19 



3. Supply of the cheapest possible fuel, whether by using cokes or by the 

 establishment of a rational forest-management. 



In either case the simultaneous improvement in the means of communication 

 — roads, rivers &c. — is an absolute condition for success. 



As jet the charcoals are burned in the woods, mostly high up in the moun- 

 tains, and thence carried by horses or oxen, sometimes also by coolies, to the 

 furnace. 



The wood is burned to coal, net in heaps, but in dome-shaped ovens, made 

 firm quarry-stones and clay or loam, which are abandoned as soon as the 

 district has been denuded of its trees. The products of distillation are allowed 

 to escape, without being utilized. 



Leaving out of sight the charcoal-burners constant change of working place, 

 the building of carriage-roads could not pay, on account of the generally high- 

 ly bioken ground ; the coal-transpoit could, however, be very much simplified 

 by not burning the wood on the spot, where the trees have been felled, but by 

 floating it on the water courses — which, where requisite, might be dammed up 

 — to constant central coal-burning places, as near the furnaces as possible. 

 There the ovens or heaps might also be furnished witli apparatus for utilizing 

 the products of distillation, tar, pyroliguous acid. 



4. A strict control of the smelting proceedings through current assaj'S and 

 smelting boots. For the lucidity and simplicity of the entire book-keeping, 

 the introduction of Arabic figures would be of the greatest assistance, and the 

 small amount of labor spent on learning the same ought not to be a matter of 

 consideration, when compared with the advantages that would accrue therefrom. 

 With regard to other matters, in which workmen and administration are concern- 

 ed, I shall make some further remarks, at the end of this paper. 



The dressing and metallurgical establishments are at present mostly situated 

 close to the mine, and consequently generally on very steep heights, where the 

 structures cling like swallow-nests to the rock, and in their dimensions are con- 

 fined to a minimum. In order to obtain a better situation, and at the same 

 time a greater water-power, it would often be preferable to carry the works fur- 

 ther down toward the valley. In many instances this would also afford the 

 additional advantage of making a joint working of (he ores from several mines 

 feasible. 



ASSAYING. 



The assaying of the ore is, with regard to gold, confined either to the washing 

 of a certain quantity of ore, or to smelting the same together with lead, and 

 successive eupellation of the rich lead. The latter proceeding is also used for 



