18 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



megalithic monuments, from the great size of the stones used in 

 their construction. Erection of megalithic monuments was by no 

 means peculiar to Denmark, but was practiced throughout west- 

 ern Europe during the later stone age and on into the bronze age. 



Fig. 13. Speak Point. Flint. 



It is stated that there are upon the islands of Denmark and in 

 eastern Jutland about 47"5 of these monuments to every square 

 myriameter, or one to about two kilometres square. In a single 

 afternoon's drive from Olstyke around by Roskilde Fiord to Ros- 

 kilde, a distance of but a few miles, we examined fully a dozen of 

 different types. Three of these will illustrate their character, (a) 

 Dolmen : Near a long and narrow strip of water, on a little mound 

 of earth ; consisting of five great granite rocks ; four stood up- 

 right on edge, set firmly in the ground, and inclosed a nearly 

 rectangular space six feet or more in length, more than three feet 

 wide, and some five feet high. Three of these stones are of equal 

 height, and bear a great cap-stone ;~ the fourth one is not so high, 

 and serves as a sill or threshold to the chamber. The whole 

 structure is now free and exposed, but it was probably originally 

 covered with a mound of earth, (b) Giant's Chamber : External- 

 ly, a simple plain mound of earth about 

 fifteen feet high. As it is one of the 

 monuments preserved by the Govern- 

 ment, it is supplied with a little door 

 on one side. Passing through this, we 

 found our way through a short passage 

 into a great chamber at right angles to 

 it ; the passage enters this chamber at 

 the middle of one of its long sides. Both 

 chamber and passage are walled with great bowlders, and are 

 roofed with slabs of large size. The chamber is about twenty-one 

 feet long, seven feet wide, and over six feet in height, (c) Badly 

 denuded by the weather ; a large part of the covering mound is 

 gone ; there are no roofing slabs, but the stones are carefully set 

 on edge so as to inclose a space forty feet in length and more than 

 twenty feet in width ; there is no sign of a passageway. In the 

 middle of this inclosed space is an admirably made rectangular 

 chamber about four feet deep, six feet in length, and perhaps four 

 feet in widl h. 



It is probable that all these structures were burial places. 



Fig. 14. Miniature Hammer. 

 Amber. 



