SPECULAR OXIDE OF IRON. 
27 
red, its powder being more red. It is very friable, soils the fingers, has but little lustre, and 
is often studded with minute grains of iron pyrites. The specific gravity of a fair specimen 
from Wolcott in Wayne county, is 3.740. All the samples which I have examined effer¬ 
vesce freely in acids, which is probably due to the admixture of carbonate of lime. By some 
its formation is ascribed to the decomposition of carbonate of iron; and by others, to that of 
iron pyrites. The infiltration of water, acting in a slow and imperceptible manner, is sup¬ 
posed to be the cause which has produced this decomposed form of the ore. 
In Herkimer County, there are from one to two beds of the lenticular clay iron ore. 
They are found on all the water courses, which have cut through the shales resting on the 
millstone grit of Eaton.* 
In Oneida County, numerous pits have been opened in the towns of New-Hartford, Kirk¬ 
land, Vernon, Westmoreland and Verona. There are three beds of the ore in this county, 
varying from twelve to twenty inches in thickness. They have been long and extensively 
worked, and the ore, although containing a less proportion of metallic iron than many other 
ores, is nevertheless highly valued by iron smelters. Previous roasting improves its quality, 
and is indeed often quite essential to its successful reduction, in consequence of the presence 
of iron pyrites. 
Madison County. Passing westward from Verona, the iron ore beds are either buried 
under the alluvial, or more probably washed away, excepting on the land of Thomas Donnelly 
in the town of Lenox. It exists in solid masses a short distance below the surface, and is a 
very pure ore, the carbonate of lime having been removed by solution in water.! 
An ore entirely similar in its external characters to that of Verona, has also been found at 
one or two places on the shores of Oneida lake; but from some cause or other, it seems not 
to have yielded good results in the furnace. 
This ore has been found in Cayuga County, in the creek near Martville, and also south 
of Hulme’s sandstone quarry; but it has not yet been obtained in large quantities. 
In Wayne County, a stratum of the lenticular ore has been found extending through it, 
and at about two miles distance from Lake Ontario. In the immediate vicinity of Wolcott, 
there is a bed of about a foot in thickness. About a mile north of the village is a furnace, 
which is now supplied with ore from the eastern part of the town, where the stratum of ore is 
about three feet in thickness. 
Near the mouth of Salmon creek in the town of Sodus, this ore was formerly worked; but 
it is largely mixed with carbonate of lime, and is less valuable than that from other localities. 
Pits for the raising of this mineral have also been opened in the vicinity of Ontario furnace, 
which is situated upon Bear creek about two miles south of the ridge. This ore is said to 
Vanuxem. New-York Geological Reports, 1838. 
t Ibid. 
