in the iron works, is a part of a sow or block of cast iron broken or melted off from the rest, and prepared for the forge or hammer. The usual method is, to break off the loop of about three quarters of a hundred weight. This loop they take up with their slinging-tongs, and beat it with iron sledges till they bring it to a four-square mass, of about two feet long, which they call a bloom.

LOPEZ DE VEGA. See Vega.