have subsided, say in the 1st and 2nd months of the year, the produce in the 6th and 7th months, (the dry season) being little, The region over which the iron washings extend is from the village of Tung-ling to Wong-Zac, a distance of ten miles (30 lé)—the line, so far as it can be observed from Keen-che, running N. E. and S. W. The stream bed is over a couple of hundred yards in width in some places, though, excepting at rain seasons, the flow is inconsiderable; sufficient, however, to enable bamboo rafts to get to the charcoal deposits among the mountains.
The process of iron washing is simple. The bed of the stream, washed and unwashed, is marked off in sections; and small channels, about a yard wide are made from the main stream, of sufficient length to give a good fall into a wood trough about 6 feet long and 8 inches deep, 3 feet wide at the top and tapering to a foot and a half. Into this trough, placed on a slight inclination, with the water flowing over the head board, one man pours in sand as it is brought by others, or he exhausts a heap lying contiguous. Most of what is put in washes away immediately, leaving behind it, however, the sought for iron. One trough being filled, the water is partially turned off, and another is proceeded to. In the course of three or four hours, or less, a trough is thoroughly drained of the superfluous sand, and the iron grains remain. Removed in to baskets, this is sold to the first comer at 19 cash a catty. The washers profess to earn, in good times, as much as 200 cash a day—at others, a mace only—little enough for such laborious work and so much exposure. The water, about 5° of Fahrenheit higher temperature than the air at a spring noon—is rough to the palate and tasteless.
