596 REPORT—1899. 
found at Gurob, which dates back about 1450 B.c. On analysing this it 
was found that some particles of the unreduced black oxide were dispersed 
through the metal. 
Report B. 
IT have made a careful analysis of the metallic rod from the Glaston- 
bury village, both microscopically and chemically. For the purpose of 
gaining an insight into the interior of the main portion, I have bored a 
hole halfway through at about the middle of the rod, and a smaller one 
at about a quarter of an inch from one of the bronze terminals. They 
both revealed a central core of metallic tin covered by a very hard, but 
somewhat brittle, crust ; in the first case, about one-eighth of an inch 
thick, and in the second about one-twelfth. This inner core gave on 
analysis 98-5 per cent. of tin. It may therefore be considered a very pure 
specimen of that metal. 
The crust of the products of oxidation exhibited under the microscope 
great varieties of the oxides of tin, varying from semicrystalline pale 
yellow pieces, to amber, reddish brown, and nearly black groups of minute 
crystals. A portion analysed gave 85 per cent. of the oxide of tin, small 
quantities of other mineral matter, about 5 per cent. of gold, and some 
4 per cent. of combined water. All appearances indicate that this crust 
has resulted from the slow oxidation of the tin rod in a marshy soil. As 
no gold could be found in the interior tin, it is probable that the rod was 
originally gilded in part or whole, and that the gold found in the crust 
was due to this. One of the striking features of this crust is the number 
of irregular longitudinal cracks, in some of which there is metal which 
appears to have been squeezed up from below. This is doubtless due to 
the gradual oxidation of the tin under the crust that was first formed. 
As the oxide of tin occupies a much larger bulk than the metal from 
which it is made, there must have been a great pressure from within, and 
this has burst the outer crust just as the growth of many tree stems causes 
the bark to split. Another feature is that the external crust is pitted 
with a large number of little crater-like depressions, commonly of about 
one-twelfth of an inch in diameter, but some very minute, and others 
attaining to the size of a quarter of aninch. This does not appear to be 
due to any external cause, but rather to the tendency of the oxide of tin 
to arrange itself in this form. 
The terminal pieces have been made of bronze ; but at least two differ- 
ent qualities have been employed. They are also much corroded and rent 
by fissures. A piece of the alloy pretty well separated from the disinte- 
grated crust gave on analysis 
Abb alee ‘ ° ‘ . 15:5 per cent 
Copper. : " SEE OLe alas 
Oxygen, &c. 5 > eS 5 
It was, therefore, a bronze of no unusual composition, though with 
rather more than the average amount of tin. Into each of these terminals 
there seems to have been inserted a piece of bronze very much richer in 
tin, and which has been almost entirely oxidated. The tin has become 
cassiterite ; the copper is changed into the black oxide. It seems impos- 
sible from these decomposed bronzes to say with any accuracy what has 
been their original constitution. In the case of one piece taken from th¢ 
