342 On Smelting Copper in Japan. 





Memoir on Smelting Copper. — "The places in this country 

 where the most copper is obtained are Besh-shi in Yo, Nanbu in 

 Au, and Akita in U; next to these places are Son sail in U, and 

 Shioya in Tan ; and the poorest are Ginsan and Sheiikoku in Sheki, 

 Kitsukaii in Bi, Beiwa in Ki, Kinsan in Sa, Taiya in Yetsn, Taten 

 in So, and some others. From some of these places, there is at 

 times much, and at others little, produced; the mines are some- 

 times open and sometimes shut. Besides these there is so large a 

 number which produce but little, that they can hardly be enumer- 



ated. Now the productive veins have limits, and the branching off- 



sets cease midway ; some of them will not repay the outlay ; others, 

 the owners are unwilling to dig : and again there are others which 

 are not worked on account of the labor attending them: of all 

 these there are many. — The copper ore sometimes contains both 

 silver and lead, and at others it is pure without any admixture; 

 it is also alloyed with zinc. The rules for smelting are also dis- 

 similar. There is some copper which is wrought by hammering, 

 and some which is cast by fusing ; generally speaking, that which 

 contains silver and lead is softer, and is hammered into sheets, or 

 drawn out into wire. That which is alloyed with zinc is very 

 solid and hard, easily fractured if hammered, and unsuited either 

 for sheets or wire ; but if the soft and hard be fused together, 

 there is no danger of its fracturing. If lead or tin be intimately 

 blended with it, the alloy is very sonorous, well adapted for 

 mirrors and bells. However, each has its own rules; and if [the 

 reader wishes to read] the rules for quarrying, smelting, &c, they 

 are briefly explained in the following pages. 



Sec. L Of the ore. — "All copper localities produce ore ac- 

 companied with earth and barren rock. When the mine contains 

 copper ore } its evidence will always be found on the top of the 

 hill, of a reddish black hue, coloring both the earth and stones. 

 It forms a connected vein, either long or short, broad or narrow ; 

 either deep or shallow, rich or poor, according as the ore is much 

 or little ; for it is the effluence of the copper which steams up 

 and forms it, and the miners diligently examine its aspect in or- 

 der to judge whether the copper will be much or little, good 

 or bad. 



Sec. II. Of digging the ore. — " When the appearances on 

 the top of the hill betoken good ore^ [the miners] dig several 

 perches into it in a circuitous manner ; as they penetrate, setting 

 up posts and joists, and laying boards and rafters upon them, stop- 

 ping the empty interstices with stones and dirt, in order to prevent 

 the pit caving in. The miners carry a lamp made from a shell, 

 as they work the ore and fill their buckets. The number of days 

 or months required to penetrate ten or twenty perches cannot be 

 determined. Sometimes ore will be, and sometimes it will not 

 be, met with ; and when it does occur, the lode will suddenly 

 stop, and again be resumed : at times it will continue on without 



