28 OEIGrS'AL AETICIES. 



M. Aeppli of Meilen, on the Lake of Zuricli, appears to Kave 

 been tlie first to observe, in the bed of the lake, certain indications 

 of human activity, ^hich he jnstly supposed might throw some light 

 on the history and condition of the earliest inhabitants of tiie Swiss 

 valleys. In a small bay between Ober Meilen and Dollikon, the 

 inhabitants took advantage of the lowness of the water to increase 

 their gardens, by building a wall along the new water-line, and 

 slightly raising the level of the piece thus reclaimed, by mud dredged 

 from the lake. In the course of this dredging they found great 

 numbers of piles, of deer-horns, and also some implements. The re- 

 searches at this place conducted and described by Dr. F. Keller, 

 have been followed by similar investigations in other lakes, and have 

 proved that the early inhabitants of Switzerland consti'ucted some, at 

 least, of their dwellings above the surface of the water, as is done in 

 the present day by savages in various countries, as for instance 

 the Papons of Xew Guinea, whose huts, circular or square in form, are 

 grouped on wooden platforms, elevated a few feet above the level of 

 the water, supported by numerous piles driven into the mud, and 

 connected with the land by a narrow bridge. 



This method of construction, indications of which are found in 

 various parts of Europe, was especially mentioned by Herodotus,* who 

 describes the Pceonians of Lake Prasias, in Thrace, as li\'ing in cabins 

 situated on a platlbrm, supported above the water by great piles. 

 Each cabin had a trap-door opening on to the lake, and the whole 

 settlement communicated with the main land by a bridge. 



The Swiss " PfaJilhaufen,''' or lake habitations, have been described 

 by M. Keller, in three memoirs presented to the Antiquarian Society 

 of Zurich, in 1S51, 1S5S, and 1860, and by M. Troyon, in a special 

 work, " Sur les Habitation Lacustres," 1860, in which the author 

 gives a general account of what has been done in Switzerland, and 

 compares the results obtained in his native land, with the lake- 

 dwellings of other coimtries and times. The discoveries in Lake 

 Moosseedorf have been described in a special paper by MM. Jahn and 

 Uhlmann (Die Pfahlbaualterthumer von Moosseedorf. Bern, 1857.) ; 

 and we owe to M. Eiitimeyer two works on the animal remains from 

 the Pfahlbauten, the first " IJntersuchimg der Thierreste aus den 

 PfaUbauten der Schweiz," published by the Antiquarian Society of 

 Zmich, in 1860 ; and still more recently a larger work — " Die Fauna 

 der Pfahlbauten in der Schweiz." Collections of objects fi*om these 

 localities have also been made by many Swiss Archasologists. 



The Flora has been studied by M. Heer, whose results are con- 

 tained in the last memoir published by M, Keller. Nor must we omit to 

 mention M. Morlot's short paper in the " Bulletin de la Societe Yau- 

 doise," and his more recent " LeQon d'Ouverture d'un cours sur la 

 haute Antiquite fait a I'Academie de Lausanne." From the conclusion 

 of this lecture, indeed, I must express my dissent : not that I would 



• Her. Book V. ch. 16, 



