490 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
assume a variety of shapes ; they are observed at Staten island, straight and curved, radkting 
from a centre, and exhibiting the stalactitical, cylindrical and botryoidal forms, often display¬ 
ing a black polished surface and glistening lustre. Ferruginous minerals are abundant on the 
mountain for several miles. A granular oxide, called by the miners shot ore, from its being 
composed principally of spherical grains of various sizes, was often noticed, and appears in 
some places in extensive beds ; it is easily fused, and affords a large percentage of good iron 
for castings.” 
Canterbury ore bed. “ Two and a half miles west of the village of Canterbury, in Corn¬ 
wall, is the hematite or limonite mme of Mr. Thomas Townsend. For years past this ore has 
been considerably used, and although'a lean ore, it makes excellent iron. "It is mostly in 
powder, or very small fragments, mixed with balls and pieces of the hematite of a few pounds 
weight. It lies in limestone rock, and between the limestone and the grit rock. These rocks, 
where connected with the ore, are decomposed to a great extent, and mixed in the state of pow¬ 
der with the ore ; hence the ore requires washing. This stratum of limestone'and hematite can 
be traced across this town into Monroe, until we reach the beds of magnetic oxide. It is seen a 
quarter of a mile north of the Clove mine, and at many places intermediate between this and 
the Townsend mine in Cornwall. The distance between these extreme, points is full ten 
miles.”* 
This ore bed is rather an anomaly, like some of the preceding ones, in geological situation, 
except that, like all the limonitic hematite beds, it is connected with limestone ; but this lime¬ 
stone, unlike the others, is the Helderberg limestone, containing its characteristic fossils. 
Perhaps Dr. Horton may be mistaken in saying that this limestone extends across the country 
to the magnetic ore beds in Monroe. If that limestone be the Same, ! did not recognize it 
with certainty, though it may be the same, modified by metamorphic action. Dr. Florton 
traced the rocks with much care, and the doubt‘above expressed has reference to the fact that 
the limestone of Monroe and Warwick, where their geological relations were traced, were 
found to have the position of the Calciferous group and Mohawk limestone ; and the rock, 
when not very much altered by metamorphic agency, had the aspect, structure, texture, and 
composition of the limestones above described, or like the Newburgh and Barnegate lirae^ 
stones. The limestone at the ore bed above described lies in vertical strata, with red slate 
adjoining it on the east, as represented on Plate 5, fig. 13. The remainder of that section 
may not be altogether accurate, as the strata are much disturbed, and little examination was 
made, in consequence of having a great area to examine in a short time, and not being at that 
time aware of the important questions that might be settled by a rigid examination of this 
vicinity. Some of these questions in regard to the age of the red rocks of Smith’s-clove 
valley and Green-pond mountain, and the periods of upturning of these and the Helderberg 
strata, have already been alluded to. 
Dr. Horton, Geological Report, 1839, 
