USA > New York > Essex County > The military and civil history of the county of Essex, New York : and a general survey of its physical geography, its mines and minerals, and industrial pursuits, embracing an account of the northern wilderness > Part 35
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414
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
PEAT.
I may here appropriately notice a material which I confidently believe will become intimately associated with the mineral interest of the district. Amid all the exu- berant bounties of nature with which providence has endowed this region, one has been withheld, in the want of coal, that causes a serious impediment to its industrial progress and prosperity. It is believed that an article which prevails in every section in great profusion may measurably supply this deficiency, and it is gratifying to know that the attention of prominent manufacturers is directed to the subject of using it for fuel, in their work- shops as well as for domestic consumption. The supply of peat is particularly copious in northern New York, and is everywhere accessible. I have examined numerous deposits in the county of Essex, and the amount may be pronounced literally inexhaustible. I can only refer to one bed in Elizabethtown, on the premises of Hon. A. C. Hand, as a type of the whole. This deposit spreads over several acres. A pole was thrust through the peat a length of more than twenty feet below the surface, without reach- ing the hard pan beneath. By an analysis I caused to be made of peat from the county, it was found to contain more than ninety-three per cent of organic matter, com- posed of resinous substances, vegetable fibres and other combustible material. If art and science can devise any process, by which this substance, with the requisite eco- nomy, may be prepared for practical use, an infinite boon will be presented to the country. In Austria, and various departments of Germany, and in Sweden, peat is used in the manufacture of iron. Even in Great Britain, and in com- petition with the rich coal mines of that country it is being introduced for that purpose. It is used in Belgium, I am informed by a most intelligent authority, in the manu- facture of the more delicate iron fabrics.1 In some classes
1 Hon. T. G. Alvord.
415
NATURAL HISTORY.
of puddling furnaces peat has been consumed for a fourth of a century. On the Grand Trunk rail road in Canada, which traverses vast forest tracts belonging to the company, where wood may be procured at merely the cost of chop- ping by cheap labor, peat for the last year has been appropriated for fuel in their engines. It is asserted by an authentic source, that it has been thus exclusively used and by its utilization has effected a saving of ten thousand pounds to the road.1
GRAPHITES.
This mineral, more generally known as plumbago, or black lead, seems to pervade Essex county by almost as universal a presence as iron ore. I found pure and choice specimens in Chesterfield, Jay, Newcomb and other towns. A correspondent states, that " Plumbago exists in large quantities in Minerva."2 I am also in- formed, that a mine is about being opened on Willsboro' mountain.3 I examined a deposit of graphite, in which considerable excavation had recently been made, on the furnace property at Port Henry. The mineral here occurs in neither a mass nor vein, but is incorporated by minute particles in the soil, and is easily detected by its glittering appearance. The earth yields on separating about one- seventh part of the mineral. I also noticed large leaves of very pure asbestos cleaving to the fragments of rock, thrown out in this excavation. Ticonderoga, however, is the scene of an extraordinary development of the graphite. Much romantic legend invests the discovery of this deposit. Whether the slipping of an animal on the wet moss re- vealed the lustrous treasure; or the uncertain sound, returned from the blow of an axe, or accident, or careful research, as is asserted by different traditions, is less im- portant than the fact, that about the year 1815, this im- mense mass of graphite became known. The circumstance that an Indian arrow was found in an old opening in the vein,
1 T. B. Hyde's letter. 2 E. P. Williams. 3 John Ross.
416
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
which was several feet in length, renders the supposition pro - bable, that it was known and worked by the aborigines, at an early period. The graphite mine appears to constitute the principal formation of an eminence, now known as Lead mountain, in the north-west part of Ticonderoga. It is disclosed in seams throughout the vicinity, and is probably injected into the whole ridge that extends into Schroon. I examined two openings, near the works of Messrs. Treadway in that town, which afforded very de- cided indications of the graphite in large deposits and of an excellent quality. Immediately after the discovery, the different veins which had been disclosed were worked in a rude manner by several claimants, but were subse- quently opened with more system by William A. G. Arthur and C. P. Ives. The whole interest has been pur- chased and is now worked with great energy and success, by the American Graphite Company. In site, this mine- ral, gleaming like an infinitude of diamonds, is exquisitely beautiful. At Ticonderoga it is found in veins, usually from eight inches to a foot in thickness. Some of the chambers have been opened between one hundred and two hundred feet in length, and from seventy to eighty feet in depth. Three hundred pounds of pure ore have been raised in one hour from a single vein. The Graph- ite Company employ about forty laborers in their mines and raise and manufacture five hundred tons of the mine- ral annually. The walls of this mine are quartz or trap rock. Enormous specimens of the graphite of great beauty and purity are excavated. Nearly a total freeness from lime, supposed to exist in a portion of the mineral in these veins, render it of the greatest value in the construction of crucibles.
