This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1907 Excerpt: ... differences in the manner in which they are built. Whilst not venturing to make any definite statement, the archaeologist of prehistoric times may suggest as a reason for the foregoing, that the extensive but low-lying region of the Eastern Alps and the Eastern portion of Upper Italy were settlements of the wandering nations which moved from their original habitations in western and southern directions. Italian tribes, the Illyrianj, and perhaps the Etruscans, inhabited these portions of the Alps and Upper Italy and established either temporary or permanent settlements, bringing greater activity and change into these regions, whilst in the West the Keltic tribe alone developed mightily, but to the detriment of the non-Aryan Iberians and Ligurians, some of whom still lived in caves in historic times. Thus the nature of their settlements was the cause of the varied fortunes which awaited the Aryan nations. The Italians in Upper Italy, south of the Po, and in Central Italy, wherever the Latin stock had settled between the Tiber and the Albanian Hills, occupied such territories as were more easily accessible to and generally favoured by Oriental merchants on their sea-journeys. The Illyrians participated in the advantages afforded by the Adriatic as a road on the high seas for trading-vessels. The Etruscans, whose origin is a mystery to this day, formed by their position and early political development a powerful connecting-link between the Orient and the Occident, and the influence of the higher civilisation of the East found here a ready soil for the seed it was destined to disseminate. 8. Metals. The history of Metals in the hand of Man is equivalent to the history of his higher culture. Consequently it begins in many different parts of the world in relative...