CHAP. XL] TIN-STONE ASSOCIATED WITH GOLD. 401 



lumps and grains, scattered through the loam, sand, 

 and gravel which constitute the stream -works. It is 

 readily recognised by its great weight. Very frequently 

 it is found along with gold in the stream -works, 

 and to this association is probably due its early dis- 

 covery by man. Gold, from its brilliant colour and 

 indestructibility, must have been the first metal to 

 catch the eye of man, and when it was once sought 

 by the simple process of washing, the heavy tin-stone 

 would be left behind along with it. In the course of 

 time the true nature of tin-stone was probably revealed 

 by accident, and before the eye of the astonished be- 

 holder the dull stone flung into the fire became trans- 

 figured into the glittering metal. The ease with which 

 this can be done with the rudest appliances is shown 

 by the processes which Mr. J. A. Phillips observed in 

 1856, at Zamora in Spain, and which are probably a 

 survival into our own times of the most ancient mode 

 of reducing the ore. 1 



1 This account, which has been prepared for me by the kindness of 

 Mr. J. A. Phillips, forms an interesting contribution to the history of 

 metallurgy. 



"In the year 1856 I visited the province of Zamora, where, in a 

 hamlet near San Martin, I met with a family occupied in treating tin-ores 

 on their own account. 



" The children, of whom there were several, collected rich shode stones 

 of tin-oxide from the surface of neighbouring ploughed fields, and brought 

 them in a reed-basket to a rough open shed or hovel ; here they were 

 broken with a hammer upon a big stone, and the extraneous matter was 

 roughly picked out. 



" The furnace, which was lined with clay resulting from the decom- 

 position of granite, was a cylinder ten inches in diameter, and about two 

 feet in depth, situated in the middle of a cubic yard of rough masonry 

 constructed without mortar. 



" In the centre of the top of this was the opening of the furnace, and 

 on the side towards the prevailing wind a screen of masonry was built to 



2 D 



