30 
and to send their grain to be converted into flour at the large 
water-mills then introduced. The attempt to suppress the quern 
failed, and they continued in use in the more remote districts of 
Scotland until the close of the last century. In Ireland, Dr. Wilde 
purchased a quern at work in the neighbourhod of Clifden, Conne¬ 
mara, so late as 1853. 
21. Spear-point of iron, mounted in the tusk of a walrus. 
22. Knife made of hoop-iron, and mounted in rude wooden handle 
(from the Portsmouth Phil. Inst.). 
The implements Nos. 21 and 22, made by the Esquimaux (the 
wood and iron probably obtained from some wreck) belong to the 
stone age in an ethnological light, in which respect they differ 
widely from Nos. 23 and 24, both of which display metallurgic 
skill. Again, the meteoric iron employed by the Esquimaux in 
tipping their weapons can only, be regarded as the use of a hard 
stone , for it is malleable, and no process of smelting or preparing 
the ore is needed. As a curious application of meteoric iron, 
having, however, no bearing on the point in question, horse-shoes 
made of this substance were shown at the International Exhibi¬ 
tion, 1862, from Western Point, Victoria. 
23. Iron adze, in rude wooden handle (Central Africa) from Mr. 
Petherick’s collection. 
24. Iron hatchet (Africa) from Professor Henslow’s collection. 
25 and 26 will be described with the contents of Case W. 
CASE W. 
It has become a popular idea that an “ age of bronze” imme¬ 
diately succeeded that of “ stone,” but it may be reasonably doubted 
whether an “ age of copper” has not intervened between the two. 
A “ copper age” would almost merge in the stone period, for native 
copper to the early workman would be but a stone possessing pecu¬ 
liar and valuable properties. Indeed, if unsupported by direct 
evidence, it is highly improbable that an alloy, the production of 
which presupposes metallurgic skill, should have been used in the 
fabrication of weapons and tools before advantage had been taken 
of one of its component parts, native copper, which is capable of 
being hammered into many new and convenient shapes, and was 
found to be a stone which could be wrought to an edge without 
liability to fracture. The discovery once made that a hardness 
could be imparted to copper tools by alloying soft and ductile 
copper with still softer tin, it is tolerably certain that existing 
copper tools would be re-cast and re-appear in the form of the 
newly-discovered alloy. Hence few would reach our time, still, 
sufficient examples do exist in Europe to prove that unalloyed 
copper has been used for the purpose. America, however, fur¬ 
nishes the most decisive evidence of a 66 copper age.” Axes, 
