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the European collections of national antiquities, we next 
observe a great number of implements, weapons, and ornaments 
of bronze, together with ornaments of gold. It is impossible 
that all these could have belonged to the aboriginal people 
who built the cromlechs ; first, because the tombs are quite dif- 
ferent ; and secondly, we do not find any sufficient transition 
from the antiquities of stone to the antiquities of bronze. The 
latter are of a mixed metal, and are so beautiful in their 
forms, and of such fine workmanship, that they must have be- 
longed to a new people, who invaded Europe, followed the 
large rivers into the interior parts, where, with their imple- 
ments of metal, they were now able to make their way through 
the thick forests. They began to drain the bogs and cul- 
tivate the soil, no longer living merely by fishing and hunting, 
as the people before them. ‘There have been, however, diffe- 
rent opinions about the origin of these implements and wea- 
pons of bronze. Some said they were all of Phenician or 
Roman workmanship ; some contended that they all belonged 
to an early Celtic population of Europe; but a comparison 
of the Irish and Danish antiquities will clearly shew that 
these opinions are not to be relied upon. There is cer- 
tainly a general resemblance in the forms of the bronze anti- 
quities, but many differences in details, which prove that the 
Irish antiquities of bronze were not brought from Ireland to 
Denmark, or from Denmark to Ireland. ‘The handles of the 
Irish bronze swords were very nearly all of wood or horn: 
while in Denmark a great many had handles of bronze, orna- 
mented with a peculiar sort of pattern, which in no instance 
appears on the Irish antiquities, and sometimes inlaid with 
gold. In Denmark there are several antiquities which are not 
to be found in Ireland ; and in Irelandsome have been found, 
which either did not exist at all in Denmark, or assumed another 
shape. The Danish antiquities of bronze are again different 
from the remains of the same period in the southern part of 
Germany, in Greece, in Italy, and France, which in their turn 
