THE STEEL SEA-BEACH OF TARANAKI, NEW ZEALAND. 113 



gunpowder. They are much heavier than ordinary sand, whence the 

 beach is very much smoother than our own sandy sea-boards. So smooth 

 and glossy is it, that nothing that the waves can wash on to it can remain 

 on it. Its black monotony is therefore unrelieved by shells or sea-weed, 

 much to the increase of its dreariness of aspect. 



Strange to say, this long and naked strand consists of myriads of tons 

 of steel, in a granular form — pure, excellent steel, of very fine quality. 

 Yesterday the black dust was thought to be valueless, and was trodden 

 under foot by the careless native, and regarded by the unconscious colonist 

 as of no more worth than the materials of which ordinary sea-beaches are 

 composed. To-morrow, it will be knives, needles, chisels, swords, bayo- 

 nets, gun-barrels, implements of peace or weapons of war, and will be 

 bought and sold for many pounds per ton. 



The origin of this wonderful tract can only be conjectured. The sup- 

 position which has most to recommend it is, that volcanoes containing pure 

 steel in a state of fusion must have existed near this spot ; that the sea 

 at some time broke in upon the molten mass ; that an eruption was 

 thus caused, which sent enormous clouds of metallic particles into the 

 air ; that these particles fell backinto the sea, and have thence been washed 

 on to the shore, layer after layer, untS the present vast beach has been 

 formed. 



Nothing resembling these metallic particles is known to exist elsewhere 

 in nature.* The native steel which is found at times in mining, and whieh 

 differs materially from ordinary iron ore, constitutes the nearest approach 

 to them. It occurs in the shape of " button ingots," with a finely-striated 

 surface, and is supposed to have been produced by " the spontaneous com- 

 bustion of seams of coal in the neighbourhood of ferruginous deposits" — 

 the burning seam acting as a smelting furnace, the adjacent ore being 

 smelted in it, and the natural steel thus formed having gradually eooled, 

 assuming the rounded form, whence the name " button ingots." Some- 

 thing of the same sort is what is supposed to have taken place with the 

 Taranaki metal ; except that, instead of the Taranaki metal having tran- 

 quilly cooled, the breaking in of the sea is thought to have caused a 

 sudden interruption, and a violent explosion, which burst the metal into 

 comminuted particles. 



It has been carefully analysed in this country by several well-known 

 metallurgists, and has been pronounced to be the purest ore at present 

 known; it contains 88 - 45 of peroxide of iron, 1T43 of oxide of titanium, 

 with silica, and only - 12 waste in 100 parts. 



Taking the sand as it lies on the beach and smelting it, the produce is 

 61 per cent, of iron of the very finest quality ; and, again, if this sand be sub- 

 jected to what is called the cementation process, the result is a tough, 



* There are many other localities in which this iron-sand is found, although not 

 perhaps so extensively as in Taranaki, — such as Victoria, King George's So.und, 

 Western Australia, Assam, and parts of India. — Editor. 



VOL. II. I 



