which, ill ancient times, inhabited the northern parts of Europe, must also have reached as far as those countries. Yet these antiquities can only shew that the races, who used the same objects of stone, stood in something like the same degree of civilization; but if more precise information of historical interest is desired, then the form and contents of the tombs, or of the still existing memorials, must necessarily be taken into consideration. It is, however, an acknowledged fact, that the peculiar Cromlechs and Giants' chambers of the stone-period, are never found either in the north of Sweden or Norway, (where, however, remains of the Fins, up to the historic period, have been preserved;) nor even in those countries which are still inhabited by the Finnish races. The associations are here totally different. The inhabitants, therefore, during the stone-period cannot have been Fins, who were gradually driven towards the North by other nations; for it is utterly incredible that during a retrograde movement, which they undertook in order to preserve their independence, they should on a sudden change their ancient modes of interment, and the customs which they had inherited from their ancestors. Beside they repaired to spots which abounded in granite rocks and loose blocks of stone, and where, consequently, it would have been easier for them to construct Cromlechs and Giants' chambers, than in Denmark.
The Fins, in fact, appear to have left no memorials of their abode in the southern districts of Scandinavia; they were in the earliest times, as now, little other than a mere nomadic race who had no regular or fixed abodes, and who might therefore easily disappear from a country without leaving any traces of their existence in it, as soon as it was no longer capable of supplying them with the means of subsistence. The inhabitants of Denmark during the stone- period must, doubtless, have attained a higher degree of civilization than the ancient Fins. They must, at all events, have possessed fixed dwellings, otherwise they would scarcely have constructed those remarkable Cromlechs and Giants' cham-
