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[[underlined]] Appendix III. [[/underlined]]  5. 

lower than is usual in later Chinese bronzes. Dr. Foshag's statement in his letter to me of Dec. 11, 1940 (quoted in part on page 417) is thus fully borne out---that the crudity of these alloys suggests a rather primitive knowledge of smelting. 
Possibly significant is the fact that the earliest instances of the occurrence of metal among the late prehistoric Chinese --- the trinkets unearthed by Dr. J. G. Andersson in Kansu (see page 418 and note 376) and the ones, just mentioned, that Mr. Wilson found at Shih Hsiang, in Shansi, roughly a decade later---have all occurred at or very close to the eastern terminus of the famous "corridor of the steppes", where [[strikethrough]] it [[/strikethrough]] / [[^]] the latter [[/^ ]] opens out upon the region that we now know as northern China. For that great transcontinental route of migration and travel, botanical, zoological, and ethnic, in all ages, has formed a thoroughfare along which culture-traits of many kinds --- Buddhism, glass, and the making of grape wine, to name but three --- have diffused themselves progressively eastward until at last they have reached China also, thence in turn to disseminate themselves all over the Far East. [[image- three rows of small circles forming an upside-down triangle to signifying the end of section: five circles in first row, three circles in second row, one circle in third row,]]