4 1 
such as have been described, but near the air holes they ignited 
fuel, in order that the blast might be heated before passing into the 
furnace. 
Wood charcoal continued in use for smelting iron until a late 
period. In the reign of Elizabeth, Camden laments the decay of 
our forests, in consequence of the extension of the iron trade. 
Coal was employed for smelting iron in this country about 1619, 
but it was not until the middle of the eighteenth century that pit 
coal or coke came into general use for the purpose. 
The Anglo-Saxon period appears to have been peculiarly an 
“ iron age.” The army of Harold was well supplied with 
weapons of steel and with defensive armour, whilst even the horses 
were protected with coverings of steel or iron. The Anglo-Saxon 
was buried in his full dress, with all his arms and accoutrements. 
The cist usually contains the iron-head of a spear on the right side, 
the iron umbo of a shield in the lap, an iron sword on the left side, 
and an iron knife on the right side of the skeleton, with sometimes 
an urn or a small earthen bottle at the feet. Tumuli covering such 
interments probably date from the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in 
Britain to the middle of the eighth century, when the Pagan mode 
of interment was abandoned. 
From various circumstances it has been held that iron and 
objects made of it were of great value in early times. 
Achilles proposed a ball of iron as one of the prizes at the games 
instituted in honour of Patroclus, and we learn from Herodotus 
that a saucer of iron, curiously inlaid, was presented to the Delphic 
Oracle. In Denmark, some most interesting objects bearing on 
this point have been found; they consist of axes with a broad 
blade of copper, edged with iron, and daggers similarly furnished 
with edges of the harder metal. Such examples are rare, and no 
corresponding specimens have yet been discovered in Britain. 
An apparently parallel case has taken place at a more recent period. 
The Esquimaux used up such iron as they found upon the site 
of the Greenland colonies, which perished in a mysterious manner 
about the commencement of the fifteenth century, to the very last 
shred. It was a material they could not produce for themselves ; 
iron to them was more valuable than gold. In Mr. Christy’s col¬ 
lection is an Esquimaux bone knife, with a mere edge of iron, 
found on the site of these ancient Greenland colonies. Mr. E. T. 
Stevens possesses a series of poisoned arrows from Southern 
Africa; the heads are of bone, and in one instance a minute tip of 
iron is added. However, both the Japanese and the Chinese at 
times display a singular economy in the use of iron, which warns 
us to be cautious in forming conclusions as to the Danish axes. 
Shears of brass, edged with steel, were in the Japanese collection 
at the International Exhibition of 1862, and Mr. E. T. Stevens 
has a Chinese pocket knife thus edged with steel; yet we should 
be wrong in assuming that either of these people value iron so 
highly as to use it in this sparing manner. 
