CLINTON COUNTY. 295 



These statements being true, are we not in the possession of the cause or causes why the 

 Arnold vein works so kindly, and produces such uniform results? First, it is a pure peroxide ; 

 and secondly, it is very free from earthy matters ; and these two causes combined, seem to 

 me to clear up the question very satisfactorily. But still more is this opinion sustained, when 

 taken in connection with the statements I have already made in relation to those ores which 

 are mixed. We find that they do vary exceedingly in the results of working, and occasion a 

 variety of diiBculties which have been exceedingly mysterious to the workmen, and which are 

 not found to exist in working those in which the ore is in the state of peroxide. 



On the probable success which will attend the working of the Arnold and other veins on Mr. 



Clay's plan. 



The remarks in the preceding section were made with a view to reach the discussion of 

 this question. This subject was introduced while upon the Adirondack ores, and would have 

 been carried farther in that place ; but I was at that time waiting for the result of some expe- 

 riments which were undertaken by Mr. David Henderson, at his works at the above men- 

 tioned place ; and since those remarks were penned, I have received from him the result of 

 his experiments. 



Now, as has been stated, Mr. Clay's plan of reducing the rich ores consists in deoxidizing 

 them by means of charcoal ; and it appears that his experiments were made upon an ore in a 

 state of peroxidation. This being the case, it is important to bear it in mind ; for there is but 

 one mineral substance, as it were, to be acted upon ; one in which the relations to all sur- 

 rounding agents are the same ; each particle having attained to that state which is usually 

 termed saturation, will, when exposed to caloric, to carbon or atmospheric air, be ready to act 

 equally and reciprocally. If this kind of ore is put into a covered crucible with fine char- 

 coal, it will part with its oxygen equably ; no part having an excess of o.xygen over another 

 part, each will in the same time be deoxidized, or be brought to the state of metallic iron ; 

 and when this is done, the process may be stopped. Now the Arnold ore, from its compo- 

 sition, is in the state to be reduced economically by this method. So perfectly is it a per- 

 oxide, that it might at once be deoxidized ; and being also a very pure ore, that is, free from 

 stone and foreign matter, the amount of slag would not interfere with its welding. I have no 

 hesitation in recommending this mode of reduction, especially as this section of country is 

 liable to a failure in wood, and the price of coal has now increased so much as to diminish 

 the profits on the iron produced. 



Having said thus much of the Arnold ore, I return to the inquiry in relation to the proba- 

 bility of employing the magnetic ores, which are mixtures of the two oxides ; and here we 

 shall probably find the same difiiculties in reducing them by Mr. Clay's method, as in the 

 forge or furnace. Proceeding without conjecture, I will go on and state the experiments of 

 Mr. Henderson on the ores of Adirondack. These ores, as already stated, are mixtures of 

 the two oxides ; but before I proceed farther, I will state what appears to be the fact in regard 

 to the distribution of the two minerals in the same mass, and the differences which prevail in 

 different veins. 



