in Brigantia and other parts of Britain. 257 



the subsequent melting with charcoal, or a flux, be facilitated. 

 Indeed without roasting, and without flux in many cases, the 

 lead will flow out of the ore, if placed among flaming wood or 

 peat, and subjected to a sufficient stream of air. 



But the use of fluxes could not long remain unknown in the 

 limestone districts of Norihumbria, or amid the fluoric veins 

 of Derbyshire — limestone and fluor being to this day valuable 

 aids in the furnace. Peat was the fuel in Cornwall, and still 

 is in Yorkshire; and perhaps the Roman smelters did really 

 erect their furnaces on waste ground and heaths at Dacre and 

 Matlock, far from the mines of Greenhow and Youlgreave, 

 even as is done at present with the cupolas of Lee and Langley 

 mills. 



The use of crucibles ['xpavoi)^ bellows, cavities of some pe- 

 culiar sort {Ka/jiLvoi), perhaps chimneys, great variety of car- 

 bonaceous fuel, the power of purifying and alloying, and 

 knowledge of the properties of alloys, appear quite conspicu- 

 ous among the ancient arts. 



The inscriptions * on these masses of lead are in the same 

 general form as the * marks ' of the different mines now in 

 work, and which, no doubt, are their literal and line.al descend- 

 ants. Thus the Aid or Auld Gang mine of Swaledale, old in 

 the days of the Saxons ; the mines of Greenhow Hill, which 



* The following inscriptions have been recorded on pigs of lead obtained 

 from British mines during the Roman sway in Britain. It will be remarked 

 that they belong to early imperial times. 



IMP. CAES. DOMITIANO. AVG. C. C. S-VII. Found at Hagshaw 

 Moor, Dacre Pasture, near Pately Bridge, Yorkshire, in 1734. 



A Roman pig of lead, weighing 126 lbs., was found on Cromford Moor, 

 near Matlock, in the year 1777, having the following inscription in raised 

 letters on the top : 



IMP. CAES. HADRIANI. AVG. MET. LVT. 



A second was discovered near Matlock in 1783. It weighed 84 lbs,, and 

 was 19 inches long at the top, and 22 at the bottom. Its width at the top 

 was 31 inches, and at the bottom 4^. The inscription appears to contain 

 these letters : 



L. ARVCONI. VERECVND. METAL. LVTVD. 



A third, with the inscription also in raised letters on the top, was found on 

 Matlock Moor in the year 1787. It weighs 173 lbs., and was 17| inches 

 in length, and at bottom 20|. 



TI. CL. TR. LVT. BR. EX. ARG. 



Glover's Derbyshire, vol. i. p. 71,72. 



A fourth is stated to have been found at Castleton, on which only the 

 letters IMP could be read distinctly. It was said by Mr. Mawe to be pre- 

 served in the museum of Mr. Green at Lichfield. 



Sir R. I. Murchison records a Roman pig of lead (from the Shelve mines 

 in Shropshire probably), bearing the inscription, IMP. ADRIANI. AVG. 

 (Sil. Syst., p. 279.) This pig is said to be unlike the modern pig. 



Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 34-. No. 229. April 1849. S 



