ADDRESS. 7 



chronological sequence of theae coins, the evolution of their types— a pro- 

 cess almost as remarkable, and certainly as well-defined, as any to be 

 found in nature — has served as an efficient guide. I may venture to add 

 that the results obtained from the study of the morphology of this series 

 of coins were published ten years before the appearance of Darwin's great 

 work on the 'Origin of Species.' 



When we come to the consideration of the relics of the Early Iron 

 and Bronze Ages, the aid of Chemistry has of necessity to be invoked. 

 By its means we are able to determine whether the iron of a tool or 

 weapon is of meteoritic or volcanic origin, or has been reduced from iron- 

 ore, in which case considerable knowledge of metallurgy would be involved 

 on the part of those who made it. With bronze antiquities the nature 

 and extent of the alloys combined with the copper may throw light not 

 only on their chronological position, but on the sources whence the copper, 

 tin, and other metals of which they consist were originally derived. I am 

 not aware of there being sufficient differences in the analyses of the native 

 copper from different localities in the region in which we are assembled, 

 for Canadian Archaeologists to fix the sources from which the metal was 

 obtained which was used in the manufacture of the ancient tools and 

 weapons of copper that are occasionally discovered in this part of the 



globe. 



Like Chemistry, Mineralogy and Petrology may be called to the 

 assistance of Archseology in determining the nature and source of the 

 rocks of which ancient stone implements are made ; and, thanks to 

 researches of the followers of those sciences, the old view that all such 

 implements formed of jade and found in Europe must of necessity have 

 been fashioned from material imported from Asia can no longer be main- 

 tained. In one respect the Archaeologist differs in opinion from the 

 Mineralogist— namely, as to the propriety of chipping off fragments from 

 perfect and highly finished specimens for the purpose of submitting them 

 to microscopic examination. 



I have hitherto been speaking of the aid that other sciences can afford 

 to Archaeology when dealing with questions that come almost, if not quite, 

 within the fringe of history, and belong to times when the surface of our 

 earth presented much the same configuration as regards the distribution of 

 land and water, and hill and valley, as it does at present, and when, in all 

 probability, the climate was much the same as it now is. When, how- 

 ever, we come to discuss that remote age in which we find the earUest 

 traces that are at present known of Man's appearance upon earth, the aid 

 of Geology and Palaeontology becomes absolutely imperative. 



The changes in the surface configuration and in the extent of the 

 land, especially in a country like Britain, as well as the modifications of 

 the fauna and flora since those days, have been such that the Archaeologist 

 pure and simple is incompetent to deal with them, and he must either 

 himself undertake the study of these other sciences or call experts in them 



