40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



re-examined, and many new cases have been brought to light bearing 

 on the same question, both relating to caves and to alluvial strata 

 in valleys. 



The belief that those beautiful Hint arrow heads so frequently 

 turned up by the plough all over the country were the work of fairies, 

 however conclusive to a primitive and superstitious age, can only be 

 considered as on a par with the notion that the fossils of plants and 

 animals embedded in rocks were marks of satanic agency executed 

 for the purpose of perplexing and misleading mankind. 



Now that the question was started afresh, a widespread interest 

 in its investigation sprang up, and the leading geologists and men of 

 science in Britain, France, Germany, Denmark and America threw 

 themselves heartily into the movement. In this country it was 

 especially taken up by the late eminent geologist, Sir Charles Lyell, 

 and subjected to a most thorough searching, but nowhere was the 

 work more systematically carried out than by the scientists of 

 Denmark. 



In order to present to ourselves the salient features of this 

 investigation in as clear and concise a manner as possible, let us 

 suppose that we are in the company of intelligent explorers with 

 whom we will visit various countries and localities all over the globe, 

 and examine with them such evidences as they have succeeded in 

 unearthing in elucidation of this interesting question, our vehicle of 

 conveyance being the power of imagination, by which we can move 

 from place to place with greater rapidity than the electric telegraph. 



To begin with, let us transport ourselves to that interesting little 

 country composed chiefly of islands, Denmark, where, as I have said, 

 this work has been most carefully carried out. Numerous peat mosses, 

 varying in depth from 10 to 30 feet, are found scattered all over this 

 country, which have been formed in hollows or depressions in the drift 

 or boulder formation. 



Around the border of the bogs and at all depths lie trunks 

 of trees, which must have grown on the margin of the mosses 

 and have frequently fallen into them. Now, in the upper stratum 



