430 ETHNOLOGY. 



lu the most recent period, tbere is au enormous difference in tlie 

 nature of the utensils employed by the northern and southern peoples. 

 This difference is due to the use of metals. In the north are found almost 

 exclusively utensils of stone, while in the south very fine utensils of 

 copper, bronze, gold, silver, &c., occur besides. If the report is true 

 that arro\Y-heiids of iron were found in possession of the inhabitants of 

 some i)arts of South America, these can only have been made of 

 meteoric iron. 



The utensils occur in the same manner as in Europe. They are found 

 in the tomb-mounds, where they were deposited with the dead ; or in the 

 altar-mounds, where they were brought as a sacrifice, or rather a gift of 

 propitiation to their deit^'. In the latter case they are usually broken 

 to pieces, probably on purpose, injured by fire, and mixed with the ashes 

 of the victims. They are frequently brought to light by the plow or 

 by violent rains, which wash away the soil, and lay bare the heavier stone 

 utensils. The distribution ©f settlements is also similar ; often consid- 

 erable regions are without any, while they are very numerous in more 

 favorable localities. In North America, they are most frequent in valleys, 

 where they are recognized by an abundance of fragments of vessels on 

 the surface of the soil. 



Sometimes earth-heaps similar to the Danish Kjokkenmoddings indi- 

 cate the spots where those old settlements stood. They have been lately 

 investigated in several cases by Wyman, Morse, and our indefatiga- 

 ble countryman, Charles Eau. Their appearance is the same as in 

 Europe, with the difference, of course, that the animal remains belong 

 to different species. Among the masses of broken shells, they contain 

 more or less numerous utensils of stone and bone along with potsherds. 

 They occur along the whole Atlantic coast. Near Keyport, New Jerseys, 

 on an island north of Du rran9ais Inlet, at Crouch's Cove, Goose Island, 

 in Casco Bay, Eagle Hill, at Ipswich, Massachusetts, Long Ishwid, and the 

 mouth of the Altamaha River, in Georgia. Traces are also found along 

 the coasts of Massachusetts, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Florida, and 

 California. A portion of the city of New York is said to be built upon 

 such deposits. To what period they belong, or whether they belong 

 to different periods, has not yet been determined. Finally, we must 

 mention the relics of human civilization found by the German 

 North Polo Expedition in Greenland, and brought home by it from 

 the abandoned huts of the Esquimaux. They probably belong to a 

 comparatively recent time. 



The tools, weapons, vessels, and ornaments of the inhabitants of 

 America probably remained unchanged for very long periods of time. 

 Only the Mexicans made considerable progress in the latest period ; 

 but we know that even they had not yet given up their knives of obsidian, 

 although they might have made them of bronze. Montezuma himself 

 wielded the terrible Mexican sword, the edge of which was composed 

 of pieces of obsidian, and you can even to-day admire his stone battle- 

 ax in the Ambras collection. 



