404 EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. [CHAP. xi. 



168, T.) According to M. de Mortillet, the Cassiterides l 

 of the ancients are to be sought rather in the islands off 



FIG. 155. Bronze Palstave, Tin Mine, Villeder, f. 



the coast of Brittany than in the Scilly Isles, in Corn- 

 wall, or on the west of the Iberian peninsula. 



The Iberian peninsula was undoubtedly, as Mr. 

 Ho worth 2 points out, one of the chief centres from 

 which the civilised peoples of the Mediterranean were 

 supplied with tin. Pliny 3 tells us that tin-stone is 

 associated with gold in the stream-working of Galicia. 

 It may have been sought in the Bronze age in the 

 province of Asturias, since primitive tools are discovered 

 in the old workings. 4 It is picked up at the present 

 day, by the children in the fields, in the valley of the 

 Douro, and reduced by the peasants in the simple 

 manner recorded above. It abounds also in Portugal, 

 in the neighbourhood of Bragana, and in other localities. 

 (Fig. 168, T.) 



1 Those who are interested in the vexed question of the Cassiterides, 

 will find it ably discussed by M. Hans Hildebrand (Congr. Int. Archeol. 

 Prehist., Stockholm vol., p. 578. He follows Strabo in placing them in 

 the west of Spain. 



2 Howorth, Archaeology of Bronze. 3 xxxiv. 47. 



4 Busk, Int. Congress Archeol. Prehist., Norwich vol., p. 163. 



