LACUSTRIAN SETTLEMENTS. 375 



vals. la the corner of one of these dwellings there was found a hearth formed 

 of unwrought flag-stones, still covered with coals and cinders. The floors, 

 having sometimes sunk, at one point or other, to the extent of several inches, 

 even a foot or more, the level had been restored by filling up the cavity. It 

 would seem, in some instances, that the entire floor had sunk beneath the level 

 of the water, and new ones been constructed above, since the reniaius of articles 

 of domestic use or production occur between the two courses. The dwellings, 

 which seem to have been covered with thatch, Avere distant fiom one another 

 only two or three feet, and it is in these interstitial spaces, where the floors 

 -were more or less interrupted, that the remains of human industry have been 

 chiefly discovered. This settlement bears no marks of having been destroyed 

 by fire ; it appears to have been voluntarily abandoned. At all events, its re- 

 mains are the most complete and best preserved which have been yet dis- 

 covered in Switzerland. 



The constructions discovered by Colonel Suter, of Zofinguen, in the peat- 

 moss of Wau\\(yl, much resemble those just described, only at AVauwyl they 

 are more primitive and less skilfully combined, although those of Niederwyl be- 

 long to the age of stone, as well as those of Wauwyl. The researches at 

 Niederwyl have disclosed hatchets of stone, wheat and tissues of flax, both 

 charred, fragments of pottery, and bones of animals, which had served for food. 

 We owe this interesting discovery to the zeal of il. Pupikofer, who has super- 

 intended the excavations made by M. Messikommer. 



Lacustrian settlement near Zug, described by Professor MuMberg, of Zug. — 

 In the suburbs of Zug, on the road leading to Cham, workmen were diggiug 

 the foundations of a house, when, at a depth of five feet, a dark-colored bed of 

 decomposed organic matter was encountered, in which were found hatchets of 

 stone, fragments of silex, hulls of hazel and beach nuts, apple-seeds and animal 

 bones, together with the tops of stakes planted vertically, on som(i of which 

 still rested cross-pieces of wood. Here, there were evidently the remains of a 

 lacustrian settlement of the age of stone, embosomed in the solid earth which 

 had gradually encroached upon the lake. The bones have been examined by 

 Professor liutimeyer, of Bale, and he has distinguished the cow, of that race 

 which he names afcer the peat, the peat hog, the peat dog, the roe and the deer. 

 Settlement of Ebersberg, canton of Zurich. — In a sequestered spot, at the 

 back of a hill called the Ebersberg, near the Rhine, ancient remains have been 

 found, Avhich M. Escher de Berg has described in vol. vii, 4th part, of the Me- 

 moirs of the ArchiEological Society of Zurich. M. Escher resumed his re- 

 searches in 1862, and has drawn up an account of his explorations, Avhicli were 

 continued for G4 days. This site has a peculiar interest, for it presents there- 

 mains of a settlement on terra firma, and an assemblage of objects entirely 

 corresponding Avith those which characterize the lacustrian habitations of the 

 ao-e of bronze, for instance, in the lake of Bieline. Under 5 or G feet of detri- 

 tus, an ancient surface of well-rammed clay was brought to light, and on this 

 surface were discovered near one another the remains of two rectangular ovens, 

 5 to 6 feet long by 3 broad, formed of siliceous pebbles and clay mixed Avith 

 much sand. Beyond these there was a pavement of pebble stones, and it was 

 on these substructions that the bed containing anticpe articles immediately 

 rested, while the thick mass of superincumbent humus was entirely destitute 

 of them. In the .bed spoken of, the very first excavations had yielded a cres- 

 cent of stone skilfully cut. In the recent excavations a second crescent has 

 been disclosed, but composed of baked clay, precisely like those taken by Col- 

 onel Schwab from the lake of Bicnne, and which were probably used in the 

 religious rites of the time. These later researches have also yielded : fragments 

 of flint, wedges or hatchets of serpentine, stones for crushing grain ; and, of 

 bronze, two knives, some dozens of hair-pins like those of the lakes, several 

 small chisels, an arrow-point, a number of rings and of plates of metal orua- 



