LUBBOCK ON THE KJOKKENMOBBINGS. 501 



is as completely choked up with trees as if they were artificially 

 arranged in it. 



At the lower part of the deposit, immediately above the peat, the 

 trees are all pines, (Pi?ius sylvestris). They attain a diameter of 

 three feet, and their magnificent size proves how well the c^ j uitry 

 Avas at that time adapted to their wants, while the propo N of 

 their length to their diameter shows that they were " drawn *y i5y 

 growing close to one another, though for a long while pines have ceased 

 to grow naturally in Denmark. As we rise nearer to the surface of 

 the peat we find them gradually replaced by oaks, while these latter 

 are succeeded by beeches. No antiquities are found in the lowest 

 amorphous peat, but stone weapons are found amongst the pines : 

 an interesting fact, when coupled with the presence in the " Kjbk- 

 kenmbddings" of the Tetrao urogallus, whose food consists mamly 

 of pine buds. 



Articles of bronze have not been found below the oaks : while 

 iron occurs only among the beeches. Thus we find in Denmark 

 three great periods of arborescent vegetation, corresponding to the 

 three great stages of civilization : the Stone period, with the pine 

 forests ; the Bronze age with the oaks ; and finally, the great beech 

 woods, which must have been already the most striking feature of 

 the country, even before the introduction of iron, as we know that 

 they have continued to be ever since. 



It is a question whether the Kjokkenmoddings were not more 

 ancient than the period previously known as the Stone age: and 

 whether, therefore, this earliest age ought not to be subdivided. 

 Certain it is that the Kjokkenmoddings have not yet yielded 

 any of the carefully formed axes and knives, but these weapons 

 were evidently the result of toilsome and skilful workmanship, 

 and we should not expect to find the choicest works of art in a 

 modern dustheap. On the other hand, the barrows of the stone 

 period in which the more elaborate weapons are found, have not 

 yet supplied us with the small and rude axes which occur in the 

 Kjokkenmoddings, but the fact is that, in all probability, these 

 would, until the last few years, have attracted no attention and 

 been overlooked, so that it remains to be ascertained whether, now 

 that their interest is acknowledged, they will not be found, and it is 

 stated that some barrows recently opened have contained rude, as 

 well as well worked, weapons. But even if they should hereafter 

 prove to be absent, still the fact would not be conclusive, as probably 

 only the chiefs and their families were "buried in the great barrows, 

 and in this case it might well be argued that the best weapons only 

 would be buried with them. 



Possibly it will hereafter be ascertained that while in the older 

 tumuli of the Stone period, weapons of the best workmanship only 

 were deposited, the later ones contain also ruder and less perfect 

 specimens. There is indeed evidence that, even at this early period, 

 religious institutions and customs, at first full of earnest meaning- 

 tended to degenerate into mere forms. In the earliest times the 



