10 AGES OF STONE, BRONZE, AND IRON. CHAP. ii. 



Danish and Swedish antiquaries and naturalists, MM. Nillson, 

 Steenstrup, Forchhammer, Thomsen, Worsaae, and others, 

 have succeeded in establishing a chronological succession of 

 periods, which they have called the ages of stone, of bronze, 

 and of iron, named from the materials which have each in 

 their turn served for the fabrication of implements. 



The age of stone in Denmark coincided with the period 

 of the first vegetation, or that of the Scotch fir, and in part 

 at least with the second vegetation, or that of the oak. But 

 a considerable portion of the oak epoch coincided with "the 

 age of bronze,'' for swords and shields of that metal, now in 

 the Museum of Copenhagen, have been taken out of peat in 

 which oaks abound. The age of iron corresponded more 

 nearly with that of the beech-tree.* 



M. Morlot, to whom we are indebted for a masterly sketch 

 of the recent progress of this new line of research, followed 

 up with so much success in Scandinavia and Switzerland, 

 observes that the introduction of the first tools made of bronze 

 among a jieople previously ignorant of the use of metals, im- 

 plies a great advance in the arts, for bronze is an alloy of 

 about nine parts of copj^er and one of tin ; and although 

 the former metal, copper, is by no means rare, and is occa- 

 sionally found pure or in a native state, tin is not only scarce, 

 but never occurs native. To detect the existence of this metal 

 in its ore, then to disengage it from the matrix, and finally, 

 after blending it in due proportion with copper, to cast the 

 fused mixture in a mould, allowing time for it to acquire 

 hardness by slow cooling, all this bespeaks no small sagacity 

 and skilful manipulation. Accordingly, the i:)ottery found 

 associated with weapons of bronze is of a more ornamental 

 and tasteful stylo than any which belongs to the age of 

 stone. Some of the moulds in which the bronze instruments 

 were cast, and " tags," as they are called, of bronze, which are 



■» Morlot, Bulletin de la Societ6 Vaudoiso dcs Sci. Nat., t. vi. p. 292. 



