ae Seay 
1874.] ( 537 ) 
PROGRESS IN SCIENCE. 
MINING. 
IT might naturally be expected that at the recent meeting of the British 
Association considerable interest would be created by the iron-mines of 
Antrim. Within the last few years workings have been opened in all direc- 
tions throughout the county ; and indeed this remarkable development of iron- 
mining forms an important chapter in the industrial history of the North of 
Ireland. Notto mention the early notices of these ores, even'in the beginning of 
the seventeenth century, we may remark that the ferruginous bands inthe basalt 
of the Giant’s Causeway were observed by the Rev. Dr. Hamilton, and spe- 
cially mentioned by him, in 17g0. No workings, however, were established 
until 1861, when Dr. Ritchie, of Belfast, opened up the deposit of ore at 
Ballypalidy, near Templepatrick. Brought into the market under the name 
of ‘‘ Belfast aluminous ore,” this mineral became largely used for mixing with 
other ores, especially with the rich hamatites of Cumberland and Lancashire ; 
the high percentage of free alumina in the Belfast ore acting as a capital flux 
to the siliceous hematite, and contributing to the formation of a good free- 
flowing slag. The composition of this Irish ore brings it into close relation 
with the mineral known as Bauxite, which occurs in the South of France and 
in Carniola, and is employed both as an ore of aluminium and as a fettling 
material for puddling-furnaces. The remarkable deposits of iron-ore now 
worked in other parts of Antrim differ for the most part from those of Bally- 
palidy, and often present a curious pisolitic stru@ture; the spheroids, which 
are sometimes magnetic, being embedded in a matrix of brown or reddish 
iron-ochre. This pisolitic ore contains from 30 to 65 percent of metallic 
iron, whilst the aluminous ore yields from 20 to 28 per cent of iron: even the 
ochres and lithomarge, though containing much less iron, have also been used 
in the blast-furnace. The beds of pisolitic iron-ore appear to lie all on one 
geological horizon, and thus divide the great series of basaltic rocks into two 
well-defined groups—one below and the other above the level of the iron-ores. 
It is probable that the Miocene ores of Antrim may have been formed 
originally from the products of decomposition of the basalt, and the deposition 
of these products under lacustrine conditions. The characters and distribution 
of these ores have been well described by Mr. Ralph Tate and Dr. Sinclair 
Holden, in the ‘“ Journal of the Geological Society ;” by Prof. Hull, in * Iron ;’” 
and by Mr. R. A. Watson, in the “‘ Dublin University Magazine.” A brilliant 
future for the north-eastern corner of Ireland may be foreseen in the develop- 
ment of these important iron-making resources. 
Among the papers read at the recent meeting of the Iron and Steel Insti- 
tute, at Barrow-in-Furness, we may refer specially to one of local interest, by 
Mr. P. Wirzburger, of Dalton-in-Furness. This memoir, ‘On the Geology 
of the West Coast Iron Districts,” described the structure of the country 
which the Institute was then visiting, and dwelt especially on the mode of 
occurrence of the red hematite, which forms the staple of the great iron- 
manufacture of this district. These ores are found partly as veins in the 
Lower Silurian rocks, but mainly as deposits in the carboniferous limestone. 
The ore in the limestone occurs under several conditions: sometimes in flat 
deposits, following more or less closely the dip of the strata; sometimes in 
veins, with an inclination greater than that of the enclosing rock; and in 
other cases in irregular deposits, filling hollows or caverns in the limestone. 
In the Furness district most of the deposits are covered with superficial drift, 
but around Whitehaven they are generally enclosed in the solid limestone. 
In consequence of the great irregularity in the distribution and size of the 
ore-deposits the mining operations are rather precarious; borings in search of 
the ore are made at random, and it is impossible to estimate, with anything 
