ORES OF THE PRIMAJIY ROCKS. 
575 
contracted for, and its making superintended by Timothy Pickering, esquire. The iron of 
this chain was made from equal parts of Sterling and Long mine iron ores ; the weight of 
each link was from one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty pounds, and the whole 
chain one hundred and eighty-six tons, made and delivered in six weeks. 
“The first cannon made in the State were by the present Peter Townsend, esquire, in 
1816, from the iron of Long mine they were 6, 12, 18, 24 and 32 pounders. Not one failed 
in the proof; some of them were light field pieces, all for the Government of the United 
States. The 6 and 12 pounders were made to order, lighter than British brass field pieces 
of the same size; still the metal withstood proof.” 
The Greenwood furnace and the Woodbury furnace belong to Gouverneur Kemble and 
others, and use the magnetic ores of the vicinity, mixed with each other in such proportions 
as are found to work best in the furnace, for the production of the desired qualities of iron. 
Large quantities of ore from some of the mines in Orange and Putnam counties have been 
shipped off to furnaces at a distance principally to those in New-Jersey, where the bog ore 
is so abundant.. 
(c). MAGNfiTfc iiaoiir ORE Op Saratoga and Washington counties'; 
This mineral is very common in the primary region of these counties,, and has, in most 
places, the general appearance of a stratified rock ; but from the localities examined, I am 
satisfied that it is frequently, if not always, an injected mass,. or rather an intrusive rock. 
Frequently it spreads between the strata of gneiss, and- communicates with larger masses like 
the trappean rocks. 
At some of the ore beds, dark brown or blackish garnet, colophonite and coccolite are very 
abundant, and even form by far the largest portion of the mass, of the ore bed ; and frequently 
they resemble the ore so closely, that ordinary observers-do not distingush the true ore from 
those materials intermingled with it. A m.ine was examined in the town of Fort-Ann, about 
four miles north of the village, on the top of the mountain, belonging to Mr. Miller and others, 
in which this fact is well illustrated. Beautiful specimens of the granular ore, granular black 
garnet, granular and crystalline hornblende,may be procured in abundance. Quartz in irregular 
roundish masses also occurs in this mass, and seems to have been softened by heat to assume 
the forms observed.. The ore bed is extensive, and parts of it will yield good ore, and the 
whole mass of the ore bed would yield iron.; but if taken as ore for the furnace without care¬ 
ful selection, it will be likely to disappoint the iron-master by its small yield. I think the 
material might be used in small quantities in the high furnace, with other ores as a flux, and 
it would also- increase the yield of the proper ore by the amount of iron it contains. 
There are several ore beds near Mount-Hope furnace, in the town of Fort-Ann,. belonging 
to Mr. Stanley and others. The ore is magnetic, and shows polarity in some instances. It 
lies in beds, and is sometimes pure, sometimes disseminated in the gncissoid rock contiguous 
to the bed; at others,, it is intermixed, with garnet, coccolite or hornblende,, and sometimes 
