1853] 



PRODUCTIONS OF THE OTTAWA. 



113 



SPECULAR IRON ORE, RED IRON ORE, IRON GLANCE. 



The lustre of this ore of Iron is metallic, its color a dark steel 

 gray, it is infusible before the blow-pipe, but melts with Borax. 

 The great locality of this ore is the Island of Elba, which has 

 been noted for producing it for sixteen centuries back, and its 

 mines are considered inexhaustible ; but it is also found in Saxony, 

 Bohemia, Sweden, Siberia, Massachusetts in the United States, in 

 England, and lastly, but not least, in the Township of McNab on 

 the Ottawa River. Wherever it exists it is explored with profit. 

 It is found at Ticonderago, where it is- pulverized and used as a 

 polishing powder. Most of the plate iron and iron wire of Eng- 

 land are manufactured from this ore. It is extensively used in 

 the button trade as a polisher, and the ore most in demand for 

 this purpose comes from Spain. The best specimens for button 

 polishing command a very high price, and are generally obtained 

 from small pebbles; — it is worked at Utica in the United States 

 with profit. This ore exists in enormous quantities at the mouth 

 of the Madawaska in McNab Township ; it is a very valuable 

 species and is very easily smelted, and possesses every requisite 

 for that purpose on the spot. A splendid specimen of this ore 

 was presented to the Bytown Mechanics' Institute at the time of 

 our Exhibition, and attracted the marked attention of theGovernor 

 General. The ore bed is twelve feet in thickness, and will yield 

 25 tons pure iron for every fathom in length and depth. The 

 ore contains 55 per cent of pure metal. 



BOG IRON ORE. 



Hydrated Peroxide of Iron, or Brown Iron ore. 



This Ore is generally found in detached portions at the bot- 

 tom of shallow lakes and morasses, and hence its name — Bog 

 Iron, and possesses several characters in common with Specular 

 Iron Ore. It is made up of numerous aggregated fibres, and in 

 colour it is invariably some shade of brown ; it is very brittle, and 

 possesses no magnetic power. On some occasions we meet with 

 it in a more or less pulverized condition aud assuming the ap- 

 pearance of an ochre, but it differs from all the other Ores of 

 Iron, in containing water in large quantities, not simply absorbed, 

 "but constituting a characteristic part of the Ore, being chemically 

 combined with it in the proportion of one-sixth. 



Bog Iron Ore is only found in limited quantities in England, 

 France, and Siberia. It is uncommon in the northern countries 

 of Europe, but in Germany, France, and Austria it is extensively 

 worked. At Salisbury in Connecticut, it exists to an unlimited 

 extent, and has been worked for more than one hundred years, 

 yielding from this locality alone the large quantity of two 

 thousand tons of Iron annually. 



The Iron obtained from Bog Ore is said to excel in toughness 

 and hardness, and to be preferable to Red Iron Ore on that 

 account, whilst the purer varieties, on being melted with charcoal, 

 may be readily converted into steel of an excellent quality. 



Bog Iron Ore is of more recent origin than any of the other 

 Ores of Iron, and its deposition is going on continually, even at 

 the present time in shallow lakes and swamps. In the south- 

 western parts of New Jersey, where Bog Iron Ore occurs in great 

 abundance, many spots previously exhausted are explored again 

 successfully, after the lapse of about twenty years. And what is 

 more curious than all we have yet said of it is, that it is brought 

 to the state we find it in through the intervention of an infuso- 

 rial animal called the Oaillonella ferruginw. 



At Sweden, Bog Ore has been fished up from the bottom of 

 the sea, where, according to Hansmann, it is still produced. It is 

 worked in every quarter of the globe, but its Ore is generally 

 used for castings, which are said to take a sharper impression 

 from the phosphoric acid, which Bog Iron Ore always contains. 

 J 



The Iron produced at the St. Maurice forges at Three Rivers, is 

 obtained entirely from Bog Iron Ore, and is, as is well known, 

 of an excellent quality, and is just now largely worked by the 

 Hon. Jas. Ferrier, of Montreal; and a new company has also 

 started in opposition, headed by Mr. Hale. These forges were 

 commenced by the French Government in 1737, and it is said 

 most of the French cannon handed to the British at the capitula- 

 tion were made there. 



During the last American war these forges were of signal ser- 

 vice to the British army, having manufactured a large number of 

 cannon balls and shells, at a time the}' were much needed. 



It exists on the Ottawa on an eight feet bed at Cote St. Char- 

 les, on Lots 16 and 17, the property of Mr. R. Lancaster, who 

 kindly forwarded these specimens to the Exhibition. Bog Iron 

 Ore is known to exist in the Township of McNab, and other 

 localities in the Valley of the Ottawa, but which as yet have not 

 been explored. 



" To metallurgists the good quality of the wrought Iron of the 

 St. Maurice forges (says Mr. Logan) appeared the more deserving 

 of attention, as the ore from which it is derived, being the 

 Hydrated Peroxide, is usually accompanied by a small amount 

 of Phosphorus, in the form of Phosphate of Iron. It is difficult 

 to remove the impurity which in too large a quantity renders the 

 metal cold short. In cast Iron however its presence in small 

 quantities cannot be called prejudicial, as it serves to render the 

 metal very fluid when fused, and thus to give a fine surface to the 

 castings, aud bring out all the details of ornamental patterns in 

 sharp relief, whilst it does not seem to render the casting brittle 

 or to deteriorate its power of resisting the effect of sudden heating 

 and cooling. " The Peroxide of McNab contributed to the 

 Exhibition in London by Mr. Sheriff Dickson, of Pakenham, 

 was regarded as a very beautiful ore, the uniform quality of 

 which would render it one of much more easy fusion and man- 

 agement than the magnetic oxides, while it would probably 

 produce an iron of excellent quality." 



IRON PYRITES. 



Bkvlphuret of Iron. 



Is found in small cubical chrystals, in veins amongst Slate and 

 Coal Fields, where, by oxidation and its conversion into Sulphate 

 of iron, it not unfrequently, by raising the heat to a great degree, 

 causes the ignition of the Coal. It is also found accompanying 

 the ores of many other metals, and often replaces the remains of 

 animal and vegetable substances. 



In Tierra del Fuego, at the extremity of South America, the 

 natives procure fire by rubbing a piece of iron Pyrites very 

 briskly against a flint, and catching the sparks upon dry moss, 

 — a striking approximation to our flint and steel. 



Iron Pyrites is never used for the purpose of obtaining metallic 

 iron, but is employed in the manufacture of Alum, Copperas, and 

 Sulphuric Acid, consequently is of little value to us in this part of 

 the Globe. 



Mr. Logan referring to the Iron Ores of Canada, as they 

 appeared at the Great Exhibition, remarks " The vast supplies of 

 Iron with which the collection gave evidence that the Colony is 

 enriched, appeared to arrest the attention of all. The British 

 Miner accustomed to follow into the bowels of the earth, beds of 

 ore of six inches to one foot, containing between 30 and 40 per 

 cent, of this important metal, naturally regarded with surprise 

 huge blocks of it from beds of 100 and 200 feet in thickness, and 

 yielding 60 to 70 percent;" And again, "the Canadian Iron 

 Ores were examined with great care and attention, by the agents 

 of Russia ; it seemed to strike them with wonder that such pro- 



