THE LIAS MARLSTONE OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 
125 
At the present time there are four principal workings, viz., 
Holwell, Woolsthorpe, Eastwell, and Wartnaby, which each 
raise between 400 and 600 tons of ore daily, and four smaller 
ones, viz., Caytliorpe, Tilton, Eaton, and Swaine’sLodge,which 
each get between 200 and 800 tons daily. This would make 
for the whole district a total of about 3,000 tons per diem, or 
15,000 tons per week of five working days, and for the year, 
therefore, no less than 750,000 tons. The above estimate 
must not, however, be considered as anything more than a 
rough approximation of the truth, and is also liable to correc¬ 
tion, as the output from some of the smaller workings is 
increased, and as new workings are from time to time opened 
out. There is an immediate prospect of such new workings, 
both on the Eastwell branch and on the extended Woolsthorpe 
branch, as well as at one or two other places in the district. 
In the course of the next two or three years the total annual 
output of iron ore in the Leicestershire district will, in all 
probability, exceed rather than fall short of a million tons. 
The general method followed in working the ironstone is 
to drive a cutting for a considerable distance—from an eighth 
to half a mile—in a straight line, and to work along either 
one or both faces of the cutting. The soil, with the earthy 
debris of the top rubble, which is generally sifted out by using 
quarry-forks, is strewn over the rock-surface laid bare by the 
quarrying operations. The land thus restored is equal, and 
indeed superior, to what it was before the ironstone was 
removed, the shaking together of the particles of the somewhat 
too loose surface soil, and the addition thereto of the earthy 
debris of the underlying rubble, having a decidedly beneficial 
effect. We may frequently see good crops of corn or grass 
growing on the made-ground to within a few feet of the 
present working face. These ironstone workings do not then 
permanently injure, but rather improve the property of the 
fortunate landowners of the district. 
The state of combination of the iron in the Marlstone ore 
is that of the hydrated oxide, or the same as in the very 
similar Northamptonshire ore of Oolitic age. It differs 
from that ore, however, in being essentially a calcareous 
instead of a siliceous stone. The Marlstone ore contains on 
an average from 30 to 33 per cent, of metallic iron. This 
percentage, though somewhat less than that of the Northamp¬ 
tonshire ore, is equal to the average percentage of the 
celebrated Cleveland ironstone, and distinctly superior to 
that of the Marlstone of Oxfordshire. The metal extracted 
from the marlstone of Leicestershire is said to be superior in 
quality to that obtained from the Northamptonshire ironstone. 
