152 THE KAYANS OF THE NORTH-WEST OF BORNEO* 
in number, about six feet long, and placed vertically round 
the furnace. The bore of each is about seven inches in 
diameter, the pistons to correspond are framed of cloth or 
soft bark. Attached to the piston rods are others of consi¬ 
derable length, to which weights are made fast and balanced 
on the cross beams of the shed By this contrivance the 
pistons are moved up and down, and a constant blast produ¬ 
ced, which is led by clay pipes from the orifice at the bottom 
of each tube into the furnace. In the smelting operation 
there is no flux used with the ore, which yields about seventy 
per cent of iron. To make the iron either hard.or soft as 
may be required, different sorts of wood are made use of. 
The coal and iron fields of the Balawi or Rajang are 
more extensive than any yet discovered on the Island, From 
the river Baram, coal is traced to the upper parts of the 
Bintulu, and thence southward to the Rajang river, on the 
left bank of which, at Tujol Nang, there is a seam exposed 
upwards of thirteen feet in thickness. At different other 
parts of the river and also in several of its branches coal is 
found in abundance. From Tujol Nang the strike of the coal 
is southward across Dragon’s plain. It is again found in the 
river Lang Pila (a distance from the former place of about 
fifty miles) where it is extensively exposed on the surface, 
and has been in a state of ignition for several years. Iron 
ore of a quality yielding from sixty to eighty per cent of iron 
abounds in the Baluwi or Bajang district, from about forty 
miles from the coast to the source of the river, or over a dis¬ 
trict comprising nearly one half of the extreme breadth of 
the Island. The iron manufactured from the ore of the 
above district is much preferred to that of Europe by the 
Malays and other natives of Borneo as being superior. If 
such be the case it is certainly worthy of notice. If the ore 
of Borneo, by the rude manner of smelting practised by 
the Kayans, makes better iron than that of England, with 
all the advantages possessed by the smelters of that country, 
we must infer that if the science and superior genius of 
Englishmen were employed in the preparation of iron from 
the rich mines of Borneo, this valuable metal could be 
produced cheaper, and in quantity greater, and quality supe¬ 
rior, to that for a scanty supply of which the trade of Great 
Britain is dependent on the arbitrary monopolies of Sweden. 
Mr Burns’ Vocabularies of the Kayan and other dialects 
will be given in our next number. 
