REPORT 
Of Dr. Lewis C. Beck, on the Mineralogical and Che- 
mical Department of the Survey, 
To His Bxcdlmcy William L. Marcy, 
Governor of the State of JYew-Yorks 
Sir— 
In conformity with the provisions of the act authorising a Geo- 
logical Survey of the State, I beg leave to present the following report 
of the progress made in the Mineralogical and Chemical department du- 
ring the past year. . 
In the early part of the season, the investigations which principally 
engaged my attention during the preceding year were followed up by 
the examination of several deposits of metallic minerals in the coun- 
ties of Orange and Lewis. Accompanied by my friend, Dr. William 
Horton, who is intimately acquainted with the minefalogy and geology 
of Orange county, I visited several of the localities for which this por- 
tion of the State has so long been celebrated. Among these were some 
valuable beds of iron ore, which I shall briefly notice. 
The JVilksj or Clove mine^ which is said to have been worked about 
forty years, is situated two or three miles northwest of the village of 
Monrocj in the town of the same name. The ore^ which is the magnetic 
oxide, is sometimes quite pure and breaks into granular fragments; at 
others, it is largely mixed with the sulphuret of iron, and some earthy 
minerals, which injure its quality. In one part of the bed, the ore re- 
sembles that which is called fine ore by the miners, to which state it has 
probably been brought by the decomposition of the iron pyrites. Masses 
of well characterized hematite, or hydrous peroxide of iron, are found 
associated with the magnetic iron, and the same mineral occurs in con- 
siderable quantity on the surface near this mine. I have not, hitherto, 
observed these ores so immediately connected with each othei-. 
