no JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



In contradistinction to the Palseolithic men, who do not appear 

 to have been acquainted with agricultuiie in any form, and commerce 

 only in a very limited way, we find the Neolithic men enjoying both 

 in a certain sense. They also were more advanced in the way of 

 art. Their weapons were richly carved and highly polished, and for 

 their manufacture they employed not flint alone, like the Palaeolithic 

 men, but serpentine, jade, diorite, or any material hard enough to 

 suit the purpose. 



In the lake dwellings of Switzerland we find extended evidences 

 of Neolithic commerce. By exchange from one hand to another, o^ 

 by periodical journeys, they received coral from the Mediterranean; 

 from the dwellers on the Baltic they bought the yellow amber, and 

 from the East they obtained the valuable nephrite. Such of their 

 arms as were made of flint were made of a species not known in 

 Switzerland, but which must have been brought from either France 

 or Germany. In their agriculture they employed various kinds of 

 grain, such as barley, wheat, beans and millet. Some of these 

 grains were grown in Egypt at a very early date, and it is believed 

 these Lacustrians brought the seeds from that country. Baskets 

 similar to those in use in Egypt have been found among the ruins of 

 some of the Swiss dwellings. 



The question of where the Neolithic men obtained the nephrite, 

 of which their axes were made, has occasioned many contradictory 

 statements. M. de Mortillet's first opinion was that this supposed 

 oriental jade is simply a serpentine stone, more or less impregnated 

 with silica, and formerly rather common in the Swiss Alps and the 

 Apennines; but he now owns that no veins of jade which might have 

 served to make the axes in question, have hitherto been found in 

 Europe. M. de Quatrefages thinks that these nephrite or jade axes 

 found in France and elsewhere, have been conveyed thither from 

 Asia, by means of barter. Altogether^ however, the eastern origin of 

 the stone, and consequently an extended commerce appear to have 

 the best of the evidence. 



With coral, amber, nephrite, flint and grain, as articles of trade 

 these lake men must have had widely extended commercial relations. 



The flints from Grand Pressigny, found in Belgium, and green 

 obsidian articles found in the valley of Vibrata, show that there was 

 a trade relation between France and the Low Countries^ and between 



