60 Mr R. Edmonds jun. on the Fragments of a 



Museum of Economic Geology, has been so kind as to analyze a 

 small portion of the metal, the following being the result : — 



Weight, before analysis, 25 grains. 



Gre. 



Copper, 18-0 



Tin, 2'2b 



Iron, 1-0 



Loss, as carbonic acid and oxygen — the copper ^ 



being partially in the state of carbonate, and I 3*0 

 much of the tin in oxide, . . . j 



Earthy matter, 0*75 



25-0 



The supposition that these remains have been buried for at least 

 2000 years, and that the sand has occupied all that period in cover- 

 ing them to their present depth, agrees with my suggestion to the 

 Royal Geological Society of Cornwall, in 1846, respecting the origin 

 of our sand-hillocks ; which appear to have proceeded from the sands 

 drifted from the sea-shore by violent winds, and to have been " for 

 the most part accumulated imperceptibly upon a continuously grow- 

 ing vegetable surface, the deposits during a single storm being too 

 slight to cover the herbage or to check its growth, except occasion- 

 ally when they were sufficiently copious to bury it almost entirely." 

 These very ancient ruins, therefore, with the fragments of a bronze 

 vessel, the broken ancient pottery, the abundance of ashes, charcoal, 

 and slag, all covered by the sands of many centuries, appear to in- 

 dicate the very spot where, as Diodorus relates, the tin was purified 

 previous to its conveyance in carts to the neighbouring island during 

 the recesses of the tide. 



Another argument has suggested itself in favour of this conclu- 

 sion ; the merchants who first purchased the ores and purified them 

 for sale are generally supposed to have been Jews ; indeed, the rude 

 smelting-pits, containing the dross of tin and charcoal, which are oc- 

 casionally found in Cornwall, and were no doubt commonly used prior 

 to the erection of any general smelting establishment, are every- 

 where called Jews' houses.* There is, too, a tradition, that our 

 stream-works were " first wrought by the Jews with pickaxes of 

 holm, box, and hartshorn," tools frequently " found amongst the 

 rubble of such works ;f but as soon as the natives had acquired the 



* The practice, " was to dig a hole in the ground and throw the tin ore on 

 a charcoal fire, which probably was excited by a bellows." This was attended 

 with " an undue consumption of fuel and a great loss in the produce of the ores, 

 as the more stubborn parts would not give way to that degree of heat which by 

 this method they were able to apply." To this cause principally Pryce ascribes 

 the destruction of our woods. {Pryce $ Mincralogia Coniuhicnfis, p. iiSl.) 



t Carew's Survey of Cornwall, p. 2<). ISJorden, p. 12. " Scawen in his MS. 



