1865.] Kett on Prehistoric History. 255 



trace, dwelling about the Cornish mines, or perhaps by some revival 

 of the old metallurgic arts that they had half forgotten, the metals 

 from which they formed arms of far greater power and beauty than 

 they had hitherto possessed, and with the accession of strength which 

 these gave them, some portion of the tribe returned to the Continent 

 reinvigorated ; they infused fresh spirit into Northern Gaul and con- 

 quered the Cimbric, and then the Scandinavian, peninsulas. This 

 seems a probable explanation of some facts which it appears otherwise 

 difficult to connect. 



We may believe, then, at all events, with regard to our own island, 

 that the Bronze Age brought no new race, and we may be prej>ared to 

 find that no immediate variation took place in style of dwelling or of 

 tomb, nor even in the implements of warfare and of industry, any 

 further than the introduction of a useful and at the same time expensive 

 material, caused a general improvement in all the comforts and 

 exigencies of life. The stone celt formed at first the model for the 

 metallic, but gradually, step by step, appliances, not producible with 

 the old material, were introduced. A thin flange of metal to secure 

 the blade to the handle converts the celt into a palstaff. A loop of 

 the metal (as in Fig. 8) serves to give the gut or tendon a firmer pur- 

 chase in tying on the shaft. At last the celt was made hollow to 

 receive a staff in its socket. 



Bronze swords must have been very different weapons from any- 

 thing that preceded them, as only bone could have been used for this 

 purpose before. In many cases we find these of great elegance (see 

 Plate) ; the blade was in the shape of the spear-wort leaf, taj)ering 

 towards the hilt, bulging as it nears the tip, adding, as beauty implies 

 utility, weight to the point of percussion. The potter's wheel soon 

 came into fashion, the ware was better baked ; attempts were made to 

 imitate natural objects in the decorations, and regular mechanical 

 ornamentation took the place of the old thumb-nail pattern. Needles 

 could be made more delicate, ornamental hair-pins and brooches were 

 more finely wrought, netting and even crochet were not unknown ; 

 fruits, such as apples * and plums, were split and dried for winter use. 

 These were some of the improvements observable in the Bronze Age. 

 A careful study of the relics in the British Museum, and the Plates in 

 the Papers of Drs. Troyon and Keller, and in the Catalogues of the 

 Royal Irish Academy Museum, of the Museum of Northern Antiqui- 

 ties at Copenhagen, and in Lindenschmidt's ' Heathen Antiquities,' 

 would well repay the trouble it might occasion, by the clearness with 

 which it would bring the condition of our ancestors before us. 



Concerning the Iron Age, less need be said than about the former 

 periods. We are now verging closer on history. j On the Continent 



* In the last No. of the ' Quarterly Journal of Science,' p. 85, will be found a 

 list, prepared by Professor Heer, of the plants discovered in connection with the 

 Swiss lake-dwellings. 



t It has been supposed by some of the Northern anticpuarians that in Norway, 

 where iron is so abundant and in a form easily worked (magnetite ore accom- 

 panied by common fluxes) that an Iron Age, to which no relics have as yet been 

 definitely assigned, preceded the Bronze era. 



