ri:i -HISTORIC ti.mi:. 57 



On the one hand, all the changes observed in Denmark may have taken 

 place within a minimum time cC two thousand years. On the other 

 hand, no one can affirm that either ft' the three successive forests may 

 not have flourished for that length of time. A chronology measured 

 by years, ami based OH such data, is evidently worthless; but it is 

 interesting in connexion with our present subject to observe, that the 

 remains preserved in the shell-heaps or " KjOkkenmbdding " of the 

 stone age in Denmark indicate a wonderful similarity of habits and 

 customs with those of primitive America, except that the people seem 

 to have borne a closer resemblance to the Esquimaux than to the 

 ordinary American Indian. 



On the whole, nothing can be more striking to any one acquainted 

 with the American Indian than the entire similarity of the traces of 

 pre-historic man in Europe to those which remain of the primitive 

 condition of the American aborigines, whether we consider their food, 

 their implements and weapons, or their modes of sepulture ; and it 

 seems evident that if these pre-historic remains are ever to be correctly 

 interpreted by European antiquaries, they must avail themselves of 

 American light for their guidance. Much of this light has already 

 been thrown on this subject by my friend Professor Wilson, in his 

 " Prehistoric Man ; " but one can scarcely open any European book on 

 this subject, or glance at any of the numerous articles and papers on 

 this fertile theme in scientific journals, without wishing that those 

 who discuss pre-historic man in Europe knew a little more of his 

 analogue in America. The subject is a tempting one, but I must 

 close this notice, already too long for the space I should devote to it, 

 by remarking, that the relations in America of the short-headed and 

 long-headed races of men are by no means dissimilar from those of 

 the two similar races in Europe ; while it is also evident that some pre- 

 historic skulls, supposed to be of vast antiquity, as, for instance, that of 

 Engis, bear a very close resemblance to those of the Algonquin and 

 Iroquois Indians. 



