POSSIBLE PREHISTORIC USE OF THE LODESTONE. 83 



information as to how the discovery was made, or when it 

 was made. As to the first, the Chinese legends are gro- 

 tesque and incredible ; as to the second, the traditions are 

 hopelessly conflicting, save in that all refer to periods in 

 remote antiquitVe 



The prehistoric people from the western Asia migrated, 

 as I have said, in all directions ; the Finns, for example, 

 going northward, and the Mongols eastward, and Etrus- 

 cans, perhaps, westward or southward. If the hypothesis 

 be accepted provisionally, that the parent race knew of the 

 directive tendency of the lodestone, and that all of its off- 

 shoots could thus have used it during their migrations as a 

 means of guidance over the deserts and wildernesses, it 

 follows, of course, that the discovery was not originally 

 made on territory which has ever been recognized as 

 Chinese, or by the Mongols exclusively ; but, on the con- 

 trary, was a part of the stock of knowledge which the dif- 

 ferent tribes once possessed in common. Now, bearing in 

 mind the conservative, inelastic, non-progressive character 

 of the Chinese, and their seeming inability to advance be- 

 yond the first act of discovery or invention, it apparently 

 follows that the directing needle might well continue 

 among them in its original state, and thus remain applied 

 for ages only to its original uses. Therefore, we should 

 naturally expect to find familiarity with the needle only 

 as a means of land guidance, and used either for in- 

 dicating a quarter of the horizon, or for establishing 

 lines in definite direction, as in placing buildings, lay- 

 ing out tunnels, etc. This comports with the facts. The 

 Chinese, having a great expanse of territory, would have 

 use for the land compass in traveling over long dis- 

 tances ; equally their religious system, as well as their 

 engineering knowledge, called for its employment in 

 the establishing of sites for their edifices. The Etrus- 

 cans, belonging to the same Altaic group, had but small 

 territory, and, therefore, no need for the guidance of the 

 stone in traversing it; but, as I have already pointed out, 



