other for the manufacture of iron. The cnlj 
serious impediment is the want of a communication wiin a mar- 
ket, by roads or other means. This difficulty, however, rr^ay be 
overcome, as there are facilities for constructing either a cunipike 
or rail-road (40 miles) to Lake Champlain. 
The course of the Hudson and Schroon rivers have been exa- 
mined, with a view to opening a water communication to Glen's- 
* The ore from the whole area of this bed, to the depth of one foot, would weigh 213,- 
384 tons. 