GALENA.
I have most assiduously searched for traces of galena, with a strong impression of its existence within the limits of the county. The coincidence of several circum- stances has formed this conviction. It is found in light
-
417
NATURAL HISTORY.
veins in the fissures of the rocks of several localities. A map procured in London in 1784, which exhibited an exact and minute designation of the headlands and islands, of the soundings and the position of each rock and reef of Lake Champlain, derived from the accurate surveys of the French and English engineers, strengthens this opinion.1 Upon this map thus maturely and carefully arranged, a point is designated in the mountain range between Ches- terfield and Willsboro', as the Lead ore bed. A tradition of this ore bed is known to exist among the savage tribes north of the great lakes. A little flotilla of canoes, bear- ing Indians from that region, as they represent, appear yearly about the middle of autumn, lying on the beach in the vicinity of those mountains. Lingering here for seve- ral days, with no ostensible pursuit, they as suddenly disap- pear. I cannot resist the popular opinion that these periodical visits have some connection with the legend and the existence of this ore bed. Other circumstances tend to fortify this impression. Accounts which have been re- tained in several families, descended from the early settlers of the county, ancestors of which were carried prisoners into Canada during the revolution, combine to corroborate the following facts. The Indians, who usually were their conductors, were in the habit of uniformly landing near these mountains (which are the last northern spurs of the Adirondacs, and here fall precipitately into the lake), and while a part remained to guard the prisoners, others proceeded into the interior, and after an absence of a few hours, returned to the canoes laded with lead ore of the richest quality. These traditions are all harmonious as to the incident, the locality, and the time employed by the Indians procuring their lead. Several barrels of crude
1 This map was brought from England by Elkanah Watson, and was loaned by him to a state department at Albany. All trace has since been lost of it. It was a most important and interesting document, and believed to contain the only minute chart of Lake Champlain extant. The steamer Francis Saltus was wrecked in 1852, upon a slight needle rock laid down on this chart, but unknown to many of the navigators of the lake.
27
418
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
lead ore, which had been collected in the same locality, we dispatched from Willsboro' last autumn, for the purpose of being examined and assayed.1
COPPER.
This metal has been found many feet below the surface in the Phosphate mine and at another locality in Crown Point. Specimens which I have analyzed exhibit the fol- lowing very favorable results. No. 86 was from the Phos- phate mine and 68 from the other site.
No. 68.
No. 86.
Copper.
44.50
46.70
Iron,
31.30
10.45
Sulphur,
30.20
23.10
Carbonic Acid,
Silica,
3.70
19.85
99.70
99.85
No. 68 is copper pyrites containing iron as it usually does. This is sufficiently rich in copper to make it valua- ble if found in any considerable quantity. The greater part of the copper of commerce comes from this kind of ore. No. 86 is a carbonate of copper, and will be very valuable if found in adequate quantities. In reference to the deposit in Crown Point, one of the enterprising pro- prietors wrote me some years since, "our company ex- pended about three hundred dollars last season in sinking a shaft upon the copper locality, and found more or less all the way, as far as they descended, but no regular lode. Some of the specimens we procured were very rich and beautiful, and I have no doubt but a rich lode of copper would be found by sinking deep. The iron business, however, now pays too well to run much risk on copper." The subject still slumbers in the same position.2
1 A. D. Barber. 2 C. F. Hammond, Esq.
419
NATURAL HISTORY.
SILVER.
An intelligent resident of North Elba in communicat- ing a valuable description of that town, refers to a sin- gular and apparently well authenticated account of the accidental discovery of a vein of silver ore among the Adirondacs and the loss of its trace. He adduces strong evidence of the fact, and that pure silver was produced from the ore.
