is clear that to render the land productive, larger and better implements were necessary than those then existing. On the other hand the conditions of nature pointed out hunting and fishing as the easiest and most available means of subsistence. The forests afforded game, and the waters fish, in abundance; while their habitations on the coast enabled the people to hunt in the woods, or fish in the waters, with equal facility.
|
|
Proofs that they actually followed such a mode of life are afforded by the implements for fishing and hunting, formed of stone and bone, which are constantly discovered in the earth. Among the weapons of the chase the arrow-heads are particularly distinguished. They are often of flint, a few inches long, and sometimes triangular or flat, sometimes heart-shaped, which last as a rule are formed with such care that the sides are very finely notched. One peculiar kind of arrows consists of small pieces of bone, in which splinters of flint are inserted. The splinters are universally thin and small, and are fastened by a kind of cement into indentations which are cut in the sides. From the manner in which stone arrow-heads are used in certain countries at the present day, we may conclude that those of Denmark were fastened to the end of reeds, or fine slips of wood. They were then shot from a bow, that is, a stout branch of a tree, bent by a string fastened to each end of it. These bows have not hitherto been found in the North, for having been formed of wood, they have in the course of time gradually perished from lying in the earth.
With these rude weapons for shooting it might be supposed that it was scarcely possible to take any
