COLBORNE FURNACE. 197 



who had lately married, lived with him. John had twelve 

 acres of good land, which had been gradually cleared in ob 

 taining timber for different purposes, and which a week s 

 work of his son would render fit for cultivation ; yet it 

 had remained for years in a state of comparative unproduc 

 tiveness. He wondered at me not having tasted unripe Indian 

 corn, on which every creature, he said, lived in this country, 

 as they did on herrings in the west of Scotland during the 

 season ; and he roasted two ears for me, which I did not highly 

 relish. John s house was very mean-looking, and he accounted 

 for it by the want of saw-mills in this part of the country, 

 which rendered boards dear, 



We left John Macdonald after breakfast, and travelled to 

 Colborne Iron-works, in the township of Gossfield, and had 

 a late and uncomfortable dinner where the workmen board. 

 A bed was obtained for us at the house of Messrs Cal- 

 houm and Field, proprietors of the works, which was a 

 log-house of recent erection, plain and rough, externally and 

 internally. 



The furnace had been burnt down a few weeks before our 

 arrival, and all hands were engaged in reconstructing it. The 

 whole erection, with exception of the fire-place and chimney- 

 stalk, was composed of wood, and one of the most temporary 

 buildings it is possible to conceive. The bed of ore lies in a 

 marsh a mile and a half distant, and is what is called bog-ore, 

 one or two feet thick, with six inches of peat-earth on the sur 

 face ; and I was assured by Mr Field that the earth thrown 

 aside two years ago was now fruitful of ore. The iron-work 

 is expected to consume the coke of nearly 200 acres of forest 

 yearly ; and the company would clear any farmer s woodland 

 for the coke it produced. This may be w r orth the notice of 

 settlers, and is given from Mr Field s statement. 



We examined some land for sale in the neighbourhood of 

 the iron-works before breakfast; after partaking of which, we 

 travelled a few miles south, to the shores of Lake Erie, round 

 which we passed to Amherstburgh, which we reached in the 

 evening. 



Williams had at one time resided at Amherstburgh, and 



