Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/429

] lumps and grains, scattered through the loam, sand, and gravel which constitute the stream-works. It is readily recognised by its great weight. Very frequently it is found along with gold in the stream-works, and to this association is probably due its early discovery by man. Gold, from its brilliant colour and indestructibility, must have been the first metal to catch the eye of man, and when it was once sought by the simple process of washing, the heavy tin-stone would be left behind along with it. In the course of time the true nature of tin-stone was probably revealed by accident, and before the eye of the astonished beholder the dull stone flung into the fire became trans- figured into the glittering metal. The ease with which this can be done with the rudest appliances is shown by the processes which Mr. J. A. Phillips observed in 1856, at Zamora in Spain, and which are probably a survival into our own times of the most ancient mode of reducing the ore.