account." For years they were totally neglected, being worked chiefly along with lead ores, and thrown aside as mere worthless refuse. To Mr Charles Attwood, of the Tow Law Works, we are indebted for the introduction of these ores in the iron industry of the kingdom. At Weardale the spathic ore is often found associated with a brown ore-a hydrated oxide. The following analyses will show the composition of both of these ores:

The character of the iron produced from these ores is of a marked kind, highly crystalline, and affording bar-iron of excellent quality. The composition of a description of iron which approaches in its properties the charcoal-irons of Germany and Sweden, should draw the attention of English iron-masters to it. A few analyses of the metallic iron obtained from them will be interesting:

Desirous to make our remarks as complete a position as possible of the most recent researche the metals employed in construction, we do the a service by placing before him the following tab analyses of iron ores in use, for which we are indeb an able paper by Mr Edward Riley, F.C.S., late ( celebrated Dowlais Iron Works, read before the S of Engineers. After stating that the clay irons had, until recently, been almost exclusively used f manufacture of iron until the discovery of the band ironstones, and that this latter ore was fou thick layers, three feet to four feet in thickness, the clay ironstones only occurred in thin layers inches in thickness in the mine shale, this auth proceeds to say: "Before the introduction of rai

scarcely any other ores than these were used, as they are always found associated with the coal. Although much richer ores were known, such as the red hematite, from the difficulty of conveyance they were only used to a limited extent. On the introduction of the railway system the rich ores were largely imported, and not only increased the production, but diminished the cost of iron, enormous quantities of the red hematite being imported into Wales and Staffordshire from Lancashire and Cumberland, where the ore seams measure from 15 to 30 feet thick." The principal deposit of the "oolitic " ores (named in the Table No. 1) is in Cleveland in Yorkshire, where, in consequence of the discovery of this ore, these enormous iron works have been established. It is a mixture of green carbonate of iron with a little silicate of iron, and is found in immense beds of 18 feet in thickness, 15 feet of which can be utilised. The other oolitic ores are met with in Northamptonshire and Wiltshire, and a little in Oxfordshire and in Lincolnshire. While the Cleveland oolitic ore is dense and solid, those latter named are porous; they are all like the brown hematite hydrated peroxides. One feature which distinguishes the oolitic ores from the brown and the red hematites, is the high percentage of phosphoric acid

which they contain. The Elba ore named in Table No. 2 is described as a micaceous iron ore, from its structure being laminated like mica; it is an unhydrous peroxide of iron. The "spathose ore," known also as Spiegeleisen, Stahlstein, or Stedstine, and used on the Continent, is a white carbonate of iron, producing a peculiar description of iron containing a high percentage of manganese :

Fig. 1.