JBI. 63 



The occurrence of ornaments in barrows of the Bronze Age 

 affords evidence of the great antiquity of jet as a material used 

 for decorative purposes. 



Mr. Fox-Strangways has given an interesting account of the 

 references to jet in ancient literature : he quotes from the rolls of 

 "Whitby Abbey for 1394, and the following lines from Csedmon, who 

 died about 670 or 680, and was buried Ln Whitby Abbey : — 



" Jeat stone, almost a gemm, the Lybians find, 

 But fruitful Britain sends us wondrous kind ; 

 'T is black and shiny, smooth and ever light ; 

 'T will draw up straws, if rubbed till hot and bright ; 

 Oyl makes it cold, but water gives it heat." ^ 



Standing on the cliffs above "Whitby, on the Yorkshire coast, one 

 frequently notices a line of breakers parallel to the coast which 

 mark the position of a ledge of hard rook a short distance from the 

 coastline. This is the jet-rock of the Upper Lias series from 

 which the Whitby jet was obtained. The jet-rock crops out at 

 various localities in the neighbourhood of Whitby, and jet has 

 been worked in Eskdale, Darbydale, and in several of the other 

 dales that intersect the moorlands of East Yorkshire.^ In 

 TTie Organic Remains of a Former World, published in 1811, 

 Parkinson speaks of jet as Suceinum nigrum, a term used by 

 several ancient writers, and expresses the opinion that in some 

 cases jet was originally wood, as shown by its fibrous texture.' 

 In a work by Young, entitled A History of Whithy and 

 Streoneshalk Abbey, jet is described as a substance which " may 

 be properly classed with fossil wood, as it appears like wood in 

 a high state of bituminization." * Jet occurs in masses varying 

 from -I to 1 inch in thickness and from 3 to 18 inches broad, 

 occasionally reaching a length of 12 feet. Young also mentions 

 the occurrence of specimens of jet containing a core of silicified 

 wood. Similar specimens are described by Young & Bird, in their 

 volume on the Yorkshire coast, ° in which the jet itself forms 



^ Fox-Strangways (92), p. 455. 



^ Fox-Strangways, Reid, & Barrow (85), p. 18. 



' Parkinson (11), p. 232. 



4 Young (17), p. 783. 



'" Young & Bird (22), p. 188. 



