286 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



of at least approximate accuracy. Making, then, some allowances, 

 for instance, admitting three hundred years instead of one hundred 

 and fifty for the period since the embankment, and taking the Roman 

 period as representing an antiquity of from sixteen to eighteen cen- 

 turies, we should have for the age of "Bronze " an antiquity of from 

 2,900 to 4,200 years; for that of the " Stone " period from 4,700 to 

 7,000 years; and for the whole cone, an age of from 7,400 to 11,000 

 years. M. Morlot thinks that we should be most nearly correct in 

 deducting two hundred years only for the action of the dykes, and in 

 attributing to the Roman layer an antiquity of sixteen centuries, that 

 is to say, in referring it to the middle of the third century. This 

 would give a period of 3,800 years for the " Bronze" age, and 6,400 

 years for that of " Stone;" but, on the whole, he is inclined to sup- 

 pose for the former an antiquity of from 3,000 to 4,000 years, and for 

 the latter of from 5,000 to 7,000 years. 



In the remains of a settlement at the foot of Mt. Chamblon, in 

 Switzerland, we have, according to M. Troyon, a Swiss archasologist, 

 another instance in which we are able to obtain at least an approxi- 

 mation to a date of the above -referred-to ages. The interest which 

 attaches to this case arises from the fact that pile-works, intended for 

 the support of ancient habitations over the water, have been found in 

 the peat at a considerable distance from the lake, whereas it is evident 

 that, at the time of their construction, the spot in which they occur 

 must have been under water, as this mode of building would have been 

 quite out of place on dry land. This, however, indicates a very con- 

 siderable antiquity, since the site of the ancient city Eburodunum 

 must have been, at that time, entirely covered by the lake ; and yet 

 the name, which is of Celtic origin, denotes that there was a town 

 here even before the Roman period. In order, however, to form an 

 idea of the time at which the dwellings at Chamblou were left dry by 

 the retirement of the lake, we must have in the valley a point of 

 determined age to serve as a term of comparison ; and such a point 

 we find in the ancient city of Eburodunum (Yverdon), which was 

 built on a dune extending from Jorat to the Thiele. Between this 

 dune and the lake, on the site at present occupied by the city of Yver- 

 don, no traces of Roman antiquities have ever been discovered, from 

 which it is concluded that it was at that period under water. If, then, 

 'we admit that, at the close of the fourth century, the lake washed 

 the walls of the Castrum Eburodense, we shall have fifteen centuries 

 as the period required to effect this change. The zone thus uncov- 

 ered in fifteen hundred years is 2,500 feet in breadth, and, as the 

 piles at Chamblon are at least 5,500 feet from the water, it may be 

 inferred that three thousand three hundred years must have elapsed 

 since they were left dry. This lake dwelling belonged to the " Bronze" 

 period, and the date thus obtained agrees pretty well with that ob- 

 tained from the examination of the Cone de la Tiniere. Lubbock on 

 the Ancient Lake Habitations of Sivitzerland. 



AGE OF THE PYRAMIDS. 



An Egyptian astronomer, Mahomed Bey, has recently published a 

 remarkable work on the age and the objects of the Pyramids, as elu- 

 cidated by the star Sirius. His labors were undertaken last spring, 



