OF TPIE LAKE OF NEUCHATEL. 379 



But if this were so, tlie g;roove should never be wanting ; but this is not the 

 case. Others have thought that they served for weights to suppoit the warp in 

 weaving; but whence, then, the necessity of choosing hard stones ? Pebbles of 

 limestone or molasse would have answered the same purpose. M. Troyou 

 entertains the opinion that these disco'ids were used in games, and relies 

 npon the fact that in the collection of Pinelli (Rome, 1816, fob 15,) a personage 

 is represented as holding between his hands a similar disk, on the circumfer- 

 ence of which is rolled a cord designed to assist in casting the stone. In this 

 manner the advantage of employing hard stones might be explained, but we 

 should scarcely understand the absence of the groove. Till now these stones 

 appear to be especially characteristic of the palalittes of the age of bronze ; they 

 are not found in the ancient tombs, nor yet in the dolmens. 



SKELETONS OF THE AGE OF BRONZE. 



For a long time we possessed but a single authentic skull of the age of 

 bronze, derived from the station of Auvernier. Though incomplete, for it wants 

 the bones of the face, it is still sufficiently characterized to throw some light 

 on the conformation of the race to which it belonged. It is at once small, thin, 

 elongated and remarkably narrow, especially in the middle region, which be- 

 gins to contract even fiom the middle of the parietal bones. These bones pre- 

 sent, moreover, a very singular curvature, being, as it were, elbowed in the mid- 

 dle. The occiput, on the other hand, is extraordinarily developed. This, it 

 will be seen, is not a favorable conformation. Unless an individual exception 

 be supposed, we must conclude that the race was feeble and inferior. The 

 diminutiveness of form is further corroborated by the smallness of the hilt of 

 the swords, which has been noticed above. 



In the course of last year, our skilful explorer, Benz Kopp, has withdrawn 

 from beneath a beam partially carbonized, among the piles of the same station 

 of AuA'ernier, a skeleton much more complete. The skull, particularly, is al- 

 most entire. It pertains, like that from Meilen before mentioned, to a child, as 

 is testified not only by the loose sutures, but also and chiefly by the dentition. 

 The molar next to the last has but come through, and the canines are seen at 

 the bottom of the alveoli, which indicates an age of about eight years. The 

 skull is small, elongated, the front very low and narrow, but, apart from that, 

 well formed, without exaggerated prominences, which is to be attributed perhaps 

 to the immature age. MM. Rutimeyer and His assign it to their type of skulls 

 of Sion, the most widely disseminated in the ante-Roman epochs, [Crania Hel- 

 vetica, p. 37.) The races of domestic animals do not appear to have varied 

 from the epoch of stone to that of bronze. 



INDUSTRY OF THE AGE OF BRONZE. 



The men of this age, however diminutive in size, had not the less arrived at 

 quite an advanced degree of civilization. From the age of stone to the age of 

 bronze, there is a manifest progress. This progress is due, beyond all, to the 

 introduction of the metal which, by endowing the lacustrian colonists with bet- 

 ter arms and better utensils, had for its necessary result the augmentation of 

 their security and comfort. Once in possession of arms of bronze, they must 

 Lave sought completely to appropriate this element by preparing it for them- 

 selves. They did not delay to manufacture brouze at home, as is attested by 

 the matrices of hatchets collected from Lake Geneva and now in the collection 

 of M. Forel at Morges.* This was the commencement of the industrial arts. 

 And no sooner, doubtless, was what is necessary provided for, than luxury made 

 its appearance ; and the ornaments and attire which have been preserved to us 



*Tlie«e niatiices are of bronze ; there are otber.s of clay, aud among tbom fragments of moulds 

 for bracelets may be seen in the collection of Dr. Clement, taken from the palahttcof Estavayer. 



