THE BRONZE AXE. 227 



present time. ' It's an ill wind that blows nobody good.' 

 Probably the inhabitants of Herculaneum and Pompeii 

 had very little notion what valuable relics their bodies 

 and houses would prove in the end for curious posterity. 



The converse evidence of a return trade in other goods 

 is no less striking. Not only are articles in amber 

 found in Bronze Age tombs all over Europe (though the 

 gum itself belongs to the Baltic and the North Sea 

 alone), but also gold objects of southern workmanship 

 occur in British barrows ; while sometimes even ivory 

 from Africa is noticed in the inlaid handles of some 

 Welsh or Brigantian chieftain's sword. Glass beads were 

 likewise imported into Britain, as were also ornaments 

 of Egyptian porcelain. In fact, the Bronze Age clearly 

 marks for us the period when trade routes extended in 

 every direction from the Mediterranean, north and south, 

 and when the world began to be commercially solidified 

 by a primitive theory of foreign exchange. It is a little 

 odd that the basis of all this traffic was tin, and that we 

 still use the name of that same metal as a brief equivalent 

 for coin in general : but persons of serious economical or 

 philological intelligence are particularly requested not to 

 enter into grave correspondence with the author of this 

 paper on any possible levity which they may detect 

 lurking in this innocent remark. 



Some small idea of the rapid advance in civilization 

 which marked the Bronze Age may perhaps be formed 

 from a brief enumeration of the principal classes of 

 remains which have come down to us intact from that 

 first epoch of metal. Besides all the various celts, 

 hatchets, and adzes, whose name is legion, and whose 



Q 2 



