it; these are capable of much improvement. Dr. F. Buchanan, 
who had excellent opportunities of ascertaining the fact, and 
whose knowledge of mineralogy gives him a decided advantage 
over most other travellers, observes, that in the hills of the southern 
district of Malabar the 46 iron ore is found, forming beds, veins, 
or detached masses, in the stratum of indurated clay, of which 
the greater part of those hills consists; the ore is composed of 
clay, quartz in form of sand, and of the common black iron sand: 
this mixture forms small angular nodules closely compacted toge- 
ther, and very friable: it is dug out with a pick-axe, and broken 
into powder with the same instrument; it is then washed in a 
wooden trough, about four feet in length, open at both ends, and 
placed in the current of a rivulet; so that a gentle stream of water 
runs constantly through it. The metallic sand remains in the 
upper end of the trough, the quartz is carried to the lower end, the 
clay is suspended in the water, and washed entirely away. In this 
ore the quantity of metallic sand is small, in comparison with that 
of the earthy matter." 
At Velater in Malabar this judicious writer observed thirty- 
four forges for smelting iron ; he gives a long description of the 
process, from which the forges appear very defective compared 
with similar works in Europe. Each smelting requires 2l6'Qlb. of 
washed ore, which costs about three pence halfpenny the hun- 
dred weight: the process obtains only from eleven to seventeen 
per cent, of iron from the ore, and what is produced is very im- 
perfect; the Malabar iron sells at seven and eight shillings the hun- 
dred weight, but is in all respects very inferior to that imported 
