iron is melted and ready for the molds, into which it is poured from a pot carried by two men. When everything is ready for the melted iron to be drawn into the pot, one man sticks a lump of clay on the end of a pole and stands ready for action, while another man with a rod of iron makes a hole through the mud that closes the opening; then the melted metal flows out in a red-hot stream till the pot is full, when the opening is again closed with the lump of clay on the end of the pole, and the metal is carried away and poured into the molds.
In the provinces of North and South Pyeng-an there is an abundant supply of good anthracite coal, though as yet it has not been mined to any very great extent. The coal is different from that found in the United States, being in large lumps more like soft coal. In handling these lumps a great deal of it crumbles off and becomes dust, so that it must be bagged in order to be saved. This dust, mixed with a small quantity of clay and made into balls the size of a man's fist, makes an excellent fuel, burning slowly and almost without smoke. The Koreans have no stoves and no use for coal, therefore made no effort at mining it till since the foreigners have been in the country. With the coming of the foreigners the demand for coal has arisen. Now that the Japanese have charge of the mines, we shall expect to see them developed and worked so as to turn out all the coal the country needs without importing, as has been done in the past.
Between the mountains the valleys are often wide
