THE DAWN OF METALLURGY. 299 
proportion of that metal. With regard to the puzzling question as 
to how metals were first discovered and how it arose that the alloy 
of tin became afterwards so soon known, it has been suggested to 
me that in the stream tin deposits of Cornwall, &c., which were 
worked by the Pheenicians, and probably at an earlier date, rounded 
fragments of copper as well as tin are found in them. If it 
happened that such pebbles of stone and metal were heated for use 
as pot-boilers, i.e., thrown into holes in the ground, &c., for cooking 
purposes, it may very well have been noticed in the late Neolithic 
period that they both melted ; the discovery of the bronze alloy may _ 
then have quickly followed that of copper. 
Rey. F. A. Wanker, D.D., F.L.S.—In the highly interesting paper 
which we have had the privilege of listening to, a great deal has 
been said about Spain, and I think more about Spain than any 
other country in Europe, and also about smelting in Spain, and the 
links between Spain, Italy, and Greece, connected with metallurgy. 
It is rather a remarkable fact that in the present day, as regards 
the lead mines at Laurium, in the southernmost part of Attica, 
eleven out of the fifteen shafts now worked existed in ancient 
times; although I am not prepared to say, one way or the other, 
whether there are any signs of prehistoric metallurgy there still. 
Looking back through the centuries, we read how that when a pro- 
posal was made in the Athenian Assembly to divide the rich pro- 
ceeds of the mines at Laurium among the populace at the rate of a 
mina per head, Themistocles diverted his countrymen from their 
purpose, and by his urgent representations persuaded them to 
devote the money instead to building the fleet which subsequently 
stood them.in good stead against the Persians at.Salamis. We 
know too that a generation later Alcibiades had lead, and probably 
also silver, mines there. We are likewise aware that metal at 
Laurium now, instead of being smelted on the spot, is sent to the 
south of Spain; and it is the more remarkable when we consider 
how the people of many European nations are engaged there, either 
as day labourers or as possessing an interest in the proceeds of its 
mines. For example, the Scotch people and the Germans, two races 
closely corresponding as regards industry and frugality, who, one 
would think, would have every means of smelting it on the spot, at 
this late age, send the metal to Spain, as we have just been told they 
did in former time. The aspect of Laurium, with its vegetation of 
stone pines and undergrowth of cistus, &c., withered and blackened 
by the smoke, and its rows of dwellings for miners of different 
