224 INHABITANTS OF THE LAKE VILLAGES. 



burning their dead. It would be very desirable to have some 

 statistics, in order that we might appreciate the value of the 

 evidence to be derived from the Swiss tumuli. M. Troyon 

 relies on the fact that many of the Lake villages were de- 

 stroyed by fire, and that when, as appears to have been the 

 case at several places, they were rebuilt during the Bronze 

 Age, this was done, not exactly on the same spot, but farther 

 away from the bank. Dr. Keller, on the other hand, considers 

 that the primitive population did not differ, either in disposi- 

 tion (anlage), mode of life, or industry, from that which was 

 acquainted with the use of bronze ; and that the whole pheno- 

 mena of the Lake villages, from their commencement to their 

 conclusion, indicate clearly a gradual and peaceable develop- 

 ment. The number of instances in which Lake villages had 

 been destroyed by fire has been, he considers, exaggerated. 

 Of the settlements on the Lakes of Bienne and Neufchatel, 

 amounting in all to more than seventy, only a quarter have, 

 according to Col. Schwab, shown any traces of combustion ; a 

 proportion which is, perhaps, not greater than might have been 

 expected, remembering that the huts were built of wood, and 

 in all probability covered by thatch. Moreover, if these con- 

 flagrations had resulted from the attacks of enemies, we ought 

 surely to have found numerous remains of the slain, whereas 

 all the Lake villages together have not as yet supplied us with 

 the remains of more than half-a-dozen human skeletons. 



It must, I think, be confessed that the arguments used by 

 M. Troyon fail to prove that the introduction of bronze was 

 accompanied by an entire change of population. The con- 

 struction of Lake-dwellings is a habit so unusual, that the 

 continuance of similar habitations during the Bronze A<?e 



o o 



seems to me a strong argument against any such hypothesis. 



Towards the close of the Bronze Age the Lake villages 

 appear to have gradually become less numerous. During the 

 Stone Age they were spread over the whole country. Bronze 



