GEOLOGY. 305 



hammer, the required form ; while the purer irons are produced later in his- 

 tory, when the more highly prized qualities become known. 



The evidence which has been collected respecting the locality and history 

 of this iron tends to show that the natives of the vicinity have drawn their 

 supplies from it for many years. Various implements are now in the United 

 States which have undoubtedly been manufactured from native iron. 



Mr. Davis says, in the letter accompanying this specimen : " I am told by 

 the natives that it is plentiful, and about three days walk from our present 

 residence. It is obtained by digging, and breaking rocks. It is also said to be 

 in large lumps. In these parts, the natives buy no iron, but dig it out of the 

 ground, or break the rocks and get it, as the case may be." 



The Rev. John Seys, in a letter published in the African Repository for 

 June, 1851, says: 



" Such is the purity of the iron ore obtained by the natives of Africa in the 

 immediate vicinity of Liberia, and which they represent as being abundant, 

 that they have no furnaces. They need none. All their rude agricultural and 

 warlike instruments are made by them of ore so pure that, when heated, it 

 becomes sufficiently malleable to admit of being wrought into any shape or 

 form. They make knives, bill-hook;?, war-cutlasses, spears, axes, hoes, etc., 

 cut of this ore, without the process of smelting." 



Mr. James Hall, under date of July, 1855, writes: 



" The natives manufacture iron in quantities in the interior. It is very soft 

 and pure. I have often been told by the beach natives who have traveled in- 

 land, that ' they take plenty wood and coal ; make a big pile ; put tone (stone) 

 on him ; then more wood, more coal, and more tone ; then set him on fire, 

 and burn him trong, two, three days ; then iron come up.' This is the talk 

 all along the shore ; that is, the reliable talk. Although many say they find 

 the pure iron, I am sure no pure iron was ever found hi Liberia or its vicinity 

 in any considerable quantity, before I left in 1840." 



Strictly speaking, Mr. Tracy remarks, an " ore" is a rock composed of or 

 containing a metal in chemical combination with some other substance. 

 " Smelting'' is the reduction of a metal in an ore by the application of heat to 

 its metallic form. A fire like that described above could never produce a heat 

 intense enough to " smelt" any ore of iron; and besides, the result of smelting 

 iron ore is always cast iron, and not malleable. But if in " breaking the 

 rocks," the rocks should not readily yield to blows, it would be a very natural 

 device to place it on a very hot fire. The result would be that the rock 

 would crack into pieces and the iron would be released ; and being heavier 

 than the decrepitated stone, it might, especially if stirred a little, fall together 

 and become welded into one mass. This, beyond all question, is the usual 

 process in the mountainous regions south of St. John's Paver. 



Mr. Tracy further says : There is reason to suppose that native iron exists 

 in other parts of Africa, especially the western Adanson, a French naturalist, 

 whose ' : Natural History of Senegal" was published in the latter part of the 

 last century, asserts that the natives of that region make implements of it. A 

 description, probably derived from him, of the native iron of Senegal, applies 

 well to the lumps found on the "]Sew Jersey purchase" and at False Cape. 



