332 The New Ivon-fields of England. | July, 
judging from the experience of Northamptonshire and the adjoin- 
ing county, it seems probable that a few years hence furnaces 
will be erected in this district. The quality of the pig-iron pro- 
duced, as tested by the trials from the Fawler quarries, has been 
pronounced good, though the yield is variable, as the rock is often 
superabundantly calcareous, and the average yield of metallic iron 
will probably not be found to exceed thirty per cent.; on the other 
hand, it will require little or no admixture of limestone for 
fluxing. 
The rapid increase of iron-smelting im the new districts may be 
judged by the following statement :—We learn from the ‘Mineral 
Statistics of Great Britain,’ compiled by Mr. R. Hunt, F.BS., that 
in 1864 the total quantity of pig-iron smelted in the United 
Kingdom was 4,767,951 tons, from 10,064,890 tons of ore. Of 
this, the North Riding, Lincolnshire, and Northamptonshire pro- 
duced 431,929 tons. What the total produce for 1865 may be 
we are not yet informed, as the statistics for this year have not yet 
been published; but we shall probably not be far wrong if we 
estimate it at 6,000,000 tons of pig-iron, of which the Cleveland 
district, Lincolnshire, and Northamptonshire will have yielded 
1,100,000 tons. The proportions therefore of the yield from the 
New Fields to that of the United Kingdom will have been, in 1864, 
nearly one-tenth, while in the followmg year it will have been 
more than one-sixth of the whole. Considering the rapidity with 
which new furnaces are being erected in these districts, I shall not 
be surprised if it should turn out that in the present year the 
proportion will be one-fourth of the produce of the entire kingdom, 
and this is exclusive of the large quantities of iron smelted from 
ores sent into other iron districts. 
We have now completed our survey of the New Ivon-fields of 
England through a tract of country ranging from north to south 
for a distance of 200 miles. The survey might be still further 
extended if we included the Wiltshire ores, which are of limited 
extent, and belong to a still higher geological horizon. Enough 
has probably been stated to show the enormous extent of our 
resources in this mineral, which is sufficiently abundant to use up 
the whole of our available coal for its conversion into metallic iron. 
As regards the quality of the iron produced, it is confessedly inferior 
to that derived from the clay iron-stones and black bands of the 
coal measures, still more to that from the heematites of Ulverstone 
and Furness; but for ordinary purposes and for mixing with the 
finer classes, it is of great value. It is, moreover, supplying the 
enormous demand of the present generation ; and, looking to the 
future, there can be no question that the Middlesborough district is 
destined to have no rival in any part of the world. 
