On Iron and Iron-slag, &c, by Mr. James Hardy. 263 



make the statement, because in estimating the probable age, 

 when rude simple tombs of the nature of the one in question 

 were constructed, it is of some value to know in what man- 

 ner modern materials of yesterday, might get intermixed with 

 the very old and primitive relics of a departed people, and 

 become productive of grievous misconceptions. 



But the association of slags with the barrow may admit 

 of another construction, which after all may be the more 

 correct. The mere accident of iron-slag in a barrow is not 

 proof positive that the existence of the malleable metal was 

 a coeval fact. In the case now under consideration, there 

 is an unsuspected reason for the presence of slags, owing to 

 the drift which overspreads the lower Cheviots, containing 

 fragments of red hematite. There is a good example of this 

 in the south-western bank of the Harehope camp, a mile or 

 two south from Yeavering, where I collected near some 

 rabbit burrows many fair specimens of the pure ore ; which 

 also crops out in several ravines among those hills. Should 

 any of this ore have become an accidental constituent in 

 the soil on the spot where cremation of the dead was prac- 

 tised, it would be liable to melt, wholly or partially ; the 

 bones of the carcase as well as those cast in from the funeral 

 feast, acting as a flux. I know several instances of this. In 

 my own neighbourhood, within the circuit of a ploughed-out 

 British camp, iron clinkers, which have been produced 

 under the sites of ancient fire-places, where bones and sea- 

 shells have been roasted or burned, can readily be collected 

 in quantity. The slags are also disseminated throughout 

 the neighbouring field, and whenever I observe them, I 

 infer that hut-circles had existed not far off in pre-historic 

 epochs. These clinkers were owing to the great heat having 

 partially smelted a coarse red hematite, occasionally present 

 in some layers of marly, old red sandstone, subjacent to the 

 subsoil. Both are curious examples of the frequency with 

 which these old people must have almost approached the 

 brink of discovering metallic iron, without having the 

 capacity to interpret what must have been a familiar 

 phenomenon. 



Some years preceding the excavations on Yeavering, a 

 bronze tripod, or pot, was dug out in one of the low fields 

 on the farm by some workmen casting drains. It was for 

 some time in possession of the tenant, but where now 

 deposited I have not ascertained. These tripods are not 



