IRON AND STEEL. 7 1 



In 1752 M. Bigot, who was at that time Intendant of New 

 France, resident at Quebec, instructed M. Franquet to visit the St. 

 Maurice forges, and his report is of great interest. After describing 

 the locality he says: " The stream that drives the machinery of the es- 

 tablishment is dammed up in three places ; the first dam drives the 

 wheel for the furnace, the second and third each a trip ham- 

 mer. . . . It is supposed that the stream or water power is 

 sufficiently strong to drive two other hammers. . . . On enter- 

 ing the smelting forge I was received with a customary ceremony ; 

 the workmen moulded a pig of iron about 15 feet long, for my es- 

 pecial benefit. The process is very simple ; it is done by plunging 

 a large ladle into the liquid boiling ore and emptying the material 

 into a gutter made in the sand. After this ceremony, I was shown 

 the process of stove moulding, which is also a very simple but rather 

 intricate operation.* Each stove is in six pieces, which are separately 

 moulded ; they are fitted into each other and form a stove about 

 three feet high. I then visited a shed where the workmen were 

 moulding pots, kettles and other hollow ware. On leaving this part 

 of the forge we were taken to the hammer forge, where bar iron of 

 every kind is hammered out. In each department of the forges the 

 workmen observed the old ceremony of brushing the stranger's boots, 

 and in return they expect some money to buy liquor to drink the 

 visitor's health. The establishment is very extensive, employing up- 

 ward of 180 men. Nothing is consumed in furnaces but clean coal, 

 which is made in the immediate vicinity of the post. The ore is rich, 

 good and tolerably clean. Formerly it was found on the spot : now 

 the director has to send some little distance for it. . . . This 

 iron is preferred to the Spanish iron, and is sold off in the King's 

 stores in Quebec at the rate of 25 or 31! per hundred pounds 

 weight." 



In 1760, Quebec having been taken by Wolfe, Canada was ceded 

 to Great Britain, and among the stipulations in the treaty was one 

 that the papers relating to the forges should remain in the possess- 

 ion of M. Bigot, the intendant, and should be transmitted to France 

 without inspection of the British. 



For seven years after the event the works lay idle, but in 1767, 



* Intricate simplicity was probably common in those days, 

 t The editor says " castors." — beaver skins. 



