A STUDY OF PREHISTORIC ANTHROPOLOGY. 629 



stone, sixteen of bronze, and four of iron. This is highly imperfect, for 

 I know many stations not noted, and where noted as one they really 

 include several stations. At Chevroux, Lake Neuchatel, I found twelve 

 stations, of which seven belonged to the neolithic and five to the 

 bronze age, yet they are noted at only one of each. An idea of the ex- 

 tent of these stations may be obtained from the fact that they contain 

 from ten thousand to one hundred thousand piles. I drew one out at 

 »Estavayer, Lake Neuchatel, and brought it home, and it and its cast 

 are now in the Smithsonian Institution. At the station of Wallishofen, 

 Lake Zurich, discovered about three years since, there have been found 

 no less than two thousand bronze hair-pins, some long with large and 

 beautiful heads, which, when polished to their original gold color, must 

 have given a gorgeous appearance to the female head-dress of that age. 



BRONZE AGE. 



So called because bronze was the material of which the cutting im- 

 plements were made. The progress in its manufacture is plainly indi- 

 cated in both form and method. The material is not a natural primi- 

 tive one, but a combination of copper and tin in varying proportions 

 of 9 to 1. It was not made in Europe, but seems to have been brought 

 from Asia, and was used over many times by recasting. No less than 

 fifty-seven foundries of bronze have been discovered in France, and a 

 proportionate number in Italy, the one at Bologna having no less than 

 fourteen thousand pieces broken ready for melting and recasting. The 

 people of the bronze age in Europe were the desc3ndants of those of 

 the neolithic age, and their hatchets were at first made in the same 

 general form as the polished stone hatchet of their ancestors. They 

 were straight, flat, thin, and made by hammering. Increased strength 

 was obtained by hammering the edges into projections which after- 

 wards increased to wings. This was the second step of progress. Then 

 the hatchets were cast in moulds with wings and a stop which pre- 

 vented the splitting of the handle. Lastly was invented the socketed 

 hatchet, into which the handle (bent at the poll) was inserted. Nearly 

 all the latter forms had an eye with a hole therein, on the inside of the 

 hatchet, by which it could be lashed to the handle which prevented 

 the edge from working outwards.* 



PALEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS IN AMERICA. 



The paleolithic implements of the United States are similar to those 

 of Europe in form, appearance, and mode of manufacture, though not 

 usually so well finished. If classified according to Mortillet, they 

 would belong to the earliest epoch of the paleolithic period — the Chel- 

 l^en. The investigations concerning these implements have not been 

 very profound, nor has it been settled to the satisfaction of all prehis- 

 toric archaeologists, perhaps not even to a majority, that they are truly 

 paleolithic implements. There have been various contentions concern- 

 ing this. 



* Plate ci, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4. 



