METALS AND THEIR ORES. 41 



Iron is present in a small amount in many vegetable and 

 animal substances, and in our blood it is an essential, 

 though a minute ingredient ( 663, Part II.). 



71. Meteoric Iron. Native iron has not been ascer- 

 tained to occur except in meteorites, and there it is al- 

 loyed with nickel, and with a small amount of other met- 

 als tin, cobalt, copper, and manganese. The mass in 

 the cabinet of Yale College, from Texas, weighing 1635 

 pounds, contains from 90 to 92 per cent, of iron, and from 

 8 to 10 per cent, of nickel, the mixture of the two metals 

 not being uniform throughout the mass. There is one 

 mass of meteoric iron in South America which is sup- 

 posed to weigh 30,000 pounds. 



72. Magnetic Iron Ore. This ore has this name from 

 its magnetic properties. It is an oxyd of iron, of an iron- 

 black color, generally in granular masses, but sometimes 

 in distinct crystals, which are octahedrons or dodecahe- 

 drons, or their secondary forms. This very superior ore 

 of iron is as widely disseminated as any ore of this met- 

 al. Nearly all the Swedish iron ore is of this kind. In 

 Sweden and Lapland there are mountains of it. When 

 a mass of this ore is in a state of magnetic polarity it is 

 a lodestone or natural magnet. The lodestone was first 

 found in the province of Magnesia, and was called mag- 

 nes by Pliny, and hence the terms magnet and magnetism. 



73. Hematite. This, like the magnetic iron ore, is an 

 oxyd, but is distinguished from it by its powder being 

 red. It is this which has given it its name, from the 

 Greek word haima, blood. This mineral appears in va- 

 rious forms, generally in granular mass, in Iamina3, or 

 earthy, and easily powdered. What is called red chalk is 

 one of the varieties. This ore is abundant in this coun- 

 try. The two iron mountains in Missouri consist for the 

 most part of this ore piled up "in masses of all sizes, from 

 a pigeon's egg to a middle-sized church." 



74. Lixnonite, or Brown Iron Ore. This is not merely 

 an oxyd of iron, but a hydrated oxyd, containing water 



