and even now constitutes the principal food of the poorer classes. In what manner the ground was prepared for the cultivation of corn we know not, as no agricultural implements have as yet been found except sickles: it is probable however that bent stakes supplied the place of the plough.

Carbonised Apples and Pears have also been found at Wangen, sometimes whole, sometimes cut into two, or more rarely into four pieces, which had evidently been dried and put aside for winter use. The apples are more frequent than the pears, and have been found not only at Wangen, but also at Robenhausen in Lake Pfeffikon, and at Concise in Lake Neufchatel. Both apples and pears are small and resemble those which still grow wild in the Swiss forests. traces of the Vine, the Cherry, or the Damson have yet been met with, but stones of the Wild Plum and the Prunus padus have been found. Seeds of the Raspberry and Blackberry and shells of the Hazel nuts and beechnuts occur plentifully in the mud.

No

From all this, therefore, it is evident that the nourishment of the dwellers in the Pileworks consisted of corn and wild fruits, of fish, and the flesh of wild and domestic animals. Doubtless also milk was an important article of their diet.

The list of plants found in the Pileworks stands as follows:Pinus abies.

Hordeum distichum.

hexastichon.

Trapa natans.-This species was supposed to be extinct in Switzerland; but, as M. Troyon informs me by letter, it has recently been discovered in a living condition. It has, however, become very

rare.

Flax.
Hemp.
Juncus.

Arundo.

Neither Oats nor Rye have yet been found. Small pieces of twine and bits of matting made of hemp and flax may have been parts of some article of clothing. For the latter purpose also there can be

little doubt that the skins of animals were used, and some of the stone implements seem well adapted to assist in their preparation, while the bone pins, and the needles made from the teeth of boars, may have served to fasten them together.

The Pottery of the Stone age presents nearly the same characters in all the settlements. Very rude and coarse, it is generally found in broken pieces, and few entire vessels have been obtained. The potter's wheel seems to have been unknown, and the baking was very imperfect. The form was frequently cylindrical, but several of the jars were rounded at the base, and without feet. The rings of pottery, which at a later epoch were used as stands for these earthen tumblers, are not found in the Lake habitations of the Stone period, but some of the vessels had small projections which were pierced in such a manner that strings might be passed through them, and the vessels might in this manner be suspended. Some of them were also pierced by small holes at different levels. Professor Heer suggests that these may have been used in the preparation of curds, the small holes being intended to permit the escape of the milk.

Several of the vessels are ornamented with simple markings, generally mere impressions of the finger or of the nail. Neither in the Stone, nor in the Bronze period, do we ever find either in the pottery, or on the bronze weapons, any representation, however rude, of an animal; the ornamentation being generally confined to straight or curved lines, forming in many cases a very elegant ornament. One vase, however, which was found at Wangen, is distinguished by more elaborate ornaments, the lines being evidently intended to represent leaves.

The lakes on which Pileworks of the Stone era have as yet been found, are Constance, Zurich, Bienne, Neufchatel, Geneva, Inkwyl, Nussbaumen, Pfeffikon, Moosseedorf, and Wauwyl. Settlements of the Bronze period existed on the Lakes of Geneva, Luissel, Neufchatel, Morat, Bienne, and Sempach, but none have as yet been found on Lake Constance. It has been supposed from this that the age of Stone lasted longer in Eastern than in Western Switzerland, and that flint and serpentine were in use on Lake Constance long after Bronze had replaced them on the Western Lakes. We can hardly suppose that the inhabitants of Inkwyl and Moosseedorf in Berne, who imported flint from France, can have been ignorant of the neighbouring civilization on the Lake of Bienne. Perhaps, however, settlements of the Bronze age may yet be found on the Lake of Constance; but as the question now stands, Pileworks of the Metallic period are peculiar to Western and Central Switzerland. The constructions of the latter period are more solidly built, but do not otherwise appear to have differed materially from those of the Stone age. They are often, however, situated farther from the land and in deeper water, partly no doubt on account of the greater facility of working timber, but partly also, perhaps, because more protection was needed as the means of attack were improved. The principal implements of Bronze are, swords,

daggers, axes, spear heads, knives, arrow heads, pins, and ornaments. The number of these weapons which have been discovered is already very great.

From the settlement at Estavayer, in Lake Neufchatel, the following collection of bronze implements has been obtained :--Pins with large spherical and ornamented heads 36

"ordinary heads

Knives
Bracelets

Sickles

Axe

92

Pieces of spiral wire

Making altogether . 214 objects of bronze. Again at Morges (Lake of Geneva) forty-two bronze hatchets and thirteen pins have been found. From the Steinberg M. Schwab has obtained five hundred bronze hair-pins, besides other instruments of the same metal. These are of the same type as those found in other parts of Europe, and the swords are characterised, as usual, by the small space allowed for the hand. They were, however, made in Switzerland, as is shown by the discovery at Morges of a mould for celts, and at Estavayer of a bar of tin.

The pottery of this period was more varied and more skilfully made than that of the Stone age, and the potter's wheel was already in use. Rings of earthenware are common, and appear to have been used as supports for the round bottomed vases. As neither copper nor tin occur in Switzerland, the possession of bronze implies the existence of commerce. It is difficult to say from whence the copper was obtained, but Saxony and Cornwall are the only parts of Europe which produce tin. It is, however, possible that Asia may have supplied both the one and the other. The presence of amber shows that there must have been a certain amount of communication with Northern Europe.

