66 THE ABBOTSBURY IRON DEPOSITS. 



peroxide could scarcely be found outside a museum. The Abbots- 

 bury ores seem, in fact, to vary in richness accoi'ding to situation, 

 much as do those of Northampton, two specimens from which 

 locality yielded respectively 50'51 and 27'3 metallic iron. These 

 ores are from the Wealden, immediately overlying the oolites. 

 On the other hand I find recorded analyses of Whitehaven 

 (carboniferous) haematite ore, giving 66 '6 per cent, metallic; iron 

 of haematite from Somersetshire giving 59 '5 per cent, metallic 

 iron. In the first case the specimen is said to be of the " richest 

 kind," in the second it is called a " rich specimen." But could 

 not Abbotsbury furnish carefully selected specimens of similar 

 richness 1 I have yet to leavn that it could not. 



The late Mr. Charles Moore, F.G.S., in 1863 contributed to the 

 Newcastle meeting of the British Association a paper on " The 

 Equivalents of the Cleveland Ironstone in the West of England." 

 He there states that he had traced these ironstone bands from 

 Lyme Regis to Yeovil and Bath, and found that in mineral wealth 

 they formed a marked contrast to those in the North of England, 

 for where the ore was rich enough to work it was not thick 

 enough, and vice versd. It is singular, I may remark, that the 

 Cleveland ironstone to which he refers, and which is not only 

 found among the oolitic series of rock, but is itself distinctly 

 oolitic in structure, is not a haematite, but a proto-carbonate, 

 containing about 31 per cent, of metallic iron. Mr. Moore had 

 not then, it seems, visited Abbotsbm-y, for nine years after we 

 find him actually lessee of these deposits under agreement with 

 the Earl of Ilchester, dated May 22nd, 1872. The long continued 

 ill health and final death of Mr. Moore were fatal obstacles to the 

 utilisation of these valuable deposits, the working of which will, it 

 is to be hoped, enrich in a not distant future the fortunate owners 

 of the property and the inhabitants of the district surrounding it. 



