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copper-stone). It is not found in such large quantity as copper pyrites, but still it is fav from being rare. It is found in large quautities in the province of Dewa at Akita.
Third.—Variegated Copper Ore or Peacock Copper. Seems to be rarer in Japan than the two former ores. Burger (l.c. page 10) states that it occurs in large quantities in Sendai, Nambu, mount Monoko, where it is smelted together with copper pyrites. I was not able to learn the exact Japanese name and did not find a description of this ore in the above mentioned Japanese sources. In many pieces of copper pyrites out of different provinces, I saw an admixture of peacock copper. In Iö and Toza especially it occurs in considerable quantity mixed with copper pyrites.
Fourth.—Grey Copper Ore or “Fahlertz,” a very compound mineral, containing variable quantities of sulphites of copper, iron, arsenic, antimony, lead and often silver. This ore is not rare in Japan; we have seen good specimens from Satsuma, Hiüga, Cho-shu, Toza, Iö, Setsu, etc. Grey copper ore and copper-pyrites are the chief ores of Sumitomo’s large copperworks at the mountain Besi-san in the province Iö (Shikoku) where the silver is also extracted by a process of cupellation.
These four ores are the sources of Japanese copper; the two first named are the most important for copper metallurgy. The last named is also of value in gold and in silver smelting. These minerals have produced the enormous quantities of copper smelted in Japan since the 10th century; they formed the chief trade of the Dutch and Chinese at Nagasaki during the period 1609-1858. The quantity of copper exported by the Dutch during that time amounts at least to more than four millions of piculs, whilst the Chinese undoubtedly have exported a still larger quantity. Besides the use of copper in daily life for all kinds of household goods, doors of godowns, ornaments, temple-furniture, mirrors, smoking utensils, bronzes and especially copper money, has been for many centuries and is still so common and general, that it may be just called “the national metal of the Japanese.”
