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of the product of the iron in- dustry about the middle of the eighteenth century were unearthed re- cently by workmen excavating for an addition to the Seamen’s Church In- stitute building at South street and Coenties Slip, New York. In the days when New York was Nieu Amsterdam, a Dutchman by the name of Couraet Ten Eyck, familiarly known as Con- raetje or Coentje, had his home and shop there and his name came to be given to the little pier which jutted out into the East river. The ground on which the building work is being done was filled in between 1791 and 1803. Thus the excavating has been done in ground which was a part of the bed of New York harbor up to the end of the eighteenth century, and which, as such, was the graveyard for all kinds of odds and ends that fell off or were cast off the ships. Several pigs of iron only slightly affected by oxidation are prominent among the objects dug up. One of these pigs distinctly bears the letters A NUMBER of interesting exhibits “N. York 1752”, as well as the figure of an anchor. The lettering on the others cannot be clearly deciphered. Two interesting chunks of iron look like crops from forging bars. These are interesting chiefly because of the remarkable success with which they have withstood corrosion. An old axe, of the kind that was imported in large number from Holland in the Seven- teenth century to be traded to the In- dians for beaver skins, appears to have been converted almost entirely into oxide. Most. conspicuous of the objects found is a small cast iron cannon, three feet long, with 2%-inch bore, which has been wonderfully preserved. It is believed to have been one of three guns which formed a battery at the landing at Coenties Slip in 1679. There is a double-ended “bar shot” 16 inches long, used by the British navy against the rigging of many war vessels, and liberally used against the American forces defending New York. 22 Iron Articles Dug Up; Century Old This is a bar of wrought iron with a cast iron ball at each end. A number of solid shot about 6 inches in diameter and a number of grape shot also were found. Reginald Pelham Bolton, of the New York Historical society, regards these as the “mute evidence of the bombardment of New York city on the afternoon of Saturday, July 12, 1776, by the British vessels PHOENIX and ROSE with their tenders”. The collection includes a big cast iron pot which was used for cooking. This is in good condition. There are some other castings and wrought iron articles, such as anchors and parts of anchors. The striking feature of the whole exhibit is the way in which this old cast iron and wrought iron has withstood the ravages of corrosion, despite the fact that it has been buried in the earth over a century and a quarter, as well as having been immersed in the waters of New York (Continued on Page 52)