316 GENERAL VIEWS ON ARCHEOLOGY. 



The sheep was wanting in Denmark during the age of stone, and only 

 makes its appearance witli the bronze. But this sheep of the bronze 

 age has limbs so very slender, that in determining it from certain 

 bones, we would not suppose it to be of the same species as our present 

 sheep. 



It was known that the heaths of Jutland supported a race of very 

 puny sheep. After three years' researches Mr. Steenstrup succeeded 

 in obtaining a sample of them, but of which the race had undergone 

 an increase of size. The bones of this sample are much more slender 

 than those of the present sheep ; they hold a middle place between the 

 sheep of the bronze age and ours. The pure race of the heaths of 

 Jutland appears not to have been in existence for nearly two centu- 

 ries. There was no material interest in preserving it, for it was small, 

 and its fleece furnished a coarse wool, and slight in amount. 



The domestic ox only makes its appearance in Denmark with the 

 age of bronze, but this ancient race was not as strong as ours. 



Neither does the horse appear in Denmark until the bronze age, and 

 the horse of this age is also smaller than our present horse. As 

 would appear, it was somewhat late before the horse began to be used 

 for riding, at least for warlike purposes. Thus the Greeks do not 

 seem to have made use of cavalry until towards the seventh century 

 before our era. 1 



The other domestic species, the hog and the goat, remain still to be 

 investigated. It is merely known, as we have already seen, that they 

 were introduced into Denmark with the bronze age. 



In general there is not yet in Denmark, for the age of bronze, 

 what the Kjoekkenmoeddhig furnish for the age of stone, namely : ver- 

 itable well-arranged zoological museums, where we are sure to find 

 nearly all the animals of the epoch brought together, without any 

 mixture of any other fauna, either anterior or posterior. Nevertheless 

 there have been already found at three points in the lowermost layers 

 of the peat, on the edge of the Kjaermose, a considerable accumu- 

 lation of bones, representing the fragments and refuse of meals, and 

 belonging, judging from divers objects which accompany them, to the 

 age of bronze. It is especially from these findings that the domestic 

 animals of the age of bronze have been determined, and they are evi- 

 dently the most ancient domestic animals of Denmark, except the dog. 



By reference to Arabic documents, which the professor of Arabic, 

 at Copenhagen, Mr. Meeren, has communicated to Mr. Steenstrup, the 

 latter informs us that they began to tame the cat in the East towards 

 the seventh century. It was not yet generally distributed there in the 

 twelfth century, and it appears to have traveled into Europe shortly 

 after, at that remarkable epoch when European civilization again 

 received a powerful impulse from the East. 



We frequently imagine that we discover the original stock of our 

 domestic cat in the wild cat of Europe, but it is not the same species, 

 although very nearly so, and rather difficult to distinguish by the 

 skeleton. Connoisseurs, therefore, affirm that our wild cat does not 

 cross with the domestic cat. 



1 Minutoli, Abhandungcn Vermischten Inhaltcs. Berlin, 1831, vol. I, p. 129. 



