85 



necessities during peace and war of all the nations surrounding 

 the Mediterranean and Euxine, Baltic and German Ocean ; in 

 fact, the world, as distinctly known to the Roman geographers. 



Let us now inquire into the means whereby the antient people 

 reduced the metals which they were so earnest in seeking across 

 mountains and oceans at the point of the sword. To confine 

 the inquiry within reasonable limits, we shall speak chiefly of 

 Tin and Lead, the only metallic products, as it appears, which 

 were regarded by the antients as abundant in Britain. (Iron is 

 mentioned by Caesar as of limited occurrence.) 



Gold, the most widely if not most abundafntly distributed 

 metal — found near the surface of the earth, in a pure and 

 malleable state, easily fused, uninjured by fusion — was probably 

 the metallic substance on which the earliest processes of fire 

 were tried, and they could not be tried unsuccessfully. 



Tin, the ore of which has been found at the surface in many 

 situations with auriferous sand and gravel, cannot have been 

 long unknown to the gold finders of the East and the West. 

 Some one of the many accidents which may or rather must 

 have accompanied the melting of gold would disclose the 

 nature of the accompanying white metal, whose brilliance, 

 ductility, and very easy fusibility would soon give it value. 



The melting of Tin Ore is, however, a step in advance of the 

 fusion of Native Gold. The gold was fused in a crucible 

 (xxxiii. p. 617, Hard.) made of white clay,* which only could 

 stand the heat and the chemical actions which that generated : 

 but tin ore would in this way of operation prove totally infusi- 

 ble. It must be exposed at once to heat and a free carbonaceous 

 element. The easiest way of managing this is to try it on the 

 open hearth. Perhaps some accidental fire in the half-buried 

 bivouacs of the Damnonii may have yielded the precious 

 secret. As to the fuel, we are told that pine woods were best 

 for brass and iron. Hard, xxxiii. p. 621 ; but the Egyptian 

 papyrus was also used, and straw was the approved fuel for 

 gold. In the metalliferous country of Cornwall and Devon, 

 peat is plentiful, and an order of King John (1201) allows the 



* Sach as now called Cornish clay for example. 

 L 



