252 ANTIQUITY OF THE SHELL-MOUNDS. 



This argument applies with peculiar force to the remains of 

 the Stone period : for a country, the inhabitants of which live 

 by hunting and fishing, can never be thickly populated ; and, 

 on the whole, the conclusion is forced upon us, that the 

 country must have been inhabited for a lengthened period, 

 although none of the Danish remains yet discovered belong 

 to a time as ancient as some of those which have been found 

 in other parts of Europe, and which will be described in sub- 

 sequent chapters. 



