CHAP. II. BRITAIN. 107 



ing the tin in Britain ; but that must have been 

 included, if he performed his promise, among the 

 other valuable works of that author which have 

 been lost : but perhaps the process here pointed 

 out may be the same, or nearly the same, as 

 Polybius intended to communicate. 



We are informed by Diodorus \ " that the 

 people of Balerium (Cornwall), from their inter- 

 course with merchants, were more civilized and 

 courteous to strangers than the other inhabitants 

 of Britain. These people dig the tin out of the 

 ground with much care and labour ; but the 

 metal is mixed with earth, out of which they 

 draw it by melting. They beat it into four- 

 square pieces like a die, and carry it to a British 

 island near at hand called Ictis. Then the 

 merchants transport the tin they buy of the inha- 

 bitants to France, and during a journey of thirty 

 days carry it in packs on the backs of horses 

 through that country to the mouth of the river 

 Rhone." 



1 Diod. book v. cap. 2. 



