THIRD DIVISION.
I. Importance or the Monuments of Antiquity for History.
From what has been already stated, it is clear that we are enabled, by means of the antiquities and barrows, to form much clearer ideas, as to the peopling and civilization of Denmark, in primeval times, than could be derived from the uncertain and imperfect written memorials of those times. This fact will best appear from a general review of the advantages which the investigation of these monuments of antiquity has afforded to history.
In the time of the aborigines, the stone-period as it is called, when Denmark was a rude and thickly wooded country, it was inhabited by a people who, for the most part, diffused themselves along the sea-coast. They occupied a low rank in civilization. The use of metals was unknown to them, and hence all their implements were made of stone, of bone, or of wood. With such tools the inhabitants could make no great progress in agriculture; on the contrary, hunting and fishing formed their chief sources of subsistence. For catching fish in rivers, and in the sea, they used hooks, harpoons, and lances of flint, and they possessed boats formed of stems of trees which had been hollowed out for the purpose[1]. When hunting, they were armed not only with bows and arrows, but also with lances and hunting knives, the more easily to slay the large animals, whose skins served them for garments. Their dwell-
- ↑ While these sheets have been passing through the press, several remarkable specimens of these ancient canoes have been discovered in this country. One found in the neighbourhood of Southampton is described in the Literary Gazette of the 2nd of July; another, measuring about twenty-two feet in length, was taken out of the Tay at Sleepless Island in the early part of the present year; and a third has been discovered at Glasgow, fifteen feet below the old Cross of that town.—T.
