into the steel, but where there is a depression in the cast the graver cuts the same in the steel. As the lever is jointed at the left, the nearer the graver is placed to that end the less motion it will have. So that the distance of the steel from the joint regulates the proportion of the reduction from the cast.. After the graver has cut one small shaving around the steel, a screw is turned, which lowers the right end of the lever slightly, just enough to allow the graver to cut another shaving, and the stub to touch the cast a very little further from the centre. Thus the graver cuts a very little at a time; but the work is cut over several times, until the design is sufficiently blocked out. This machine will not finish off the die perfect enough to use; but it reduces the design in perfect proportion, and performs most of the rough work. The original dies for coins being now all made, the lathe is used mostly for medals, of which a great many are struck, by order of Congress, for various purposes. A very fine one was presented to the Japanese while they were in this country. There is now in the machine a cast of Washington's bust, merely to show how the cast is placed. requiring to be hardened before it can be used, which is done by heating it very hot, and holding it under a stream of water until cold. The relief is exactly like the coin-that is, the device is raised as in the coin. It will not do to use this in stamping, as it would reverse the appearance on the coin. Therefore this "hub," or "male die," as it is named, is used only to make other dies. Round pieces of very soft steel, a little larger than the die, are smoothed off on the top, the centre being brought to a point a little higher than the sides. It is placed on a solid bed, under a very powerful screw-press, and the hub placed on top of it-the centre of the hub on the point of the steel, like a seal on the sealing-wax. The screw is turned with great force by several men, and presses the hub a little into the steel. It is necessary to have the steel higher in the centre, as if the centre impression is not taken first, it can not be brought out sharp and distinct. The steel is softened again by being heated After the die comes from the lathe it is care- and allowed to fully finished off by hand, and when all polished cool slowly, and is a beautiful piece of work. It is still very soft, the operation is DIES. among it. Visitors can see every thing from this passage-way, but the pleasure of handling is denied. repeated. This is done several times, until her fan without soiling her light gloves, or trail the whole impression is full and distinct. If her dress over the floor without a misgiving. there is any little defect it is rectified with the A passage-way in the middle of the room is engraver's tool. The surplus steel around the separated from the machines on both sides by a edge is cut off, and the date put in by hand, neat iron fence. The quantity of gold and silwhen it is hardened and ready for use. The ver lying about would make it unwise, especialdate is not cut on the hub or on the first die-ly in these times, to allow strangers to mingle which is called a "female"-as perhaps the hub will last for two years, and the date can not be altered. This die is never used to stamp with, but preserved, so that if the hub breaks it can be used to make another. The dies for use are prepared in the same way. About thirteen hundred a year are made for the various Branch Mints, and those for the New Orleans Mint were sent on just before the State seceded, which the anthorities have not yet had time to return. Sometimes a die will wear for a couple of days, and again they will break in stamping the first coin. Steel is treacherous, and no dependence can be placed in its strength. As nearly as can be ascertained their cost is sixteen dollars a pair. We will now enter the Coining Room, a light, airy hall, filled with brightly polished machinery, kept as clean as the milk-pans in a New England dairy. Jessie can handle it as freely as There are two styles of coining presses, both working on the same principle, but some more compact and handsome than the others. They are the invention of Mr. Peale, the plan being taken from the French press of Thonnelier's. Peale's press works much more perfectly and rapidly, and is a vast improvement over the old-fashioned screw-press still used in England. It seems to be as nearly perfect as any thing can be. In the engraving we have given one of the old presses, as it is more open and exhibits better the working power. There is so little difference, save in form, that, essentially, they are the same. There are eight presses, all turned by a beautiful steam-engine at the further end of the room. tend outward, as when one is resting his whole weight on one leg the other bends out at the knee. If the knee is drawn in and the leg straightened, the whole body will be slightly raised. The power of the press is known as the "toggle," or, vulgarly, "knee" joint, moved by a lever worked by a crank. The arch is a solid piece of cast iron, weighing several tons, and unites with its beauty great strength. The table is also of iron, brightly polished and very heavy. In The press is on exactly the same principle. the interior of the arch is a nearly round plate of When the crank lifts the further end of the levbrass, called a triangle. It is fastened to a