The number of furnaces in blast in 1865 were, in England 376, distributed over 176 iron-works; in Wales 135, distributed over 49 works; and in Scotland 141, over 32. To supply these furnaces there were raised 9,910,045 tons of ore, the estimated value of which at the place of production was 3,324,804l., that of the pig-iron, at the mean average cost at the place of production, being 12,048,133l.

Of the iron-stone, 1,384,500 tons were argillaceous carbonate from the coal-measures of Staffordshire and Worcestershire; 3,166,000 tons from the Yorkshire mines; nearly 1,500,000 tons from the coal-measures of North and[and] South Wales, and 1,500,000 tons argillaceous carbonate from Scotland.

Of the red hematites of Whitehaven and Ulverstone, which consist almost entirely of peroxide of iron, and are reckoned among our best ores, 214,433 tons were smelted at the spot, and 937,386 tons exported for the supply of Staffordshire, South Wales, and other districts.

The brown hematite (brown oxide of iron) of the Forest of Dean, where the ore exists in almost unlimited quantity, is raised exclusively for shipment to the iron-works of South Wales. Though not rich, yet, from the great masses in which it is found, its cost of production is very low.

The finest iron ores, such as the black oxide or magnetite, specular iron, and spathose iron, or sphærosiderite, which furnish the best kinds of iron, are unfortunately but of rare occurrence in Great Britain.

As we see by the following table[[60]] of the production of cast iron in the chief European mining States—

CountriesYearsTonsYearsTons
Great Britain18401,400,00018654,527,000
France1845271,00018641,213,000
Prussia183532,8001865772,000
Belgium1845134,5001864450,000
Russia1838171,0001865278,000
Austria1835200,0001865259,000
Sweden183597,5001865227,000
Spain185026,000186548,000
Italy183820,000186527,000

France occupied the next rank to Great Britain in 1864; but since 1866 Prussia, besides the rapid development of the iron industry in Westphalia and the Rhenish provinces, has acquired new and valuable mines by the annexation of Hanover and Nassau. Her production had consequently risen to 1,000,000 tons in 1868, and probably the time is not far distant when she will have outstripped France. Nassau possesses inexhaustible supplies of specular iron ore of a remarkable purity, which not only feed the blast furnaces of Westphalia, but are also largely exported to England.

In proportion to the smallness of her territory Belgium rivals Great Britain in the production of iron, supplied exclusively by the brown oxide (brown hematite), and surpasses the vast empire of the Czar.

But Russia has the advantage over all the countries previously mentioned of possessing inexhaustible deposits of magnetic iron ore (magnetic loadstone—magnetite) which affords bar-iron of the very best quality; and though hitherto the immense distances which separate the mines from the larger centres of consumption have retarded the progress of the iron manufacture, the construction of railroads is gradually overcoming these obstacles, and possibly even the now unworked Siberian mines of the Altaï and of Transbaikalia, where coal is found along with iron, may acquire importance at a not far distant time. At present the chain of the Oural (Permia and Orenburg) furnishes nine-tenths of all the iron produced in the empire. The most remarkable of the Ouralian mines is the famous magnetic mountain Wissokaja Gora, in the neighbourhood of Nishne-Tagilsk, which Peter the Great bestowed in 1702 on the armourer Nikita Demidoff of Tula, along with a vast extent of forests and arable land. This magnetic mountain or hill, which is 300 fathoms long, 250 broad, and 240 feet high, rises from the midst of a plain, in the form of a broad, flat eminence. It consists almost entirely of pure magnetic iron ore, and is worked like an open quarry; but, on account of its hardness, the ore requires to be blasted with powder. Although many millions of tons have been extracted from it since it first came into the possession of the Demidoff family, it may easily be imagined that a mass of at least 600,000,000 cubic feet of iron-ore is not easily removed, and will outlast the labours of many generations. The quantity of cast-iron annually produced amounts to 25,500 tons, which is converted, partly at Nishne-Tagilsk and partly in the neighbouring forges, into bar-iron, anchors, kettles, scythes, nails, wire, &c. The excellent quality of the iron allows it to be rolled into very thin plates, which are frequently made use of in Russia for the roofing of houses, and are also manufactured at Nishne-Tagilsk into lacquered wares, which find a ready sale throughout the whole of European and Asiatic Russia.