The Singhalese obtain the ore they require without the trouble of mining; seeking a spot where the soil has been loosened by the latest rains, they break off a sufficient quantity, which, in less than three hours, they convert into iron by the simplest possible means.

None of their furnaces are capable of smelting more than twenty pounds of ore, and yet this quantity yields from seven to ten pounds of good metal.
The _anthracite_ alluded to by Dr.Gygax is found in the southern range of hills near Nambepane, in close proximity to rich veins of _plumbago_, which are largely worked in the same district, and the quantity of the latter annually exported from Ceylon exceeds a thousand tons.
_Molybdena_ is found in profusion dispersed through many rocks in Saffragam, and it occurs in the alluvium in grey scales, so nearly resembling plumbago as to be commonly mistaken for it.

_Kaolin_, called by the natives _Kirimattie_, appears at Neuera-ellia at Hewahette, Kaduganawa, and in many of the higher ranges as well as in the low country near Colombo; its colour is so clear as to suit for the manufacture of porcelain[1]; but the difficulty and cost of carriage render it as yet unavailing for commerce, and the only use to which it has hitherto been applied is to serve for whitewash instead of lime.
[Footnote 1: The kaolin of Ceylon, according to an analysis in 1847, consists of-- Pure kaolin 70.0 Silica 26.0 Molybdena and iron oxide 4.0 ____ 100.0 In the _Ming-she_, or history of the Ming dynasty, A.D.

1368-1643, by Chan-ting-yuh, "pottery-stone" is; enumerated among the imports into China from Ceylon .-- B.

cccxxvi.p.