328 
GEOLOGY OF THE SECOND DISTRICT. 
imperfect garnets and some black mica. Hypersthene is mostly wanting in the rock. This 
vein is about three miles from the Deer river furnace, upon a hill one or two hundred feet 
above the valley of Deer river. This vein supplied, for a time, the ore used in the furnace 
at Duane. The castings made of this ore are of a superior quality, being very tough, and 
not liable to break : it is also easy to reduce in the furnace. 
Deer river vein is about twenty feet wide, and it pursues a direction nearly east-northeast. 
It has regular walls, which are very well defined. The ore is clearly composed of a large 
proportion of the protoxide, being strongly magnetic, and sometimes possessing polarity. It 
has been traced seventy or eighty rods upon the surface, and furnished the strongest indica¬ 
tions of a great amount of ore. 
Another vein of magnetic oxide has been opened near the residence of Mr. James Duane. 
It is sufficiently rich for the furnace, and probably is one of the best for castings in this neigh¬ 
borhood. It is a wide vein, and the amount of ore inexhaustible ; and as it is situated upon 
a high eminence, it is favorable for mining. 
Another vein, known in this neighborhood as the Steel ore, is found about four miles east 
of Duane furnace, upon a hill eighty rods south of the Port Kent and Hopkinton turnpike. 
The hill is a steep and abrupt rise of five or six hundred feet above the road. Like the 
preceding ores, that of this vein is a mixture of fine and coarse, but a larger proportion of 
the latter. It contains, too, more hypersthene than the Deer river ore, which may be dis¬ 
tinguished in the ore by its bronze-like lustre. It is sometimes iridescent. Small particles 
of sulphuret of iron sometimes appear in it, but not in sufficient quantity to affect the reduced 
iron. It contains also small masses of feldspar, and crystals of garnet. The outside of the 
ore becomes yellowish brown by exposure, probably from the decomposition of pyrites. The 
recent fracture presents rather a high lustre, intermixed with surfaces which are dull. There 
is a tendency to crystallization ; the mass, as usual, breaking naturally into angular pieces. 
The vein pursues a northerly course, with a dip to the east. Its width is variable, being 
from a few inches to seven or eight feet. It is greatly disturbed by trap dykes, which are 
obstacles of some importance to an economical pursuit of the ore. The walls, as would be 
inferred, are broken and irregular. It is embraced in a rock composed principally of horn¬ 
blende, with some quartz and feldspar. 
I may remark here, that one of the differences which prevail in the rocks of Essex, Clinton 
and Franklin, is that the latter are supplied with a greater amount of hornblende and black 
mica ; a circumstance, however, which appears to be of little consequence, so far as the value 
of the ores are concerned. Sometimes they are more difficult to break. 
A few remarks upon this ore, as it regards its steel properties, as they are termed, will be 
expected in this place. Besides having made a report upon this subject, and finding that I 
have been misunderstood by some, I deem it but right that I should in this place disabuse 
public opinion in relation to the true character and nature of the ore under consideration. 
The ore, as has been remarked, is the common magnetic oxide, differing in no essential 
respect from the ordinary ores which are ranked under this name. It has no better title than 
any of the others to the designation of a steel ore; that is, it contains in itself no element 
