474 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



turf has here, as in the submarine peat-bogs which lie outside 

 Falsterbo, been formed in fresh water, of which the bottom when 

 the turf was formed lay above the surface of the sea ; inasmuch 

 as in it were found the same species of shrubs as those that are 

 found in the other Scanian peat-bogs, situated farther in the 

 interior of the country. But on the bottom of this peat-bog, on 

 the fine blue clay itself, there have frequently, during the cutting 

 of the turf, been found arrows, knives, etc., of flint, which proves 

 that human beings already existed in these districts at the time 

 when the bog was an open water, and peat began to grow in it." 1 

 Nilsson further states that bones of a bear (supposed at first to 

 be the great cave-bear, but since ascertained to be Ursus arctos) 

 have been met with under this peat in association with human 

 implements, and that the reindeer and the urus also occur in the 

 oldest peat-bogs of Scania. Professor A. Erdmann has described 

 a section across these remarkable deposits, and the succession of 

 beds given by him is as follows : — 



1. Gravel and sand of raised-beach. 



2. Peat, 1 to 2 feet thick. 



3. Clay with freshwater shells, 1 foot 5 inches. 



4. Calcareous clay without shells. 



5. Coarse glacial gravel. 



In other places the peat is thicker and rests directly upon 

 till or boulder-clay. 



Similar beaches, as I have been informed by Mr. Tornebohm, 

 are accumulating along the shores of north-eastern Scania at 

 the present day, so that there seems no necessity for ISTilsson's 



1 The Primitive Inhabitayits of Scandinavia, p. 254. In connection with the 

 occurrence of human relics in beach-deposits, I may refer to the discoveiy of a 

 wooden hut at Sbdertelge, which has been cited by Lyell {Antiquity of Man, p. 

 282), as proving considerable oscillations of the sea-level within a recent period. 

 It would seem that this is a mistake. The sand under which the hut was buried 

 was not marine, but had slipped down from time to time from the steep slope of 

 an as or bank of glacial gravel and sand, at the foot of which the hut had been 

 built. This view, Dr. Torell says, was advanced by Mr. Hisinger in 1840, in 

 opposition to Lyell's explanation of the phenomena, and subsequent examination 

 of the ground by Prof. Erdmann has confirmed Hisinger's general conclusion. 

 See Expose" ales Formations Quaternaires de la Suede, p. 109 ; and Torell, Sur les 

 traces le plus ancienncs de V existence de Vhomme en Suede, 1876, p. 14. 



