the land of the gods, which was an island in the Atlantic Ocean, beyond
the Pillars of Hercules; and this land was, as we shall see, clearly
Atlantis.

8. As we find but a small development of the Bronze Age in America, it
is reasonable to suppose that there must have been some intermediate
station between America and Europe, where, during a long period of time,
the Bronze Age was developed out of the Copper Age, and immense
quantities of bronze implements were manufactured and carried to Europe.

CHAPTER IX.

ARTIFICIAL DEFORMATION OF THE SKULL.

An examination of the American monuments shows (see figure on page 269)
that the people represented were in the habit of flattening the skull by
artificial means. The Greek and Roman writers had mentioned this
practice, but it was long totally forgotten by the civilized world,
until it was discovered, as an unheard-of wonder, to be the usage among
the Carib Islanders, and several Indian tribes in North America. It was
afterward found that the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans practised this
art: several flattened Peruvian skulls are depicted in Morton's "Crania
Americana." It is still in use among the Flat-head Indians of the
north-western part of the United States.

In 1849 a remarkable memoir appeared from the pen of M. Rathke, showing
that similar skulls had been found near Kertsch, in the Crimea, and
calling attention to the book of Hippocrates, "De Aeris, Aquis et Locu,"
lib. iv., and a passage of Strabo, which speaks of the practice among
the Scythians. In 1854 Dr. Fitzinger published a learned memoir on the