To one accustomed to close and careful observation the features of a country and the contour of its hills afford a reliable means of opinion on the character of the subjacent rock. There pertains to each of these in this county a peculiarity of profile, when exposed on the brow of hills, that is as constant and as unmistakable as any class of phenomena offered to the observation of geologists; and these distinctive features arise from the greater or less facility with which the several rocks yield to disintegrating forces. The shales and slates being easily decomposed, and offering little resistance to the action of running water, present a rounded outline; running streams have here worn deep, winding gulfs, through which the channels meander, washing alternately the right bank and the left, affording a succession of crumbling precipices, often of romantic beauty, and spreading over the plains, where they issue from the hills, the broken materials brought down from the ravines. The rock is everywhere covered with soil, derived from its own disintegration, and is inclined to clay, from which cause, when level, there is a tendency to the formation of swamps, from the impermeable character of this material. The soil is generally fertile, and especially adapted to grazing. Wherever diluvial action has existed it has worn, with little difficulty, broad valleys and removed immense quantities of the detritus to other places.

These shales form a ridge of highlands, extending from this county, through Oswego, Lewis, Oneida, and Herkimer counties, being known in Lewis as Tug Hill. The margin of this elevated tract is worn into deep ravines, but when the head of these is reached the country becomes level and sometimes swampy.

The limestone occurs in terraces, with steep but not precipitous margins, the whole of which is covered with a soil derived from its own decomposition where not protected by drift. The soil is inclined to be thin, and consequently liable to be affected with drouth, but is extremely fertile, and alike adapted to grass and grain. The richest and best portions of Jefferson County, if not in the state, are underlaid by this rock. Running streams, when small, do not wear ravines, but fall down the slope of the terraces in pretty cascades, broken into foam, and noisy from the numerous points of resistance which they meet. The Burrville cascades, in the southwest border of the town of Rutland, are among the most romantic and picturesque which the county affords. (See a current-day photo on this website of the falls at Burrville.)

The calciferous sandstone presents a flat country, with a few valleys, and those but a few feet below the level of the adjacent plains. The rock is covered with a very thin soil, derived from its own decomposition, but one of much richness, from the presence of lime. It seldom descends by a gentle slope into the valleys, but presents a shelving ledge, very peculiar to this rock, in this section of the state.

The Potsdam sandstone generally presents a level surface, but more liable to upheavals, and is covered with soil entirely brought from other formations, and varies in quality with sources from which it has been derived. This rock never presents a fertile slope into the valleys, but is bordered with abrupt precipices, at the foot of which are piled huge masses that have tumbled from the face of the ledge.

The primitive rocks of the county present a constant succession of abrupt, rounded edges, scantily covered in a state of nature with timber, and, when cleared, with a thin soil, with intervening valleys of considerable fertility, that have received their soil from the wash of the hills. The nature and amount of soil varies with the rock, and is abundant and fertile where the chief element is quartz. The fact is observable that the south slope of the hills is more abrupt than the north, as if they had been more upheaved.

Drift deposits occur promiscuously over rocks of every age, and when occurring in hills present that rounded and conical outline often seen in snowdrifts. These deposits may be distinguished from soil underlaid by rock by the endless variety of rounded outline which they present, and are invariably covered by vegetation. Several remarkable valleys occur in the county that must be attributed to causes that have long since ceased to operate. That of Rutland Hollow, parallel with Black River, continues across the towns of Watertown, Hounsfield, and Henderson, by way of Smithville, to the lake, having both its sides covered with Trenton limestone. It is considered by some authorities to be one of the abandoned beds of Black River. Evidences of the drift period are prominent in this valley, the surface of the rock often presenting a polished and grooved appearance, and at no locality is this more wonderfully shown than at the railroad bridge below Watertown village. The grooves are here widened and deepened into troughs, that obliquely cross the bed of the river, having their surface polished and scratched, showing that the rock was then as firm and unyielding as now.

Anthracite has been observed in minute quantities in the Trenton limestone at Watertown, and also in the Utica slate in the southwestern border of the county. Apatite (phosphate of lime) is found in small crystals near Ox Bow, in massive form on Butterfield Lake, and near Grass Lake in Theresa. Azurite (blue carb. copper) is found on an island in Muskallonge Lake, in Theresa. Calcite (carbonate of lime) occurs at Ox Bow and on the banks of Vrooman Lake. Tufa is found in a few limestone springs, and agaric mineral abounds in the caves on the north side of the river in Watertown. Marl occurs in Pleasant Lake, and satin-spar near Ox Bow, not far from Pulpit Rock. Celestine (sulphate of strontia) is said to occur in Trenton limestone. Chalcodite, a very rare mineral, is frequently obtained at the Sterling iron mine in Antwerp. Chondrodite has also been observed in Antwerp. Chlorite has been detected in bowlders, but it is not common. Copper pyrites has been found in Antwerp, adjacent to Vrooman Lake and near the Ox Bow, and also about three miles from Natural Bridge, in Wilna. Dolomite occurs in white limestone. Pearl-spar is found at Ox Bow, coating crystals of calcite. Epidote is of frequent occurrence in bowlders of greenstone. It has not been found in its original situation in this county. Feldspar (orthoclase), besides forming a common ingredient in gneiss, often occurs highly crystallized, in Antwerp and Theresa, near Grass Lake, etc. Fluor-spar occurs on the east bank of Muskallonge Lake, in Theresa, and is one of the most remarkable localities of this mineral in the state. Graphite (black lead) occurs in minute scales, to a small extent, in the white limestone of Antwerp. Heavy-spar is found on Pillar Point, in Brownville, on the shore facing Chaumont Bay and Cherry Island, in a vein of Trenton limestone, and in Antwerp, about a mile east from the Ox Box (sic), in a vein of white limestone. It also occurs in Theresa, on the banks of Muskallonge Lake, and in Adams.

