1841.] On the Mineral resources, fyc. of Northern Afghanistan. 85 



It is commonly imagined in India, that because English iron is brought out as 

 ballast, and landed on the coast for little more than the price it costs in England, 

 that an improvement in the native manufacture would therefore be attended with 

 difficulty. But however much this may apply to the coast, the case is altered 

 when English iron is transported into the interior. It then becomes enhanced in 

 price, and from this cause, as well as the inferior materials of which it is composed, the 

 demand is limited, whilst the native manufacture continues active under all the 

 disadvantages of the most wretched system of smelting, and which, as I have already 

 remarked, is in fact, the most expensive that could be employed.* 



All the iron of England, (with the exception of what is produced at Ulverstone 

 in Lancashire,) is made from clay iron stone, which yields about 30 per cent, of 

 metal, and the fuel used being coal, the sulphur combined with the latter deteriorates 

 the iron, and soft or malleable iron cannot be produced equal to the article that is 

 afforded by richer ores, and charcoal smelting. In the Northern Provinces of 

 Hindoostan we have the richest iron-ores, namely, the magnetic, and also the different 

 varieties of the red oxide, such as the specular, red hematite, &c. and these will 

 yield from 50 to 65, or perhaps 70 per cent, of metal, which is all in favour of the 

 saving of fuel and general economy.f 



At Ulverstone in Lancashire, iron is manufactured from red hematite ore, yielding 

 sometimes 50, and sometimes 60 per cent, of metal ; the fuel is oak charcoal, and a 

 superior iron is produced, which is of great tenacity, and much used for drawing into 

 wire ; steel also is made from it for secondary purposes. 



During my inspection of these works some years ago, I was closely questioned by 

 one of the iron masters as to the prospects of establishing an iron work in the Hima- 

 laya mountains : for example, I was asked about the nature of the ore, and if a suffi- 

 cient supply of charcoal was to be had, if water as a moving power was abundant, 

 labour cheap, and if water carriage was procurable, &c. &c. To which I replied, that 

 amongst different varieties of rich ore, the red hematite, the same he had at his 

 works, existed also in that quarter ; that charcoal was to be had on the spot, for the 

 price only of cutting the wood and preparing it, as the forests were interminable ; that 

 labour was about Zd. or Ad. a day ; streams capable of turning any machinery 

 abounded, and water carriage was within a tangible distance of the base of the 

 mountains ; that the disadvantages at present, were owing to the want of proper com- 

 mercial roads from the mines to the plains, which nevertheless might be made by 

 following the course of the principal rivers, as indeed had been done partially in one 

 case, for the sake of pilgrims. I then rallied him about the anxiety he seemed to evince 

 in the matter, and asked him if he was afraid of my running in opposition to him so far 

 off as India, and moreover 1,000 miles in the interior ; to which he replied, " Why to 

 tell you the truth, we send out a quantity of iron to India." 



Now whether the iron of Ulverstone be used in Calcutta for the manufacture of 

 suspension bridges, I am not at this moment aware ; but when I left Kumaon two years 



* According to Mr. McCulloch, three-tenths of British iron are used as cast iron, and prin- 

 cipally consumed in the United Kingdom, the other seven-tenths are converted into wrought, iron. 



t Some of these iron mines are situated near the plains, some are higher up, and the copper 

 mines higher up still. The principal iron mine is at Khetsari, in the broad and fertile valley of 

 the Ramgunga. 



