num_pages: 614
description: This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1801. ... " It has been said, that one hundred pounds weight of this mineral will give fifteen pounds of wrought iron; but M. le Gentil saw, that nine thousand pounds of mineral gave from fifteen hundred to two thousand two hundred pounds of cast iron. This is about twenty per cent.; but these fifteen hundred, or two thousand two hundred pounds of cast iron, did not give half that quantity of wrought iron; consequently this mine did not produce more than ten pounds of wrought iron for each hundred of mineral. " At Villebagne the mine appeared to be more abundant; but it is the distance of a league from the forges, in very elevated spots, and intersected by ravines and precipices. In the still more elevated parts, such as the military quarter of Nouvelle Decouverte, the mines appeared equally productive; but if Villebagne is excepted, these spots give but little encouragement to establish forges, as there is not sufficient water to answer all their nor is it probable that the proprietors of the forges will ever go two or three leagues from Pamplemousses among frighful mountains, and where there are no roads, to rake up the ground, in order to bring iron to their furnaces; besides, these mines are, as it were, on the surface of the earth. The East India Company had set apart, for these forges, an extent of wood of ten thousand acres, called the they then imagined, that, by making regular falls in these lofty woods, they would shoot forth again the following year, and that the young trees being left untouched, would replace the larger ones. But how many generations will pass away before this fine forest is reproduced? as, according to the opinion of M. le Gentil, the woods once cut down, in the Isle of France, do not grow ag.'in; so that the forest ...
title: The History of Mauritius, or the Isle of France, and the Neighbouring Islands; From Their First Discovery to the Present Time;
publisher: Wentworth Press