COPPER. TIN. IRON. O 



Lake Superior and elsewhere, and hammered it at once into 

 axes, bracelets, and other objects. 



Tin also early attracted notice, probably on account of the 

 great heaviness of its ores. When metals were very scarce, it 

 would naturally sometimes happen that, in order to make up 

 the necessary quantity, some tin would be added to copper, 

 or vice versa. It would then be found that the properties of 

 the alloy were quite different from those of either metal, and 

 a very few experiments would determine the most advan- 

 tageous proportions, which are about nine parts of copper to 

 one part of tin. No implements or weapons of tin, have yet 

 been found in Europe, and those of copper are extremely 

 rare, whence it has been inferred that the advantage of com- 

 bining the two metals was known elsewhere, before the use of 

 either was introduced into Europe. Many of the so-called 

 "copper axes," etc., contain a small proportion of tin ; and 

 the few exceptions indicate probably a mere temporary want, 

 rather than a total ignorance of this metal. 



The ores of iron, though more abundant, are much less 

 striking than those of copper or tin. Moreover, though they 

 are perhaps more easily reduced, the metal, when obtained, is 

 much less tractable than bronze. This valuable alloy can 

 very easily be cast, and, in fact, all the weapons and imple- 

 ments made of it in olden times, were cast in moulds of sand 

 or stone. The art of casting iron, on the other hand, was 

 unknown until a comparatively late period. 



In the writings of the early poets, iron is frequently charac- 

 terised by the epithet TroXvAy^To?, and its adjective, a-i&tfpeos, 

 is used metaphorically to imply the greatest stubbornness. 



While, however, these facts tend very much to remove the 

 d priori improbability that a compound and comparatively 

 expensive material like bronze, should have been in general 

 use before such a common metal as iron, we must, of course, 

 seek elsewhere for evidence of the fact. 



