182 
I Assembly 
The geological situation of the ore beds is very constant. Most of 
the beds that I have examined are at the junction of mica or talcose 
slate with the gray and white limestones. The limestone generally 
crops out on the west side of the ore beds, and the mica or talc slate on 
the east, and both dip at an angle from 20° to 60° to the east-south- 
east.^ 
The ore bed at Fishkill was described by Dr. Beck in the report oi 
last year. Most of the galleries have caved in, in consequence of the 
injudicious method of working the ore. The superincumbent materials 
are clay, loam, gravel and pebbles, imperfectly aggregated like " hard- 
pan," so that when the soil becomes very wet they have little tenacity, 
and as the galleries are made large, and without any support to sustain 
the superincumbent materials, they cave in and render the extraction of 
ore, at present, expensive. The ore is of good quality, but more mixed 
with earthy matter than at many of the other mines. 
The Clove and Dover beds were visited by Mr. Merrick. Messrs. 
Quaig and Rees have the contract for digging the ore at the Clove bed, 
where from 6,000 to 6,000 tons are dug annually. The ore is smelted 
in the Beekman, Dover and Bull's Bridge furnaces. The ore is deli- 
vered at the mine at $1 . 69 per ton, of which $0 . 94 is paid to the mine 
proprietors, and $0 . 75 per ton to the miners. This ore is a very pure 
hydrated pexoxide of iron, and is mostly fibrous hematite. This bed is 
bounded on the east by limestone. 
Prescott's ore bed is one and a half miles north of the Columbia turn- 
pike, in Hillsdale. It is bounded on the west by limestone, like those of 
Amenia, Indian pond, Fishkill, &c. This locality was discovered many 
years ago, and 40 tons of ore picked out of the bed of the brook and re- 
duced in a forge. It was not much worked until 1 822, when Mr. C. Pres- 
cott began the manufacture of yellow ochre at this place. The ore is he- 
matite, in detached nodules, alternating with ochre and fragments of de- 
composed slate rock. The hematite increases and the ochre diminishes 
in quantity as you descend. The ore has been penetrated, according to 
Mr. P.'s statement, 32 feet, without finding bottom. This ore yields 
33 per cent of bar iron when worked in the forge, and at least 50 per 
cent of pig iron, when smelted in the high furnace. 
* The association of these rocks is not only an interesting geological fact, but it shows an 
adaptation of means to ends. The limestone is convenient lor use as a flux, and the talc and 
mica slate for firestone to line the furnaces. 
