194 



WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS OF THE LAKEMEN. 



meter, and are always round, never having been squared. 

 The lower part is very badly cut, so that it is difficult to 

 understand how they can have been forced to so great a depth 

 into the ground. 



In most of the Pfahlbauten the piles are scattered, more or 

 less irregularly, over the whole extent of the settlement : at 

 Wauwyl this is not the case, but they enclose, as it were, four 

 quadrangular areas, the interiors of which are occupied by 

 several platforms one over the other, the interstices being 

 filled up by branches, leaves, and peat. The objects of anti- 

 quity are not scattered throughout the peat, but lie either on 

 the layer of broken shells, which formed the then bottom of 

 the lake, or in the lower part of the peat. It is, therefore, 

 evident that almost the whole, if not the whole, of the peat 

 has grown since the time at which this interesting ruin was 

 inhabited. The upper part had, however, been removed before 



our arrival, so that the "culturges- 

 chicht," the layer containing the 

 objects of antiquity, was exposed 

 ready for examination in the manner 

 already described. 



Some of the piles still stand two 

 or three feet above the level of the 

 peat, but the greater number are 

 broken off lower down. We stood 

 on one of the upper platforms, which 

 seems to have been the floor on 

 which the huts were erected, and 

 the beams of which are still perfectly 

 preserved. It was at first a question 

 in what manner the platforms at this 

 place were supported ; whether they 

 lay like a raft on the surface of the 



FIG. 164. 



Swiss Stone Axe. 



