flint but of softer kinds of stone, particularly trap, which is heavier and less brittle than flint.
The boring of the hole for the handle appears, in the most ancient period, to have been executed in a very simple manner, perhaps only with a pointed stick and sand and water; the hole being bored first on one side, then on the other, and lastly broken through the middle. In length they vary from two to three inches up to twelve. It has been supposed, and not without reason, that the most simple of them, those which have the back rounded off or flat, were used as wedges for splitting trees, in which case they were struck with wooden mallets. At the same time, like the more neatly formed hammers, they might have served both for domestic purposes, and in case of need as maces or battle-axes. Nor must we forget to mention here, that in several instances hammers of bone have been found in the earth, in particular those formed of the antlers of the deer, which at one end are bored for the handle, at the other are sharpened for cutting; affording a proof that, in the absence of metals the aborigines availed themselves of other materials, beside stone.
If we form a clear conception of what is meant by being unacquainted with implements of metal, and being compelled to make use of simple and very imperfect instruments of stone, such as have been described; and if we remember, at the same time, that Denmark was at the period referred to, a rude uncultivated and woody country, it is easy to perceive, that the aborigines could scarcely have paid any particular attention to agriculture. For though the woods might be extirpated by means of fire, and it may be assumed that several of the stone hatchets, placed crosswise in crooked handles of wood, might possibly have been employed for digging the ground, yet it
