ESSEX COUNTY. 
247 
With these general remarks upon the ores of Adirondack, I shall proceed to state, with 
some minuteness, the facts which I have observed in the different places where the magnetic 
oxide has been explored. 
Sanford Ore. 
It takes its name from the lake near which the mine is situated. The ore appears upon 
the west side of a mountain six or seven hundred feet high. Towards the base, the subja¬ 
cent rock is concealed by a thick stratum of drift, intermixed with many large boulders of 
hypersthene rock. The mountain rises so gradually from the eastern border of the lake, that 
loaded teams may be driven to or from the mine with ease. The greatest angular slope is 
occupied by the ore, but does not probably exceed twenty-five degrees ; and the portion 
below the mine, towards the lake, has a slope not exceeding five degrees. The distance of 
the middle portion of the vein, from the lake, is about eighty rods. The ore occupies the 
western face of the mountain, down which the slope is so equal, that an inclined plane might 
be constructed from the mine to the lake, for the delivery of ore into boats, in case this 
measure was deemed expedient. The ore bed is two miles south from the village of 
McIntyre. 
The color of the ore is black; it is moderately coarse grained, being in this respect inter¬ 
mediate between the fine grained ore east of the village, and the coarse black ore on which 
the works are located. Structure of the mass, always crystalline, but rarely if ever compact; 
lustre, dull; streak, black; sufficiently hard to give sparks with steel; texture, generally 
rather firm, but never tough, and very frequently friable, constituting what miners call shot 
ore. It never occurs in crystals. The surface masses of the ore are magnetic, but rarely 
possess polarity. In the mass, the structure is slaty, resembling in this respect a regular 
rock formation. It is probably owing to crystallization, as it is very difficult to conceive this 
structure to have been produced by deposition. It is not, therefore, properly speaking, strati¬ 
fication, though the lines of separation are parallel like those of veins of slate or gneiss. 
The existence of this kind of structure favors very materially the quarrying of the ore, and 
it is even possible to remove large masses with the assistance of an iron bar. The dip of the 
layers is about seventy-five degrees to the east. Much of the ore, after it is raised, and has 
been exposed for a time to the air, becomes quite loose in its texture, and its friability is 
greatly increased. 
The portions of the vein adjacent to the walls, especially'on the western side, are more or 
less mixed with hypersthene and granular feldspar. The central and eastern portion of the 
vein, for the space of three hundred feet, is unmixed with stony matter. The layers of rock 
which appear at the western border probably belong to the surface, and, unless there is an 
exception to a general rule, will disappear as the mine is worked downwards. 
In regard to the dimensions of the vein, it is proper to observe, that it is covered mostly 
with soil, varying in depth from one to three feet, on which there is a heavy growth of limber. 
It is not uncommon, however, to see the ore entirely exposed at the surface. To ascertain 
the whole extent of the vein, as far as was practicable under existing circumstances, excava- 
