440 NATURAL HISTORY OF AFRICA. 
also in Abyssinia, and abundantly behind Mosam- 
bique. It is equally abundant in the southern 
part of the mountains behind Congo, also in the 
mountains of the Damaras, north of Orange river. 
I do not find the species of ore accurately describ- 
ed ; but it would appear, that, in some districts, in 
Southern Africa, it is vitreous copper ore. 
26. Iron. — This metal is found in considerable 
quantity in Morocco, and in the country behind 
Sofala, where it is chiefly worked by the Makoo- 
anas. Mines of iron are said to occur in Abyssi- 
nia. Red hematite, an ore of iron, occurs in veins 
in sandstone, in the mountains near the Cape of 
Good Hope ; and micaceous iron ore is met with 
in the same country, and used by the natives, along 
with grease, for ornamenting their hair and bodies. 
Native meteoric iron has been met with in seve- 
ral places in Africa. Golberry, in his journey 
through Western Africa, in the years 1805-7, 
found a mass of native iron in the Great Desert of 
Zahara. Fragments of it were brought to Europe 
by Colonel O'Hara, and were analysed by Mr How- 
ard, who found it composed of 96 parts of iron 
and 4 of nickel. Barrow mentions a mass of iron 
he met with on the banks of the Great Fish River, 
in Caffraria, which appears to be meteoric. * 
27. Lead. — We have very few notices of the 
* Jameson's Mineralogy, Vol. III. p. 202, 203. 
