Iron manufacture at the present day, is one of our great industries. In its present form it is the final development of an industry whose first unfoldings we have now to glance at. That the first process man employed to procure iron should have been very rude, is what we would expect. Some of the partially civilized tribes of to-day may give us an insight into the process employed. We are told that in Tartary each native makes the iron he needs, just as every household would make its own bread. The furnace is a very small affair, not holding more than three pounds of ore. This is filled with ore and charcoal. The bellows are used, and after the charcoal is all burned out, the result is a small piece of spongy iron, which needs only repeated heating and hammering to be made serviceable.8 Primitive furnaces, on a somewhat larger scale, have been discovered in Switzerland. Here the excavation was made in the side of a hill, and a rude, dome-shaped chimney built over it. We must not forget that our task ends where the historian’s begins. The use of iron did not long precede history, so we have but little to describe as to the customs and manners of life during the prehistoric Iron Age. A general advance in all the social arts must surely have taken place. Improved tools, and more cheaply produced, could not fail to advance man very materially in culture. Some lake settlements were still in use as places of residence, but better means of protection than water was now known—walled cities were in use, especially around the Mediterranean sea. Mr. Morgan has traced for us the evolution of government. At this early date the Greek and Roman people were engaged in substituting for ancient society the modern idea of government founded on territory.9 The great body of European tribes were now in the final stage of barbaric life. Their system of government was doubtless the highest known to ancient society— that of confederacies; the union of tribes speaking dialects of the same language, for offensive and defensive purposes. Ornaments and Gold Ornament.