354 LECTURE XII. 



found in the north.. Concise also shows a greater richness in 

 domestic animals, specially a peculiar stock of cow, which has 

 not been found in the east. An antiquary once told me, that 

 the inhabitants of one district were probably peasants, whilst 

 the others belonged to an industrial aristocracy. This dif- 

 ference may depend either on the locality or on the periods, 

 which are, however, not distinctly separate, but merely indi- 

 cate slow and progressive civihsation. Notwithstanding the 

 scantiness of the materials, it must be admitted that culture had 

 attained a certain development, bearing testimony to the acute- 

 ness, energy, and endurance of this primitive people. They 

 knew how to work the stone without metal tools, and to use it 

 according to its nature for different purposes. Thus the harder 

 molasse served for whetstones and handmills ; the serpentine, 

 for hammers and hatchets. The hard pebbles served for cutting 

 tools. Several kinds of stones were imported from a distance, 

 flints from the chalk beds of France, perhaps also nephrite from 

 the East. With regard to this substance, which is but rarely 

 met with in Switzerland, there prevail great doubts. Though 

 nephrite is now imported from the East, it is not known in 

 what part it is most abundant. It is, moreover, by no means 

 certain whether the hatchets made, according to antiquaries, 

 of nephrite, are really constructed of this mineral, and not 

 rather of an exceptionally hard serpentine, or a tough felspar, 

 which Saussure formerly called jade. It is also possible that, 

 in the conglomerates which contain so many stones foreign 

 to the north side of the Alps (as, for instance, porphyry), this 

 material of Swiss so-called nephrite-hatchets may yet be 

 found. It is very desirable that all minerals used by the 

 pile builders should be more carefully studied than they 

 hitherto have been. An analysis of this kind has taught us 

 the mode by which the erratic blocks have been carried by the 

 glaciers down into the valleys, and in this way we may obtain 

 some clue as to the mode in which the pile builders communi- 

 cated with other peoples. 



It belongs to a special branch of archeeology to trace the mode 

 of working the mineral ; how it was fastened to a handle of 

 wood or staghorn, how the wood was split and carved, how the 



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