294 GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCHAEOLOGY. 



in the north. 1 This discovery is all the more interesting from the 

 fact that it has "been some times denied that the south had its age of 

 stone, because the Greek and Roman classic writers do not speak of it. 

 As if a child could relate what had happened previous to its birth! 



Lastly, Lyell, Darwin, and others have pointed out deposits of this 

 kind, due to the habits of savage tribes on the shores of North America, 

 on the coast of Newfoundland, and elsewhere. 2 



Conformation — The KjoekJcenmocdding present generally a th iekness 

 of from three to five feet. There are, however, points, as at Meilgaard 

 and at Kolindsund, where the thickness of the mass attains ten feet. 

 Their extent varies, it reaches sometimes to a thousand feet in length, 

 with an irregular width, never exceeding from one hundred and fifty 

 to two hundred feet. In the case of these great deposits we perceive 

 that their surface is undulating, the mass having accumulated more 

 at certain points than at others. Occasionally, as at the mill of 

 Havelse, near Frederikssund, the deposit surrounds irregularly a space 

 which has remained free and wherein was evidently situated the habi- 

 tation of the shell-fish eaters. If no traces of these habitations have 

 been left, it cannot be astonishing, for they must have been very 

 wretched huts. 



The interior of the deposits alluded to presents no sign of stratifi- 

 cation. We remark merely at certain points the predominance of 

 certain species of shells, indicating the particular circumstances of 

 season and fishery. Thus there are found thousands of cockles (Cardi- 

 um) piled up in one place, to the exclusion of every other species. 



What has been said relates to the normal type of the Kjocklcemnoed- 

 ding, when the materials have been accumulated on the very locality 

 of habitation. Apart from these points, others are founds situated on 

 the shore and within the field of action of the waves, where the usual 

 materials of the Kjoelckenmocdding are mingled with sand and gravel, 

 and where the whole mass is more or less clearly stratified, of which we 

 may see a classical example at Biliat, near Frederikssund. It is evident 

 that at these places the ancients cooked their meals on the very beach, 

 after leaving their boats. The various fragments which they left were 

 subsequently rearranged by the next heavy sea, which rolled the ma- 

 terials about and mingled them with the composition of the coast 

 deposits. We can understand then how the fire places, composed of 

 pebbles of the size of a man's fist, have resisted the action of the waves 

 and have remained in their place, whilst the smaller materials have 

 been rolled along with the sand and gravel. 



A very singular circumstance is that the Kjoekkenmoedding , formed 

 beyond the reach of the waves, present sometimes at their surface a 

 deposit of slight thickness composed of rolled and stratified materials. 

 But this is only observed up to a height of from fourteen to eighteen 

 feet above the present level of the sea, and solely on the counter-slope 

 of the ground turned towards the sea. At Oesterild, in northern Jut- 



1 Mr. Steenstrup, who has examined the collection deposited by Mr. Fore] in the Museum 

 of Turin, finds this correspondence complete, only he has not been able to find any marks 

 of knives on the bones, which are however split and opened for the extraction of the mar- 

 row, as in the north. 



3 Lyell. A second visit to the United States of America. London, 1850; I., 338; II., 106, 

 135. Charles Darwin, Journal of Researches. London. 1840; 228. 



