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DISTRIBUTION OF BRITISH IRON ORES. 



Distribution of the Chief Iron Ores in Britain. 



Locality. 



Cornwall at Restormel, 

 near Lostwithiel 



Devonshire. 



Somersetshire 



Cumberland and North 



Lancashire 

 Northumberland 

 Durham 

 South Yorkshire 

 Derbyshire 

 Staffordshire 

 Shropshire . 

 Warwickshire 

 North Wales 

 South Wales 

 Monmouthshire 

 Gloucestershire 

 Scotland . 

 Ireland 



Lincolnshire 

 North Yorkshire 



Oxfordshire 



Northamptonshire 

 Wealden district 

 Wiltshire . 

 Lincolnshire 



Ireland 



Kind of Ore. 

 In Primary Rocks. 



Hematite and Gothite ; and iron pyrites. 



Hematite and magnetite, at Brixham and Haytor 



mine. 

 Hematite and chalybite, in Brendon and Mendip 



Hills. 

 Hematite, limonite, and chalybite, in Carboniferous 



limestone. 



Clay ironstone or chalybite, chiefly in the coal mea- 

 sures. 



Limonite in Forest of Dean coal-field. 

 Clay ironstone. 

 Clay ironstone. 



In Secondary Rocks. 



Lower lias. 



Middle lias, &c. , of Cleveland district. 



Lias (Vale of Evenlode and Vale of Cherwell), In- 

 ferior Oolite (at Stow-nine-churches) ; the Neo- 

 comian sands of Shotover Hill are not worked. 



Inferior Oolite. 



Wealden. 



Coralline Oolite, oolitic ore at Westbury. 



Neocomian oolitic ore at Seend in Wilts ; Tealby, &c. 



In Tertiary Rocks. 

 Aluminous hematite of Antrim. 



Iron. Iron ores in Britain are widely distributed in the Carboni- 

 ferous and Secondary strata. In the Carboniferous limestone they 

 chiefly occur in the form of red oxide or hematite, which is extensively 

 worked in the district of Furness and about Cleator Moor in Cumber- 

 land. But in Somerset in the Brendon Hills, and in Devonshire on the 

 eastern borders of Dartmoor, and in Cornwall near Lostwithiel and 

 Wadebridge, there are important mines of red or brown hematite. In 

 the coal measures, the iron ores are regularly interstratified, and form 

 what are known as clay iron ore, which is a carbonate of iron. 

 Important beds are the black band ironstone of Staffordshire, Lan- 

 cashire, and Scotland, which lie near the top of the upper coal mea- 

 sures. Ironstone beds also occur below the thick coal of South 

 Staffordshire, and on the same horizon in Warwick and North Wales. 



