376 LACUSTRIAN SETTLEMENTS. 



Qientecl witli lines. Otlicr objects obtained arc: a bead of glass or of blue and 

 white enamel, such as we now have from the lakes of Bieuue and Neufchatel ; 

 buck-horns carved ; fossil teeth of the shark taken from the molasse of the 

 country ; spindle-whirls of baked clay ; pottery, like that of the bronze-sites 

 in the lakes ; cones of baked clay, with a hole at top, designed doubtless as 

 weights to stretch the threads in the process of weaving ; and pieces of the 

 clay facings of the walls of wicker-work, bearing the impression of the branches 

 or osiers destroyed by fire. Bones of aniuials were by no means wanting, and 

 they have been ascertained by Professor Rutimeyer to pertain to a cow of large 

 species, to the hog, the goat, the deer and the roe-buck. 



Lacustrian settlement af UohenJiaicsen, at Lake PIdJJikon, canton of Zuricli. — 

 Of this notice has been taken in previous publications of Dr. Keller. M. Mes- 

 sikommer continues to make explorations, leading to interesting observations 

 and to the discovery of objects, often of great curiosity, Avhich, after having 

 submitted them to the inspection of Dr. Keller, he offers for sale. This local- 

 ity is situated in a moss, at the east end of the lake, which there had but little 

 depth, and where the growth of the peat has by degrees advanced the limits of 

 the dry land. To arrive at the bed containing piles and antique objects, it is 

 necessary to remove some six feet of peat ; this requires long continued exhaus- 

 tion, but the objects are in a remarkable state of preservation. The report on 

 recent researches is drawn up by IM. Messikommer, who even indites some 

 pleasing verses on the occasion. He has remarked that the objects are found 

 more or less grouped, according to their nature. Thus, at certain points, char- 

 red cereals occur in abundance ; elsewhere flax prepared for s])inning ; further 

 on there may be flax woven or platted, and at still another place numbers of 

 those perforated cones of baked clay which pertained to textorial operations. 

 At one point M. Messikommer discovered that under the floor of the ancient 

 dwelling there Avas a formation of peat from 2 to 2^ feet deep, beneath which 

 was found another floor, still more ancient. We must infer that the place was 

 long inhabited and during the age of stone, for not the least trace of metal has 

 been met with. 



The new acquisitions at Robenhausen, to which Dr. Keller has appropriated 

 two plates, are : a canoe formed of the hollowed trunk of a tree, 12 feet long 

 by 1 J wide, with a depth of 5 inches (the Swiss foot has 10 Inches and is 

 equivalent to 0.3 of a meter;) some well fashioned bows of yew wood; an 

 arrow point of silcx, still attached to its wooden staff by means of flax thread 

 and mineral bitumen ; a hatchet or wedge of stone fixed transversely in a 

 wooden handle, somewhat club-shaped ; another hatchet of stone fixed in a piece 

 of buck's horn, which again was fastened transversely to the handle of wood. 

 This last arrangement was also met with at Concise, but the stupendous im- 

 postures practiced at that locality throw suspicion on whatever comes from it, 

 especially when it is known that the counterfeiters went so far as to cast their 

 own fabrications into the lake, that they might be afterwards drawn up by the 

 dredge before the eyes of the amateurs. At Robenhausen, divers articles of 

 wood also have been collected, such as knives, basins, implem(!uts which served 

 perhaps for beating butter, and large spoons like those for skimming milk. 

 Among articles of flax, recently obtained, may be mentioned a portion of a girdle 

 or ribbon quite skilfully Avoven, so as to present a small figure in squares of 

 very neat appearance; also remnants of fishing-nets, with meshes measuring 

 0.05 of a meter on the side; and, lastly, a bit of cloth to which a pocket is at- 

 tached by sewing. 



Scttlaneni in the lalce of Botcrget, in Savoij. — Baron Despine having drawn 

 attention to a pile-work in the lake of Bourget, the Savoyard Society of history 

 and archaeology caused reseaches to be made, under the direction of MM. Des- 

 pine and Delaborde. M. Rabut Laurent has given an account of them, in the 

 Bulletin of the above Society, from ISGl to 18G2, second number, p. 44, and 



