244 FOOD OF THE SHELL-MOUND BUILDERS. 



which probably belong to the Stone Age. The skulls are very 

 round, and in many respects resemble those of the Lapps, but 

 have a more projecting ridge over the eye. One curious 

 peculiarity is, that their front teeth do not overlap as ours do, 

 but meet one another, as do those of the Greenlanders of the 

 present day. This evidently indicates a peculiar manner of 

 eating. 



Much as still remains to be made out respecting the men 

 of the Stone period, the facts already ascertained, like a few 

 strokes by a clever draughtsman, supply us with the elements 

 of an outline sketch. Carrying our imagination back into 

 the past, we see before us on the low shores of the Danish 

 Archipelago a race of small men, with heavy overhanging 

 brows, round heads, and faces probably much like those of 

 the present Laplanders. As they must evidently have had 

 some protection from the weather, it is most probable that 

 they lived in tents made of skins. The total absence of metal 

 in the Kjokkenmoddings indicates that they had not yet any 

 weapons except those made of wood, stone, horn, and bone. 

 Their principal food must have consisted of shell-fish, but 

 they were able to catch fish, and often varied their diet by 

 game caught in hunting. It is, perhaps, not uncharitable to 

 conclude that, when their hunters were unusually successful, 

 the whole community gorged itself with food, as is the case 

 with many savage races at the present time. It is evident 

 that marrow was considered a great delicacy, for every single 

 bone which contained any was split open in the manner best 

 adapted to extract the precious morsel. 



We have already seen that the mound -builders were regular 

 settlers, and not mere summer visitors; and on the whole 

 they seem to have lived in very much the same manner as 

 the Tierra del Fuegians, who dwell on the coast, feed princi- 

 pally on shell-fish, and have the dog as their only domestic 

 animal. A very good account of them is given in Darwin's 



