44 PREHISTOEIC FISHING. 



Bones of the roe-deer are far less abundant than those of the stag. The hare, 

 it seems, formed no article of diet among these people, owing, perhaps, to the 

 same prejudice which caused the men of the Danish kjokkenmoddings to abstain 

 ft-om its flesh. Among the carnivores may be mentioned the brown bear, wolf, 

 and fox, the last-named of which occurs frequently in the settlements under 

 notice, and was eaten by the lake-men, as proved by the condition of its bones. 

 The lake-dwellers possessed a species of domestic dog of middle size, which they 

 seem to have much valued, if the fact that it was not used as food, unless in 

 cases of extreme need, warrants such a conclusion. Remains of the horse are 

 exceedingly scarce in the settlements of the stone age ; but two kinds of cattle 

 were common during that period, one of them small, and called " marsh-cow " 

 by Professor Riitimeyer ; the second species, larger in size, is supposed by this 

 author to have descended from the urus. The other domesticated animals were 

 goats and sheep. Traces of the tamed hog are almost entirely wanting in the 

 oldest settlements of the stone age ; but they become more numerous in later 

 periods of lacustrine occupancy. It has been ascertained beyond doubt that the 

 tamed animals were brought for shelter to the lake-villages, where they were 

 kept in stalls distributed between the huts. The large bones of quadrupeds are 

 nearly always broken or split for extracting the marrow. Remains of domestic 

 fowl have not been discovered. The wild birds which have left their traces in the 

 deposits around the piles, all pertaining to the present fauna of Switzerland, are 

 wild ducks, geese, swans, water-hens, grouse, and some other species of the 

 feathered tribe. They evidently were objects of the chase. The ami^hibians ai^e 

 represented by the common water-turtle {Cistudo europcea), still occasionally found 

 in Swiss lakes, two species of frog and one of toad. The remains of fishes, 

 which, as may be expected, are numerous, will be considered in a separate 

 section, in accordance with the plan adopted in this publication. 



Carbonized vegetable remains have been preserved in great abundance and 

 variety, to assist, as it were, in elucidating the mode of life of those ancient 

 lake-villagers. They undoubtedly raised barley, wheat, and millet, several kinds 

 of each of these cereals having been found in the lacustrine deposits. Some of 

 these species of grain were cultivated in Egypt, and therefore are believed to 

 have found their way from that country to Switzerland. Rye was not known to 

 the colonists, and oats not before bronze had come into use. Barley and wheat 

 appear either in grains, sometimes in considerable quantities, or, more rarely, 

 in the shape of ears ; and even carbonized wheat-bread, in which the bran and 

 the imperfectly-crushed grains can be distinctly seen, has been found at Roben- 

 hausen and Wangen. This unleavened prehistoric bread, which is very coarse 

 and compact, mostly occurs in fragments, but sometimes in the form of roundish 

 cakes, about an inch or an inch and a half thick, and four or five inches or more 

 in diameter, and was doubtless baked by placing the dough on hot stones, and 



