Nature and Art, January 1, 1867.] 
ON TIN. 
15 
them to believe, were either then or soon after 
tempted to undertake a northern voyage ; and coast- 
ing along the banks of Spain and France might first 
discover the British Isles, and, upon discovery, 
begin to trade, which was the principal end of all 
their voyages. The term “ Cassiterides,” so often 
applied in old writings to the localities from which 
the tin was brought, appears to apply to the Scilly 
Islands, the coast of Cornwall, and probably to 
the western portion of Devon, just as though con- 
stituting one group of islands, for which, by the 
discoverers and early visitors, these apparently 
sea-girt stretches of land were no doubt taken • and 
it appears probable, as Bocliart states, that the 
word Britain was derived from “ Baratanac,” the 
name given to tin in the Chaldee and Arabic 
languages, adopted also by the Phoenicians. It has 
been argued, that, as the whole of England was 
included under the head Britain, the fact of 
tin being found in such a limited portion of it 
could scarcely have conferred a name on the entire 
island and its dependencies. It must be borne in 
mind, however, that in all probability the Scilly 
Islands, and perhaps the extreme west of Corn- 
wall, were the only portions of England visited (at 
least for some considerable period) by these early 
pioneers of commerce. 
From the scant nature of ancient records on the 
subject, no very precise idea can be formed as to 
the state of civilization in which our forefathers 
were found on their first discovery ; and however 
humiliating it may be to look back on the past, it 
is much to be feared that the official report given 
of the “ manners and customs ” of a certain tribe of 
North American Indians, by an officer sent on a 
mission amongst them, would have equally applied 
to the aborigines of the Cassiterides. “ Manners 
wrote he, “ they have none, and the customs which 
prevail are of a very unpleasant character.” Savage 
man— whether hunting in the prairies and forests of 
the Far West, roaming amongst the huge ferns of 
New Zealand, or, with matted hair and grotesquely 
painted skin, dancing a wild corroberry, demon-like 
in the fire-light beneath the gum-trees of Australia — 
can look but to one inevitable future ; and whether 
near at hand or far off, just as surely as the arrow 
shot into the air returns to earth, so surely will 
time, trade, and civilization sweep him, step by 
step, from the face of the globe, to give place to new 
races, leaving, as ages roll on, mere scraps of tradi- 
tion, buried weapons, and rude barbaric ornaments, 
as traces of his past existence. 
The articles of trade brought by the Phoenicians, 
viz., salt, brazen or bronze wares (which would include 
tools, weapons of war and the chase), and crockery, 
were exchanged with the natives for tin, lead, and 
skins. The tin, in the form of granules and water- 
worn pebbles of the ore .{oxide of tin — for, except 
in very rare instances, it is not found native or 
malleable), was obtained by roughly washing the 
beds of the rivulets and water-courses, much as the 
tin-streamers of the present day collect it. The 
marshy valleys and moorland tracks between the 
granite hills also yielded a rich harvest of tin to the 
ore-seekers, as for countless ages such spots have 
been the natural depositaries into which the heavy 
granules have been washed and drifted by the Hoods 
which have helped to break up and disintegrate the 
matrices in which they were originally imbedded. 
So large is the quantity sometimes associated 
with this broken-up detritus, that we have often 
heard it asserted by old and experienced tin- 
streamers, that unworked ground had been known 
to yield from the space covered by an ox, when lay- 
ing on it, enough tin to pay for the animal. It has, 
however, become extremely difficult to find tracks 
of tin-ground unexplored, numbers of those now 
undergoing treatment have been streamed before, 
and are, therefore, called “old men’s” workings. 
Minute granules of gold are occasionally found as- 
sociated with the fine tin, and we have seen small 
quills used by the men in which to hoard them, A 
pin with a moistened point is rrsually made use of 
to withdraw the precious particle from its baser 
associates. Before a regular system of underground 
operations were had recourse to, there is no doubt 
that a large quantity of ore was extracted from the 
soft granite formations in which minute veins or 
string courses are frequently found. 
The ease with which open cuttings in the sides 
of hills could be worked offered strong inducements 
to extract the mineral in this way. Diodorus 
Siculus appears to have been thoroughly aware of 
its being thus found. “ These men” (the tinners), 
he writes, “ manufacture the tin by working the 
grounds which produce it with much skill ; for, 
though the land is rocky, it has soft veins running 
through it, in which the tinners find the treasures 
which they extrac(, melt, and purify. Then shap- 
ing it by moulds into a cubical figure, they carry it 
oft' to a certain island lying near the British shore, 
which they call Ictus. For, at the recess of the 
sea between the islands and the mainland, the 
passage being dry, the tinners embrace the oppor- 
tunity and carry the tin over in carts to the Ictus 
or port ; for it must be observed that the islands 
which lie between the continent and Britain have 
this peculiarity, that when the tide is full they are 
real islands, but when the sea retires they are so 
many peninsulas. From this island the merchants 
bring the tin of the natives and export it into 
Gaul, and finally through Gaul, by a journey of 
about thirty days, to tire mouth of the Rhone.” 
The source from whence this much coveted 
treasure was obtained by the Phoenician traders was 
long by them kept a profound secret, fearing lest, by 
its becoming known to the Romans, the trade would 
become too general and less remunerative to them- 
selves. Speaking of the tin-bearing islands, Strabo 
says — “ From these islands the Phoenicians had their 
treasures of tin, and were exceedingly jealous of their 
trade, and, therefore, so private and industrious to con- 
ceal it from others, that a Phoenician vessel, thinking 
itself pursued by a Roman, chose to run upon a 
shoal and suffer shipwreck rather than discover the 
least track or path by which another nation might 
come in for their share of so beneficial a commerce.” 
It is said that the captain’s patriotism was, on 
