REPORT ON FORESTS. 255 



Scattered here and there throughout the Pines are the remains 

 of what were once centers of a nourishing industry. This 

 was the manufacture of iron from bog ore (limonite). In some 

 places the furnaces and forges have been completely obliterated 

 and forgotten ; in others only bits of black slag remain, 

 while in others the ruins are still standing. These centers 

 of industry, usually located in the neighborhood of streams 

 and bogs, were connected by stage routes, along which here 

 and there were clearings and taverns. Immense quantities of 

 charcoal were consumed by these forges and furnaces, the owners 

 of which usually possessed the land for several miles in every 

 direction. Wood in those days was in demand, and coalings were 

 frequent. Even after the iron industry in the Pines succumbed, 

 charcoal was shipped to the cities by schooners in large quan- 

 tities. Owing to the abundance of other forms of coal, the demand 

 for charcoal has gradually decreased. Along the rivers there 

 were many depots to which the charcoal was carted, which are 

 still in evidence, owing to the great masses of coal-dust which 

 accumulated there. Coal and iron were worked side by side 

 in the neighboring State of Pennsylvania, transportation by 

 rail increased the competition ; the iron industry in the Pines 

 was unable to survive, and with it faded the manufacture of 

 charcoal,* and the value of coal-wood. The ruins of furnaces, 

 the large dilapidated houses, the overgrown roads, the wharves, 

 the piers, the old ship-yards, and the masses of coal-dirt on the 

 landings are evidences of what the country was when iron was 

 made from bog-ore, and when schooners were built to trade to 

 foreign lands. The woods were full of men hewing timbers, 

 cutting coal-wood, working in the coalings, raising bog-ore and 

 carting materials from place to place. The death of these indus- 

 tries, however, is only the result of progress. In the develop- 

 ment of the whole of a country, certain parts, although they 

 may have once played an important role, must' suffer. In the^ 

 course of its development almost every country is subjected to a 

 series of industrial ups and downs. 



Another peculiar old-time industry was the mining of cedar. 

 The bed of a cedar swamp is a mass of forest detritus, several 



* It is unfortunate that so little charcoal is used in the American household. The fine flavor of 

 French cookery is partly due to the use of an excellent quality of charcoal. Other kinds of coal and wood 

 emit gases in the process of combustion which taint food more or less, and for successful broiling charcoal 

 and the brazier are necessary. 