lev-er it draws in the knee and forces down the arm er above by two steel bands, termed stirrups, one of which can be seen to the right of the arch. The stout arm above it, looking so dark in the picture, is also connected with the triangle by a balland-socket joint, and it is this arm which forces down the triangle. The arm is connected with the end of the lever above by a joint somewhat like that of the knee. One end of the lever can be seen reaching behind the arch to a crank near the large fly-wheel. Now, when the triangle is raised, the arm and near end of the lever ex until it is perfectly straight. By that time the crank has revolved and is lowering the lever, which forces out the knee again and raises the arm. As the triangle is fastened to the arm it has to follow all its movements. Thus we have got the motion, which is all-important. COINING PRESS. Under the triangle, buried in the lower part of the arch, is a steel cup, or, technically, a "die stake." Into this is fastened the reverse die, or, according to boys' dialect, the "tail" die. The die stake is arranged to rise about the eighth of an inch, but when down it rests firmly on the solid foundation of the arch. Over the die stake is a steel collar or plate, in which is a hole just large enough to allow a blank to drop upon the die. In the triangle above the obverse die is fastened, which moves with the triangle; and when the knee is straightened the die fits into the collar and presses down upon the reverse die. Just in front of the triangle will be seen an upright tube made of brass, and of the size to hold the blanks to be coined. The blanks are examined by the girl in attendance, and the perfect ones are placed in this tube. As they reach the bottom they are seized singly by a pair of steel feeders, in motion as similar to that of the finger and thumb as is possible in machinery, and carried over the collar and dropped upon the die. The knee is straightened, forcing the obverse die to enter the collar and press both sides of the blank at once. The sides of the collar are fluted, and the intense pressure expands the blank about the sixteenth of an inch, filling the collar and producing on the coin the fluted or reeded edge. It is put on to prevent any of the gold being filed away. After the blank has been dropped upon the die, the feeders slide back on the little platform extending in front of the machine, in readiness to receive another. The knee is bent, which raises the die about half an inch above the collar. The die stake is raised at the same time, so as to lift the newly-born coin from the collar, and the feeders coming along with another blank, push the coin over into a sloping channel, whence it slides into a box underneath. The pressure on the double eagle is about seventy-five tons; yet so rapid are all these complex motions that eighty double eagles are coined in a minute; and while the reader has been studying out this explanation probably ten or twelve thousand dollars could be struck on a single press. The smaller pieces, such as dimes and half dimes, are coined at the rate of one hundred and forty a minute. While usually only seventy-five tons pressure are applied, the large presses will stand a strain one hundred and fifty tons. Sometimes Government and other large medals are struck, which require this heavy power. It is a beautiful sight, as the bright glistening coins drop in a golden stream, with the peculiar metallic clink so pleas ant to hear. It is as pretty a cascade as one often sees. Jessie remarked to one of the men that it must be exceedingly tantalizing to be handling so much wealth, yet to have so little of it. "Why, we don't think nothing of this-we just kick it about like so much old iron; but when we get our month's pay in our pockets we feel rich, I-tell-you!" The number of pieces here coined is almost incredible. During the year 1860 there were coined 25,164,467 pieces, amounting in value to $22,781,325 50. Among these were 21,466,000 cents. During the first five months of 1861 there have been coined 12,248,037 pieces, in value $31, 123,206. The gold demand has been entirely for double eagles, 1,461,506 having been coined. The present interruption of foreign importations has caused a great influx of gold, to be coined for home use. Since the commencement of the Mint in 1793 there has not been as much value coined in any year (save in 1851), as during the first five months in 1861. The smallest coinage was that of 1815, when only 69,869 pieces were struck, in value $16,385 50. The greatest coinage in value, before 1861, was in 1851, when 24,985,716 pieces, including 147,672 half cents, and in value $49,258,058 43 were struck. The largest number of pieces were coined in 1853, amounting to 69,770,961. The whole amount of coinage at the Philadelphia Mint, up to June, 1860, is 671,904,388 pieces, of a value of 8423,426,504 24. The coinage of the branch Mints will add $227,803,096 to this value. Very possibly much of this has been coined over two or three times, our specie having been sent to Europe and there melted and coined; then perhaps returned here in shape of sovereigns, to be reconverted into eagles. There is a melancholy pleasure in seeing these DELIVERING COIN TO THE TREASURER. large figures of unrealized, if not untold wealth; and it seems strange that, with such a vast amount in the world, it is so difficult to collect a few paltry