23 
little claim to be considered as the seal of the Abbey of St. Mary, 
York. It has never been found attached to any ancient deed of this 
Abbey. That which is exhibited by Drake was appended to a deed 
of 13 Edw. lY. A cast, presented at this Meeting by Mr. Davies, 
and considerably more perfect, was derived from an ancient deed of 
the Abbey, found in the records of the Duchy of Lancaster. Mr. 
Wellbeloved, from all these circumstances, concluded that this had 
been the common seal of the Abbey, during the whole period of its 
existence, and that the matrix presented by Mr. Dalton had no claim 
to be considered as the seal of the Abbey of St. Mary, York. 
Mr. Procter read a paper on the Archaeology of Bronze. After 
noticing the division of the prehistoric times, made by the Scandina¬ 
vian antiquaries, into the stone and bronze periods, he observed on 
the importance of metallurgy in connection with the history of civiliza¬ 
tion. Its commencement indeed is lost in the earliest antiquity, but 
the remains of art in Egypt, Babylon and Nineveh indicate an 
advanced state of metallurgic skill. Copper took the lead of iron, 
and attempts were early made to give it additional hardness, by mixing 
it with other metals. By alloying it with tin, bronze is produced, the 
hardest of the compounds of copper; and as bronze has been found 
among the remains of the ancient Assyrians and Egyptians, it is evident 
that the use of tin was known to them. This metal is easily fusible, 
and appears on the surface in the detritus of primitive rocks; so that 
it would be early discovered and easily worked. Cornwall and Spain 
are the European countries in which it is most abundant; in Asia it is 
found in the island of Banca and the straits of Sumatra; it was 
probable, however, as the Phoenicians had intercourse 1000 years B. C. 
with western Europe, that it was thence the Egyptians and Assyrians 
derived the tin which went to form their bronze. Copper is a metal 
found in great abundance, sometimes even native; but though the 
aboriginal Americans are said to have been in possession of the secret 
of giving it a temper equal to bronze, yet it is in fact too soft for 
cutting instruments, and hence the necessity for an admixture. A 
question had been raised whether the bronze objects so generally found 
in barrows, &c. were the manufacture of the countries in which they 
were found, or diffused from some common centre. The analysis of 
bronzes shows considerable differences in their composition, and in 
nearly every country in which they have been found, moulds have 
also been found, whence the conclusion seems natural that these 
articles were manufactured there, and not imported. Mr. Procter 
