f 



LACUSTRIAN SETTLEMENTS. 377 



this report ia here republished by Dr. Keller. At the point in question there 

 have been found articles of pottery, calcined bones, a stone hammer, a small 

 bronze ring, cars of wheat, acorns, hazelnuts, cherry-stones, grains of millet, 

 and, what has not been yet met with in Switzerland, husks of chestnuts. Professor 

 Desor also has made explorations in the lake of Bourget ; and M. Louis Revon, 

 the zealous and able director of the museum of Annecy, has commenced them 

 in the pile-works of the lake of Annecy. , 



Lake of Neuchdtcl, nno discoveries of Colonel ScJnoah, 4 plates, comprising 

 71 figures. — The indefatigable colonel has caused dredgings to be executed at 

 several points and has considerably enriched his admirable collection at Bienne. 

 Certain objects reappear in indefinite numbers, such as haii--pius of bronze, but 

 from time to time new and curious articles repay the zeal of the antiquary. 

 We may distinguish of this class, a wheel of cast bronze, 0.49 of a meter in 

 diameter; it has four radii, which, equally with the perimeter, are hollow. The 

 nave, also hollow, is prolonged on both sides, making its entire length 50 of 

 a meter. Near this wheel, thirteen small objects of the crescent-moon shape 

 were found, each with a handle perforated at the end, as if to suspend the ob- 

 ject, which is of bronze cast in a single piece. These, as well as the wheel, 

 were perhaps employed in some religious ceremony. Similar small crescents 

 appear also in the exquisite collection of ]\radame Febvrc, of Chisenl, at Macon, 

 a French lady, Avhose 83 years place in stronger relief the artistic discrimination, 

 as Avell as the rare and high-bred courtesy of the venerable owner. Among 

 the new acquisitions of Colonel Schwab we should further specify a sling of 

 platted flax, exactly like one brought from the Sandwich Islands, and to be seen 

 in the museum ot Berne ; also several beads of amber, and others, oblong in 

 form, of blue glass or enamel, around which is encrusted a spiral of white enamel. 

 These glass beads have been met with at four stations, whose characteristics 

 clearly assign them to the age of bronze. In Mecklenberg, also, beads of blue 

 glass, but of simple formation, have been twice found in tombs of that age. 

 It is to the age of bi'onze, then, that we must refer the appearance of glass, but 

 only in the shape of such beads ; and even these are extremely rare at that 

 epoch, at least in countries north of the, Alps. 



Of all Colonel Schwab's discoveries, the most curious is the product of a 

 station of the age of bronze near Coataillod, being a dish in terra cotta, fash- 

 ioned by the unassisted hand, having a diameter of 0.39 of a meter and a height 

 of 0.4 of a meter, and inlaid on the inner surface with small plates of tin. 

 These plates, which are themselves embellished with carved lines, are so ar- 

 ranged as to form a geometrical design surprisingly rich and ingenious, com- 

 prising among others a circuit of figures, which recall those, in the Greek man- 

 ner, seen on Etruscan vases. The surface of the vessel had been blackened 

 and rendered lustrous by being rubbed with graphite. It has not been ascer- 

 tained by what means the tin was made to adhere to the surface of the material. 



The above notices are followed by some account of the stations of pile-work 

 in the lakes of Sempach, Baldegg and Maucn, and by a brief memoir of pro- 

 fessor Deicke on the researches made by M. Ullersberger of Uberlinger in the 

 lake of Constance. The publication of Dr. Keller concludes Avith 7 pages of 

 remarks on the book entitled Laciistrirm Habitations of Ancient and Modern 

 Times, by F. Troyon. After having long kept silence. Dr. Keller at length 

 raises his voice to rectify the errors and refute the absurdities of the book in 

 question ; a book which tends to induce obscurity, where it would be so de- 

 sirable to proceed by sober investigations, set forth in simple and precise terms. 

 Dr. Keller incidentally notices that his own reports have been entirely absorbed 

 in the work of M. Troyon. The distinguished savant of Zurich could say no 

 more, for he is not one to complain of having been unfairly laid under contri- 

 bution. In the remarks spoken of, he shows that the collective phenomena of 

 lacustriau settlements seem to evince a gradual and peaceful development of 



