230 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Sept. 



up by small projecting or slightly raised portions of the decomposing 

 copper which have forced their way through the porous and unequal 

 plate of gold. This gold is of lightish hue, and probably contains 

 silver, but not in any quantity, as the hardness shews. The quantity 

 which could be obtained without greatly injuring the ornament, was 

 far too small to ascertain the proportions. 



The thin plate of gold, and the copper one on which it is laid are 

 quite distinct, and can with a little care, be separated in small pieces. 

 The question naturally arises how was this made ? By what pro- 

 cess was this thin plate of a precious metal, so ingeniously laid 

 over the core of a cheap material, to produce so excellent an 

 effect ? The two are remarkably well joined, and the workmanship 

 would do no discredit to an excellent jeweller of the present day. In 

 modern practice, the solution of the question would be extremely 

 simple. Such a plate or thin layer of gold would be thrown down 

 by electrie deposition, and then the whole burnished up. But we can 

 scarcely suppose that the principles of electro-metallurgy were known 

 to the constructors of these Cromlechs, and some simpler process 

 must have been, I think, used. I believe myself that this process was 

 nothing more than the attachment of the thin plate of actual gold by 

 continued pressure and working it into the surface of the metallic cop- 

 per beneath. The native metallurgists who to this day produce such a 

 durable work in the inlaying of gold, &c, use no other means of 

 attachment ; the gold is simply applied and punched or pressed into the 

 incised pattern, and subsequently burnished up. And in the present 

 case, I believe, no other means were adopted, but that the gold, in all 

 probability in the state in which it was obtained, was simply applied 

 to the surface of the copper core, and forcibly pressed into contact with 

 it, and actually into it. The softness of the copper, and the irregu- 

 larity of it, resulting from the admixture of little impurities, would 

 admit of quit*', a sufficient intermixture of the surfaces of the two 

 metals to cause very complete adhesion. I am the more disposed to 

 think this was the process adopted, by seeing, that there his 

 been a failure to produce an even, good surface, precisely at those 

 points where this pressure or force could be least conveniently appl 

 For instance, on the surface of the narrow cut or slit passing from the 

 centre to ad^e of the disc, and on the raised curved surface of the edge 