The Pileworks of Switzerland appear to have become gradually less numerous. During the Stone age they were spread over the whole country. Confined during the Bronze era to the Lakes of Western Switzerland, during that of Iron, we find them only on the Lakes of Bienne and Neufchatel. In these settlements not only has a new substance made its appearance, but the forms of the implements are different. We have indeed copies of the bronze axes made in iron, just as we found before that the early bronze celts were copies of the still earlier stone axe, but these are exceptional cases.

The swords have larger handles and are more richly ornamented; the knives have straight edges; the sickles are larger; the pottery is more skilfully made and is ornamented with various colours; the personal ornaments are also more varied, and glass for the first time makes its appearance.

66

Col. Schwab has found at the Steinberg more than twenty crescents, made of earthenware, and with the convex side flattened, to serve as a foot. They are compressed at the sides, sometimes plain, sometimes ornamented, from eight to twelve inches from one horn to the other, and from six to eight inches in height. They are considered by Dr. Keller to be religious emblems, and are taken as evidence of moon-worship. He refers to Pliny, xvi. 95; "Est autem id (viscum) rarum admodum inventu et repertum magna religione petitur et ante omnia sexta luna, quæ principia mensum annorumque his facit, et sæculi post tricesimum annum, quia jam virium abunde "habeat nec sit sui dimidia; omnia sanantem appelantes suo vocabulo.” This passage he translates as follows: "The misletoe is however very rare, but when it is found it is gathered with great religious ceremony, especially on the sixth day of the moon, at which epoch begin their months, years, and divisions of thirty years, because it has then sufficient force, and yet is not in the middle of its course; calling it Healall in their language." This name has generally been referred to the misletoe. (See The Celt, Roman and Saxon, p.48.) But the Swiss archæologists consider that this is a mistake, and that it properly refers to the moon.

A field of battle at Tiefenau, near Berne, is remarkable for the great number of iron weapons and implements which have been found on it. Pieces of chariots, about a hundred swords, pieces of coat of mail, lance heads, rings, fibulæ, ornaments, utensils, pieces of pottery and of glass, accompanied by more than thirty pieces of Gaulish and Massaliote money anterior to our era, enable us to refer this battlefield to the Roman era.

After this period we find no more evidences of Lake habitations on a large scale. Here and there indeed a few fishermen may have lingered on the half-destroyed platforms, but the wants and habits of the people had changed, and the age of Pileworks was at an end.

We have, however, traced them through the Stone and Bronze down to the beginning of the Iron period. We have seen evidences of a gradual progress in civilization, and improvement in the arts, an increase in the domestic animals, and proofs at last of the existence of an extended commerce. We found the country inhabited only by rude savages and we leave it the seat of a powerful nation. Changes so important as these are not effected in a day; the progress of the human mind is but slow; and the gradual additions to human knowledge and power, like the rings in trees, enable us to form some idea how distant must be the date of their commencement. So varied however are the conditions of the human mind, so much are all nations affected by the influence of others, that when we attempt to

express our impressions, so to say, in terms of years, we are baffled by the complexity of the problem, and can but confess our ignorance. Occasionally indeed we obtain a faint glimmer of light, but the result is only to show us obscurely a long vista, without enabling us to define any well-marked points of time. Thus in Denmark we found three periods of arborescent vegetation, corresponding to the three epochs of human development, and we know that the extermination of one species of forest tree and its replacement by another is not the work of a day. The Swiss archæologists, however, have attempted to make an estimate somewhat more definite than this.

The torrent of the Tinière* at the point where it falls into the Lake of Geneva, near Villeneuve, has gradually built up a cone of gravel and alluvium. In the formation of the railway this cone has been bisected for a length of one thousand feet, and to a depth in the central part, of about thirty-two feet six inches above the level of the rails. The section of the cone thus obtained shows a very regular structure, which proves that its formation was gradual. It is composed of the same materials (sand, gravel, and larger blocks) as are even now brought down by the stream. The detritus does indeed differ slightly from year to year, but in the long run the differences compensate for one another, so that when considering long periods and the structure of the whole mass, the influences of these temporary variations, which arise from meteorological causes, altogether disappear, and need not therefore be taken into account. Documents preserved in the archives of Villeneuve show that in the year 1710 the stream was dammed up and its course a little altered, which makes the present cone slightly irregular. That the change was not of any great antiquity is also shown by the fact that on the side where the cone was protected by the dykes, the vegetable soil, where it has been affected by cultivation, does not exceed two to three inches in thickness. On this side, thus protected by the dykes, the railway cutting has exposed three layers of vegetable soil, each of which must, at one time, have formed the surface of the cone. They are regularly intercalated among the gravel, and exactly parallel to one another, as well as to the present surface of the cone, which itself follows a very regular curve. The first of these ancient surfaces was followed on the south side of the cone, over a surface of 15,000 square feet; it had a thickness of four to six inches, and occurred at a depth of about four feet (1.14 metre measured to the base of the layer) below the present surface of the cone. This layer belonged to the Roman period, and contained Roman tiles, and also a coin.

The second layer was followed over a surface of 25,000 square feet; it was six inches in thickness and lay at a depth of 10 feet (2.97 metres, also measured to the bottom of the layer). In it have been found several fragments of unvarnished pottery, and a pair of tweezers in bronze, which to judge from the style belonged to the * See Morlot, Leçon d'Ouverture, &c.

N. H. R.-1862.

E