Unearthing iron, beating the bronze, Forge they the forceps and the tough tools." The earliest of the metals employed for tools was generally copper. It is abundant, and often found of such purity that it can be hammered into shape without heating. Of such beaten native copper are the knives, chisels, and scrapers exhumed in quantities from the mounds of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. For many purposes it is too soft, but the dis covery was early made, both in the Old and New Worlds, that a small amount of tin, from 2 to to per cent., adds greatly to its hardness, form ing what is known as bronce. Although tin is a scarce metal, there were a few localities—notably Cornwall in England and the province of Tlachco in Mexico—where it was abundant, and from these sources it was widely dispersed by commerce, so that bronze was common throughout Central and Southern Europe and the Aztec dominions of Mexico at the dawn of history. (See BRONZE AGE and illus. Vol. II.) Iron, which has been said to have " conquered the world," although so abundant in many parts of America, had never become known to its inhabitants for practical uses ; whereas it was perfectly familiar and in large use among the Egyptian and Semitic nations in the remotest ages of which we have any record. From its names in both these linguistic
stocks, it appears to have been brought originally from Persia (Schrader).
Bone, Horn, materials for tools were bone and horn, shells and wood. All these date back to the highest antiquity, and the skill with which they were used would surprise the modern mind. So accus tomed are we to numerous and carefully adapted tools that we scarcely understand how much can be accomplished with those of the rudest pat tern. In a previous paragraph (p. 62) it has been stated that the Cave men of ancient Europe captured the most ferocious Carnivora in pitfalls. They doubtless excavated such in the simple manner observed among the Indians of Pennsylvania by a traveller in the last century. These selected long poles and sharpened the ends in a fire. They then plunged them into the soil, and with their hands scooped out the earth thus loosened. Repeating this procedure, they had soon excavated a deep pit.