The geological formation along the shore of Lake Cham- plain presents an unique and remarkable alternation of the primitive with the higher structures. The former in a general inclination recedes from the lake, but incidentally dislocates the formation of the latter by projecting between them, veins and ledges in lateral spurs. At Ticonderoga, a range of sandstone and limestone rock supervenes. Proceeding northward, we meet at Crown Point, a ledge of regular granite and veins of gneiss succeeded by lime- stone containing fossil remains and mingled with the black marble. At Port Henry is exhibited a remarkable and scarcely defined and promiscuous mingling of various strata of rocks and minerals. Serpentine, mica in large and beautiful masses, gneissoid granite, primitive limestone, are conspicuous. The pure white of the granular lime- stone, spotted by the sparkling black specks of plumbago, form most beautiful cabinet specimens. In Keene, I found specimens more rare and exquisitely beautiful of this limestone, dotted by bright green crystals of sahlite. Verd antique occurs in large veins at Port Henry, and is an exceeding rich and brilliant material. An observant gentleman of that place affirmed that a fossiliferous lime . stone rock, presenting a perfect stratification, might be seen at low water on the margin of the lake, forming a substratum to these primitive rocks.
The granular limestone which crops out at Port Henry, appears in Ticonderoga, near Lake George, and prevails extensively in Schroon and Minerva. I found but one manifestation of the rock in North Elba, upon the farm of
420
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
Mr. Hinckley, where it develops in a ledge, upon a side hill. It appears usually combined with sulphates, phos- phates, or other foreign substances. The hyperstene rock projects from the mountains in Westport, and, incidentally traversed by limestone, predominates. The primitive rocks prevail in the southern section of the town of Essex. Here occurs that very extraordinary exhibition of porphyry so elaborately discussed in the report of Professor Emmons. This rock, extending over the surface upon several acres, is peculiarly beautiful in its color, structure, and singular dentritic formation. It affords perfect demonstration of an igneous agency, most potent and terrific, that rent asunder the earth, fused and ejected this vast rock. The extreme hardness of the porphyry is a marked characteristic. Struck with the steel hammer, it evolves a brilliant corrus- cation of light and sparks. My attention was directed to another remarkable exhibition of porphyry, upon the pre- mises of Mr. Clark, on Willsboro' point. This vein, about a foot wide, is interjected in a seam of blue limestone, and the rock has been evidently dismembered in the process. Scarcely a fragment of the disrupted limestone remains, near the porphyry vein. Various fossils occur in this rock, and also in the slate or shale which lies contiguous. Many of these remains are of great size, and in unusual preserv- ation. A few years since, a single fossil of a reptile was exhumed by Mr. Clark, measuring two feet in length, and so perfect in its preservation, that the form of the minute scales could be distinguished. At Mount Trembleau, as in Willsboro', Westport and Moriah, the hyperstene rock plunges into the lake in a bold, ragged, and perpendicular wall. A very peculiar and large deposit of stalagmite lies upon the north bank of the Boquet, near, but not sub- jacent apparently, to a mass of limestone. Several veins of kaolin develop at Mount Trembleau, upon the lake shore, beneath the hyperstene. A large deposit exists near Auger pond in Chesterfield. Similar masses occur in other sections of the county. A specimen from Putnam's pond, in Schroon, was subjected to analysis, many years
421
NATURAL HISTORY.
since, by Professor Eaton,1 and pronounced by him emi- nently pure and exempt from injurious combinations. Limestone, and very clear quartz rock, supposed to be adapted to the glass manufacture, and beds of clay, of great purity, occur in St. Armands.2 A bed of feldspar is also situated on lot No. 31, Pliny Moore patent, in Crown Point, is owned by Messrs. S. S. & A. V. Spalding. I am informed that it has been tested in pottery works at Ben- nington and at Troy, and more recently in New York with success, and that it produces a beautiful ware. The deposit is represented to be inexhaustible.
