362 ARCHEOLOGY. 



the ancient people; and also bones — in most cases the remains of 

 ordinary meals or festive celebrations. From these documents we 

 learn that the ancient people spun and wove cloth garments, and 

 also that they produced pottery by hand. 



If any one should have taken the trouble to gather up all these 

 bones, and to submit them to anatomical comparison, he could have 

 advanced various branches of science. He could have enabled the 

 archaeologist to show which of the animals were hunted and which 

 were reared by those people; he would have also assisted the 

 anatomist to discover what changes had taken place in skeletons of 

 animals during very long periods of time; he would also have fur- 

 nished the geologist Avith the means of determining which species 

 and genera had lived contemporaneously in one or the other locality; 

 he even would have presented facts to enlighten the zoologist as to 

 the interesting and exciting but very difficult questions regarding 

 the origin of species and the possible mutability of types; and, 

 finally, he could have given interesting materials to the husbandman 

 tending to throw light on the history of the more important domestic 

 animals. All these desiderata have lately been most successfully, 

 though modestly, furnished by Professor Riitimeyer, of Basel. A 

 short abridgment of his work may not be without interest; the 

 more so as the results arrived at by this Swiss savant are helping 

 to penetrate the barrier which heretofore has separated history from 

 geology. 



The antiquarians of France, remarks Riitimeyer, find stone axes in 

 the mammoth strata of Bretagne; and in the Swiss palisade buildings 

 occur the diluvial bovine species — Bos p'imigenius and B. trocJioceros — 

 both domesticated. 



Among the bones of the lacustrine habitations 66 species of verte- 

 brata3 were recognized, viz: 10 of fishes, 3 of reptiles, 17 of birds, 

 and .36 of mammals; 8 domesticated, to wit: of the dog, the hog, the 

 horse, the ass, the goat, the sheep, and at least of two bovine species. 

 Among these neither the bones of chickens nor of cats are found. 

 Predominant above all are the bones of the stag; after these those of 

 the cow. This proves that the chase furnished the principal portion 

 of the food. The bones of hogs appear numerically third in rank. 

 These animals seem to have been more in use as game than as domes- 

 ticated stock. Still more rare are the bones of deer, goats, and sheep. 

 In later settlements the latter commenced to prevail over the goat. 

 The dog appears quite scarcely represented, as is also the case with 

 the horse and the donkey. The bear, the wolf, the auerox, the bison, 

 the elk, the chamois, and the ibex seem to have served occasionally 

 as game. 



Critical comparison enabled science to distinguish the bones of 

 wild from those of domestic animals. Those of the former exhibit a 

 deep brown, almost black, color; a surface smooth and greasy to the 

 touch, and in most cases a wonderfully increased specific gravity; 

 more distinctly marked carinas; greater roughness, and more acutely 

 cut muscle insertions — in short, the greatest possible distinctness of 

 all the edges and protuberances, together with the least possible 



