1840.] 



of the Great Basaltic District of India. 



69 



granite 'or quartz by means of a conical-shaped fragment of compact 

 greenstone ; but when too hard to yield to this simple instrument, it is 

 previously roasted. The sand thus procured is washed in shelving 

 depressions dug near a tank, and the heavier parts, separated by this 

 process, are exactly similar to Voysey's specimens of the iron-sand used 

 in the manufacture of Damascus steel at Kona-Sumoondrum, in the 

 same neighbourhood ; but from his published papers, it does not appear 

 that he had seen the rock from which they w&re derived. In other 

 respects, all the information I could procure, accurately corresponds 

 with that given in his interesting paper.* The ore is then smelted with 

 charcoal in small furnaces, which have often been described. I did not 

 see any flux used; but, although I watched the whole process, from the 

 digging of the ore till it was formed into bars, I will not assert that none 

 was employed. The iron has the remarkable property of being obtained 

 at once in a perfectly tough and malleable state, requiring none of the 

 complicated processes to which English iron must be subjected, previ- 

 ous to its being brought into that state. Mr. Wilkinson, who has in- 

 vestigated the history of Indian steels with much scientific and practical 

 skill, did me the favour to submit to experiment a specimen of this iron 

 as it came from the furnace. He found it extremely good and tough, 

 and considered it superior to any English iron, and even to the best 

 descriptions of Swedish. The Persian merchants, who frequent the 

 iron-furnaces of Kona-Sumoondrum, are aware of the superiority of this 

 iron, and informed Dr. Voysey, that in Persia they had in vain en- 

 deavoured to. imitate the steel formed from it ; a failure which could be 

 ascribed only to the difference of the materials used, as the whole pro- 

 cess of the conversion into steel was conducted under their own super- 

 intendence. It is also probable, that there are few places in India where 

 an ore of equal value is so easily procured ; otherwise its distant inland 

 situation, in a difficult and unsettled country, would not have retained 

 a reputation for so many ages. In the manufacture of the best steel 

 three-fifths of this iron is used; the other two -fifths being obtained from 

 the Indoor district, where the ore appears to be a peroxide. It is evi- 

 dent, that if the beautiful water of the Damascus blades is derived from 

 the crystallization of the steel, the use of two very different varieties 

 of iron, one of which has been ascertained to be of such admirable quali- 

 ty, must have an important influence on the appearance and quality of 

 the manufacture. 



As these mines afford a boundless supply of ore easily wrought, and 

 • Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. i-, p. 215. 



