598 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



quaternary deposits between Lakes Erie and Ontario ; and of an ob- 

 sidian spearhead in the white marl of the Walker River Canon formed 

 by the fossil Lake Lahoutan in northwest Nevada, discovered by Pro- 

 fessor McGee ; and the paleolithic implements found by Dr. Hilborn 

 T. Cresson, at Claymont, Delaware, and at Upland, Pa. 



So also animal remains are frequently found associated with human 

 remains, and therefore some knowledge of zoology is required. The 

 stone implements themselves belonging to the prehistoric peoples re- 

 quire a knowledge of geology and mineralogy to determine their names 

 and the locality from which they come, both of which items may be of 

 great importance. 



THE DISCOVERY OF PREHISTORIC MAN. 



Denmark is entitled to the credit of the discovery of the existence 

 of man on earth in the ages before history began. The historic period 

 proper of Scandinavia began about 1000 A. D. But for centuries 

 before that time there had been made, frequently on stone monuments, 

 but also in other ways, runic inscriptions and the poetic legends of 

 the early times of that country, called Sagas. The antiquarians of 

 that country in the past century delighted in studying these Sagas. 

 In this pursuit they discovered Kjokenmoddings, the Danish name for 

 kitchen refuse, the dolmens, the polished stone hatchets, the beautiful 

 flint poignards, and the daggers, knives, spear, and arrow-heads, for 

 which that country has been so justly celebrated. They became im- 

 pressed with the idea that these belonged to a more ancient race of 

 people than that which had written the Sagas and had erected the 

 runic stones. They were able, by their examination and study, to sep- 

 arate the implements found into three grand divisions, which they des- 

 ignated, respectively, the ages of stone, of bronze, and, lastly, of iron. 

 These ages were found to have endured in these countries for a long 

 period of time and came to a high perfection. Thomson published his 

 memoir in 1836, announcing these discoveries. The conclusions were 

 that the Kjokenmoddings were places of habitation of prehistoric 

 man, or, at least, places occupied by him, and that the shells which 

 formed the heaps were but the refuse from his kitchen. The pieces of 

 flint and bone were his implements, the dolmens were his tombs, and 

 the polished and beautifully- worked flints were but his tools and 

 weapons. They placed his earliest occupation of these countries at 

 from three to four thousand years B. 0. and continued it down through 

 the epochs of the different ages until that period when the written his- 

 tory of their country began. 



The age of stone, when applied to the Scandinavian countries, refers 

 only to polished stone, for no traces of man's existence in those coun- 

 tries during the paleolithic period have been found. Public attention 

 became attracted to the subject of prehistoric man by Dr. Ferd. Keller 

 in 1853, when he discovered in Lake Zurich the remains of the Swiss 

 Lake dwellers of prehistoric times. He found the same ages of stone, 



