No. 275.] 
43 
year, and have analyzed some of the most important of our metallic 
substances, not previously examined, as will appear from the following 
notices. 
Iron, 
70. I omitted to mention in my report for 1837, that native iron had 
been found in this State. Although there has been some dispute con- 
cerning the occurrence of pure or metallic iron in nature, it is now ge- 
nerally admitted among the number of rare minerals. The United 
States have afforded some interesting examples of native iron which are 
undoubtedly of terrestrial origin; such are the specimens which have 
been found in Canaan, Conn, and in Guilford county, North Carolina. 
They differ from those masses which are supposed to be of meteoric ori- 
gin, in being attached to some rock, or in being entirely destitute of 
nickel or chromium, which are constant ingredients of these meteoric 
stones. 
In the museum of the Albany Institute is a specimen of native iron 
obtained from Burlington, in Otsego county, and presented by Prof. 
Hadley of Fairfield. The mass is evidently malleable and has the ap- 
pearance of pure iron, although I am not aware that it has been chemi- 
cally examined. Mr. T. G. Clemson has described a specimen of na- 
tive iron found on the farm of William Rouse, in Penn-Yan, Yates 
county. The rocks at this place are sandstone, and the iron was found 
beneath and on the surface of the earth. It was of the colour and had 
the appearance of ordinary malleable iron. It was free from the oxides 
and acted upon the magnetic needle. It contained a minute portion of 
carbon, but neither nickel nor cobalt could be detected in it.* 
71. As it regards the oxides of iron, from which all the iron manu- 
factured in this State is obtained, the northern and southern sections seem 
to vie with each other in the extent and importance of their deposito- 
ries. While at the north we have the immense beds of the magnetic 
oxide, at Newcomb, in Essex county, one of which is described by Mr, 
Hall as being more than a mile in length and upwards of five hundred 
feet in breadth, besides others of less magnitude in various parts of the 
same county, and in those of Clinton and Franklin, and the beds of spe- 
cular iron in St. Lawrence; — we have at the south the vast deposits of 
magnetic oxide in Orange county, and of hematite in the county of 
Dutchess. 
* Transactions of the Geological Society of Pennsylvania, i. 358. 
