24 Iron Ores of Canada. 



of iron a day for 3,000 years, could furnaces be erected and lepf 

 in operation capable of smelting that quantity. And as tlie de- 

 posits above mentioned are only a part of the known iron wealtli 

 of the Province, and,, in all probability, but a small proportion of 

 that wliich is at present unknown,, but must be brought to light 

 as the Laurentian region becomes settled, it is clear that we may 

 safely consider the stores of this metal inexhaustible. 



It must be recollected that these ores are generally of a very 

 superior quality, that they make the best kinds of iron, and that 

 some of them are so situated that, for a great length of time, they 

 can be quarried in the open air. In Europe, veins of iron, two or 

 three feet in thickness, are followed deep down into the earth ; but 

 in this country, a superior material for smelting can be turned out 

 in huge blocks upon the surface, with as little labour as is required 

 to take building stone from an ordinary quarry. 



When the enormous quantity of our iron ores is taken into 

 consideration, it cannot but be seen,, that to reclaim them is most 

 important for the advancement of the national wealth of the 

 country. What boots it to us that nature has literally floored 

 one half of the Province with mineral wealth, if we do not reach 

 forth our hands, and convert it into a material having commercial- 

 value ? 



The principal difficulty which appears to stand in the way of 

 the manufacture of iron in this country, is the want of coal- 

 There can now be but little doubt but that the coal formation 

 does not occur in Canada ; but then we have wood in abundance^ 

 and the best of iron can be made with charcoal. It is supposed,, 

 however, that the manufacture of iron by charcoal would be an 

 unprofitable undertaking. But in the United States great quan- 

 tities of the metal are produced from the same ores we have in 

 Canada, with no other fuel, and it appears to us, Avith a profitable 

 return upon the capital invested. The following quotation from 

 an excellent Lecture, delivered before the- Mechanics Institute of 

 Toronto lately by Professor Hind,, of Trinity College, shows the 

 extent of the manufacture both in Britain and the United States : 



" No one disputes that the iron industry is of immense impor- 

 tance, and supplies the means of living, directly and indirectly, to 

 many millions of our fellow men^ — in 1855, Great Britain alone 

 manufacturing 3,585,906 tons of iron, valued at £23,000,000 cur- 

 rency. This vast production employed 238,000 men, representing 

 a population of 1,190,000 persons, or nearly as many people as- 



