Letter from Léon Brun to Schaeffer on samples to be analysed and sampling to be carried outLéon Brun

Printed: letterhead in script, partly illegible

Homécourt, 13 March 1934.

My dear friend,

I had intended to send you, before your departure, the analyses of the samples that you had to identify at Cyprus last year, but I could not find the time needed. I hope however that you will have them in time to show them to the Directors of works of the Mines that you visited.

One cannot draw much from these analyses except the clear conclusion that one does not find any cobalt, whereas in the majority of the samples from Ras Shamra and Minet-El-Réidé one finds quantities of it that are relatively important. One could therefore deduce from this that the coppers and bronzes that you sent me were not made with ores coming from Cyprus, subject however to the proviso that the few samples from Cyprus that I analysed were suitably chosen, as I told you in Paris. To resolve this uncertainty, I think it useful to advise you to take fairly large samples from various modern ores and from different parts of the island if possible. It would also be useful to have samples from the Mines closest to Latakia, mines which must certainly exist, since the geological formation of Syria must present characteristics analogous to that of Cyprus. On this subject, I take the liberty of reminding you that it would be of the greatest interest for me to possess a geological map of Syria and in particular of the Latakia region. Perhaps you could have one sent before your return.

Please present, I pray you, to Monsieur CHRETIEN, my kind regards. I saw in the articles he published in "Sciences et Voyages" that you have found