SCIENTIFIC SURVEY. 421 



case, the reduced metal was carried by mules to Bangor, and of 

 course the distance of transportation caused the profits to be 

 materially lessened. The property is now in litigation and the 

 work is entirely suspended. 



An excellent account of the situation and extent of those works 

 was published by John 0. Houghton, B. A., in the Report of the 

 Scientific Survey for 1861. 



2. Magnetite. Specimens of a superior ore from Union were 

 placed in my hands, in June last, for analysis. The ore is one of 

 remarkable purity, yielding according to a gentleman who had had 

 the ore analyzed by a Boston chemist, a percentage of pure iron 

 as large as tO. I was not able to obtain as large a proportion of 

 iron as this, my highest result being 64 of iron. But this is a per- 

 centage so large as to warrant the erection of a furnace, provided, 



1st, There is enough of the ore to keep the furnace well sup- 

 plied. 



2d, Fuel can be cheaply provided. 



3d, The metal can be easily transported to tide water. 



Perhaps I may be blamed for thus having insisted strongly upon 

 the many elements which must enter into the question of the prac- 

 ticability of erection of furnaces. But there have been so many 

 lamentable failures in New England mining because these points 

 were not appreciated, that I feel justified in keeping them plainly 

 before those interested in mining operations. And the more so in 

 a report upon the economical value of iron ores, a metal which the 

 coal regions of our Middle States furnishes so cheaply. To refer 

 again to the iron at Union, let me observe, that there is abundance 

 of lime, to be used as a flux, very near the bed ; that there is a possi- 

 bility that the old canal can be reopened for the transportation, and 

 that the ore is of a superior quality. 



3. Pyrites. Of late years English manufacturers have employed 

 sulphur prepared from Iron Pyrites, which is a bi-sulphide of iron, 

 in preference to crude commercial sulphur. The method of obtain- 

 ing sulphur from the pyrites was described in the chemical report 

 for 1861. Since writing that report, I have visited Jewell's island 

 in Casco bay, where there is a large deposit of iron pyrites, where 

 an alum fiictory was erected in 1886 and afterwards abandoned. 

 After a thorough examination of the locality, assisted much by the 

 amiable and intelligent owner of the island, Capt. Chase, I was 

 convinced that the alum and copperas works were erected in a part 



