seam was filled with a shred of silver beaten in. The cone, at this
stage, being indented and irregular, the workman thrust into it a
conical stake or mandrel, which he had formed carefully out of hard
wood, and with gentle taps of the hammer soon made the cone even and
shapely. Next, withdrawing the stake, he laid on the seam a mixture of
borax and minute clippings of silver moistened with saliva, put the
article into the fire, seam up, blew with the bellows until the silver
was at a dull red-heat, and then applied the blow-pipe and flame until
the soldering was completed. In the meantime the other smith had, with
hammer and file, wrought the handle until it was sufficiently formed to
be joined to the receptacle, the base of the handle being filed down for
a length of about a quarter of an inch so that it would fit tightly into
the orifice at the apex of the receptacle. The two parts were then
adjusted and bound firmly together with a fine wire passing in various
directions, over the base of the cone, across the protuberances on the
dart-shaped handle, and around both. This done, the parts were soldered
together in the manner already described, the ring by which it is
suspended was fastened on, the edge of the receptacle was clipped and
filed, and the whole was brought into good shape with file, sand,
emery-paper, &c.

[Illustration: PL. XIX. OBJECTS IN SILVER.]

The chasing was the next process. To make the round indentations on
the handle, one smith held the article on the anvil while the other
applied the point of the shank of a file--previously rounded--and struck
the file with a hammer. The other figures were made with the sharpened
point of a file, pushed forward with a zigzag motion of the hand. When
the chasing was done the silver was blanched by the process before
referred to, being occasionally taken from the boiling solution of