NEW LAW ABOUT MINES.

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shaft, and a similar law was enacted in other states. Never has public attention in America been so completely drawn towards a mining accident as in this instance. Good has come out of the terrible disaster, and it is to be earnestly hoped that more good will follow.

The terrible calamity at Avondale will be long remembered, not only in Pennsylvania, but throughout the United States. Every few months an accident at some one of the coal or other mines causes the interest in Avondale to be awakened; but happily there has been no accident at all approaching it in loss of life.

IRON AND IRON MINES.

IRON AND ITS VALUE. -ITS ABUNDANCE, AND WHERE IT IS FOUND. — A MOUN.

TAIN OF IRON. — IRON MOUNTAIN AND PILOT KNOB.

CHASED BY GUERRILLAS. - A NARROW ESCAPE. IRON. ITS VALUE IN MANIPULATION.

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IRON AS

JENCE OF USING IT. FIRST IRON WORKS IN AMERICA. — DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IRON AND OTHER MINES. — DIRECT AND REVERSE WORKINGS. - A PICTURESQUE SCENE.

Of all the metals, iron is the most useful, and is found in great abundance in many parts of the globe. England, Sweden, and Russia are the most famous countries of the old world for the production of iron, and in the new world, North America has an inexhaustible supply. Along the Atlantic coast, from the. New England States to the Carolinas and Georgia, there are numerous deposits of iron. On the west side of the Alleghanies there is an abundant supply. The great centre of the iron mines of that region is at Pittsburg. As we go farther west, we find most of the states are rich in this mineral, and in Missouri there is a mountain composed almost entirely of iron. The Iron Mountain of Missouri is of itself a great curiosity.

It is situated in Washington County, and is easily reached by railway from St. Louis. Properly speaking, it is not a mountain, but a hill. Its elevation above the valleys around it is less than four hundred feet. It is a low cone, with gentlysloping sides, and covered with a forest of oak trees. The soil where these trees grow consists of peroxide of iron, some of it being pulverized, and some of it in small lumps. On the sides of the mountain there are loose lumps of ore scat

A MOUNTAIN OF IRON.

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tered about, and before the workings began there were large masses of iron on and near the summit, some of them weighing many tons. Though the character of the mountain has been known for many years, no attempt was made to work this immense mass of ore until 1845.

A cutting was made in one side of the mountain, and the ore was found to be of excellent quality. In the valleys surrounding the mountain there is an abundance of ore, and for all practical purposes the iron mines of Missouri are inexhaustible. The ore contains nearly seventy per cent. of iron, though its yield, owing to the manner of working, rarely exceeds sixty per cent. About six miles south of Iron Mountain is Pilot Knob, which covers an area of three hundred and sixty acres, and is nearly six hundred feet high. It contains great quantities of iron, but is not as rich proportionally as the mountain which bears the name of the metal.

About two thirds the way up the side of Pilot Knob, there is one bed of ore about twenty feet thick, and estimated to cover more than fifty acres. Other mountains of the same character are in the vicinity, and all that is required to make the Missouri iron mines the best in the world is the discovery of a mountain or two of coal suitable for reducing the ore and refining the metal.

Iron is applied to a greater number of purposes, and consumed in larger quantities, than all other metals combined. There is no other metal which increases so much in value by the process of manipulation as this. A bar of iron worth five dollars is worth ten dollars when made into horse-shoes, fiftyfive dollars when made into needles, four thousand dollars. when made into penknife blades, and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars when made into balance springs of watches. In the form of wrought iron it is soft when heated. It can be hammered into any desired shape, rolled into plates, or drawn into fine wire. Plates can be rolled no thicker than a sheet of letter paper. The wires can be drawn so small as to be almost invisible to the naked eye. Combined with a certain quantity of carbon, it can be melted and cast into any