NEOLITHIC, BRONZE, AND IRON AGES. 367 



but before it had reached its greatest development." 1 In a 

 subsequent chapter I shall return to this question, when certain 

 geological evidence will be adduced to show that the Danish 

 kitchen-middens, although doubtless of great antiquity, most 

 probably belong to a late Neolithic period ; at all events that 

 they can hardly be referred to the early age which Professor 

 Worsaae claims for them. 



It is worthy of note that the cockle, mussel, and periwinkle 

 shells which compose so large a part of the kitchen-middens 

 are larger than those of the same molluscs that now live upon 

 the coast, while the oyster, formerly so abundant, has entirely 

 disappeared — facts which point to the former salter condition of 

 the Baltic Sea. It may have been, as Lyell has remarked, that 

 " the ocean had freer access than now to the Baltic, communi- 

 cating probably through the peninsula of Jutland, Jutland 

 having been at no remote period an archipelago." 2 We must 

 remember, however, that the position of the shell-mounds shows 

 that the relative level of sea and land in that part of Denmark 

 has remained apparently stable from the time of their forma- 

 tion to the present day. The total absence of shell-mounds 

 along the west coast of Denmark is explained by the fact that 

 the sea has made great encroachments there, and that any shell- 

 mounds which may once have existed have probably been 

 demolished along with the ground they rested upon. 



The fish-remains found in the shell-mounds include those of 

 herring, dorse, cod, flounder, and eel ; and there are also bones 

 of several birds. Of these last the most interesting are those 

 of the capercailzie and the great auk (Alca impennis), a species 

 which would appear to be now extinct. The mammalia are 

 represented most abundantly by stag, roedeer, and wild-boar ; 

 but, besides these, were urus, dog, fox, wolf, marten, otter, 

 porpoise, seal, water-rab, beaver, lynx, wild-cat, hedgehog, bear 

 (Ursus arctos), mouse, and a small ox. The dog was domesti- 

 cated, as was shown by the curious fact that those bones or 



1 Prehistoric Times, 4 th edit., p. 253. 

 a Antiquity of Man, 4th edit., p. 14. 



