247 



This ore contains 52^^^^^ per cent, of pure metallic iron, and 

 if the manganese is all reduced, and alloyed with the iron, it 

 will amount to l^Vo ^^ Manganesium, the proportion which will 

 make the iron into the finest kind of steel. 



There is one blast furnace now in operation at the Acadian 

 Mines, smelting these ores, and six catelan forges are also em- 

 ployed. The iron produced is remarkable for toughness and 

 strength, and is sold exclusively to steel makers in Sheffield, 

 England. Since the immediate country around is hard wood 

 forest land, an abundance of charcoal fuel can be obtained, and 

 there will soon be other furnaces built near the mines. 



EXCURSION TO HALIFAX AND TO NICTAU. 



Having completed our surveys of the numerous mines near 

 the Acadian furnaces, we left for Truro and Halifax, by stage- 

 coach, and from thence went to Windsor, where we crossed over 

 the gypseous formation, and observed some of those numerous 

 inverted, funnel-shaped cavities in the gypsum, which now and 

 then operate as trap-falls for men and animals. 



Reaching the valley of Annapolis River, we travelled down it 

 to Nictau, where we made a full examination of those inexhaust- 

 ible beds of iron ores, which are worked by Mr. Archibald, and 

 have been named by him the 



VICTORIA MINES. 



In 1827, Mr. Francis Alger and myself, made the first geolog- 

 ical examinations of these curious and most interesting ore beds, 

 which are contained in argillaceous slate rocks of Silurian age, 

 having a line of elevation running Northeast and Southwest, and 

 are distinguished by the great profusion of fossil shells which 

 they contain ; the ore being more fossiliferous by far than the 

 slate rocks containing it, seeming to indicate that these ancient 

 mollusca had a preference for an iron bed rather than one of 

 clay. Formerly, the principal fossil shells of these ores were 

 regarded as species of terebratulse, and afterwards they were 

 classed as Delthyris, but now they are arranged under the 

 genus Spirifer, and they approach closely the S. Niagarensis, 

 though none of them agree exactly with Mr. Hall's figures of 



