52 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



found by tlie neiglibourmg blacksmitlis to be malleable in a cold 

 state.* Meteoric iron has even been worked by tribes to wbom the 

 use of common iron was nnknown. Tbns Amerigo Vespncci speaks 

 of savages near the month of the La Plata, who had mannfactnred 

 arrow-heads with iron derived from an aerolite.f Such cases are 

 certainly of rare occurrence, but they are not without their import- 

 ance, for they explain how man may probably have first become 

 acquainted with iron, and they also account for the occasional traces 

 of iron in tombs of the Stone-age, if, indeed, this fact be well 

 established. 



It is, notwithstanding, evident that the regular working of terres- 

 trial iron-ore must have been a necessary condition of the commence- 

 ment and progress of the Iron-age. 



IsTow iron-ore is generally found in most countries, but it has 

 usually the look of common stone, being distinguished neither by its 

 weight, nor colour. Moreover, its smelting requires a much greater 

 degree of heat than copper or tin, and this renders its production 

 considerably more diflacult than that of bronze. 



But even when iron had beeu obtained, what groping in the dark, 

 and how much laboriously accumulated experience did it not require, 

 to bring forth at will bar-iron or steel ! Chance, if chance there be, 

 may have played a part in it ; but as chance only favours those privi- 

 leged mortals who combine a keen spirit of observation with serious 

 meditation and with practical sense, the discovery was not less diffi- 

 cult nor less meritorious. We need not, then, be surprised if men 

 arrived but tardily at the manufacture of iron and steel, which is 

 still daily being improved. 



In Carinthia traces of a most primitive method of producing iron 

 have been noticed. The process seems to have been as follows : — 

 On the declivity of a hill was dug an excavation, in which was 

 lighted a large fire. When this began to subside, fragments of very 

 pure ore (hydroxyde) were thrown into it, and covered by a new 

 heap of wood. When all the fuel had been consumed, small lumps 

 of iron would then be found among the ashes. { All blowing appa- 



* Pallas. — "Voyages en Russie," Paris, 1793, vol. iv., p. 595. There was but 

 one mass of meteoric ii'on ; it weighed 1,600 lbs. 



f " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," vol. ii., ai-t. 8, p. 178. 

 j Communicated to the author by niinmg-engineers in Carinthia. 



