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207 
temporaneous with the rock in which it is imbedded. There is fre- 
quently a gradual passage of the rock into the peroxide of iron, and it 
is common to meet with large masses of the rock in the midst of the ore. 
It is necessary, therefore, to select the ore for smelting with some care. 
Little attention has been observed, however, in this particular, for it is 
not uncommon to see at the furnaces quite a large proportion of the ore 
mixed with useless stone. It appears probable that this ore contains 
titanium, as I discovered in the hearth stones of a furnace this mine- 
ral in a metallic state. A single stone, on being broken, furnished 20 
or 30 specimens. It occurs incrusting the surfaces of narrow fissures, 
or cracks in the old furnace hearths. It resembles in colour native cop- 
per, for which it might be easily mistaken. 
The difficulties which have been experienced in smelting the specular 
oxides, particularly the hard crystallized varieties, are rather unaccount- 
able, for it appears, so far as analyses have been made of them, that 
they are free, in a great measure, from the sulphurets, and, also, the 
same species of ore has long been used in the Island of Elba. Their 
abundance in Fowler, Edwards, Gouvemeur, and Rossie and Hermon, 
renders it an object of some importance to ascertain some method of 
working them profitably. 
The following suggestions are oflfered on this point: 1. Let the ore 
be selected, taking the purer ore, and neglecting wholly that which is 
mixed with stone. 2. Let it be roasted, pulverized, and mixed in pro- 
per proportion with the pure carbonate of lime, or calc spar, and perhaps 
with a small quantity of clay. These steps are all that are necessary 
to prepare it for the furnace. The utility of the magnesian limestones 
for fluxes in furnaces is doubtful. The calcareous spar is employed for 
this purpose at the Bennington furnaces, and no difficulty occurs in the 
reduction of the ore, and the quality of the product is good. At any 
rate the substitution of the spar, which is a pure carbonate of lime, is 
worthy of trial, for I believe that most of the limestones which have 
been used as a flux for this ore, are the magnesian. The above re- 
marks have reference more particularly to the process for obtaining soft 
iron from the hard crystalized variety. 
There is something worthy of notice in the geological distribution of 
the ores of iron in the northern district of New-York, and the remark 
may be extended to all the great iron formations in the adjoining 
States. In St. Lawrence, the specular ores predominate, and seem to 
belong to this peculiar geological formation. In Essex county, the 
