dge of iron. Afterwards, as it became more abundant, it would be
used altogether for cutting instruments and weapons, while bronze, being
more easily worked, would still be used for ornaments, brooches, etc. At
Hallstadt, in Austria, was discovered a cemetery which evidently belongs
to a time when iron was taking the place of bronze. In this case, the
implements of bronze are those forms which we have learned were produced
near the close of the Bronze Age. The iron implements are not those
forms best suited for that metal, but imitations of those of bronze.<5>
We remember when bronze was first introduced, the weapons were simply
copies of those forms already made in stone.<6>

We may suppose that a knowledge of iron would spread rapidly. The
knowledge of metallurgy necessary for the production of bronze was at
this time widely disseminated. It would require, therefore, but a hint
to start them in experiments. In the dissemination of this knowledge,
commerce, of course, played a most important part. Whenever the early
Greek and Roman writers have occasion to mention the arms of the less
civilized tribes of Europe, we learn they were of iron. This shows that
at a very early time this knowledge had spread all over Europe.<7>

It is scarcely necessary to remark that the use of iron would not drive
out the use of bronze. That would still be used for many purposes; and
even stone would continue in use, at least for some purposes. At the
battle of Marathon, arrow-heads and lances of stone were largely used.
We can easily understand how, by one of a number of causes, some rude
tribes, yet unacquainted with the use of metal, would come to occupy the
site of some settlement, the inhabitants of which had been in the Bronze
or Iron Age. This actually happened at ancient Troy, where the remains
of a stone-using folk have been found above those of a people using
metal. This, though an exception to the general rule, need give us no
surprise.

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.