Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 7.djvu/23

Rh 5000—are the Kjökken-mödding of Denmark, found at stations adjacent to the sea, and consisting of immense collections of empty mussel and oyster shells. Similar heaps are found in the United States. The late Prof, von Mulot made careful studies of those of Europe, and the reader is referred to his valuable works for details. Comparatively barren as we have stated Switzerland to be in human memorials of the two preceding eras, it is the land richest in those of this age; for to it belong the oldest of the pile-dwellings found in most Swiss lakes and lacustrine peat-beds.

They were first discovered at Meilun, on Lake Zurich, during the winter of 1834-'35, when the level of most Swiss lakes was exceptionally low. Of course the mere existence of piles in our lakes had long been known to fishermen, but their real meaning and their significance for science was there first recognized by that keen-witted observer, Dr. Ferdinand Keller, of Zurich. We can offer nothing like an adequate description of these remarkable lake-villages, and shall speak of them only with reference to the indications they afford as to the man of this as compared with that of former prehistoric periods.

In addition to the rough-worked implements heretofore so abundant, we now have smooth, even polished axes, etc., of various hard stones, especially of greenstone, a term including diorite, syenite, and the peculiar serpentine which the Italians call gabrro. These axes were in various ways, and sometimes very ingeniously, attached to bone, wood, or horn handles. Besides these larger articles are many smaller ones, made of wood and horn, with arrow-tips and spear-heads of flint, jasper, and rock-crystal, often made with remarkable skill and carefulness of finish.

With the Age of Reindeers ends the Diluvial period proper, of which most of the characteristic animals, the reindeer among them, were by this time extinct, or else had wandered to distant regions. Hence the absence of their remains in later formations. Evidences of the domestication of animals now appear for the first time. Pottery is still rude and unburnt, but ornamented with odd stripes and rows of dots. The pieces are mostly conical, the bottom being the truncated point. No trace of writing, drawing, or sculpture, is to be found—a fact the more remarkable in view of the existence of the works of art mentioned as belonging to the preceding age.

The literature of the pile-dwellings is already quite extensive. Keller, Desor, Troyon, Morlot, and others, have written valuable manuals, while Heer and Rütimeyer have given in extenso the results of their thorough study of the vegetable, animal, and human remains, found in these curious habitations.

Those of the age we are considering are found in the edges of many