ORES OF THE AZOIC BELT IN NEW JERSEY.
The magnetic ores of New Jersey are less massive than those of New York, but the beds are perhaps quite as regular, and the ore about equal in quantity. The eastern range of magnetic ores, as developed in Virginia, does not extend beyond that State. The true range is the western strike, in line with, and parallel to, the Potsdam sand stone of the Blue Ridge.
It appears evident that two outcrops of magnetic ore exist in this range, probably the basined edges of the same beds, since these magnetic deposits follow the strike of the gneissic rocks as uniformly as the strata of a coal-seam. Five beds are worked by the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company of Scranton in Morris county. Two of these are from 2 to 10 feet thick, and one from 10 to 35 feet in thickness. They are worked by tunnels which intersect the deposits at about 100 feet from their outcrop. The dip of the strata is from 70° to 75°.
These metalliferous Azoic rocks extend through the counties of Warren, Sussex, and Morris in New Jersey, and extend through Orange, Putnam, and Dutchess counties in New York. The metallic belt is narrow in the southern part of New Jersey, but gradu
ally widens in a northern direction. The mountain-ranges in which this ore has been developed in this State are the Marble Mountain, Scott's Mountain, Jenny's Jump, Allamanche, and the Andover Hills, with the Pochunk and Wawayanda, Mountains. These ranges form the northwestern margin of the gneissic formations. The south eastern boundary is formed by the Musconetcong and Schooley's Mountains in Warren and Sussex, and the Highlands in Passaic.
The amount of ore developed within those ranges in this State is practically un limited. The region is opened out by the Morris & Essex Railroad and the Morris Canal, and the mines of this rich and valuable ore are closely connected with the immense stores of anthracite which exist in available proximity. Large quantities of this magnetic ore are used in the Lackawanna coal region at Scranton, and by the numerous and successful furnaces on the Lehigh.