A huge engine was
running as a kind of pump for the accumulation of air, which was passed
through a long thin pipe to the three furnaces in the outer courtyard.
The furnaces were mud-built, and were fed with charcoal (the most
expensive fuel in the district), the maximum of pure metal being only
1,300 catties per day. The ore, which has been roughly smelted once, is
brought from K'ung-shan, is finely smelted here, then conveyed most of
the way to Peking by pack-mule, the expense in thus handling, from the
time it leaves the mine to its destination at Peking, being several
times its market value. Nothing but copper is sought from the ore, and a
good deal of the gold and silver known to be contained is lost.
I passed an old French priest as I was going to Tong-ch'uan-fu the next
day. He was very pleased to see me, and at a small place we had a few
minutes' chat whilst we sipped our tea. In Yuen-nan, I found that the
Protestants and the Romanists, although seeing very little of each
other, went their own way, maintaining an attitude of more or less
friendly indifference one towards the other.
The last day's march to Tong-ch'uan-fu is perhaps the most interesting
of this stage of my journey.
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