294 ANNUAL RPXORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



from Greece." The original Laurium Company, which al- 

 most provoked an international conflict, while working the 

 surface at Laurium purchased the subsoil corresponding to 

 that surface. The subsoil was not (avowedly, at least) ex- 

 plored, and remained unworked and unknown. Recently, 

 however, the company, having sold the surface only to their 

 successors, employed an engineer to examine this subsoil. 

 His research was rewarded by the discovery of a number of 

 wells, now fllled up, which had served in ancient times for 

 the working of the mines. In one of these mines, situated 

 about the centre of the tract, and which appeared as though 

 abandoned for ages, he found the miners' tools and heaps of 

 ore about them the mine, in short, in the very state the 

 Greeks, surprised, doubtless, by some unexpected attack, had 

 left it. Encouraged by this unexpected discovery, excava- 

 tions were made, which are affirmed to have brought to light 

 deposits of silver, lead, and calamine of incalculable richness. 

 Presuming the foregoing to be true, it would disprove the 

 current belief that these mines had been abandoned on ac- 

 count of their exhaustion. 



FEMALE CLOTHING IN THE BRONZE PERIOD. 



There is no subject at present which excites more interest 

 than information in regard to the manners and customs of 

 the prehistoric races of the world, any hint, however slight, 

 being eagerly seized upon to assist in increasing our knowl- 

 edge in this direction. The peculiarities of the skeletons are, 

 of course, well known from the remains extant, the bones re- 

 sisting the ordinary agencies of destruction. So with the 

 greater portion of the implements and utensils used by these 

 people, whether of wood, bone, stone, or metal. The case is 

 quite different, however, in so far as human lineaments are 

 concerned, the instances of corpses preserved, with the flesh 

 and the skin in a better or worse state, being very rare ; but 

 when occasionally these are found, clothed, in exceptionally 

 secure resting-places, the record of their discovery is eager- 

 ly scanned. 



Quite lately, in excavating a tumulus of the bronze period 

 in Jutland, Denmark, three oaken coffins were met with. In 

 one was found a skeleton of a woman clothed in a woolen 

 chemise with a long skirt. Around the loins was a girdle, 



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