830 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" Pines/' at the head of Mullica River. Battles were fought at 

 Chestnut Neck near the mouth of this river, at one time a large 

 and prominent settlement, and cannon balls, old pennies, and peb- 

 bles oddly decorated on one side have been found on the beach. 

 Skeletons of men have been bared by the winds, which some think 

 are those of soldiers and others of Indians, since it was once an 

 Indian village, as is indicated by potsherds, broken shells, flints, 

 and other signs scattered all over the surface of the ground. 

 Munitions of war were cast there for the Revolution. General 

 Greene himself owned a twelfth interest in the Batsto furnace, 

 but sold out his share when he entered the army. 



Extending northward from the Mullica River are the " Plains," 

 a desolate region inhabited at one time, they say, by wild hogs, 

 pine robbers, and pirates. 



Weymouth was another important place. Materials were 

 forged there for the War of 1812, and street lamps standing to- 

 day in Philadelphia and waterways in Mobile were molded there. 



Scattered here and there throughout the " Pines " were active, 

 thriving " bloomeries." Now all is silence, save for the noises of 

 the woods. Instead of the buzz of the mill and the commotion of 

 men at work, there can now be heard only the chirping of insects 

 and the song of the cheewink by day and the croaking of toads 

 and frogs at night. The ruins of forges and furnaces, the large, 

 dilapidated houses, the overgrown roads, the wharves, the sluices, 

 the piers, the old fences, and the masses of black coal-dirt on the 

 landings where vessels once came for wood and charcoal, are all 

 evidences of what the country was when iron was made from 

 " bog ore." In the houses and ample barns even of more recent 

 date the spiders have woven their webs, the wasps have mudded 

 the walls, and the rats scamper at home through the deserted 

 rooms. Many orchards are untrimmed and sterile, many mead- 

 ows flooded, and many fields overgrown with briers and Indian 

 grass. 



After the death of the iron manufacture South Jersey passed 

 into another industrial stage — the making of glass. The glory of 

 this industry is also passing, and ruins of old factories are not 

 uncommon. 



Those furnaces and forges mark the infancy of the iron indus- 

 try in America — an industry which has made this century " the 

 age of iron." Its local decline was natural and unavoidable — due 

 to an inadequate supply of ore, a crude manner of manufacture, 

 and difficult means of transportation. 



