THE ARYAN QUESTION AND PREHISTORIC MAN. 507 



tin, they forsook copper for bronze and gradually attained a -won- 

 derful skill in bronze-work. Finally, some of the European people 

 became acquainted with iron, and its superior qualities drove out 

 bronze, as bronze had driven out stone, from use in the manufact- 

 ure of implements and weapons of the best class. But the pro- 

 cess of substitution of copper and bronze for stone was gradual, 

 and, for common purposes, stone remained in use long after the 

 introduction of metals. 



The pile-dwellings of Switzerland have yielded an unbroken 

 archaeological record of these changes. Those of eastern Switzer- 

 land ceased to exist soon after the appearance of metals, but in 

 those of the lakes of ISTeufchatel and Bienne the history is contin- 

 ued through the stage of bronze to the beginning of that of iron. 

 And in all this long series of remains, which lay bare the minutest 

 details of the life of the pile-dwellers, from the neolithic to the 

 perfected bronze stage, there is no indication of any disturbance 

 such as must have been caused by foreign invasion ; and such as 

 was produced by intruders, shortly after the iron stage was reached. 

 Undoubtedly the constructors of the pile-dwellings must have 

 received foreign influences through the channel of trade, and may 

 have received them by the slow immigration of other races. 

 Their amber, their jade, and their tin show that they had commer- 

 cial intercourse with somewhat distant regions. The amber, how- 

 ever, takes us no farther than the Baltic ; and it is now known that 

 jade is to be had within the boundaries of Europe, while tin lay no 

 farther off than north Italy. An argument in favor of Oriental 

 influence has been based upon the characters of certain of the culti- 

 vated plants and domesticated animals. But even that argument 

 does not necessarily take us beyond the limits of southeastern 

 Europe ; and it needs reconsideration in view of the changes of 

 physical geography and of climate to which I have drawn atten- 

 tion. 



In connection with this question there is another important 

 series of facts to be taken into consideration. When, in the seven- 

 teenth century, the Russians advanced beyond the Ural and began 

 to occupy Siberia, they found that the majority of the natives 

 used implements of stone and bone. Only a few possessed tools 

 or weapons of iron, which had reached them by way of commerce ; 

 the Ostiaks and the Tatars of Tom, alone, extracted their iron 

 from the ore. It was not until the invaders reached the Lena, in 

 the far East, that they met with skillful smiths among the Jakuts,* 

 who manufactured knives, axes, lances, battle-axes, and leather 



* Andree, Die Metalle bei den Naturvolkern (p. 114). It is interesting to note that 

 the Jakuts have always been pastoral nomads, formerly shepherds, now horse-breeders, and 

 that they continue to work their iron in the primitive fashion ; as the argument that metal- 

 lurgic skill implies settled agricultural life not unfrequently makes its appearance. 



