They Consider English Iron As "Rotten"; And I Have Seen, When A Javelin Of Their Own Iron Lighted On The Cranium Of A Hippopotamus, It Curled Up Like The Proboscis Of A Butterfly, And The Owner Would Prepare It For Future Use By Straightening It COLD With Two Stones.

I brought home some of the hoes which Sekeletu gave me to purchase a canoe, also some others obtained in Kilimane, and they have been found of such good quality that a friend of mine in Birmingham has made an Enfield rifle of them.*

- * The following remarks are by a practical blacksmith, one of the most experienced men in the gun-trade. In this trade various qualities of iron are used, and close attention is required to secure for each purpose the quality of iron peculiarly adapted to it:

The iron in the two spades strongly resembles Swedish or Russian; it is highly carbonized.

The same qualities are found in both spades.

When chilled in water it has all the properties of steel: see the piece marked I, chilled at one end, and left soft at the other.

When worked hot, it is very malleable: but cold, it breaks quite short and brittle.

The great irregularity found in the working of the iron affords evidence that it has been prepared by inexperienced hands.

This is shown in the bending of the small spade; the thick portion retains its crystallized nature, while the thin part has been changed by the hammering it has undergone.

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