ArchcBologia. 377 



two inches ; outside breadth, at "bottom thirty-two inches ; inside, 

 twenty-nine inches ; highest part of gunwale from edge of fiat bot- 

 tom, about eighteen inches. The interior structure presents still 

 more singular peculiarities. In the bow commences a series of 

 circular holes nearly opposite to one another, of about two inches 

 each in diameter, which are continued right through the bottom in 

 two rows, at intervals of about three feet asunder, until they reach 

 the stern, which is marked by a groove of about one inch deep and 

 four in width ; these holes are twenty-two in number while a few 

 inches sternward of these holes are two other large rows, pierced in 

 an oblique direction, and somewhat on what may have been the 

 water-line when the canoe was afloat. Eight of these holes still 

 retain plugs of pine in a perfectly sound "state. No marks of seats 

 or convenience for rowing or propelling the vessel are discoverable." 

 On Wednesday evening, November the 23rd, at the first 

 meeting of the season of the British Archasological Association, 

 Mr. Syer Cuming, the secretary, exhibited a collection of forgeries 

 of antiquities in bronze. They consisted of daggers, spear-heads, 

 and other objects, pretending to be of different dates, and made of 

 a mixed metal of little intrinsic worth, presenting to the sight the 

 appearance of a rather light- coloured bronze, but melting at a low 

 temperature. They are all represented as coming from the bed of 

 the Thames. These bronze forgeries appear to have been first made 

 only a few months ago. Early in the present year a bronze dagger, 

 in the style of the cinque cento period, having an ornamental handle 

 shaped in the form of a naked woman holding an apple in one hand, 

 was offered for sale, and was so cleverly executed as to deceive 

 several collectors. It was doubtful whether the female was intended 

 for Eve or for Yenus. We have seen more than one of them, ap- 

 parently all cast from the same mould, and each recommended by the 

 same story — namely, that it was drawn up from the mud of the Thames 

 in the course of the works for laying the foundations of the new 

 Westminster Bridge. This was a favourite story for some time with 

 the vendors of these forgeries. Before the appearance of the bronze 

 antiquities a quantity of very impudent forgeries in lead, especially 

 of medallions, which betrayed themselves at once by the inscriptions, 

 and especially by dates, which the forgers had rather imprudently 

 placed upon them. These were represented sometimes as being dug 

 up from the earth, and sometimes also as obtained from the Thames. 

 When people were made tolerably widely acquainted with these 

 forgeries, they were succeeded by the bronze daggers just alluded 

 to, and the success of the latter has caused a considerable extension 

 of this disgraceful traffic. The examples exhibited before the 

 Archasological Association were inferior in make to the daggers for- 

 merly offered, and would not for an instant deceive a practised eye. 

 It is very much to be regretted that some means cannot be found of 

 putting a stop to these mischievous practices, which are now 

 carried into almost all branches of archasology, and in some, as 

 especially in the forgery of flint implements, which has been carried 

 on to an extraordinary extent, they create much doubt and confusion 

 even in science itself. T. W. 



