302 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Sept 
The Adirondack Mountains. 
Eds. Cultivator —The following remarks are the 
result of a brief visit to the Adirondac Mountains in No¬ 
vember last. Should they seem pertinent to the purpose 
of the Cultivator, they are at your service. 
The group of mountains designated as the Adirondack, 
occupy an almost central position near the western line 
of the county of Essex, and to the lovers of the pictur¬ 
esque, afford some of the most sublimely wild scenery 
that our country can anywhere .present to the eye, hills 
rising upon hills, until they attain an altitude in the hea¬ 
vens of more than a mile in height, sometimes presenting 
finely arched rounded summits, and at others exhibiting 
rudely conical peaks, and in many places, sheer precipi¬ 
ces of more than a thousand feet in depth, and where 
they terminate below, may frequently be seen, huge bro¬ 
ken masses of rock strewed about, of many thousand 
tons in weight. 
These mountains are, for the most part, covered from 
near their summitts down to the base, by a dense and 
forest clad vegetation of gigantic growth, in all the wild¬ 
ness of primeval nature, whilst quitely resting in the 
gorge-like vallies beneath, are innumerable lakes, whose 
deep and silent waters are seldom or ever disturbed, but 
by the wild blast that breaks over their surface, or the 
sudden splash of the hunted deer, and by the wing of the 
numerous wild fowl, that at all times frequent, and give 
life to the otherwise' silent repose that prevails. 
But the most interesting feature of these mountains is, 
the many and immense size of the magnetic iron ore beds, 
which almost everywhere disclose themselves to the sight, 
along the face of the cliffs which form the sides of these 
vallies. These beds of ore are of such magnitude, as to 
prove almost inexhaustible; and when they become pro¬ 
perly worked, and due advantage is taken of the natural 
facilities here offered for the construction of a railroad 
from the Works—a distance of about forty miles to the 
navigable waters of Lake Champlain—they will be found 
capable of furnishing our country, for ages yet to come, 
with any quantity of the finest iron and steel, that can be 
produced from any quarter of the globe. So numerous 
are these beds of ore, that from a single point in the town 
of Newcomb—where the company have their works- 
several of them can be embraced in one sweep of the eye, 
the smallest of which, in any other region but this, would 
be considered immense in size and quantity, and when the 
country becomes properly explored, there can be but lit¬ 
tle doubt that many more of an equal magnitude to the 
largest of these will readily be discovered, together with 
many other useful minerals in the greatest profusion. 
A few only of the most conspicuous beds seen from 
this point of sight, have, with some degree of attention, 
been examined. That which is termed the il Sandford 
bed,” has been traced along the exposed surface for a 
distance of sixteen hundred feet, and retaining a width 
of at least five hundred. The Adirondac bed, situated 
immediately in the village, near the works, exhibits a 
width of seven hundred feet, and continues in extent a 
distance of three quarters of a mile; and but a few rods 
from this, another bed is exposed for more than a mile in 
extent, having a width of about one hundred and fifty 
feet. This enumeration may serve in some measure to 
convey a slight idea of the immense quantities of this 
most useful metal to be found in this hitherto secluded 
portion of our state. 
The principal rock which seems to constitute this vast 
mass of mountain material, and which likewise forms the 
magnificent scenery of the Adirondack country, appears 
to be that which is generally designated by geologists as 
the gneissoid division of the primary system; but as it 
embraces in such an abundant profusion, that interesting 
mineral termed hypersthene, its name has been adopted, 
so as readily to distinguish it from all other varieties. 
This hypersthene rock appears to contain, at various 
places, and at different elevations, all those numerous 
and immense masses of magnetic oxide of iron that so 
peculiarly charactize this entire region. These heavy 
masses of ore at this place, do not appear to be often 
found in regular veins, as at some others, but seem rath¬ 
er, from their great magnitude, to constitute an impor¬ 
tant and an essential portion of this great mountain range. 
They are in either rudely angulatecl forms, or else spread 
out in regular beds, to an extent of some miles together, 
and with a thickness hardly to be conceived. In some 
places, they present to the eye a regular series of divi¬ 
sional seams, which will most readily induce the belief 
that they possessed a uniform stratification; in others, 
again, they appear of a more solid, or of an amorphous 
nature. The average yield of tlmse ores, from examina¬ 
tion, is about ninety per cent of pure magnetic oxide of 
iron—and the remaining ingredients are composed of 
earthy materials, principally silex. These earthy consti¬ 
tuents vary considerably in the different specimens ob¬ 
tained. They consist of serpentine, hypersthene, gar. 
nets, feldspar, labradorite, and iron pyrites, neither of 
which are of sufficient consequence to furnish any impe¬ 
diment to the facilities of obtaining the pure metal. 
The steely appearance presented on the fractured sur¬ 
faces of some of these ores, is altogether occasioned by 
the peculiar arrangement of its crystals, during the pro¬ 
cess of a disturbed crystalization, and not from the ac¬ 
tion of any of its constituent parts, as was generally sup¬ 
posed. All crystals must have been chemically produc¬ 
ed, and the action which unites them so as to form an 
entire mass, may, in a measure, be considered mechani¬ 
cal, and the chemical action of this ore must evidently 
have been greatly disturbed, or the crystals would have 
been perfect in their forms. The regular octahedral is 
considered the primary form of the crystals, and the 
structure of some of the layers which constitute these 
masses—particular!) 7 one belonging to the fine grained 
ore bed—have their crystals so arranged as to present an 
irregular lamellation, parallel to the planes of the octa¬ 
hedron. When this occurs, the ores are generally consi¬ 
dered the most pure. 
The following are the minerals which appear in inti¬ 
mate connection with these ores, and sometimes forming 
constituent parts. 
The Serpentine found at this place, is generally, either 
in thin veins, or disseminated promiscuously throughout 
the large quantities of hypersthene which embraces the 
ore beds. Sometimes it is seen firmly welded with that 
mineral, in such a manner as to appear by degrees to 
pass into it, as the line of demarcation can scarcely be 
