The axes of this period nearly resemble those of iron which are now in use, nor do the large knives offer any peculiarity, with the exception that some of them are crooked and formed exactly like a sickle. With iron knives of similar kind the corn is now cut in many places, particularly where the ground is so stony that large scythes are useless.
So important a change in the nature of the implements employed, as that from stone to metal, must naturally have exerted a very extensive influence on the mode of life, as well as on civilization in general. In the most ancient times the aborigines were compelled to follow hunting and fishing, and to construct their dwellings on the sea-coast, since with their imperfect implements they were scarcely able to pluck up the primeval forests by the roots and to engage in agriculture, a branch of industry to which the flat and fertile plains of Denmark are particularly adapted. As soon however as this difficulty was removed by the circumstance of the most cultivated and at the same time the most powerful part of the population becoming possessed of useful metallic implements, hunting and fishing were less followed, and instead of these occupations men began to till the earth. The inhabitants now no longer found sufficient space on the coasts, and having extirpated the forests in the interior of the country, partly by fire, partly by the axe, they spread themselves over the whole land, and at the same time laid the foundation for an agriculture, which up to the present day is one of the principal industrial resources of Denmark. From this time we must probably date the origin of villages; for the cultivation of the earth, and the peaceful employments connected with this pursuit, soon induced men to draw together, both for the purpose of affording mutual advice and assistance to each other, and also of combining to repel those hostile assaults which in such unquiet times were probably far from infrequent. But the inhabitants were by no means limited to the occupation of peaceful husbandry. Even in the stone-period the aborigines possessed boats or canoes, a consequence naturally arising
