No. 200.J 
been informed, into slabs of the requisite thickness. Wheii it is brought 
to this State, it receives a polish superior to any of the American mar- 
bles, and its worth is five times at least greater, while the expense of 
working it would not be proportionally as large. 
Imbedded Minerals, 
The Hypersthene rock of Essex, embraces the largest deposits of iron 
in the United States, so far as discoveries have yet been made. One 
bed, in Moriah, underlies a tract of land of between 30 and 40 acres, that 
is, with a spade, the bed of ore may be reached any where within that 
extent of surface. This is the Sandford bed. Its quality is not the 
best, but answers a tolerable purpose in the manufacture of iron, when 
great toughness is not required. Again, there is a narrow belt of ore 
extending from the Hall ore bed, in the north part of Moriah, into 
Schroon, in a S. S. w^est direction, a distance of 10 miles at least. I 
consider that the Hall and the Canfield ore beds, are but parts of one 
continuous bed. Or, if there are interruptions by the interposition of 
rock, still it is along this line we are to expect the discovery of ore beds. 
The Hall ore bed is 5 feet wide, and the Penfield, and another bed be- 
longing to two enterprising gentlemen in Crown Point, are, in some 
places, 10 rods wide. The extent of the beds at Mclntyre were men- 
tioned in the report of last year. One solid body of ore on Lake Sand- 
ford, is probably 500 feet wide, and its extent north and south un- 
known. I consider, however, that the beds about Mclntyre, are parts 
of a belt of an iron formation, which extends southwesterly through the 
wilderness to the town of Chamont in St. Lawrence county, and that 
along the line connecting those places, many beds remain to be disco- 
vered. No one of these beds of iron may be equal to those of Missou- 
ri, described by Mr. Featherstonhaugh, still, pvt together^ there is a much 
greater quantity of it, and farther, more advantageously distributed, on 
account of a better supply of wood, than there possibly could be if all 
the beds constituted one or two mountains of ore. I have not disco- 
vered any other valuable mineral in the Hypersthene rock of Essex. — 
The junction of the iron ore with the rock, is not uniform. Sometimes 
the line of junction is distinct and straight, like the line of junction be- 
tween a vein and the adjacent rock. Ag-ain, the iron branches into the 
rock, similar to veins of granite, of which fig. 13 is an example. Some- 
times the ore is disseminated in the rock in small particles. I conceive, 
however, that the iron is contemporaneous with the rock, and never oc- 
curs in veins or deposits less ancient than the rock itself. 
