216 IRON 



The difficulty of carrying such a heavy substance as iron 

 ore long distances is very great ; still, it is to be hoped that 

 in the future this difficulty will be overcome and that our 

 own Dominions, especially Newfoundland, will be able to send 

 us large supplies. 



CHAPTER XVII 

 METALS (continued) 



TIN (A.S. tin, Latin stannum). Opposite Penzance, sur- 

 rounded at high tide with the brilliant blue sea of the Cornish 

 Riviera, but at low tide joined to the mainland, stands the 

 little hill called St. Michael's Mount, whither in ancient days 

 the merchants brought their tin for sale. 



' They prepare tin, working the earth which yields it with 

 great skill. . . . After casting this into the form of cubes they 

 carry it to a certain island adjoining Britain called Ikiis. 

 During the ebb of the tide the space intervening is left dry, 

 and they transport large quantities of tin to this place in their 

 carts. From hence, then, the merchants buy tin from the 

 natives and carry it into Gaul, and at last after travelling 

 through Gaul on foot for about thirty days they bring their 

 burdens on horseback to the mouth of the River Rhone.' l 



This export of tin continued through the centuries, and so 

 extensive did it become that in the fifteenth century we were 

 the chief tin-exporting country in Europe. The Black Prince 

 in the preceding century, we are told, paid his expenses in the 

 French wars from the proceeds of his tin mines in Cornwall 

 and Devonshire. 



But at the present time these mines do not supply us with 

 sufficient for our needs, and we have to buy it from abroad. 

 The country which stands foremost in the world's supply of 

 tin is the Malay Peninsula. Formerly two-thirds of all the tin 

 used in the world came from there ; now it produces about 

 one-half of the total supply. 



1 Diodorus Siculus (first century, B.C.), quoted by Archibald Williams, 



