not so. suspension. I do not think it could happen from that side being undermost when found; because the spears and tools, without loops, are I am still more confirmed in my opinion of this being used as a tool, from recollecting that it does not appear among the Roman arms, either in the Trajan or Antonine pillar. This instrument and the Roman spear heads are commonly found together. No. Inches. oz. drs. 11. Burnisher for shield, broken and some wanting 42 1 12 and exactly fits the space between the bosses or buttons of the shield. I conceive also, that this had been used as a bottle to hold oil for burnishing. The cavity is large, and extends the whole length. I was confirmed in that opinion by the following circumstance:-When found, the close end was smooth, and the edges sharp, without any appearance of fracture; but, on examining with a knife, I picked out some strong cement, like putty, which plugged up a concealed hole. This cement, I suppose, had been put in to make it hold a liquid. The tool had certainly been much used since it was put in, as that part was as smooth as the other parts. The groove of which fits upon the ribs of the spears, and the convex part opposite fits the hollows between the ribs and the feathers. This opinion was confirmed by observing the coating of the groove and that of the opposite convex to be much thinner, as if by rubbing, whilst the coating of the sides of the groove were very thick, and further proved by drilling small holes in the coating. No. Inches. Oz. drs. spears 2 3 11 13. Burnisher for sockets and feathers of A part of one of the sockets burnished by it, to shew the effect. It performs that office well. It might also occasionally be used as a stake (small anvil), or sometimes as a hammer. No. 14. Pectorale, or breast plate, a few fragments, the rest lost. The edges of both the holes are round and hollow on both sides. A thong or small chain had probably been put through them, and hung round the neck, like the gorget of a British officer. It might be in two parts to cover each breast. I am, Rev. Sir, your obedient humble servant, To the Rev. J. Hodgson, Jarrow. REV. SIR, W. WILSON. Wolsingham, 29th February, 1816. As the carrier is going soon I have little time to answer the favour of your's, and to return you thanks for your observations and quotation from Homer, &c. oi oμparoi xavoitegoio neuro might be translated, studs white with tin; which confirms our idea of that metal being used by the ancients in the formation of their arms. The editor of my Livy has given this note on the passage you allude to, respecting the arms of the Roman velites-"Hastis velitaribus inest." Hastæ velitares erant jaculatoriæ, id est, quibus eminus jaculabantur, proinde leviores. The sleeve of mail armour I have sent you, was found fifty or sixty years ago, I believe in Hatherburn Cave, near Stanhope; a cave that extends, it is said, a mile in length. I believe it to be Roman. Probably the sleeve of woven brass wire is Norman, and, I think, what they called avant bras. It was found under the thatch of an old house at Wolsingham, about ten years ago. I am, Rev. Sir, your obedient humble servant, Rev. J. Hodgson. W. WILSON. A An Enquiry into the Era when Brass was used in purposes to which Iron is now applied, by the REV. JOHN HODGSON, Secretary. Having stated in a conversation at the meeting, at which the brazen sword from Ewart Park was presented to the Society, my opinion that arms of that kind were not in use among the Romans for a long time prior to the occupation of Britain by that people; I now, in compliance with the wish of some of the members of this body, endeavour not only to substantiate that opinion, but to shew from Hebrew, Greek, and Roman testimony, the æras in which brass was used in warlike instruments by these and some other nations of antiquity, and to draw some such general conclusions respecting the introduction of brazen arms into this country, as are deducible from the intercourse, generally allowed to exist, between the Britons and the people inhabiting the islands and the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, prior to the Roman invasion. In the Mosaic, antediluvian age, Tubal Cain is said to have been the "instructor in every artificer of brass and iron". I forbear any discussion on this text, from the apprehension of carrying myself into too wide a field of difficulty, thinking it sufficient to remark, that with respect to the present appearance of the surface of our globe, the Bible and the record left upon the face of the earth strongly illustrate each other. The order of creation is exemplified by the organic remains discovered in the successive strata of rock from the lowest to the highest: and the alluvial soils found in all the mountains of the world, below the line of perpetual frost, are a record of the catastrophe that produced them. I think I am accurate in this distinction; because by assigning the organic remains found in the stratified minerals to the agency of Noah's deluge, I could not account for the total disappearance of the bones of the antediluvians, and of their works of art. But I think, the vortiginous fury of that wave, which has thrown heaps of D gravel and rounded stones of great size upon the sides of mountains, as high as the sea can, by the ordinary laws of nature, flow without being arrested by frost, and which has covered the whole surface of the globe below that line with a stratum every way dissimilar to those below it, both with respect to form and materials; I think such a wave an agent of sufficient power to have obliterated all remains both of the people and the arts of the predecessors of Noah. At least 1 have heard of no remains of the human species, or of any works of art, discovered under circumstances that appear to justify their being attributed to antediluvian origin. The Egyptians attributed the discovery of metals to their first kings*, and the earliest account, we have of the use of brass, is connected with that people. In constructing the tabernacle, Moses "made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass; of the mirrors of the women assembling, who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting"†. In the same year the Israelitish women were presented with" vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and raiment" by the Egyptians 1. From both which passages it is evident, that the use of these metals at that time, 1491 years before Christ, was well understood. And a passage in Job ||, affords a sort of explanation of the kind of brass, which was used in the mirrors of which the laver and its pedestal were made: "Hast thou with God spread out the strong airs like a molten mirror". If the comparison lie here in the strength and similarity of brightness which are found in the sky and metal mirrors, the latter may well be supposed to have been of a very pale colour: and we accordingly find in Pliny, that there was a metal in high estimation for making mirrors in his time, called Egyptian silver, which was composed of three parts brass, and the rest sulphur and silver in equal proportions. He also says, that the Brundusian mirrors, which were in high repute, were made of copper and tin §. When the latter metal is about two to one ‡ Exod. xiii. 37. * Phot. Bib. col. 1341. | Cap. xxxviii. 18. + Exod. xxxviii. 8. |