Mr. Mushet's Experiments on PFootz. 169 
state, very obedient to the magnet, and without any doubt an 
unmetallized portion of that from which wootz is made. 
This curious circumstance led me to examine every pore 
and cell throughout the whole fragments. On the upper sur- 
face of two of them I found small pits containing a portion of 
the ore, which had been slightly agglutinated in the fire, but 
still highly magnetic. The upper surface of the present cake, 
close by the gate or feeder, contained a large pit filled with a 
stratum of semi-fused ore, surmounted by a mass of vitrified 
matter, which bore evident marks of containing calcareous 
earth. 
Those who have devoted sufficient attention to the affinities 
of iron and earths for carbon, will be surprised to find that, on 
this particular subject, the rude fabricators of steel in Hindostan 
have got the start of our more polished countrymen in the 
manufacture of steel. 
Two bars of wootz were formed from this cake, and these 
in point of quality inferior to any of those formerly produced. 
The appearance of the metal was more varied, less homoge- 
neous, and contained more distinct laminae with rusty surfaces, 
than either of the two former cakes. 
It appeared highly probable, from the observations that oc- 
curred in forging, and in the examination of the cake, that the 
original proportion of mixture was such as would have formed 
a quality of steel softer than No. 1 and 2 ; but as steel of such 
softness requires a greater heat to fuse it, than when more 
fully saturated with carbonaceous matter, it is probable that 
the furnace had not been sufficiently powerful to occasion 
complete fusion of the whole mass, and generate a steel homo- 
geneous in all its parts. 
MDCCCV, Z 
