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[Book III.
sight, were left unnoticed by that intelligent sailor. The bellows of Mada gascar , says Sonnerat, “ is composed of the hollow trunks of tvro treestied together. In the bottom there a-re two iron funnels, and in the insideof each trunk a sucker furnished with raffia, which supplies the place oftow. The apprentice, whose busmess it is to use this machine, alternatelysinksone of the suckers while he raises the other.” b Similar insplementsare also used in smeltiug iron as well as in forging it. In the first volumeof Ellis’s “ History of Madagascar,” Lon. 1838, there is a representationof two men reducing iron ore by means of four piston bellows. No. 111is a copy.
m-
The furnace is described as a mere hole dug in the ground, lined withrüde stonework and plastered with elay. It was filled with alternatelayers of charcoal and ore, and covered by a conical roof of clay, a smallopening being left at the apex. The bellows were formed of the trunksof trees, and stood five feet above the ground, in which they were firmlyimbedded. The lower ends were closed “ air tight,” and a short bambootube conveyed the wind from each to the fire, as represented. “ A rüdesort of piston is fitted to each of the cylinders, and the apparatus for rais-ing the -wind is complete.” As no mention is made of valves nor of theopenings through which air entered the cylinders, it is probable that thepistons were perforated for that purpose, and the passages covered byflaps or valves opening downwards, a device which the artificers ofMadagascar are acquainted with. See No. 114. These bellows are ofvarious sizes, though generally from 4 to 6 inches in diameter. Sometimesonly one is used, but it is then made of larger dimensions, and the blowerStands and Works it with both his hands. To do it conveniently, he raiseshimself on a .bank of earth. The bellows are not always perpendicular,but are inclined.as figured in die back ground of the cut.
b Sonnerat’s Voyages, iii. 36.