CHAP. II. DANISH SHELL-MOUNDS. 11 



formed in the hole through which the fused metal was poured, 

 have been found. The number and variety of objects belong 

 ing to the age of bronze indicates its long duration, as does 

 the progress in the arts implied by the rudeness of the earlier 

 tools, often mere repetitions of those of the stone age, as 

 contrasted with the more skilfully worked weapons of a later 

 stage of the same period. 



It has been suggested that an age of copper must always 

 have intervened between that of stone and bronze ; but if so, 

 the interval seems to have been short in Europe, owing 

 apparently to the territory occupied by the aboriginal in 

 habitants having been invaded and conquered by a people 

 coming from the East, to whom the use of swords, spears, and 

 other weapons of bronze was familiar. Hatchets, however, of 

 copper have been found in the Danish peat. 



The next stage of improvement, or that manifested by the 

 substitution of iron for bronze, indicates another stride in the 

 progress of the arts. Iron never presents itself, except in 

 meteorites, in a native state, so that to recognise its ores, and 

 then to separate the metal from its matrix, demands no small 

 exercise of the powers of observation and invention. To fuse 

 the ore requires an intense heat, not to be obtained without 

 artificial appliances, such as pipes inflated by the human 

 breath, or bellows, or some other suitable machinery. 



Danish Shell-mounds, or Kjokkenmodding.* 



In addition to the peat-mosses, another class of memorials 

 found in Denmark has thrown light on the pre-historical age. 

 At certain points along the shores of nearly all the Danish 



* Mr. John Lubbock published, p. 489, in which he has described the 



after these sheets were written, an results of a recent visit to Denmark, 



able paper on the Danish ' shell- made by him in company with Messrs, 



mounds ' in the October Number of Busk, Prestwich, and Galton. 

 the Natural History Keview, 1861, 