thousands. We can not conclude without a tribute to the skill and genius of Mr. Franklin Peale, brother to the late Rembrant Peale. In 1833 he was appointed assistant assayer, and ordered to spend two years in examining the European Mints, which he did, returning in 1835 laden with plans of improvements much needed in our then very imperfect Mint. In 1836 he was appointed melter and refiner; and while perform described in the last number of the Magazine, of precipitating chloride of silver by means of common salt-a much quicker and cheaper process than the old one, requiring the use of copper. He is not the discoverer of this method, but the first to apply it to a practical use on a large scale. In 1839 Mr. Peale was appointed chief coiner, and we have seen traces of his skill in the various machines employed. It is safe for the visitor to ascribe to his ingenuity—either in design, improvement, or construction-almost any machinery in the Mint which is finished, complete, and compact. In 1854 Mr. Peale was removed by the President. After being stamped the coins are taken to the chief coiner's room, and placed on a long table-the double eagles in piles of ten each. It will be remembered that, in the Adjusting Room, a difference of one half a grain was made in the weight of some of the double eagles. The lighting those duties introduced the beautiful process, and heavy ones are kept separate in coining, and, when delivered over to the treasurer, they are mixed together in such proportions as to give him full weight in every delivery. By law the deviation from the standard weight, in delivering to him, must not exceed three pennyweights in one thousand double eagles. The gold coinsas small as quarter eagles being counted, and weighed to verify the count-are put up in bags of $5000 each. The three-dollar pieces are put up in bags of $3000, and one-dollar pieces in $1000 bags. The silver pieces, and sometimes small gold, are counted on a very ingenious contrivance called a "counting-board," somewhat resembling a common wash-board. They are all subsequently weighed, however, to verify the correctness of the counting. For the various duties of the Mint there are about two hundred persons employed as clerks, workmen, etc.-say one hundred and forty men and sixty women-1 -the number depending, of course, upon the amount of work to be done. This removal was certainly unfortunate, as mainly to the efforts of Mr. Peale America is indebted for the finest Mint in the world. An attaché of the Royal Mint, London, recently visited ours at Philadelphia. As he was leaving, he remarked to the coiner, "When you come to London, I beg you not to visit our Mint. You are a hundred years in advance of us." THE OKAVANGO RIVER.* FRICA has within a few years furnished ma- | hitherto made; and quietly awaited on the east the most diligent of explorers, journeying with note-book and pencil in hand, has given the topography and history of the continent from Tripoli on the north to Adamawa on the south, and from Darfur on the east to Timbuctu on the west, covering three-fourths of the continent north of the equator. His great work will not be superseded in our day. He covers the northern part of Africa to within four degrees of the equator. Livingstone, who brings to the missionary work faculties which would have made him a Marshal of the Empire under either of the two great Napoleons, describes a broad belt reaching across the continent south of the equator. "What do you think of Livingstone ?" asked Mr. Andersson of a famous African sportsman and traveler. "Well," was the reply, "to look at the man you would think nothing of him; but, saving your presence, he is a plucky little devil." The "plucky" little missionary has that authority in him which men would fain call master. The Makololo, the scourges of the central parts of Southern Africa, obeyed him like children, attending him all through his marvelous journey across the continent, the only complete transit The Okwango River: A Narrative of Travel, Exploration, and Adventure. By CHARLES JOHN ANDERSSON, author of "Lake Ngami." Harper and Brothers. shore fulfillment his promise toe to them. Four degrees of latitude on each side of the equator separate the regions described by Barth from those traversed by Livingstone. Burton from the east, and Du Chaillu from the west coast, penetrated some distance into this hitherto unexplored equatorial belt. Du Chaillu's explorations are especially interesting. So strange are his accounts of the tribes whom he encountered, that many have doubted the truth of his statements. Even Barth is inclined to discredit them. But Barth was never within six hundred miles of this region-a distance in Africa equivalent to some months' journey, and his travels brought him among people of a wholly different race. Burton, on the contrary, who has approached nearest to this region, gives full credit to Du Chaillu's representations. relations of Marco Polo and Bruce were in like manner pronounced fabulous; but subsequent observations have shown their entire truth. We doubt not that such will be the case with Du Chaillu. At all events, Burton, who has just been appointed consul at Fernando Po, will doubtless in time explore the equatorial belt, and thus solve the only remaining problem of African geography. The Among African travelers a high place belongs to Mr. Andersson. Nearly five years ago this |