32 SIMILARITY OF 



has been hitherto found in Europe, while those of copper are 

 extremely rare. Hungary and Ireland, indeed, have been sup- 

 posed to form partial exceptions to this rule. The geographical 

 position of the former country is probably a sufficient explana- 

 tion; and as far as Ireland is concerned, it may perhaps be 

 worth while to examine how far that country really forms an 

 exception. In the great Museum at Dublin there are 725 celts 

 and celt-like chisels, 282 swords and daggers, and 276 lances, 

 javelins, and arrow-heads; yet out of these 1283 weapons 

 only 30 celts and one sword-blade are said to be of pure 

 copper.* I say " are said to be/' because they have not been 

 analysed, but are supposed to be copper only from the " phy- 

 sical properties and ostensible colour of the metal :" indeed 

 one of these very celts, which was analysed by Mr. Mallet, 

 was found to contain a small percentage of tin. It is pos- 

 sible that for some of the purposes to which celts were 

 applied, copper may have been nearly as useful as bronze, 

 and at any rate it might sometimes have happened that from 

 a deficiency of tin, some implements would be made of 

 copper only. 



Taking these facts into consideration, Ireland certainly 

 does not appear to present any strong evidence of an age of 

 copper, while no one has ever pretended to find either there, 

 or any where else in Europe, a trace of any separate use 

 of tin.* 



Sir W. R. Wilde himself admits it to be "remarkable that 

 so few antique copper implements have been found, although 

 a knowledge of that metal must have been the preliminary 

 stage in the manufacture of bronze." He thinks, however, 

 that " the circumstance may be accounted for, either by sup- 

 posing that but a short time elapsed between the knowledge 



* One even of these is with good f It was sometimes used for purposes 

 reason considered by Dr. Wilde to be of ornamentation, but that does not of 

 an American specimen. course affect the present argument. 



