164 COMPARATIVE ARCH £OLOGY. 
locations of the sand go on during high winds, we may find 
in certain hollows a mixed assortment of relics belonging to all 
ages. This anomaly is easily explained by supposing that a 
sand-hill formerly covered the site, and that it was then fre- 
quented by hunters and other persons, who left their impro- 
vised fireplaces, cooking utensils, remains of feasts, and stray 
objects behind them. By and bye the lighter materials of the 
sand-hill were blown away in clouds, while the heavier objects. 
gradually sunk lower and lower, till ultimately they reached 
the surface of the orig‘nal land before the intrusion of the sand 
into the district. 
But there is another aspect in which novel and clean 
relics have to be treated, in order to gain all the information 
that the ingenuity of science can elicit from their special 
characteristics. For this purpose we have to institute a com- 
parison between them and analogous relics found elsewhere, 
and preserved in various accessible museums at home and 
abroad. During this roaming inquiry we enter on the special 
domain of comparative acheology, the prosecution of which 
often requires the expenditure of more time and money than 
may be at the disposal of local antiquaries. The result of 
investigations conducted on these lines has shown that in 
many localities antiquarian objects, though serving the same 
purpose in social life, disclose some differences as regards 
execution, technique, and style of art so constant and per- 
sistent that experts are enabled to classify them as peculiar to 
certain geographical areas. The same remarks apply to a 
large class of outdoor monuments whose structural details, 
whether their material be stone, metal, earth, or wood, reveal 
certain data indicative of ihe social life and culture of their 
builders. Many illustrations of such antiquarian remains will 
cecur to the well-informed archeologist, without extending 
his purview beyond European lands, such as the various types 
of primitive stone monuments, military camps and forts, lake- 
dwellings, terremare, etc., many of which occupy portions of 
several of our modern kingdoms. Indeed, most antiquities are 
more or less differentiated by local prejudices, customs, and 
other moulding influences, so that experts are able to outline © 
the respective areas of their distribution. The. snialler 
