lumps and grains, scattered through the loam, sand, and gravel which constitute the stream-works. It is readily recognised by its great weight. Very frequently it is found along with gold in the stream-works, and to this association is probably due its early discovery by man. Gold, from its brilliant colour and indestructibility, must have been the first metal to catch the eye of man, and when it was once sought by the simple process of washing, the heavy tin-stone would be left behind along with it. In the course of time the true nature of tin-stone was probably revealed by accident, and before the eye of the astonished beholder the dull stone flung into the fire became trans- figured into the glittering metal. The ease with which this can be done with the rudest appliances is shown by the processes which Mr. J. A. Phillips observed in 1856, at Zamora in Spain, and which are probably a survival into our own times of the most ancient mode of reducing the ore.[1]
- ↑ This account, which has been prepared for me by the kindness of Mr. J. A. Phillips, forms an interesting contribution to the history of metallurgy.—
"In the year 1856 I visited the province of Zamora, where, in a hamlet near San Martin, I met with a family occupied in treating tin-ores on their own account.
"The children, of whom there were several, collected rich shode stones of tin-oxide from the surface of neighbouring ploughed fields, and brought them in a reed-basket to a rough open shed or hovel; here they were broken with a hammer upon a big stone, and the extraneous matter was roughly picked out.
"The furnace, which was lined with clay resulting from the decomposition of granite, was a cylinder ten inches in diameter, and about two feet in depth, situated in the middle of a cubic yard of rough masonry constructed without mortar.
"In the centre of the top of this was the opening of the furnace, and on the side towards the prevailing wind a screen of masonry was built to
