OF THE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 353 



the simplest kind ; the stones were collected on the shore and transported to 

 the designated place by means of pirogues or holLjwed trees.* There they 

 were heaped around large posts which were placed upright, and were simply 

 secured in place by this coacervation. The result is observed at all the stations 

 of stone in our lake, in the formation of prominences or sm.all hillocks, which 

 are designated on the southern shores by the name of teneviercs,\ at Courtaillod 

 by that of penwusX, while at the lake of Bienne they are denominated stein- 

 berge, signifyhig mountains of stone. This mode of construction was the only 

 one practicable wherever the soil is of rock, as is the case at a number of point? on 

 the southern shore of the lake, at Mouruz, Hauterive, Neuchatel, where the 

 banks of urgonian limestone approach so near the surface that it is impossible 

 to drive piles.§ Elsewhere, if the bottom was of ooze, as is especially the case 

 in eastern Switzerland, it sufficed to sink the posts in the ground itself without 

 the support of stones. In tliis case there is no stcinherg, in the proper accepta- 

 tion of the Avord ; but the stations are not less distinguishable from their slight 

 depth and proximity to the shore, which is the cause of their being sometimes 

 left dry at low water, as was the case in 1863 at Markelfingen, on Lake Constance. 



The two stations of the small lake of Moosseedorf, where M. Uhlmann has 

 gathered so ample a harvest of curious objects of the age of stone, show the same 

 state of things ; as the soil was favorable, the piles, after being pointed, were 

 simply driven into it. Recent explorations have just disclosed the same thing 

 at the Lake of Morat. Count de Pourtales having proposed to form an island in 

 front of his park of Greng, it was quite natural to select, as a nucleus, the point 

 where the water was of least depth. This was the summit of a spacious tene- 

 viere, which occupies, it seems, a surface of several arpents, since, in excavating 

 around the space reserved for the isle, there are still found numbers of piles. 

 These are cut to a point, and sunk in the bottom of the lake, which consists of 

 very fine sand. Here also a passage of deeper water separates the place occupied 

 by piles from the shore ; while the piles which are withdrawn present distinct 

 traces of blows made with the hatchet. 



Here an objection will scarcely fail to occur; if the tenevieres trace their origin 

 to the age of stone, when not only iron but even bronze was unknown, and only 

 knives and hatchets of stone could be used, how was it possible, with such 

 implements, to cut trees a foot in diameter, even supposing the concomitant 

 action of fire to have been employed, as is done by many savage tribes. We 

 will not deny that, at first, this difficulty occasioned us no little embarrassment. 

 But having examined attentively and separately the 'tops of the piles in many 

 tenevieres, we remarked a peculiarity, which seems to us capable of solving the 

 difficulty. The piles are not cut squarely, but around their circumference (to a 

 depth of 8 or 12 centimetres;) the centre, on the other hand, is often unequal, 

 sometimes protruding, sometimes re-entering, having the appearance, therefore, 

 of a post which had been notched circularly, and then broken. But as soon as 



* There are a number of these pirogues in the }ako of Bienne. One of them, near isle 

 Saint Pierre, is still loaded with stones, which has led to the supposition that it had found- 

 ered with its cargo. Another has been recently taken from the lake, and forms part of the 

 collection of Neuchatel. We have ourselves taken one from the station of Auvei'nier ; it is 

 formed from the trunk of an oak, the wood of which is decomposed to the depth of five or 

 six inches ; but the centre is only so mtich the harder and completely black, insomuch that 

 it might serve for material to the carpenter. 



t In the idiom of the fishermen of Estavayer, this word signifies a submerged hillock — a 

 site where the water is quite shallow. 



i This name is also given to heaps of stone on ten'a firma, when they are of large dimen- 

 sions ; tlie smaller are called morgicrs. 



$ Several of these Steinbergs continued to be inhabited or used during the following 

 ages— among others, the Steinberg of Nidau, where are foiuid at the same time remains of the 

 age of stone, of bronze, and of iron. These results are corroborated by very recent researches 

 which we have made in the lakes of Bavaria. The isle of Roses, in Lake Starnberg, appears 

 to be nothing but an artiiicial island of those remote epochs, which has never ceased to be 

 inhabited during all succeeding periods, and is at this day the site of a regal habitation. 

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