PROCEEDINGS OF BROVINCIAL SOCIETIES. 317 



The more profitable iron ores are of two kinds — the spatous and 

 the argillaceous. The former is the richer, and affords a superior 

 metal, and is largely smelted in the iron-works of Yorkshire and the 

 north of England. The latter occurs in detached nodules of from 

 two inches to a foot in diameter, imbedded in soft bluish clay, or 

 shale, and generally contains a nucleus of portions of the animal or 

 vegetable forms of the primeval ages. The author alluded to an 

 interesting discovery which had been lately made in this ironstone 

 in the vicinity of IVIadeley, in this county, of some undescribed species 

 of coleopterous insects, of the forked antennae family, one of which 

 had been named Curculioides Ansiicii, in honour of the discoverer, 

 Mr. Anstice; and the other Curculioides Prestwichii, after Mr. 

 Prestwich, a gentleman who has devoted great attention to the geo- 

 logy of the Shropshire coal-field. 



The argillaceous iron-stone is usually of a brown or bluish-grey 

 colour, and holds the metal in a state of protoxyde, varying from 25 

 to 60 and 70 per cent. The ore in Shropshire, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Wellington, Coalbrookdale, Broseley, and Shiffnal, is of 

 this character; and occurs in continuous strata, varying in thickness, 

 and more or less inclined to the plane of the horizon. The princi- 

 pal deposits of argillaceous ironstone in Shropshire, are in the coal- 

 measures, (although they frequently occur above them) in the strata 

 of shale, clays, sandstone, and slate, alternating with coal. Exten- 

 sive fields of this character occur between Wellington and Shiffnal ; 

 which are bounded on the east and north-east by a broad line of 

 sand and calcareous free-stone of the upper formation, abounding 

 with fossil stems of Calamites and Stigmaria. 



The coal-mines of Shropshire have been extensively worked for 

 several centuries ; for Leland, in ] 538, makes mention of the coal- 

 works near Shiffnal and Madeley, and of their being entered by 

 adits or levels in the side of the hill. Within the last forty or fifty 

 years only, they have entered by shafts, or pits, and their contents 

 raised perpendicularly. 



The Shropshire iron-mines have, however, only been opened 

 about 150 years, and their produce was, for a long period, very 

 trifling. The Shropshire iron-masters have now between sixty and 

 seventy blast-furnaces in constant operation, producing nearly 

 seventy tons of iron per week. 



The author next detailed the mode of reducing the ore, which is 

 first roasted in heaps for five or six days, and thus deprived of its 

 sulphur, carbonic acid, and other inflammable substances, and gene- 

 rally loses from twenty to thirty per cent. The furnace is then 

 sufficiently heated with coal cinders, or coke, alone, and the charg- 

 ing or filling commences, in the proportion of four tons of coke, three 

 tons of ore, and one of limestone, After the furnace is once heated, 

 the filling may be continued at intervals for many years. The me- 

 tal, when completely fused, is run into moulds, constituting the pig- 

 iron of commerce. In this operation, the coke not only acts as fuel, 

 but attracts the oxygen from the ore, and enters into combination 



