No. 200. j 
177 
is about four inches wide at the surface, and widens downwards, but is 
very irregular in width, and branches off into bunches and strings. It 
is nearly vertical, and ranges south 70° west, and north 70° east. The 
strata dip eastwardly 60° to 70°. The ores from this mine, when mix- 
ed, are said to yield 118 ounces of silver to the ton.* 
The next most important localities noticed were in North-East, about 
five miles S. E. of Pine Plains, on the farms of Judge Bockee and Mr. 
Ward Bryan. Many openings have been made on these farms, and 
lead in some quantity has been procured from them. These mines 
were worked about 1740 by a company of Germans, and the ore was 
sent to Bristol, England, and Amsterdam in Holland. The ore is said 
to yield 45 ounces of silver to the ton. It was not profitable, and was 
abandoned. During the revolution they v/ere re-opened by Peter Mc- 
Daniels, under the direction of the committee of safety of Congress, 
with a view to supply the army with lead. Some tons of it were pro- 
cured, but as the mines were abandoned, it is presumed they were not 
productive. The veins cross the strata in a direction nearly west and 
east. At one of the openings, about half a mile S. W. of Judge Boc- 
kee's on Mr. Ward Bryan's farm, we took out 40 or 50 pounds in an 
hour, from a vein about an inch wide. This ore is very pure, and will 
yield about 80 to 85 per cent of lead, and it is said to contain some sil- 
ver. The vein is too narrow to warrant mining, unless one depends 
upon the doctrine of chances. 
Many small veins were seen in the limestone north of this opening in 
the bed of the brook, and which contained particles and masses of seve- 
ral ounces, and even pounds weight of pure galena. 
The excavations on Judge Bockee's land, which extend south from 
those above mentioned, and continue at short intervals for half a mile, 
show numerous small veins of galena, all of which contain black sul- 
phuret of copper, with some yellow copper ore (pyritous copper) and 
green and blue carbonates of copper. All the openings are in the lime- 
stone, (which is of a blueish gray, nearly compact,) and a few rods east 
of its junction with the slate on the West. The great number of small 
veins in this vicinity renders it highly probable that larger ones occur, of 
which these are mere strings. 
• The lead veins, called also silver mines, of Canaan, have attracted 
some attention. They are located near Whiting's pond, perhaps one or 
*Cleaveland's Mineralogy, p. 633. 
[Assera. No. 200.] 19 
