The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-05 00:00:00

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

ISTEWCA.STLE, Friday.
The last supplementary day of the British Asso-
ciation meeting was celebrated yesterday by two
great excursions, one to the iron district of Cleve-
land or Middlesborough, and one 'co the lead mines
of Mr. Beaumont, at Allenhead. Both trips neces-
sitated early rising on the part of the intending
visitors, for the train for Allenhead left Newcastle
as early as a quarter to 7, and even that for the
nearer and more accessible Yorkshire district
started punctually at 8 o'clock. But, notwithstand-
ing the comparative earliness of the start and the
miserable cold raw drizzle, which announced that
the day was most likely to prove unspeakably bad
and wretched as far as atmospheric influences were
concerned, there was a very large muster of -visitors
for both trips. What the number would have been
in the face of such an inclement day had not all the
excursionists taken their tickets a week beforehand,
is not difficult to conjecture; but, the tickets having
been purchased, there was no option but to start or
lose the money—an alternative which naturally
seemed to all unpleasant, especially as there was
plenty of company in distress. With this for their
consolation—and it is no slight one under such cir-
cumstances—a large party left Newcastle for Cleve-
land, determined to be merry in spite of the weather.
The Cleveland iron district is one which will
exercise a most important influence on the manu-
facturing industry and wealth of this country.
The fact of the existence of the ironstone there
bad been known for centuries—it was only its value
as a metal yielding ore that been denied. The heaps
of scoria found in the district show that the stone
was at one time worked, and it is stated that at Gros-
mon t oaks are now standing, the growth of centuries,
upon the heaps of refuse belonging to an ancient
work there. But, whatever its virtue or value in
former days, it was agreed on all hands that none
was to be found in the Cleveland ironstone of the
present degenerate day, not that the evident wealth
of the matrix did not attract attention or was not
essayed to be worked. Since 1829 there have been
almost innumerable attempts to get the iron compa-
nies to take the stone. A few did so, but did not
encourage its being brought to them again. The
great majority, however, refused to have anything
to do with it, geologists differed as to its merits,
and the iron trade was against it altogether. Some
pronounced it " limestone, not ironstone ;" another
called it " freestone stuff." Even the most friendly
advised speculators not to be at any expense about
the ore, while others threw off all disguise, and
declared that they were ashamed to see it lying on
their quays. Even as late as 1840 a scientific in-
quirer made an authorised examination of the atone,
and condemned it in the pithy words, " quality
hard, harsh, and very unlike good ironstone—coarse."
All this, too, was done in the face of an open quarry
in the district displaying the naked seam which has
since been the source of so much wonder and so
much wealth, in the face, too, of all good geologists
and mining experts. But coal and iron prophets are
dangerous people to listen to in this district, and
fortunes had been lost before in the now great
Cleveland mines. A mere district then it would have
remained till this day had not a Mr. Vaughan in 1850
stumbled over a boulder of pure iron, which led him
to look for the ironstone, and then it was found
to be everywhere. Since that time the iron has
been sent to every known part of the world, and it
is now admitted that this hitherto much despised
bed of ironstone is fine in quality and boundless in
quantity. The bed, in fact, extends from the Tees
to the Humber, and is 50 or 60 miles broad. This
discovery of the stone and the completion of the
railway into Middlesborough have made the Cleve-
land ironstone district one of the most important in
the kingdom, and there is no seeing the end to the
prosperity of Newcastle with its shrewd, energetic,
hard-working population, its boundless supplies of
coal, and now boundless masses of fine iron ore.
Before the party yesterday reached Port Clarence
the weather cleared up fine and mild, and so re-
mained throughout the rest of the trip—the excur-
sionists in this respect possessing inestimable ad.
vantages over their unhappy friends who had gone
to Allenhead, and who were exposed on the hills to
the full fury of the downpour from morn till night.
