562 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
itself distinctly along the line of bearing of the strata, disseminated, and forming black stripes 
in the rock. Near the house, one or two hundred yards farther south-southwest, another small 
opening has been made. One hundred to two hundred yards farther south-southwest on the 
line of the vein, a larger excavation has been made, and five hundred to eight hundred tons 
of the ore thrown out; but it is here so much intermixed with pyrites as to be unfit for smelt¬ 
ing, until the pyrites shall have decomposed. Some hundred yards farther south-southwest 
on the line of the vein,, another opening has been made next the marsh, and is continued down 
the hill. The ore is here more or less intermixed with the rock, with a breadth of ten to 
twenty feet, and the gneiss and hornblendic gneiss rocks associated dip to the east-southeast 
at an angle of about sixty degrees. 
Farther down the hill are two main openings, which go by the name of Phillips’s mine. 
The ore in some parts of the upper mine is more or less intermixed with copper pyrites, 
which injures the quality of the iron. The mine has been wrought badly, timbers being used 
to prop the overhanging rock, and great masses have crushed in and filled most of the mine. 
The lower mine, where the whim is placed, has a solid rock roof,, a part of the ore bed 
having been left in the top of the hill, while the mine has been worked below. The ore bed 
is here fifteen to twenty feet wide, and has been wrought thirty to forty feet in depth, over a 
length of—■—yards. This mine is networked open to the day like a quarry, but a drift 
crosses the strata to the mass of ore, and it is worked at and below this level, along the course 
of the vein under a cover of rock. The ore does not show itself very distinctly in the over- 
lying rock. The ore here is nearly a pure magnetic oxide of iron, and twenty thousand to 
thirty thousand tons have probably been taken from these two mines.* Other openings have 
been made along the line of the vein for about half a mile farther to the south-southwest, and 
some three thousand to five thousand tons of ore probably removed. The rock in which this 
part of the vein thus far described is contained, is mostly felspar, with some bluish quartz ; 
hornblende is also common. The felspar is sometimes pearly in lustre and grey in color, 
with wrinkled and bent faces, as if it had been soft, and subjected to forces acting in different 
directions. 
Other openings along the course of tliis vein were traced for half or three quarters of a mile 
in a southwesterly direction. Hornblende abounds in the rocks associated with the iron ore. 
The next mine that is worked to any extent on this vein, is the Stewart mine. It is about 
twelve feet thick of pure ore, and four feet more of lean ore. The former is much used in 
forges, the latter in the blast furnace. The ore at this mine is purer than that of any other 
mine I have seen, and is easily worked in the forge. It is granular, and easily broken and 
crumbled into grains about the size of bb shot, and is called by the miners “ shot ore.” The 
vein lies between strata, of felspathic gneiss, which dip to the west-northwest about seventy 
degrees. This mine is on the east side, of the mountain crest, and about one hundred to two 
* Green hornblende, actynolite, green hyalite, green and blue carbonate of copper, pyritous copper, crystallized magnetic oxide 
of iron in the form.of, the acute rhomboid, common pyrites, and .acicular gypsum (efflorescent), were seen in large quantities-at 
these mines. 
