290 
GEOLOGY OF THE SECOND DISTRICT. 
Ten miles northwest of Redford, in the town of Saranac, is Lyon mountain, an eminence 
between three and four thousand feet high. It is the most conspicuous mountain in this 
region. It lies partly in Franklin county. 
Fellows mountain, which is another height in this group, lies between Rand’s hill and the 
last named eminence. It is probably two thousand feet above tide. 
In neither of these do we find any facts which call for a particular statement in a geological 
treatise. Their range is parallel with those which have already been described in Essex 
county ; they terminate at the north in a gradual slope ; and it is across and upon this slope 
that the common travelled road passes into Franklin county, over an elevation whose sum¬ 
mit level is one thousand feet above tide. 
From Rand’s hill toward the east, no remarkable irregularities occur, but the descent to the 
lake is more than usual for the evenness of its grade. The deviations arise from long lines 
of gravel, washed up by the ancient sea, whose coast extended several miles west of that of 
the present lake. 
Primary Rocks. 
The consideration of these masses will necessarily be brief, in consequence of their limited 
extent, and the absence of leading interesting facts. 
Dividing the rocks into two classes, the primary and sedimentary, the line of division, 
commencing at the south, runs from Keeseville to Redford, a direction nearly northwest; 
from Redford, it passes between Chazy lake and Rand’s hill, and then with a circular sweep 
to Roberts’ in Ellenburgh; and from thence about southwest to Malone, leaving the whole 
northern frontier underlaid with a sedimentary mass. On the west side of this line lie the 
primary rocks, and upon the east and north the sedimentary. The latter are therefore the 
most extended rocks, occupying at least three-fourths of the county. 
Of the first class, gneiss is the predominant rock. Beds of granite often appear; but they 
are, as a whole, more limited and less important than gneiss. Hornblende rock likewise 
occurs associated with the one last named, and into which it passes by imperceptible degrees. 
Granite and gneiss both become iron-bearing rocks in this county ; both abound in red or flesh- 
colored feldspar, and pass into each by imperceptible degrees. In the plains of the lower 
grounds, the rocks are very much concealed by drift; while upon the hills and higher grounds, 
they are well exposed. It is here that all the iron mines have been opened, for it is only 
upon the highest summits that the rock is laid bare sufficiently for examination ; and besides, 
I have thought it highly probable that it is only upon the eminences, or high up the sides of 
hills, that iron occurs at all in this neighborhood. Neither granite or gneiss, in this county, 
is essentially different from what it is elsewhere; we may m’eet it in several varieties, differing 
from each other in the color and proportion of feldspar, in containing hornblende or mica, and 
in a variety of unimportant particulars. Omitting, therefore, all details of the primary rocks, 
I proceed to speak of the iron ores which they contain. 