A long and attractive list of rare and beautiful minerals might be exhibited, which are incorporated with the rocks of Essex county, or imbedded in its earth. Particular localities are peculiarly rich in these deposits. The crest of a hill upon the premises of Col. Calkins, near Lake George, affords a choice field for the researches of the scientific explorer. The avalanches, at Long pond, in Keene, present a site still more lavishly supplied with brilliant gems and minerals.3 Augite, garnet, zircon, sah- lite, sphene, coccolite, adularia, rose colored quartz spar, epidote, clorite, jasper, cornelian, are among the minerals yielded by these remarkable deposits. Veins of colopho- nite occur in Lewis, Chesterfield and Willsboro'. This exceedingly splendid and beautiful mineral is found in vast conglomerates, refulgent in the colors and lustre of innu- merable gems.
1 Mr. Treadway. 2 Elias Goodspeed, Esq.
$ I have been favored by the Rev. Mr. Pattee with a more particular and highly interesting description of the latter locality. It is situated near Edmond's pond, at a precipice laid bare by an avalanche in 1830. In the bed of a little brook, which leaps down the slide, innumerable minerals sparkle, and are strewn about the vicinity in every direction. High up the precipice, a series of caves occur, which are the peculiar deposits of the gems and minerals, and almost rival in beauty and variety, the caverns of eastern story. "Here are found large boulders, and even ledges of calcareous spar, blue, white, and sometimes beautifully variegated by crystals of epi- dote, coccolite, and hornblende. They are occasionally found in stalactitic and crystaline forms, but more generally in amorphous masses." The basalt is chiefly found in veins and dykes."
422
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
NATIVE COPPERAS.
A singular formation of natural copperas exists imme- diately below the Wilmington Notch, on the bank of the Au Sable river. The impregnated water, oozing from the earth, forms a thick concretion upon the rock, which may be removed in large quantities. It is adapted, in its crude state, to all the usual purposes of the artificial sul- phate of iron.
THE BEACHES.
The naked and barren beaches along the shores of the lake occasionally furnish elements of business, which are profitably used. The detritus of iron formed by the attrition of the water and fragments of rock from the ore, which is known by the circumstance to exist on the bottom of the lake, is thrown up in several localities, in thick deposits. This substance is nearly pure iron, and gathered with care formerly supplied a large demand by the stationers. Subsequently it has been employed in the manufacture of malt and for other purposes. In some seasons it has been a heavy article of exportation. A New York company has recently secured extensive rights, with the view of erecting works, designed to adapt this "iron sand " for use in some mechanical arts.
Gravel thrown up by the waters of the lake and collected on the beaches, is exported in large quantities to Montreal, by the Sorel, the Chambly canal and St. Lawrence, and is extensively consumed in that city, for both useful and ornamental purposes.
WATER CEMENT.
A vein of water cement in the town of Willsboro', of a very superior quality, has been used for practical purposes for many years, and is apparently of great extent. Other deposits of this material occur in various parts of the county. I noticed one of particular promise on the farm of Harris Page in Chesterfield.
423
NATURAL HISTORY.
A large ledge of limestone believed to be a water cement, occurs in Crown Point.
PAINTS.
Paint exists in different sections of the county, in numerous deposits and various colors. It is generally disintegrated and pulverized, and is used in its crude state for ordinary painting. When prepared by artificial re- finement, it is believed these minerals will be made use- ful for practical purposes. An ore occurs in Ticonderoga, of a rocky consistence, which presents a bright rich ver- million surface, and is supposed will yield an important paint.
DRIFT AND DILUVIAL FORMATION.
Whilst strong and indubitable evidences prevail through- out the county of Essex that an igneous power constituted the stupendous agency that impressed upon this region its peculiar features and characteristics, it is equally manifest that an aqueous action exerted an influence in moulding its existing formation. Without designing to vindicate any opinion or to educe any theory, it seems appropriate that I should present summarily a few prominent facts which may possibly convey to other minds elucidations and arguments on this subject.
