OF THE PENOKIE RANGE. 447 
detached from the cliff and the accompanying quartz. Where it is not dislodged, 
it will be necessary to break the whole, and then assort it. There are cases 
where numerous particles of the oxides, both red and black (the protoxide and the 
peroxide), are disseminated through the quartz-rock above and below the regular 
beds. This might be separated by bruising and stamping,—a process which the 
whole must undergo, in order to be profitably wrought in the forges. 
There is no limestone yet known in the region to be used as a flux; but there is 
an abundance of timber and water-power. There are certain proportions of iron 
and silex, and of silex and magnesia, that are easily fused. If the silex of this ore is 
not so excessive as to make it refractory, or if in practice that difficulty can be 
remedied by the use of magnesian slates, which are abundant, these mines may be 
wrought hereafter at a profit, and rival the works of Northern Europe. 
The magnetic ores of the northern part of the State of New York, that have pro- 
duced iron famous for its strength, are also siliceous. The magnetic iron ore is 
freed of a portion of its silex, at little expense, after being bruised, by the applica- 
tion of magnets acting on a large scale upon the magnetic particles. The part 
which enters chemically into the ore forming a silicate, is not wholly cleared by 
working, but gives a very fine-grained metal, that is peculiarly good for steel. 
The famous Swedish iron is from beds of magnetic ore embraced in hornblende 
rocks, doubtless metamorphic, and analogous to the Bad River rocks. 
e extensive mines or rather mountains of iron ore in Michigan, described by 
Houghton, Burt, Jackson, Foster, and Whitney, are also magnetic, and associated 
with metamorphic slates. These ores are, in some cases, more inclined to the 
peroxide than the Bad River beds; but specimens from the two regions are often 
so similar that no one would be able to separate them by the texture, colour, or 
weight. The geological associations are precisely alike. In Michigan, as in Wis- 
consin, the mountains composed of tilted magnesian, hornblende, and siliceous 
slates, enclose beds of ore. There, as here, on each side of the metamorphic 
range, are igneous rocks, of various ages and composition, quartzose, granitic, 
syenitic, and trappous. The ores of that region have attracted attention, and 
one establishment for making blooms direct from the ore, has been in operation 
more than a year. The iron is remarkable for its solidity and toughness, keeping 
its place better than Swedish, and no more brittle. It possesses the quality of 
being worked into fine cold-drawn wire, and has been sought after by an establish- 
ment for manufacturing wire in Massachusetts. The blooms brought from Lake 
Superior to the Pittsburg market are, however, represented as being inclined to 
“red short,” that is, liable to crack under the roller or hammer, at about a red heat. 
The position of the best exposures of ore which I saw is such as to require from 
eighteen to twenty-eight miles of transportation to reach the Lake. The nearest 
natural harbour is in Chegwomigon Bay, about twenty-five miles from the central 
part of the Penokie Range. At Montreal River, which is the nearest part of the 
coast, and from its mouth to the mouth of Bad River, there is no place where an 
artificial harbour can be made. At Bad River, there will be a good harbour when 
the sand-bar at the mouth is removed and kept clear by the construction of piers. 
