By taking the maritime structures which are still in existtence, and by studying them altogether, we are able to ascertain what the condition of society was in prehistoric times. We must remember that all three classes of works were once peopled by those who were exercising their skill in making for themselves comfortable habitations, and were laying the foundations of society for the future. A large proportion of the people who have left these various monuments have passed away and are unknown, except as we are able to study their works and relics; but those who built the maritime structures have their representatives still living, and from these we may learn their habits, ways, and customs of the Lake-Dwellers and other prehistoric peoples. There is not the same mystery about the living people as there is about those who existed several thousand years ago; yet so far as the growth of architecture is concerned or the spread of population through the earth, these rude structures, which, for the most part, were built by sea-faring people, are as instructive as any monuments which exist.

Of one thing we may be sure: namely, that these so-called lake-dwellings and various maritime structures were occupied by a sedentary people and were erected for domestic purposes; while of many of the stone monuments it is still a mystery as to what their object or use was. There may have been, indeed, other works, such as the so-called Pit-houses in Japan, which were occupied by the Ainus or their ancestors, but these are not of general distribution.

The three classes of works illustrate one point: namely, the effect of environment upon the habits of the people. It would seem that, as long as the people were dwelling in the forest, they continued in the low condition of savagery; but, as soon as they came into the open plain, they commenced their onward march toward civilization. Their progress was hastened as they approached the sea and made their homes on the sea coast. There was undoubtedly an expanding influence in the very siht of the sea and a development of the consciousness of power, when man began to be a navigator of the sea. The narrow character of forest tribes, or even of mountain people, is well known, for the limitations of their surroundings have an inevitable effect to shut them in and keep them back. It will be interesting, then, to enter into the study of these maritime constructions, and show their position among the prehistoric

works and their bearing upon historic times. We do not claim. for them any architectural character, for they are generally rude constructions destitute of all ornament and hardly presenting even the elements of art. Nor do we, on the other hand, class them with the earliest historic dwellings, for there were rude dwellings long after there were kitchen middens, and it is probable that the huts which were erected by hunter tribes upon the land, may have continued to be occupied long after the shell heaps by the sea. These huts, however, which were hidden in the forest, were built of unsubstantial material and soon perished. But those which were built by the sea were surrounded by the heaps of shell, which are very enduring, and the result is, the latter are preserved for our examination, while the former have passed away.

The distribution of the kitchen middens, lake-dwellings, and various maritime structures, has given us a good opportunity for examining them, especially as there are structures resembling them still occupied, and from them we may learn the stage of society which was then represented. Still, it would be well to remember that what is ancient in one country is modern in another, and that the same structures which have been discovered on the coast of America in recent times, existed in Europe and Asia several thousand years ago. It may be said of all these structures, especially of those upon the sea coast, that they help us to trace the line of migration which was taken by the early inhabitants of the world, and throw considerable light upon the distribution of mankind throughout the world.

Prof. O. T. Mason has spoken of the quest for food as being one cause for the distribution of the population throughout the globe. He has traced the migrating route which a sea-faring people may have taken, when passing from the islands of the Pacific, along the east coast of Asia and by way of the Aleutian Islands finally reaching the Northwest coast. The monuments which indicate their route, or the route taken by subsequent people, may be recognized in the dolmens which are found in India, Japan, and Peru. The kitchen middens evidently preceded these, though it is a question whether they were left by a migratory people, or by a people who came down from the interior and made their homes on the sea coast.

Prof. Worsaae has also spoken of the migrations which took place in Europe. He says:

In the first settlement of Europe the fringe of coasts and nearest river courses had everywhere played a leading part. So long as hunting and fishing formed the most important resources of the settlers and vast stretches of coast were still untrod by human foot, the primeval inhabitants, unaccompanted by any domestic animal save the dog, would have no great difficulty in spreading further, or flitting from place to place, when they began to be pinched for food. A very long time must have elapsed ere the more highly developed races, steadily advancing from south and west, were in a condition-as lake-dwellings, stone graves, and other memorials show-to spread from the Mediterranean coasts over Switzer

land, part of South Germany, the whole of France, Belgium, Holland, the British Isles, and Northwestern Germany. The last period of the Stone Age in the high north on the Baltic North Sea and the Atlantic was, therefore, even in its earliest stage most probably contemporaneous with the victorious advance and first independent development of the Bronze Age in more southern lands, particularly on the Mediterranean.*

The maritime structures of the earth give rise to the inquiry as to the races inhabiting the sea coast and the islands, whether they developed from savagery in these centers and invented their own improvements, or received these inventions from other tribes, who had migrated from other parts, having been driven out by more civilized people. There are arguments for both theories. The similarities of the pile-dwellings and the close analogies between the maritime constructions favor the idea of a borrowed civilization, or one that was introduced by migrations. Of this Prof. Worsaae also says:

In the South Sea Islands examples have recently been met with showing that the Stone Age people, under exceptionally favorable circumstances have raised themselves to a not inconsiderable height of culture in comparison to the wretched savages in their vicinity.

Rude stone objects identically similar in form and evidently from a corresponding stage of culture can also be shown in cave, field, and coast finds from south Europe, as well as in finds from the district of Thebes in Egypt, from Japan and from the shell heaps of America. Neither in the refuse heaps of Denmark, nor in the shell heaps of Japan or America is the least trace found of a fuller development and change in ornamental objects, Besides feathers and other trophies of the chase, usually affected by savage races, their ornaments appear to have been confined chiefly to animal's teeth,

The first inhabitants of Denmark, or of southwest Scandanavia, are, therefore, to be compared most closely with the long-vanished savage races, which formed corresponding refuse heaps on the coasts of Japan and America, especially along the river margins of the latter; or with the partly still existing inferior peoples in South America, off the coast of Japan, and in the South Seas, who support themselves in the same way on shell-fish fishing and hunting. Certainly nowhere else have such rude peoples, as a rule, been in the habit of rearing great permanent monuments to preserve for thousands of years, the earthly remains of their dead.

It is well known that the Caribs and Andaman Islanders and others, both at high festivals and daily meals, use certain portions of their provisions, together with implements, ornaments, etc., as offerings to their gods. There is, therefore, nought to hinder the belief that a northern people on nearly the same level may have remembered their gods in a similar manner. The oldest articles of stone and bone discovered in the extreme north of Asia may have an apparent likeness to Stone Age objects from Finland, north Russia and the north of Asia, but both in material and form they differ entirely from the early Stone Age antiquities of southern Scandanavia. They constitute a distinct Arctic group in the European Stone Age.t

It is with these thoughts in mind that we take up the study of the maritime structures of the world, especially those which are of the most primitive and rudest form, and passing on from these to others that are more advanced and elaborate in character.

1. We begin with the kitchen middens or shell heaps.

•See "Pre-History of the North," page so † See "Pre-History of the North," page 17