OF THE FENOKIE RANGE. 



447 



detached from the cliff and the accompanying quartz. Where it is not dislodged, 

 it will be necessary to break the whole, and then assort it. There are cases 

 where numerous particles of the oxides, both red and black (the protoxide and the 

 peroxide), are disseminated through the quartz-rock above and below the regular 

 beds. This might be separated by bruising and stamping, — a process which the 

 whole must undergo, in order to be profitably wrought in the forges. 



There is no limestone yet known in the region to be used as a flux ; but there is 

 an abundance of timber and water-power. There are certain proportions of iron 

 and silex, and of silex and magnesia, that are easily fused. If the silex of this ore is 

 not so excessive as to make it refractory, or if in practice that difficulty can be 

 remedied by the use of magnesian slates, which are abundant, these mines may be 

 wrought hereafter at a profit, and rival the works of Northern Europe. 



The magnetic ores of the northern part of the State of New York, that have pro- 

 duced iron famous for its strength, are also siliceous. The magnetic iron ore is 

 freed of a portion of its silex, at little expense, after being bruised, by the applica- 

 tion of magnets acting on a large scale upon the magnetic particles. The part 

 which enters chemically into the ore forming a silicate, is not wholly cleared by 

 working, but gives a very fine-grained metal, that is peculiarly good for steel. 



The famous Swedish iron is from beds of magnetic ore embraced in hornblende 

 rocks, doubtless metamorphic, and analogous to the Bad River rocks. 



The extensive mines or rather mountains of iron ore in Michigan, described by 

 Houghton, Burt, Jackson, Foster, and Whitney, are also magnetic, and associated 

 with metamorphic slates. These ores are, in some cases, more inclined to the 

 peroxide than the Bad River beds ; but specimens from the two regions are often 

 so similar that no one would be able to separate them by the texture, colour, or 

 weight. The geological associations are precisely alike. In Michigan, as in Wis- 

 consin, the mountains composed of tilted magnesian, hornblende, and siliceous 

 slates, enclose beds of ore. There, as here, on each side of the metamorphic 

 range, are igneous rocks, of various ages and composition, quartzose, granitic, 

 syenitic, and trappous. The ores of that region have attracted attention, and 

 one establishment for making blooms direct from the ore, has been in operation 

 more than a year. The iron is remarkable for its solidity and toughness, keeping 

 its place better than Swedish, and no more brittle. It possesses the quality of 

 being worked into fine cold-drawn wire, and has been sought after by an establish- 

 ment for manufacturing wire in Massachusetts. The blooms brought from Lake 

 Superior to the Pittsburg market are, however, represented as being inclined to 

 " red short," that is, liable to crack under the roller or hammer, at about a reel heat. 



The position of the best exposures of ore which I saw is such as to require from 

 eighteen to twenty-eight miles of transportation to reach the Lake. The nearest 

 natural harbour is in Chegwomigon Bay, about twenty-five miles from the central 

 part of the Penokie Range. At Montreal River, which is the nearest part of the 

 coast, and from its mouth to the mouth of Bad River, there is no place where an 

 artificial harbour can be made. At Bad River, there will be a good harbour when 

 the sand-bar at the mouth is removed and kept clear by the construction of piers. 



