224 TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
actual furnace remains of very great antiquity. It would be 
unsafe to assume that such do not exist, and they may yet be 
found in or near the hut circles, which occur in such numbers, 
and in such proximity to ancient stream works. 
The production of tin in such a manner and in such small 
quantities must have made this metal valuable and comparatively 
scarce. To a certain extent it was employed in early coinage, 
especially in Gaul, there being only two or three recorded dis- 
coveries of such coins in this country. In this shape the metal 
does not appear to have been current in Devon and Cornwall. 
The specimens found have nearly all come from Kent, though one 
has occurred as far west as Dorsetshire. Mr. Evans in his Ancient 
British Coins describes nine, the whole of which have been cast 
and not struck ; and for this purpose it would seem that wooden 
moulds were frequently used, as the impression of the grain of 
the wood may be seen upon some of them. 
There is a great blank in our knowledge of the progress made 
in mining matters, and it is only when we come down to mediaeval 
times, and even to a later period than this, that we are able to 
follow it with any degree of confidence. The Germans were great 
adepts in the working and management of mines, and there are 
indications that they were probably employed for the purpose of 
improving English methods some centuries since. Queen Elizabeth, 
we know, imported skilled miners from Germany, with the most 
beneficial results, and it is certain that from this period a great 
development and improvement in English mining took place. 
The Almain or German furnace superseded the older type, 
whatever that might have been, and remained in actual use down 
to about a hundred years ago. Pryce writing shortly before 1778 
thus describes them : 
" The furnace itself for blowing the tin is called the castle, on 
account of its strength, being of massive stones cramped together 
with iron to endure the united force of fire and air. This fire is 
made with charcoal excited by two large bellows, which are 
worked by a waterwheel, the same as at the iron forges. They 
are about eight feet long, and two and a half wide at the broadest 
part. The fireplace, or castle, is about six feet perpendicular, 
two feet wide in the top each way, and about fourteen inches in 
the bottom, all made of moorstone and clay, well cemented and 
cramped together. The pipe or nose of each bellows is fixed ten 
inches high from the bottom of the castle, in a large piece of 
