360 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
from two to five feet in width; and the larger portion of its mass, as far as it has been 
explored, is a siliceous rock similar to that forming the roof and floor, except that it contains 
fragments and particles of greenish and blackish slate. The vein stone is more or less loaded 
with blende, galena, copper pyrites, iron pyrites and crystallized quartz. The blende and 
galena constitute probably of the metalliferous contents of the vein, and these minerals 
are in general more or less intimately mixed. 
The metalliferous part of the vein is from one to three feet thick in some parts; in others 
it narrows to a thin, almost linear seam; in some places the lead ore, in others the zinc ore, 
predominates. The ore, as an aggregate, may be said to lie in bunches, and the productive¬ 
ness of different parts of the vein is very variable. When examining the mine, three masses 
of galena, free from other ores and from gangue, were taken out of the mine, weighing 
about 800, 1000 and 1400 pounds. One of these masses is believed to have been sent to the 
office of the company in New-York. 
This mine is said to have been originally discovered by a hunter, and the first opening was 
made some forty or fifty feet from the present shaft of the mine. It was worked from the 
outcrop of the vein to a depth of about thirty feet, and some tons of lead ore (it is supposed 
thirty tons) were taken out of the mine. This opening was abandoned in consequence of 
the thinning of the metalliferous part of the vein, and the difficulty of raising the ore through 
an irregular and sloping shaft. A vertical shaft was in process of excavation at the time' of 
my first visit in 1837, and it had reached the vein at that time. Lateral galleries have since 
been driven on the course of the vein. An adit level was driven perpendicular to the strike 
of the vein through the intervening strata of grit rock, fifty-two feet* below the mouth of the 
shaft, so as to intersect the vein at the distance of about two hundred feet from the main 
shaft. Galleries have been excavated laterally on the course of the vein from the extremity 
of the adit, and the southern one of these has been connected with the shaft. This adit and 
the contiguous galleries serve as a drainage level for the upper portions of the mine. Another 
adit level has been driven into the mountain, so as to intersect the vein at a perpendicular 
depth of seventy-five feet below the other, and the main shaft is continuous from this inter¬ 
section, sloping up the course of the vein, to where this inclined shaft unites with the vertical 
one at the upper tier of galleries. Lateral galleries have been excavated on the course of 
the vein from the sides of the inclined part of the main shaft, and it was in these that the 
miners were employed at the time of my visit. 
The ore is slidden down the inclined shaft to the lower adit level, whence it is removed to 
the ore heaps opposite this level. It is there picked and washed, and then sent to the smelt¬ 
ing house on the bank of the canal, which, by the winding course of the road, is about a mile 
or a mile and a quarter. 
The adit levels of this mine are spacious, and have been well executed ; and as the rocks 
are indestructible, the preparations for working the mine may be considered as permanent 
improvements to last for ages, if it should be sufficiently productive to continue working it. 
Vide Prof. Beck’s Third Annual Report on Mineralogical Department of the Geological Survey, p. 49. 
