DESCRIPTION OF THE REMAINS AT WAUWYL. 193 



The pile-works of subsequent periods differ little from those 

 of the Stone Age, so far at least as can be judged by the parts 

 remaining, but the piles are less decayed, and project above 

 the mud farther than is the case with those of the preceding 

 epoch. 



Through the kindness of Col. Suter, I had an opportunity 

 of examining the construction of the Lake-dwelling at Wauwyl, 

 near Zofingen, in the canton of Lucerne. This apparently 

 belonged to the Stone Age, no trace of metal having yet been 

 discovered in it. It is situated in a peat moss, which was 

 evidently at one time the bed of a shallow lake. By the 

 gradual growth of peat, however, the level has been raised 

 several feet, and the plain has recently been drained. We 

 were assisted by six labourers, who dug out the peat, which 

 we then carefully examined. I mention this, because the 

 difference in the objects collected from different Pfahlbauten 

 may probably be, in part at least, accounted for by the dif- 

 ferent ways in which the search has been made. The peat at 

 Wauwyl varies in thickness from three to ten feet, and rests 

 on a white bed consisting of broken fresh-water shells. This 

 stratum, though only a few inches thick, is found in the old beds 

 of many small lakes, and is frequently mentioned by the Swiss 

 archaeologists under the name of " weissgrund." It must not, 

 however, be confounded with the "blancfond" of the larger 

 lakes. The piles go through the peat and the " weissgrund " 

 into the solid ground below. It is not easy to obtain them 

 whole, because the lower portions are much altered by time, 

 and so thoroughly saturated by water that they are quite soft. 

 Col. Suter, however, extracted two of them; one was 14ft. 6 in. 

 in length, of which 4ft. was in the peat, and the remaining 

 10ft. Gin. in the sand beneath; the other was only 8ft. Gin. 

 long, 4ft. of which was in the peat, the other 4ft. Gin. in the 

 solid ground. The piles vary from three to five inches in dia- 



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