On arriving at Port Clarence, the ironworks of
Messrs. Bell Brothers were first visited. No less
than five smelting furnaces were here at work, all of
which were tapped at once, and poured their great
streams of fiery ,metal out before the visitors.
From this time forth the whole party were never for
a moment out of sight of a furnace or even out of
its glare and smoke. Middlesborough, on the south
side of the Tees, to which the party were taken
in steamers, was a mass of flame and smoke.
The total number of blast furnaces erected in the
north of England in the first 45 years of the present
century is only 37, but since the iron of Cleveland
was worked 36 blast furnaces have been built in
and around Middlesborough alone. From this
great manufacturing centre, the very air of which
is a mere dilution of soot, and soot not much
diluted either, the party were taken, on the
Stockton and Darlington Railway, to Saltburn,
passing en route through such a succession of iron
works and iron factories as no other spot of the same
size probably in all the world can show the equal of.
At the Zetland Hotel, at Saltburn, a handsome
lunch was provided for the visitors.
After this repast the company started for the
mines of Upleatham. The immense field of iron-
stone here is worked by Messrs. J. and J. W.Pease.
400 miners are employed, 2,000 tons of ironstone are
wrought out daily, and a ton and a half of gunpow-
der per week is used in blasting operations. The
Messrs. Pease pay royalty fees to the amount of
£12,000 per annum to the Earl of Zetland. The
principal entrance to the mine being at the head of
the incline the train stopped at the foot, and the
excursionists were conveyed thither in small wag-
gons. These novel means of conveyance were of new
construction, were quite clean, furnished with seats,
and were about 4ft. square. The engine was of a
size suited to the narrow tramway. The journey to
the mouth of the mine was fortunately not a long
°U.e, for the jolting of the waggons was by no means
slight. Arrived at the terminus, a platform on the
slule small scale as the other appliances of the rail-
way had been constructed for the comfort of the
e Passengers in
alighting. A triumphal arch in
foliage and
flowers was erected in front of the
entrance to
on their the mine, but before the party started
Ye their
briseeploration of the interior Mr. J. W.
Imp
nn a
luayr:ointed out the formation of the work-
arch a brilliant a
plan. Passing under the triumphal
eno presented itself. On each side
of a passage leading
of the interior workings rows
hundredsae lof small candles, suspended
in lines, composed
on elnf g vista of starry illumi-
nation. The road itself
by no means so
romantic, but was fortunately
level. A distance cf half a eIY
dry and tolerably
peatmile brought the party
to the workings, where the operations are
athreicrke,gaunladrliys
conducted. The stratum here iSli7ft
terwa dtsh
eonf arna
phi odul
yr
worked by means of blasting.
was spent in these mines. The
freight to Middlesboro
convoyed its ugh, where the
company
impeded the immense ironworks of
the
Messrs. Bolchow and Vaughan.On entering th
premises the visitors first viewed the
apparatuse
em-
ployed in raising the rock and brine from
a new
salt bed into which the excavators struck ire sink_
ing a well for supplying the works with water. The
salt is found at a depth of 1,3 ?Oft. below the sur-
face, and the vein, as far as at present worked, is
11211. in thickness. It hes not yet been wrought
as a source of profit, but may Pvent"liY rruve
valuable addition to the mineral wealth of this rich
district. It was not a little remarkatie that in he
very midst of a vast workshop of this kind, with
red hot metal dragged and wheeled in all directions,
wheels revolving' in all parts with astonishing
rapidity, no accident occurred to any of the "1/
gentlemen and ladies who thronged the works and
witnessed all the labours of the operatives. After
an hour spent in the works a general movement
was made into the Market-place, where, in the new
buildings recently erected there, the dinner was to
ba. given to the company- At the banquet Mr.
Brente.ll, the mayor, took the chair, and at the con-
clusion of the repast the usual loyal and patriotic
toasts were given, and then the healths of the vari-
ous chief members of the British Association were
proposed sad drunk with ail the honours. It wee