MORLOT — SOME GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCHiEOLOGT. 
53 
ratus was in this manner dispensed with — an important fact when we 
come to consider how much its use comphcates the metallurgical 
operations, because it implies the appHcation of mechanics. Thus, 
certain tribes in Southern Africa, although manufacturing iron and 
working it tolerably well, have not achieved the construction of our 
common kitchen-bellows, apparently so simple : they blow laboriously 
through a tube, or by means of a bladder affixed to it. 
The Romans produced iron by the so-called CataJonian process, and 
the remains of Roman works of that description have been discovered 
and investigated in Upper Camiola, Austria.* The Catalonian 
forge is stUl used in the Pyrenees, where it yields tolerable results ; 
but it consumes a large quantity of charcoal, requires much wind, 
aaid is only to be applied to pure ore containing but a very smaU pro- 
portion of earthy matter, producing scorise. The process, in fact, con- 
sists in a mere reduction, with a soldering and welding together of 
the reduced particles, without the metal properly melting. Accord- 
ing to the manner in which the operation is conducted, bar-iron or 
steel are obtained at will. This direct method dispenses vrith the inter- 
mediate production of cast-iron, which was unknown to the ancients, 
and which is now the means of producing iron on a great scale. 
Silver accompanied the introduction of iron into Europe — at least, 
in the northern parts ; whilst gold was already known during the 
bronze-age. This is natural, for gold is generally found as a pure 
metal, while silver has usually to be extracted from different kinds of 
ore, by more or less compHcated metallurgical operations — for 
example, cupellation. 
With iron appeared also, for the first time in Europe, glass, coined 
money — that powerful agent of commerce, — and finally the alphabet, 
which, as the money of intelligence, vastly increases the activity and 
circulation of thought,t and is sufficient of itself to characterize a 
new and wonderful era of progress. From thence we can date the 
da^vn of history and of science, in particular of astronomy. 
* Jahrbuch der K. K. Geologischen Eeichsanstalt. 'Vienna, 1850, vol. ii., p. 
199. Carinthia and Upper Camiolia formed part of the Eoman province 
Noricum, celebrated for its ii'on. 
+ " The circiilation of ideas is for the mind what the circulation of specie is 
for commerce — a true source of wealth." C. V. de Bonstetten. "L'homme du 
midi et l'homme du Nord." Geneva, 1826, p. 175. 
