in the peat-mosses, hollowed out of the trunk of a single tree, to
catch fish far from land, is testified by the bony relics of
several deep-sea species, such as the herring, cod, and flounder.
The ancient people were not cannibals, for no human bones are
mingled with the spoils of the chase. Skulls, however, have been
obtained not only from peat, but from tumuli of the stone period
believed to be contemporaneous with the mounds. These skulls are
small and round, and have a prominent ridge over the orbits of the
eyes, showing that the ancient race was of small stature, with
round heads and overhanging eyebrows--in short, they bore a
considerable resemblance to the modern Laplanders. The human skulls
of the bronze age found in the Danish peat, and those of the iron
period, are of an elongated form and larger size. There appear to
be very few well-authenticated examples of crania referable to the
bronze period--a circumstance no doubt attributable to the custom
prevalent among the people of that era of burning their dead and
collecting their bones in funeral urns.

No traces of grain of any sort have hitherto been discovered, nor
any other indication that the ancient people had any knowledge of
agriculture. The only vegetable remains in the mounds are burnt
pieces of wood and some charred substance referred by Dr.
Forchhammer to the Zostera marina, a sea plant which was perhaps
used in the production of salt.

What may be the antiquity of the earliest human remains preserved
in the Danish peat cannot be estimated in centuries with any
approach to accuracy. In the first place, in going back to the
bronze age, we already find ourselves beyond the reach of history
or even of tradition. In the time of the Romans the Danish Isles