32 MR. E. W. BINNEY ON THE ORIGIN OF IRONSTONES. 



in the carboniferous strata, at convenient distances from each 

 other, has latterly concentrated the iron manufacture on or 

 near those deposits. This arises not so much from the rich- 

 ness of the carboniferous ores, for they are, comp^atively 

 speaking, poor in yield and not of the best quality, but from 

 the necessity of economizing the expense in carriage of such 

 large quantities of raw material. In no trade is the cost of 

 transit so soon felt as in the iron manufacture. It has been 

 most generally the custom to plant the furnaces on or near 

 the supply of coal, and bring the ore and limestone to them. 



At the present time, all the charcoal furnaces have disap- 

 peared, with the exception of some two or three near Uiverston, 

 although in 1615 there were, according to Sturtevant, as 

 quoted by Dudley in his curious old work, Metallum Martis^ 

 in Great BHtain and Ireland, 800 furnaces, forges, or iron 

 works making iron with charcoal.* Of these Dudley esti- 

 mates that 300 of them, at 15 tons per week, would produce 

 180,000 tons per annum. The district of South Staffordshire, 

 owing to its containing the ten yard coal, has long been 

 the favourite seat of the iron manufacture. From the time 

 of Dudley until now, the best of its argillaceous iron ores 

 have been so extensively worked that they have become 

 nearly exhausted, and others of a more inferior quality have 

 had to be substituted. As the coal districts of South Staf- 

 fordshire had superseded the old charcoal furnaces, they in 

 their place appeared likely to give place to the blackband 

 iron ore districts of Scotland and South Wales, although they 

 were situate on the spot where a great amount of iron is used 

 in the manufactures of the neighbourhood. But it is sur- 

 prising how the eyes of men are sharpened by competition in 

 searching for food to supply their devouring furnaces. Within 

 the last year or two, the ironmasters of Durham and Northum- 

 berland were driven to the oolitic and lias ores of Yorkshire, 



• On the Iron-making Resources of the United Kingdom, by S. H. Blackwell, 

 Esq., F.G.S., p. IIH. 



