REPORT 
Of E. Emmons, Geologist of the 2d Geological District 
of the State of New- York. 
To His Excellency William L. Marcy, 
Crovemor of the State of JSTew-York. 
Sir:— 
In accordance with the design of the projectors of the geological 
survey now in progress, I have continued my explorations in the district 
assigned me during the past season. 
I commenced my labors in the field early in May, in the county of 
St. Lawrence, where they were pursued till the first of August. I 
then passed over into Essex county, where I spent the remainder of the 
summer and autumn. The geology of these counties was taken up in 
detail, with the intention and expectation of completing the survey of 
them the past season, but I was not able to accomplish it to my own 
satisfaction, and shall be obliged to visit several of the towns in each 
county at some future time. The progress of the survey is necessarily 
slow in wooded and uncultivated districts, especially where there is so 
much territory inaccessible except on foot, and besides this cause of de- 
lay, the consideration that mineral wealth is to be expected in rough 
and mountainous districts, is a sufficient reason for examining them pa- 
tiently. There are too, in these counties, many known deposits of mi- 
neral matter, which require an attentive examination. Some of them 
may have been considered valuable, but may not be so from some 
cause or fault before overlooked; and again, those which have not been 
considered valuable may be so from the fact that the difficulties attend- 
ing them may be obviated by some feasible process. It is well known 
that in beds of iron there are intermixtures of foreign minerals, which 
diminish very materially the value of the deposit, unless there is some 
mode of removing or neutralizing those intermixtures at a small expense. 
[Assem. No. 200.] 20 
