562 
FOURTH BULLETIN OF 
[1846, 
are annually brought to Canton. This comes from the islands of Java, Borneo, 
Sumatra, Macassar, and from the Sulu group. Java alone sends about twenty, 
seven thousand pounds of the best quality, estimated at sixty thousand dollars. 
Cochineal. — China affords a considerable market for this dye, which is taken 
there from Mexico and England, and is used in dyeing silk, crapes, &c. Attempts 
have been made to raise it in India, Java, and Spain, but with little success. The 
climate and situation of Japan and China being similar to Mexico, it is probable 
that the cultivation of the plant and the domestication of the insect would be suc- 
cessful in those countries. It is occasionally imported into China from Manilla, 
which is called ungarbled, to distinguish it from that brought from England, which • 
bears the name of garbled. Garbling is the name given to the process of repack- 
ing it free from impurities. Garbled cochineal is valued at two hundred and 
eighty to three hundred dollars per pecul ; and ungarbled, at from one hundred and 
eighty to two hundred and forty dollars. 
Gold. — This metal is brought from Borneo to China, generally in the shape of 
dust, and is there cast into bars called shoes, which are not used as coin, but merely 
as bullion. The purity of the metal is ascertained by the touchstone, which gives 
a different colored mark where the gold is of unequal purity., This is called a 
touch, and the color shows the proportion of pure gold. Needles for comparison 
are also made of different proportions of alloy, by which the stone is rubbed at the 
same time with the gold. It is also tested by nitric acid, but this is not allowed in 
Borneo. To express the fineness of gold, it is divided into one hundred parts, called 
“ touches.” Thus, if the gold is said to be ninety-six touches, it has four parts alloy. 
They become so expert in the use of the touchstone, that they can detect one and 
two percent, of alloy. Their knowledge of assaying is very slight, and their silver 
in bullion, which contains some gold, has made it an object with foreigners on that 
account. The range of the touch is from seventy to one hundred dollars, and to 
each a different name is applied. Gold leaf is made by the Chinese in great quan- 
tities, and is used for ornaments in their temples, &c. 
Iron. — Iron in rods, bars, and scraps, has lately become an article of importa- 
tion in the market. Bar iron from one to three inches wide, and rod of one fourth 
inch and less, are the common sizes imported. Bar is worth from one dollar and 
eighty cents to two dollars per pecul. Rod from three to three dollars and fifty 
cents, and scrap about two dollars and fifty cents per pecul. 
Lead. — Much of this metal is imported in the form of pig and sheet lead. The 
market price varies from five to six dollars per pecul. Very little lead is found in 
the east. A considerable part of that which is imported is made into paints by 
oxidation, and exported again as red and white lead. The red lead sells for about 
eleven dollars per pecul, and the white at ten dollars. The linings of the tea 
chests consume a large quantity. The mode of making the sheet lead is very 
simple. Two smooth stones of marble are placed near the melted lead, and the 
workman, holding the upper stone by the side, with the opposite edge resting on the 
lower stone, pours the liquid on the under one, and then drops that which he held 
in his hand. The art of dropping the upper stone in such a manner as to make 
the sheet of a uniform thickness is the only difficult part of the operation. 
Quicksilver. — Quicksilver is brought to China in considerable quantities from 
Europe, and occasionally from America. The most part of it is converted into 
Vermillion by oxidation, and in that state is used for painting on porcelain. Ver- 
million also forms an article of export to India and Europe. Quicksilver is fre- 
quently adulterated with tin or lead, and the fraud can be detected by boiling it to 
evaporation, when the other metals will remain. This metal ranges between sixty 
and one hundred and thirty dollars per pecul, and is one of the most variable com- 
modities. 
Copper. — This metal is found in Persia, Sumatra, Borneo, and Japan. It formed 
an export from Persia to England formerly, but is now sent from England to India. 
In the island of Borneo copper has lately been discovered, and it has been known 
a long time in Sumatra and Timor. The utensils made of this metal in those 
islands always contain some iron, and the bars or cakes into which it is cast, when 
sold for unalloyed, require much labor to make them pure and malleable. The ore 
is so rich as to produce half its weight of pure copper. The copper found in Ja- 
pan contains gold in alloy, and occurs in the markets in small bars, six inches long, 
