No. 200.] 
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Another ore bed is located three-quarters of a mile south of the above, 
also on the east side of the limestone, which was opened by Mr. Pres- 
cott in 1822, and which he has since sold to a Furnace company in 
Salisbury, Connecticut. 
Mr. Prescott has made from his ore bed 275 tons of yellow ochre, 
which has been sent to market and sold. 
The Amenia and Salisbury ore beds are the most extensively wrought 
of any iron mines, of this kind, of ore in the United States, and the iron 
from these beds is considered superior in softness and toughness to that 
of any other mines in the country. 
The Amenia ore bed yields 5,000 tons of ore per annum, which gives 
on an average 50 per cent of pig iron. The mine is worked to the day 
like an open quarry. A layer of earth andjgravel, and broken rocks, 
covers the ore from five to twenty feet in thickness. This is first re- 
moved, and the ore then excavated. They have not yet found the bot- 
tom of the ore in any place, although in one pit they have excavated 
into it 45 feet. It improves in quality the farther they descend. No 
estimate can be formed of the amount of ore in this bed, which proba- 
bly unites with the others north and south of it. Estimating its breadth 
at 100 yards, and its length at 1,000 yards, with 15 yards depth, through 
which it is open, it is capable of yielding 1,500,000 tons of ore, and at 
the present rate of working will last 300 years. 
Talcose slate crops out a few rods east, and white limestone a few 
rods west of the ore bed. Mines which have been and still are exten- 
sively wrought, have been opened over a distance of more than half a 
mile in length; the extent of the bed in these directions is not known. 
Another mine, possibly a continuation of the same bed, has been open- 
ed at Squabble Hole, about two miles S. S. W. of Amenia ville. The 
ore at this place lies under a deposit of pebbles, gravel, and loam, about 
15 to 20 feet deep. It is supposed to be abundant. Many tons have 
been taken out during the past season. This ore was discovered in dig- 
ging a well. 
The Chalk pond ore bed was wrought extensively many years 
ago. It was abandoned in consequence of the water of the pond 
incommoding the miners. The pond has now been drained and the 
mine can be worked to advantage. The ore appears well, and will un- 
doubtedly make a good iron. This ore bed is about two and a half 
miles N. E. of Ameniaville. The Indian Pond ore bed lies in the edge 
