44 Dr J. W. Dawson on the A7itiquity of Man. 



the latter in very small quantity : the mines of Saxony do 

 not seem to have been known till the middle ages. We 

 must further consider that tin ore is a substance not me- 

 tallic in appearance, and little likely to attract the atten- 

 tion of savages ; and that, as we gather from a hint of Pliny, 

 it was probably first observed, in the west at least, as stream 

 tin, in the Spanish gold washings. Lastly, when we place 

 in connection with these considerations, the fact that in 

 the earliest times of which we have certain knowledge, the 

 tin trade of Spain and England was monopolised by the 

 Phoenicians, there seems to be a strong probability that the 

 extension of the trade of this nation to the western Medi- 

 terranean, really inaugurated the bronze period. The only 

 valid argument against this, is the fact that moulds and 

 other indications of native bronze casting have been found 

 in Switzerland, Denmark, and elsewhere ; but these show 

 nothing more than that the natives could recast bronze 

 articles, just as the American Indians can forge fish-hooks 

 and knives out of nails and iron hoops. Other considera- 

 tions might be adduced in proof of this view, but the limits 

 of our article will not permit us to refer to them. The 

 important questions still remain : when was this trade com- 

 menced, and how rapidly did it extend itself from the sea- 

 coast across Europe ? The British tin trade must have been 

 in existence in the time of Herodotus, though his notion of 

 the locality was not more definite than that it was in the 

 extremity of the earth. The Phoenician settlements in the 

 western Mediterranean must have existed as early as the 

 time of Solomon, when " ships of Tarshish" was the general 

 designation of sea-going ships for long voyages. Hoav long- 

 previously these colonies existed we do not know ; but con- 

 sidering the great scarcity and value of tin in those very 

 ancient times, we may infer that perhaps only the Spanish, 

 and not the British, deposits were known thus early ; or that 

 the Phoenicians had only indirect access to the latter. 

 Perhaps we may fix the time when these traders were able 

 to supply the nations of Europe with abundance of bronze 

 in exchange for their products, at, say 1000 to 1200 B.C., as 

 the earliest probable period ; and probably from one to two 

 centuries would be a sufiicient allowance for the complete 