Hornblende, of the tremolite variety, is found in bowlders of white limestone, and occasionally in small quantities in Antwerp and in Wilna, near Natural Bridge. Amphibole (basoltic hornblende) is found in bowlders in crystal, firmly embedded in trap and greenstone. Dillage is rarely found in bowlders of chloritic slate. Pargasite, in beautiful green crystals, occurs in white limestone at numerous localities near Ox Bow, and in a neighborhood known as New Connecticut, in Antwerp. Amianthos and asbestos are found in minute quantities in bowlders of serpentine. The latter also occurs near Theresa village. Idocrase, in small brown crystals, occurs occasionally on the banks of Vrooman Lake, near Ox Bow. It has been found in larger crystals in bowlders in Antwerp. Iron pyrites (sulphuret of iron) occurs in Antwerp, Wilna, Theresa, and Alexandria. Labradorite (opalescent feldspar) is occasionally found in bowlders. Limonite, or bog iron, is common in the swamps in Wilna. Ochre occurs in Champion and other towns in small quantities. Magnetite, or magnetic iron ore, has been found in Alexandria. Malachite (green carbonate of copper) is found investing other minerals at Muskallonge Lake, Theresa. Millerite (sulphuret of nickel) occurs at the Sterling iron mine, in Antwerp, in delicate needle-shaped prisms, in cavities of iron ore, associated with spathic iron, chalcodite, and iron pyrites. Muscovite (mica) occurs rarely in bowlders of granite.

Phlogopite. -- This mica occurs frequently in the white limestone, but not in sufficient quantity or in plaits of a size that give it value. It is found on an island in Mill Seat (sic) Lake, in small quantities, and at a few localities near Ox Bow. At Vrooman Lake a highly crystallized variety occurs, in which sharply-defined prisms and groupes (sic) of crystals are found in great abundance. Pyroxene is common in our primitive rocks. On Grass Lake, in Theresa, it is found white and crystallized, in groupes (sic). Near Ox Bow it has been found in small quantities, and near Natural Bridge in large black crystals, with sphene, etc. Cocolite occurs in the same vicinity. Quartz, while forming the greater portion of primary rock, and almost the sole material of sandstone, is rarely found crystallized. On Butterfield Lake, and at several localities in Antwerp, it is found in crystals. At Natural Bridge chalcedony occurs in nodules in white limestone. Flint is a common associate of the Black River limestone. Agate in small quantities is found in Wilna, near Natural Bridge. Jasper and basanite are very rarely found as pebbles in the drift formations. Scapolite in detached crystals is rarely found, imbedded in white limestone, in Antwerp. Adjacent to, and perhaps within, the town of Wilna, near Natural Bridge, the variety Nuttallite, in fused crystals of a pearl gray color, occurs with pyroxene and sphene. It is sometimes massive and admits of cleavage. Serpentine is of frequent occurrence in nodules, in white limestone, in Antwerp, but it is far less abundant than in St. Lawrence County. It is various shades of green, and its weathered surface becomes white. A mineral allied to this, and named by Prof. Emmons Rensselaerite, but by other authors steatitic pseudomorph, occurs in great abundance in Antwerp and Theresa, where it assumes various colors varying from white, through gray, to black, and a texture from finely granular to coarsely crystalline and cleavable. An extensive locality of the jet black and fine-grained variety occurs on Butterfield Lake.

Specular Iron. -- The red oxide of iron constitutes the principal ore of this metal in Antwerp, Philadelphia, and Theresa, and may be said to be the principal ore of Northern New York. It is invariably associated with brittle, variegated mineral, which has been named dysyntribite, but which recent analyses indicate to be a rock of indefinite composition, closely related to agalmatolite, and varying much in its proportions of alumina, magnesia, lime, and the alkalies. In some form or other this mineral is associated with the ore in every locality where the latter has been noticed in this county, as if it were a necessary associate. Beside this nondescript mineral specular ore is associated with calcite, spathic iron, chalcodite, quartz, Millerite, and, more rarely, heavy-spar. In Theresa this ore was procured during the working of the furnace near Redwood, and has been found on an island in Muskallonge Lake. In the edge of Philadelphia, adjoining Theresa, there occurs a body of specular iron ore between the gneiss and Potsdam sandstone. When wrought alone it makes an iron known to founders as cold short, and from its mixture with lime is found to be very useful as a flux in assisting in the reduction of other ores. The mines which have been wrought with most profit in Northern New York are those in the southwest corner of Gouverneur and adjacent in Rossie. In this same range, in Antwerp, a deposit of iron ore was discovered in 1837, and was developed and wrought by George Parish. Adjacent to, and forming a part of this, is the Thompson mine. Sterling mine, in Antwerp, was discovered in 1836, its location being in the same range and geological relation as the last. There are seven or eight mines in a range, including those in Philadelphia, apparently coeval in age and produced by a common cause. About two miles from Ox Bow, in Antwerp, occurs the Weeks ore bed, once owned by George Parish.

Sphene (scilecio-calcareous oxide of titanium) is found in white limestone with pargasite, in Antwerp, near Ox Bow, and near Natural Bridge. Spinel, of pale red color, has been observed in crystals at Vrooman Lake, near Ox Bow, and four miles from the place towards Theresa. Talc occurs in small quantities in bowlders. Tourmaline is occasionally found in gneiss in Antwerp and Theresa. Wad (earthy manganese) has been noticed in swamps in Watertown and elsewhere. Wollastonite (tabular spar) occurs with augite and coccolite at Natural Bridge. Delicate fibrous varieties have been found in bowlders in Wilna.

END OF Mineral Localities.