ESSEX COUNTY. 
235 
Saxe Ore Bed. 
The'first which I shall notice is the Saxe ore bed, near the village in Crown-Point. It has 
been used formerly in the forge and furnace, but I am not informed of its reputation in the 
manufacture of iron. It has been abandoned for many years. It is in gneiss, mixed with a 
large proportion of hornblende. The point of greatest interest in this bed, is the change which 
the ore has suffered. It is a peroxide, but has the crystalline form and structure of the mag¬ 
netic oxide ; color reddish brown, streak light red. It does not preserve the direct course of 
an ordinary vein, but appears in irregular masses disseminated through a hornblende rock. 
There can remain scarce a doubt but that this ore is one which has gradually changed from 
the protoxide to the peroxide, by the absorption of an additional quantity of oxygen; and 
it might be called limonite or hematite, but its structure is that of the magnetic oxide. The 
change in this mass of ore is, however, greater than that of another interesting vein in an 
adjacent county ; for here it is both internal and external; that is, the color of the ore indi¬ 
cates the change it has undergone : while in the one alluded to, the internal change would not 
be suspected from the external appearance. In a few instances, I have observed octahedrons 
changed throughout to a peroxide, retaining still their forms, and in a good degree their 
lustre. 
From all the facts which I have been able to gather, I am confident the Saxe ore will work 
easy in the forge or furnace, and make at the same time a good quality of iron. It is cer¬ 
tainly agreeable to experience, that those ores which absorb oxygen, and abound in red 
masses or stains, prove valuable ones for reduction. 
There are two or three other localities in Crown-Point and Ticonderoga, at which a red ore 
is obtained ; but they do not furnish it in quantities sufficient to make it an object to work for 
the forge or furnace. They have been employed for paints, to a limited extent. 
At or near Shelving rock, the magnetic oxide occurs in connection with gneiss and primary 
limestone : it is in insulated masses, which are sometimes of a cylindrical shape, and four or 
five inches in diameter, penetrating the strata perpendicularly for two feet, and then disap¬ 
pearing entirely. 
A much more extensive mass, in the form of a regular vein, has been opened by Mr. Foot 
of Port Henry, about four miles southwest from the landing. The ore is much mixed with 
stone at the surface ; but in the midst of the vein, we find some portions sufficiently rich in 
iron to be used with profit in a furnace. The surface only of this vein has been exposed ; 
and what one of this character will prove on being deeply opened, remains to be shown. It 
has much the character of a trap dyke, and might be considered a ferruginous trap, or an iron 
stone, though it has not that jaspery hardness which is common to those masses as they 
usually occur in beds of hematite. 
In these veins and masses, there is only a slight disposition to crystallize; the structure is 
mostly compact; the texture is only slightly granular, and there is only a slight removal of 
the substance from a stony appearance. I have noticed these masses more for the bearing 
