resources of the iron-work do
not pay the expenses which the king must every year be at in maintaining
it. They lay the fault on the bad state of population, and say that the
few inhabitants in the country have enough to do with agriculture, and
that it therefore costs great trouble and large sums to get a sufficient
number of workmen. But, however plausible this may appear, yet it is
surprising that the king should be a loser in carrying on this work, for
the ore is easily broken, being near the iron-work, and very fusible.
The iron is good; and this is, moreover, the only iron-work in the
country, from which every body must supply himself with tools, and what
other iron he wants. But the officers and servants belonging to the
iron-work appear to be in very affluent circumstances. A river runs down
from the iron-work into the River St. Lawrence, by which all the iron
can be sent in boats throughout the country at a low rate."--Kalin in
Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 631.

"M. Dantic, after a number of experiments to class the different kinds
of iron, discovered that the iron of Styria was the best, and that the
iron of North America, of Danemara in Sweden, of Spain, Bayonne,
Roussillon, Foix, Berri, Thierache in Sweden, the communes of France,
and Siberia, was the next class."--Abbe Raynal, vol. iii., p. 268.

Weld and Heriot mention that the bank of iron ore at the forges of St.
Maurice was nearly exhausted in their time; new veins, however, have
been since discovered.

Charlevoix says, in 1720: "Il est certain que ces mines de fer, que
l'oeil percant de M. Colbert et la vigilance de M. Talon avoit fait
decouvrir, apres avoir presqu entierement disparu pendant plus de
soixante dix ans, viennent d'etre retrouvees par les soins de ceux qui
occupent aujourd'hui leur place."--Charlevoix, tom. ii., p. 166.]

[Footnote 155: Henry and others speak of a rock of pure copper, from
which the former out off 100 lbs. weight. W. Schoolcraft examined the
remainder of the mass in 1820, and found it of irregular shape; in its
greatest length three feet eight inches, greatest breadth three feet
four inches, making about eleven cubic feet, and containing, of metallic
matter, about 2200 lbs.; but there were many marks of chisels and axes
upon it, as if a great deal had been carried off. The surface of the
block, unlike most metals which have suffered a long exposure to the
atmosphere, presents a metallic brilliancy.--Martin's _History of