574 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
“ Five miles southeast of Monroe works is the Htch iron mine, the property of Hudson 
M‘Farlan, esquire. It is a fine rich ore, strongly magnetic. It has not been extensively 
wrought, although there are evidences of an abundant deposit. Connected with this mine 
are mica, hornblende (or as this mineral is generally called in Cornwall and Monroe, black 
jack-sahlite), and magnetic pyrites.”* 
A bed of titaniferous iron ore, much intermixed with a coarse granite or sienite, has been 
opened on the east side of Bear hill. It was not considered important. 
Magnetic iron ore occurs at the Lower landing of Fort Montgomery. It is mixed with a 
large proportion of sulphuret of iron ; in fact the latter seems the gangue of the former. 
The magnetic sulphuret of iron is found near this place, and is said to be abundant. 
Iron ore was seen occasionally along the road from Haverstraw to Queensbury forge ; and 
on the route from Haverstraw to Fort Montgomery, an ore bed is said to occur, containing 
various curious minerals. The place was not examined, but they are supposed to be the same 
as those of the neck opposite Consook island, on which the “ Old silver mine ” has been 
described. The same beds prolonged would pass through the Tymp, as the gorge between 
the Dunderberg and Bear mountain is called. 
An ore bed is also said to occur within a mile or two of the Queensbury furnace, called the 
Queensbury ore bed. It was not examined 
Peter Townsend, esquire, communicated the following information on the iron mines, etc. 
of the Sterling tract of land, to Dr. Horton : 
“The first furnace on this tract, at Sterling, in 1751, by Ward & Colton, used Sterling 
ore, until the discovery of Long mine; the first forge at Sterling in 1752, built by Abel 
Noble, from Bucks county, Pennsylvania. There have been two forges of eight forge fires. 
Southfield furnace, now in operation, was built in 1806 ; its annual average of iron is seven 
hundred and fifty tons, and two hundred and twenty-five bushels of coal to the ton of iron. 
Sterling averaged annually eight hundred tons of iron, and it was made into five hundred and 
fifty to six hundred of bar iron. 
“ Before and during the revolution, the annual production of iron (pig) in this county was 
fifteen hundred tons, and about one thousand tons bar iron. From 1830 to 1838, there has 
been made annually in this county three thousand tons of pig, but the bar has been diminished. 
Steel was first made on this tract in 1776, in the German manner, by the late Peter Town¬ 
send, esquire. Pig iron was first used for this purpose, and subsequently bar iron. The first 
blister steel manufactured in the State of New-York was in 1810; it was made by the present 
Peter Townsend, esquire, from the iron of Long mine. It was used for edge tools, and 
proved equal to the Danemora Swede iron, called hoop. The first anchor made in the State 
of New-York, was at Sterling forge, in 1773, from iron of Long and Sterling mines. 
“ The great chain extended across the Hudson at West-Point during the revolution, was 
made at Sterling in March and April, 1788, by the late Peter Townsend, esquire ; it was 
Dr. Hoeton, Third Annual Geological Report of New-York. 
