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iron deposits, any ores that are fitted for steel manufacture 
on an extensive scale, the ores used for this purpose abroad 
were first reviewed. The rich and pure hematites of Lanca- 
shire and Cumberland, the great magnetic ore-beds of Sweden, 
and the spathic irons of Germany and Austria, were described 
as furnishing almost the exclusive basis of the steel industry 
in the respective countries in which they occur. The two 
former, and the recently-developed hematites of Bilbao, 
Spain, and Mocta, Algeria, are largely exported for steel- 
working in other parts of Europe, and also here. The black 
band and clay-iron stone of the Carboniferous, and the Odlitic 
ores of England, France, Belgium, etc., are too impure for 
the Bessemer process. 
In our own country, we have, first, the enormous magnetic 
deposits of the older crystalline rocks of the Alleghanies, 
extending from the St. Lawrence to Georgia, and largely de- 
veloped also in the Laurentian hills of Canada. These were 
discussed and described at many points, with analyses, ete. 
In some cases they are pure enough for producing Bessemer 
pig; but they vary much, and often are hopelessly injured, 
even for common use, by containing titanium. Only in 
North Carolina is there much promise. There, among the 
vast deposits lately brought into notice, some are very pure, 
as that in Mitchell County, and especially the ‘Cranberry 
ore.” This has not yet been tried; but the analysis is most 
hopeful. 
Equally important are the rich and remarkable hematite 
regions of Marquette, Mich., and eastern Missouri. Excellent 
descriptions of both these iron districts have lately been giv- 
en, by Major Brooks, in the Geological Survey of Michigan, 
and Prof. Pumpelly, in the Missouri Report for 1873. The 
importance of these deposits, and the excellence of the iron 
that they yield, can hardly be overestimated ; though they 
also vary, that of Marquette sometimes being very silicious, 
and when smelted with the sulphurous coals and cokes of the 
Western States, instead of with charcoal, the iron is apt to be 
too impure. Both of them, however, and no others, are 
used in the Bessemer process in the furnaces of the West. 
The great and valuable ore beds of the Clinton group, 
sweeping in a belt from Wisconsin through New York and 
East Tennessee to Alabama, have nevertheless too much 
phosphorus for steel-working, like the odlitie ores abroad. 
Our limonites, spathic irons, and coal measure ores are all 
either too impure or too limited, or both, to enter into the 
question of the American manufacture of steel. 
