116 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 



In recapitulation of jthe conclusions which I have been led to 

 as the result of this analysis of the facts recorded by the above- 

 quoted writers, the following may be enumerated :^— 



First. The great antiquity of the knowledge possessed by the 

 natives of India with reference to certain metallurgical processes, 

 is, I think, fairly established. The most notable of these is, un- 

 doubtedly, that by which tvootz or cast steel was manufactured. 

 Probably the method of refining gold which is mentioned in the 

 Ain-i-Akbari is also very old ; but we have no earlier record of it. 

 I question the accuracy of a statement made by Strabo, or at least 

 its applicability, even in his time, to the whole of India, where he 

 says, " The Indians, unacquainted with mining and smelting, are 

 ignorant of their own wealth." 



Second, Many ancient, long-forgotten mines, the names of which, 

 only, have survived in more or less archaic garbs, have, by the methods 

 here adopted, been identified with moderh sites. In most of these 

 cases geological evidence has established these conclusions, and in 

 some instances they have been further ratified by local traditions 

 acquired as the result of personal inquiries. 



Third. Several fables of world-wide notoriety have been shown 

 to have had their origin m facts connected with 'customs which were 

 formerly little understood, but, being still in practice, are now sus- 

 ceptible of close examination a-nd explanation. 



Speaking generally, I venture to believe that I have in this 

 Paper placed within the reach of historians a number of facts that 

 serve to elucidate several subjects hitherto manifestly puzzling to 

 those unacquainted with the results which have been arrived at 

 by the systematic examination of the Greology of India. 



