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by the Romans themselves, this much is certain, that the birth 
of our iron manufactures may be dated from about that time. 
This appears demonstrated by the fact that ancient beds of 
iron scoriae have been discovered, in which Roman coins 
have been found. These beds of scoriae are met with in 
many parts of the country, more especially in England, in 
the neighbourhood of Birmingham and Sheffield, and are 
chiefly interesting as being so many relics which point out 
to the inquirer the precise spots where once the metallurgic 
art was practised ; and, it may be, occasionally indicating to 
us the existence in their vicinity of stores of mineral treasure 
which, during the lapse of centuries, have been forgotten, or 
the working of which may have been abandoned from a 
scarcity of the particular fuel at that time deemed necessary 
for the reduction of the metal from its ore. 
The object of the present communication is very briefly 
to direct attention to the existence of a bed of ancient 
scoriae, which was discovered by me during the autumn of 
last year, at Lochgoilhead, a small village situated at the 
northern extremity of Lochgoil, in the western Highlands 
of Scotland. One day I chanced to pick up a small piece 
of a heavy, dark-coloured slag from amongst the protruding 
roots of some trees growing in an unfrequented part of a 
wood, near the shores of the Loch, and at the base of one of 
the mountains, the rugged slope of which is covered with 
large square masses of rock, and is known as " Argyle's 
Bowlino- Green." The occurrence of this relic of industrial 
art in a situation so far removed from any existing blast 
furnaces, led me, in conjunction with my friend Dr. 
Stevenson Macadam, to make a closer investigation of the 
neighbouring ground, near which the first specimen had been 
picked up. We were not long in discovering, at the depth 
of a few inches beneath the surface soil — now thickly covered 
with brushwood — great quantities of the slag, as also small 
portions of charcoal which had doubtless been the fuel 
employed in smelting the iron. Pieces of stone were like- 
wise observed, which, from their calcined appearance, had 
