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little claim to be considered as the seal of the Abbey of St. Mary, 

 York. It has never been found attached to any ancient deed of this 

 Abbey. That which is exhibited by Drake was appended to a deed 

 of 13 Edw. IV. A cast, presented at this Meeting by Mr. Davies, 

 and considerably more perfect, was derived from an ancient deed of 

 the Abbey, found in the records of the Duchy of Lancaster. Mr. 

 Wellbeloved, from all these circumstances, concluded that this had 

 been the common seal of the Abbey, during the whole period of its 

 existence, and that the matrix presented by Mr. Dalton had no claim 

 to be considered as the seal of the Abbey of St. Mary, York. 



Mr. Procter read a paper on the Archaeology of Bronze. After 

 noticing the division of the prehistoric times, made by the Scandina- 

 vian antiquaries, into the stone and bronze periods, he observed on 

 the importance of metallurgy in connection with the history of civiliza- 

 tion. Its commencement indeed is lost in the earliest antiquity, but 

 the remains of art in Egypt, Babylon and Nineveh indicate an 

 advanced state of metallurgic skill. Copper took the lead of iron, 

 and attempts were early made to give it additional hardness, by mixing 

 it with other metals. By alloying it with tiu, bronze is produced, the 

 hardest of the compounds of copper ; and as bronze has been found 

 among the remains of the ancient Assyrians and Egyptians, it is evident 

 that the use of tin was known to them. This metal is easily fusible, 

 and appears on the surface in the detritus of primitive rocks ; so that 

 it would be early discovered and easily worked. Cornwall and Spain 

 are the European countries in which it is most abundant ; in Asia it is 

 found in the island of Banca and the straits of Sumatra; it was 

 probable, however, as the Phoenicians had intercourse 1000 years B. C. 

 with western Europe, that it was thence the Egyptians and Assyrians 

 derived the tin which went to form their bronze. Copper is a metal 

 found in great abundance, sometimes even native ; but though the 

 aboriginal Americans are said to have been in possession of the secret 

 of giving it a temper equal to bronze, yet it is in fact too soft for 

 cutting instruments, and hence the necessity for an admixture. A 

 question had been raised whether the bronze objects so generally found 

 in barrows, &c. were the manufacture of the countries in which they 

 were found, or diffused from some common centre. The analysis of 

 bronzes shows considerable differences in their composition, and in 

 nearly every country in which they have been found, moulds have 

 also been found, whence the conclusion seems natural that these 

 articles were manufactured there, and not imported. Mr. Procter 