Lake Champlain is only ninety-three feet above tide water, and a plummet descending in it six hundred feet has not reached bottom. These facts may be suggestive of important considerations. Marine shells, forming large deposits of marl, occur in the vicinity of the lake, in a state of such preservation that the species may be readily defined, and which induces the belief of their being a comparatively recent deposit. The tenacious blue clay, surmounted by the yellowish clay peculiar to marine form- ations, may be traced widely disseminated in the county. Numerous deposits are disclosed along the sides of hills and mountains, of large gravel, rounded by attrition and decay, and presenting every assimilation in appearance to
424
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
the line of a beach that has been washed by the surges. The sand drifts are uniformly, or nearly so, exposed in long and narrow expanses, occupying the tracts of valleys or ravines. The recent formation is perfectly illustrated near the village of Pleasant Valley, where a slide exposes the stratification of the earth to a depth of some twenty feet. The lower stratum revealed is the yellow clay, suc- ceeded by a coarse and rough gravel; this is surmounted by a smaller gravel, clear and abraded; the latter is covered by a stratum of sand, light and washed, and beneath the entire mass projects logs and roots. The lovely valley that borders the Schroon river, and spreads over an area of several miles between Paradox and Schroon lakes, presents equally decisive evidences of a recent formation. This plain is fertile, and now generally under high cultivation. In sinking pits for wells and other pur- poses, logs nearly entire and prostrate trees are constantly found from twelve to seventeen feet below the surface.1 I have before referred to the appearance of ripple marks near the base of the walled banks of the Au Sable, and in another connection have mentioned the remarkable fos- siliferous rock on Willsboro' point.
In Elizabethtown, on the brow of an eminence, many feet above the valley, a formation in the solid rock, smooth and rounded, may be seen, not unlike in size and general appearance to a common caldron kettle. I examined two others on the premises of Colonel Calkins, and similarly situated upon the crest of a precipice. I also inspected another formation of this kind on the lands of Messrs. Treadway, in Schroon. The half circle of this remains entire; the residue has been apparently destroyed by frag- ments of rocks, fallen from the cliff's above. The entire circle was probably twenty feet in diameter. This also stands upon the verge of a high and abrupt precipice of probably two hundred feet in depth. The appearance, the form, the position, the smooth and worn surface of
1 Clark Rawson, Esq.
425
NATURAL HISTORY.
these extraordinary structures, all indicate that they have been formed by the abrasions of a rapid and powerful current of water.
The existence of boulders formed of every rock, and dis- seminated through the county, equally upon the hills and mountains as in the valleys, presents a broad and attractive field for scientific researches and philosophical speculations. Boulder rock, dissimilar in character and belonging to other formations, worn and rounded, are scattered over the county in utter confusion and dislocation. Granite intermingled with sand, sandstone resting upon hyperstene, and gneiss upon limestone, perpetually occur. A gentle- man of intelligence assured me, that he had examined a fragment of red sandstone near the summit of a hyperstene mountain, in the centre of the county, and remote from every rock of that description. I saw in Moriah, a Potsdam sandstone block lying upon the surface of a rock of gneiss, many miles from the former in site. Among the Adirondacs, at an elevation of one thousand seven hun- dred feet, and more than one thousand feet above any known locality of Potsdam sandstone, pebbles of that rock are found, bearing all the close crystaline appearance of that stone at Keeseville.1 They are found in gravel pits, sand beds, and along the banks of the river. The presence of these boulders, varying in size from the mere pebbles to masses of many tons, occurs in every section of the county. These are among the facts and circumstances existing in this region calculated to illustrate theories and speculations on the subject of the drift formation of the country. A highly corroborative fact has. within a few years been revealed to the scientific world by the zeal of the eminent Professor Zadock Thompson, of the Vermont University. It should be understood that a perfect geolo- gical analogy exists between the opposite shores of Lake Champlain, in the vicinity of the discovery referred to. While laborers were engaged in the town of Charlotte,
1 R. Clark.
426
HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
Vermont, in forming an excavation for the Rutland and Burlington rail road. They exhumed a quantity of bones embedded in the clay about eight feet below the natural surface of the soil. They were partially broken before their peculiar appearance attracted attention. A portion of the bones was transmitted to Mr. Thompson, who immediately repaired to the place, and after much labor succeeded in collecting sufficient of the remains to enable him to determine, after further inspection, that they were the almost perfect skeleton of a member of the whale family. Aided by the great science of Professor Agassiz, he suc- ceeded in arranging and collecting the bones, and decided the animal to be the beluga leucas or small northern white whale of Cuvier. This remarkable fossil, so sig- nificant of the theory to which I have adverted, is preserved in the department of natural history at Montpelier.
FERTILIZERS.
Phosphate of Lime. The extraordinary deposit of this rare and valuable mineral in Crown Point, has elicited much interest and attention from both the scientific and agricultural community of England.
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