OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 349 



pencil of Professor A. Favre-GuillarmocT we are indebted for all the designs with 

 wliicli this essay is embellished. Our types have been, as far as possible, selected 



from our own collection, with a view to facilitate the task of those who may 

 feel an interest in compai'ing the originals. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It has been long known to the inhabitants upon the shores of the Swiss lakes 

 that there existed in many of them ancient posts or piles, which, without reach- 

 ing the surface, rose to a height of 30 or 60 centimetres above the bottom. On 

 Lake Neuchatel they were especially known to the fishermen, who dreaded 

 them as a cause of injury to their nets. Doubtless, also, boatmen, in crossing 

 the bay of Auveruier, or coasting along the southern shore Avhen the weather 

 was calm, have now and then stopped for a moment above them, wondering 

 meanwhile to whom the strange idea could have occurred of driving piles at such 

 a depth ; and as no inhabitant, not even the oldest fishermen, could tell anything 

 about their origin, the only conclusion arrived at was that "all this must be very 

 ancient." More than once, also, from the ooze of the lake had been drawn, at 

 low water, large horns of the deer, and strange utensils whose origin was un- 

 known; among other occasions, at the lake of Zurich in 1829, and still later 

 at the lake of Bienne. These things, however, remained a dead letter ; the 

 circumstance was thought to be curious, but nothing more. An idea has sufHced 

 to restore life, in some sort, to these ancient remains, and draw from them a dis- 

 closure of surprising facts. A man of true science happens to pass in the neigh- 

 borhood of the works which, during the low stages of water of the winter of 

 1853-1854, were in course of execution at Meilen, on Lake Zurich. To him 

 are shown the half decomposed posts withdrawn from the black deposit on the 

 strand, which the lake had temporarily abandoned, and here and there some 

 fragments of rude pottery, evidently very ancient, but not Roman, for it is black, 

 imperfectly baked, and fashioned by the hand without the help of the potter's 

 wheel. The utensils, the arms, the posts, which accompany them, have a still 

 more primitive aspect ; they recall the analogous objects collected in the peat- 

 mosses of Scandinavia, and must, consequently, be of very high antiquity. 

 What had escaped all notice was the relation which these objects bear to one 



