186 NUMBERS OF LAKE VILLAGES. 



cues (Iiikwyl, Pfeffikon, Moosseedorf, Luissel, etc.), similar 

 Lake-habitations have been discovered. In the larger lakes, 

 indeed, not one, but many of these settlements existed ; thus, 

 there are already on record, in Lake Bienne, twenty ; in the 

 Lake of Geneva, twenty-four; in Lake Constance, thirty-two ; 

 in Lake Neufchatel, as many as forty-nine ; on the whole 

 more than two hundred ; and many others, doubtless, remain 

 to be discovered. Of those already known, some belong to 

 the Iron Age, some few even to Eoman times; but the greater 

 number appear to be divided in almost equal proportions 

 between the age of Stone and that of Bronze. 



Though the architecture of this period was probably simple, 

 still the weight to be sustained on the wooden platforms must 

 have been considerable ; many of the piles are either bent or 

 broken ; and to prevent their sinking too deeply into the soft 

 mud, they were sometimes driven through boards which rested 

 on the bottom. 



The dwellings of the Gauls are described as having been 

 circular huts, built of wood and lined with mud. The inter- 

 stices appear to have been filled with moss. Some of the huts 

 on the Pile-works were probably of a similar nature. This 

 supposition is not a mere hypothesis, but many fragments of 

 the clay used for the lining have been discovered. Their 

 preservation is evidently due to the building having been 

 destroyed by fire, which has hardened the clay, and enabled 

 it to resist the action of the water. These fragments bear, on 

 one side, the marks of interlaced branches, while on the other, 

 which apparently formed the inner wall of the cabin, they are 

 quite smooth. Some of those which have been found at 

 Wangen are so large and so regular, that M. Troy on felt justi- 

 fied in concluding that the cabins were circular, and from ten 

 to fifteen feet in diameter. It would be most interesting if 



o 



we could construct a retrospective census for these early 

 periods, and M. Troy on has made an attempt to do so. The 



