22 Perry, Megalithic Monuments and Ancient Mines. 



external heat, or by embedding them. The metal was 

 refined in them in the same way as in Japan. They are 

 put in the ground and a fire is piled up over them and 

 urged by a blast. " In consequence of this mode of heat- 

 ing, the lower parts of these vessels will, it is evident, 

 bear little or no traces of the action of heat, although the 

 upper edge and interior may exhibit a semi-fused vesi- 

 cular structure, and this is precisely what we find in all 

 these early crucibles." 33 



The Japanese method of getting water out of a mine 

 is also, according to Professor Gowland, the same as that 

 employed in ancient European mines, the water being 

 baled into successive tanks. 34 



Professor Gowland has some very interesting remarks 

 about iron furnaces. The furnace which was used by the 

 ancient Egyptians, which was also used 60 years ago in 

 the Sudan, agrees " very closely with the Japanese furnace 

 for copper, tin, lead, and to which it is similar in form." 

 He goes on to say that " the furnace which was employed 

 by the Etruscans at a very early date, both in the island 

 of Elba and on the mainland, is very closely allied to the 

 furnaces of Kordofan .... that the Etruscan furnace had 

 its origin in Egypt does not at present admit of absolute 

 proof .... From metallurgical considerations only, we 

 would certainly be led to the inference that the Etruscans 

 had obtained their knowledge of the method of extracting- 

 the metal from that source." 



" Closely analogous to the ancient furnace of the 

 Etruscans, in fact, in its early form identical with it, is the 

 Catalan furnace of the Pyrensean region of the north of 

 Spain and the south of France, which has been in use 

 from very early times up to our own day. That it had an 



3 3 Ibid. 290. " 

 Si Ibid. 270. 



