200 ANNUAL REPORT 



made one of the luxuries of life, bearing a higher price than in any 

 other country of the globe, and hence enormously and unnecessarily 

 augmenting the consumption of wood. I will not waste words 

 on this branch of the subject; I feel that it would be an insult 

 to your intelligence to enlarge upon so palpable an absurdity. 

 Of iron and its possibilities as a timber saver I must have more to 

 say. First, allow me to quote so much of the report of the United 

 States commissioner to the last International Exposition held in Paris, 

 as refers to our natural wealth of coal and iron. It so tersely calls 

 the roll of the reinforceraeats I am now considering that I think it 

 can but interest you. 



Along the Atlantic slope, in the highland range from the borders 

 of the Hudson to the State of Georgia, a distance of one thousand 

 miles, is found the great magnetic range, traversing seven States in 

 its length and course. Parallel with this, in *he great limestone val- 

 ley which lies along the margin of the coal fields, are the brown hem- 

 atites, in such quantities at some points,, especially in Virginia, 

 Tennessee and Alabama, as fairly to stagger the imagination. And, 

 finally, in the coal basin, is a stratum of fossiliferous ore, beginning 

 in a comparatively thin seam in the State of New York, and termin- 

 ating in the State of Alabama, in a bed fifteen feet in thickness, over 

 which a horseman may ride for more than one hundred miles. Beneath 

 this bed, but still above the water level, are to be found the coal 

 seams, exposed upon mountain sides, whose flanks are covered with 

 magnificent timber, which can be used for the purpose of manufactur- 

 ing charcoal iron. Passing westward, in Arkansas and Missouri, is 

 reached that wonderful range of red oxide of iron, which, in moun- 

 tains rising hundreds of feet above the surface, or in beds beneath the 

 soil, culminates at Lake Superior in deposits of ore which excite the 

 wonder of all beholders; and returning thence to the Atlantic slope, 

 in the Adirondacks of New York is a vast undeveloped region, watered 

 by rivers whose beds are of iron, and traversed by mountains whose 

 foundations are laid upon the same material; while in and among the 

 coal beds themselves are found scattered but rich deposits of hematite 

 and fossiliferous ores, which by their close proximity to coal and a 

 market makes possible the development of an iron industry such as the 

 world never saw. From these vast treasures the world might draw its 

 supplies for centuries to come, and with these the inquirer may rest 

 contented, without further question; for all the coal of the rest of 

 the world might be deposited withi^n this iron rim, and its square 

 miles would not occupy one-quarter of the coal area of the United 

 States. 



