330 
Making Iron at Amdeah — Volcanos of Asia. [Oct, 
XU Account of the Process of making Iron at Amdeah , near 
Samhhalpur. By Robert Rose, Esq. 
[Read at a meeting of the Physical Class.] 
I observe they make iron at this village, procuring the ore from a range of 
hills about 2 miles to the north. They pound the ore to powder, and having 
made an oven of clay, round, and open at the bottom, and narrowed on the top, 
with the tube of clay in the centre, above the oven or fire place ; they fall the tube 
with charcoal, and having fire underneath, they throw the powdered ore m small 
quantities on the charcoal in the tube, and the melted contents fall into the oven, 
the mouth of which is closed up with clay, to prevent any air getting in except 
what proceeds from a couple of bellows. The bellows consists simp y o a 
round piece of wood about a foot or a foot and a half in diameter, which is scooped 
or made hollow about half afoot, and this is covered with a piece of deer ski, 
and tied down tight to the back with a string , in the centre of the skn ,« a hoh 
within which is a bit of stick longer of course Hum the dieter oMta 
this stick a piece of string is fastened with a loop at the other end. There - 
piece of pliant stick about three feet long fixed on the ground, alnnx P B • 
loop is fastened to the top of this stick, so as to keep the stnng prettj ti . 
bellowsman stands, with one foot on each ofthebel ows and cor- £ 
with the back part of his feet, except when the wind is to be admitted i 
bellows, and this is done by moving up and down with each toot a te ™“ ® ^ 
mouth of the bellows is a hollow piece of stick about 2 ft. long, an ei g 
the block tight conducts the wind to the furnace through a small opening' 
that purpose. The quantity of wind afforded by this simple land ot bellow 
tonishing— [see PI. XIII. fig. 5.] The iron produced is in rude shapeless 
but I understand, when more refined, it is of a’good quality. 
XIII. Note on the Mountains and Volcanos of the Interior of As 
By Baron Alexander de Humboldt. 
[From the Annales de Cliinie, Oct. 1830.] ^ 
Volcanic phenomena belong no longer to the geological bia ^ the n) 
alone : the generality of their bearing upon the system of the v , ^ ^ 
to the first consideration in natural philosophy. Volcanos m ^ in 
appear to be the effect of a communication between the intenor ° O f 0 or 
fusion, and the atmosphere which envelopes the hardened an oxk a 
planet. _ .. « e( j eart^ 5. 
The successive beds of lava gush out like intermittent springs o ^ s on a 
The coats of them formed in succession seem to repeat before our eye ^ ^ 
scale, the formation of the crystalline rocks of different ages. n ^ c0 „- 
Cordilleras, as in the south of Europe and in the west o sia, a ^ o§e wll ich 
nection is traceable in the chemical action of actual yo c< ■> the sD0 abest 
give birth to rocks; inasmuch as their form and position, tha ^ not 
elevation of their summit or crater, and the weakest part of t ieu fu8io „, 
strengthened by table land, permit the discharge of the eait iy ^ llie rica, 
along with salses , or mud volcanos, [such as are met with in Sou Raines aI ^ 
the Tauride, and the Caspian Sea,] ejecting first, large blocks o r ° C ’ ^ m ud<l? 
acid vapours ; then, in the next stage of comparative calm, vomiti D 
clays, naphtha, and mephitic gases. 
