Metallurgy of Iron. 23 



of November following, deprives us for a time of the ad- 

 vantages of his experiments. His sons however are instruct- 

 ed in his processes, and have promised to undertake at an 

 early day the examination of our Canadian ores. I am disposed 

 to attach great importance to these investigations, from the hope 

 that among our numerous deposits of iron ore, belonging in great 

 part to the same geological formation as the iron ores of Scandi- 

 navia, there may be found some capable of yielding a steel equ.a* 

 to that of the Swedish iron. With the new and economical pro- 

 cesses of Chenot a valuable steel ore will be sought for, even in a 

 distant country, and may be advantageously transported to the 

 localities where fuel and labour are most available. 



One great condition for the successful application -of these pro- 

 cesses is, that the ores should be comparatively pure and free from 

 earthy mixtures. We have already alluded to the impurity of the 

 -ores which are smelted in the coal districts of England, and even 

 the ore brought by Chenot from Spain, and employed by him in 

 his works at the gates of Paris, contains about ten per cent, of 

 fixed, and as much volatile matter, it being a decomposed spathic 

 iron. Many of the magnetic and hematite ores of Canada are 

 almost chemicaliy pure J* sueh are those of Marmora, Madoc> 

 Hull, Crosby, Sherbrooke, MacNab and Lake Nipissing, which 

 even if they should not prove adapted to the manufacture of su- 

 perior steel, offer for the fabrication of metallic iron, by the pro- 

 cesses of Chenot, very great advantages over the poorer ores, 

 which in many parts of this continent are wrought by the ordinary 

 processes. 



The small amount of fuel required by the new methods, and the 

 fact that for the generation of the gas which is employed as com- 

 bustible, turf and other cheap fuels are equally available, are con- 

 siderations which should fix the attention of those interested in 

 developing the resources of the country. With the advantages 

 offered by these new modes of fabrication, our vast deposits of iron 

 •ore, unrivalled in richness and extent, may become sources of na- 

 tional wealth, while by the ordinary method of working they can 

 scarcely, at the present prices of iron ,and of labour, compete with 

 the produce of much poorer ores, wrought in the vicinity of 

 deposits of mineral coal. 



T. S. H. 



* .See Me. Billings on the Iron Ores of Canada. This Journal, vol II, p. 20. 



