He broke through the hardened slag by striking it with an iron instrument inserted in the end of a pole, when the material flowed out of the small hole left for the purpose in the bottom of the furnace.

The ore (probably the black oxide) was like sand, and was put in at the top of the furnace, mixed with charcoal.

Only one bellows was at work, formed out of a goatskin, and the blast was very poor.

Many of these furnaces, or their remains, are met with on knolls; those at work have a peculiarly tall hut built over them.
On the eastern edge of a valley lying north and south, with the Diampwe stream flowing along it, and the Dzala nyama range on the western side, are two villages screened by fine specimens of the _Ficus Indica_.

One of these is owned by the headman Theresa, and there we spent the night.