416 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec. 



extension, their seeds not being carried by the winds, and only to 

 a limited degree by birds. On the other hand, the changes of 

 forests cannot have been absolute or universal. There must have 

 been oak and beech groves even in the pine woods ; and the 

 growing and increasing beech woods would be contemporary with 

 the older and decaying oak forest, as this last would probably 

 perish, not by fire, but by decay, and by the competition of the 

 beeches. The growth of peat has also been appealed to in con- 

 nexion with the succession of forests as affording a mark of time ; 

 but this is very variable even in the same locality. It goes on 

 very rapidly when moisture and other conditions are favourable, 

 and especially when it is aided by wind-falls, drift-wood, or 

 beaver-dams, impeding drainage and contributing to the accumu- 

 lation of vegetable matter. It is retarded and finally terminated 

 by the rise of the surface above the drainage level, by the clearing 

 of the country, or by the establishment of natural or artificial 

 drainage. On the one hand, all the changes observed in Denmark 

 may have taken place within a minimum time of two thousand 

 years. On the other hand, no one can aflirin that either of the 

 three successive forests may not have flourished for that length of 

 time. A chronology measured by years, and based on such data, 

 is evidently worthless ; but it is interesting in connexion with our 

 present subject to observe, that the remains preserved in the 

 shell-heaps or 'Kjokkenmodding' of the stone age in Denmark 

 indicate a wonderful similarity of habits and customs with those 

 of primitive America, except that the people seem to have borne 

 a closer resemblance to the Esquimaux than to the ordinary 

 American Indian. 



On the whole, nothing can be more striking to any one 

 acquainted with the American Indian than the entire similarity 

 of the traces of pre-historic man in Europe to those which remain 

 of the primitive condition of the American aborigines, whether we 

 consider their food, their implements and weapons, or their modes 

 of sepulture; and it seems evident that if these pre-historic 

 remains are ever to be correctly interpreted by European anti- 

 quaries, they must avail themselves of American light for their 

 guidance. Much of this light has already been thrown on this 

 subject by my friend Professor "Wilson, in his " Pre-historic 

 Man;" but one can searcely open any European book on this 

 subject, or glance at any of the numerous articles and papers on 

 this fertile theme in scientific journals, without wishing that those 



