WORKS OF ART IN DANISH PEAT-MOSSES. 



CHAPTER n. 



RECENT PERIOD — DANISH PEAT AND SHELL MOUNDS — SWISS 

 LAKE-DWELLINGS. 



WORKS OF ART IN DANISH PEAT-MOSSES REMAINS OF THREE PERIODS 



OF VEGETATION IN THE PEAT AGES OF STONE, BRONZE, AND IRON 



SHELL-MOUNDS OR ANCIENT REFUSE-HEAPS OF THE DANISH ISLANDS 



CHANGE IN GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MARINE MOLLUSCA SINCE 



THEIR ORIGIN IMBEDDED REMAINS OF MAMMALIA OF RECENT SPECIES 



HUMAN SKULLS OF THE SAME PERIOD SWISS LAKE-DWELLINGS 



BUILT ON PILES STONE AND BRONZE IMPLEMENTS FOUND IN THEM 



FOSSIL CEREALS AND OTHER PLANTS REMAINS OF MAMMALIA, WILD 



AND DOMESTICATED NO EXTINCT SPECIES CHRONOLOGICAL COMPU- 

 TATIONS OF THE DATE OF THE BRONZE AND STONE PERIODS IN 



SWITZERLAND LAKE-DWELLINGS, OR ARTIFICIAL ISLANDS CALLED 



"CRANNOGES," IN IRELAND. 



Works of Art in Danish Peat. 



WHEX treating in the ''Principles of Geology" of the 

 changes of the earth which have taken place in com- 

 paratively modern times, I have spoken (chap, xlv.) of the 

 imbedding of organic bodies and human remains in peat, and 

 explained under what conditions the growth of that vegetable 

 substance is going on in northern and humid climates. Of 

 late years, since I first alluded to the subject, more extensive 

 investigations have been made into the history of the Danish 

 peat-mosses. Of the results of these inquiries I shall give a 

 brief abstract in the present chapter, that we may afterwards 

 compare them with deposits of older date, which throw light 

 on the antiquity of the human race. 



The deposits of peat in Denmark,* varying in depth from 



* An excellent account of these re- and will be found in the Bulletin de la 



searches of Danish naturalists and Soci6te Vaudoise des Sci. Nat., t. vi. 



antiquaries has been drawn up by an Lausanne, 1860. 

 able Swiss geologist, M. A. Morlot, 



