race, who, in the course of time, have disappeared before the immigration of more powerful nations, without leaving behind them any memorials, except the Cromlechs of stone in which they deposited their dead, and the implements which, by the nature of their materials, were protected from decay. History has scarcely preserved to us the memory of all the nations who have from the beginning inhabited Europe; it is therefore a vain error to assume that certain races must incontestably be the most ancient, because they are the first which are mentioned in the few and uncertain written records, which we possess.
Meantime there is a method by which we may probably, in the course of time, be enabled to ascertain to what peculiar race of men the first inhabitants of Denmark belonged. By an examination and comparison of the different people, and the different regions of the earth, it has been found that the several races of men present remarkable varieties in their physical conformation, and that these varieties are most observable in the shape of the skull. Several men of science have, as already mentioned, commenced examining and describing the skulls and skeletons found in the Cromlechs, and Giants' chambers of the stone-period. It has, by this means, been proved that the people by whom these were erected were, with reference to corporeal structure, neither above nor below the middle size, but to what race of men they may most suitably be referred has not yet been fully ascertained. Formerly but little attention was paid to these skulls, for which reason comparatively very few, and those in an imperfect state, have been preserved in our collections. When greater interest shall have been awakened for the antiquities of our country, and consequently a larger number of skeletons shall have been procured, we may reasonably hope to acquire, by means of comparison, certain historical results which may possibly lead to other and more important discoveries, as to the descent of the aborigines.
Although history affords no explanation as to the race
