32 
aboriginal metallurgists had not the requisite materials furnished 
them by nature. Indeed the “ stone age” extended to a much 
later period in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway than in the British 
Isles. 
Tin is one of the least widely diffused of metals. It is generally 
supposed that the ancients drew their entire supply of it from 
Cornwall, and the name of Cassiterides (Tin Islands) bestowed 
upon that part of the country implies that tin was the chief export. 
Thence it was doubtless taken to the great Mediterranean ports, to 
be mixed with the copper of the Wady Maghara and other Asiatic 
mines, to form the Egyptian, Phoenician, and Assyrian bronze. 
But as tin occurs in abundance, and in the purest state, in the 
peninsula of Malacca, it may be doubted whether the ancients did 
not obtain tin from thence as well as from Britain. 
The analysis of ancient American bronze weapons shows a 
sparing use of tin which is remarkable ; rather more than 7| per 
cent, is the highest recorded in a series of nine independently 
conducted analyses, and one knife from a grave at Atacama con¬ 
tained so little as two and a fraction per cent. ; on the other hand, 
some Egyptian spear-heads have been found to contain so much as 
22 per cent, of tin. Perhaps the indigenous American had not 
carried his art far enough to ascertain the best proportions of the 
combining metals. He was but learning to make the alloy ; it 
was but the dawn of his “ bronze age,” and, so far as we can learn, 
the discovery and the development of the art of forming the alloy 
was self-acquired by the aboriginal American. All this supple¬ 
ments our Old World knowledge, it shows what man, thrown upon 
his own resources, may work out for himself, and may help us to 
understand that it is not necessary to look to Phoenicia or to any 
other country for the monopoly of the secret of making bronze in 
ancient times. 
In a general way, it may be held that cremation and bronze 
occur together. An exception to this will be found in the in¬ 
teresting series from a tumulus at Ablington, deposited by E . Dyke 
Poore , Esq., in which two bronze dagger blades were found with 
unburned bones; two human skulls from this tumulus are in the 
collection. 
Bronze is not only harder than copper—it is also more fusible, 
and it is highly malleable when it contains 85 to 90 per cent, of 
copper. It has been mentioned that an alloy of 10 parts tin to 90 
parts copper is the most useful for the fabrication of weapons and 
tools. As progress was made in practical metallurgy, this pro¬ 
portion was generally adopted; but an increased proportion of tin 
renders the alloy more sonorous, of which fact the ancients were 
aware. Bronze bells from Nineveh contain more than 14 per cent, 
of that metal; even then, however, the Ninevites were but learning 
the secret, for Chinese gongs contain • 18 per cent., modern bell 
metal from 22 to 25 per cent., whilst the old bell (cloche d’argent) 
at Rouen, contains no less than 26 per cent, of tin. The alloy 
