ver struck him as admirably
adapted for the establishment of a smelting-furnace, and he accordingly
projected a settlement on this spot. The Rancocus River forms here a
broad embayment, the damming of which was easily accomplished, and one
of the best of water-privileges was thus obtained. On the north of this
bay or pond, moreover, there rises a sloping bluff, which was covered,
at the period of its purchase, with ancient trees, but upon which a
large and commodious mansion was soon erected. Here Mr. Jones planted
himself, and quickly drew around him a settlement which rose in number
to some four hundred souls; and here he commenced the manufacture of
iron. At frequent intervals in the Pines were found surface-deposits
of ore, the precipitate from waters holding iron in solution, which
frequently covered an area of many acres, and reached a depth of
from two or three inches to as many feet. The ore thus existing in
surface-deposits was smelted in the iron-works, and the metal thence
obtained was at once molten and moulded in the adjoining foundry. Here,
in the midst of these spreading forests, many a ponderous casting,
many a fiery rush of tons of molten metal, has been seen. Here,
five-and-forty years ago, the celebrated Decatur superintended, during
many weeks, the casting of twenty-four pounders, to be used in the
famous contest with the Algerine pirates whom he humbled; and the echoes
of the forest were awakened with strange thunders then. As the great
guns were raised from the pits in which they had been cast, and were
declared ready for proof, Decatur ordered each one to be loaded with
repeated charges of powder and ball, and pointed into the woods. Then,
for miles between the grazed and quivering boles, crashed the missiles
of destruction, startling bear and deer and squirrel and raccoon, and
leaving traces of their passage which are even still occasionally
discovered. The cannon-balls themselves are now and then found imbedded
in the sand of the forest. In this manner the guns were tried which were
to thunder the challenge of America against the dens of Mediterranean
pirates.

Hanover, too, in its day of pride, furnished many a city with its iron
tubes for water and for gas, many a factory and workshop with its
castings, many a farmer with his tools, but the glow of the furnace is
quenched forever now. The slowly gathering ferruginous deposits have
been exhausted, and three years have elapsed since the furnace-