826 Mr. E. Lovett'a notes on the 



I do not intend to-night to do more than briefly describe the 

 conditions under which the implements were found, the conditions 

 under which we have reason to suppose they were made, and the 

 illustrations they afford us of the origin of recent implements and 

 appliances, as well as the state of the community or communities 

 who fashioned them, made the pile villages, and lived in them. 



Many years ago, the accidental discovery of some curious stone 

 axes, which happened to come before the notice of a maa who 

 knew what they were, and did not share the popular opinion that 

 such things were thunderbolts, led to the systematic investigation 

 of the old lake-beds of Switzerland, and of such shores of recent 

 lakes from which the water had retired, as well as to the dredging 

 of such waters as could not be otherwise examined. The results, 

 extending over a long time, have been the discovery of a large 

 number of piles marking the sites of these ancient settlements, 

 and an enormous mass of material in the shape of relics of one 

 sort and another, from which a pretty general idea of the people 

 who constructed these houses has been obtained. 



To be brief, these piles indicated that all the villages or groups 

 of huts were built over the water, probably on one common 

 platform, and that each group or platform was connected with 

 the shore by a causeway, also on piles. Again, it was found that, 

 taking a section of the deposits, piles were found with their 

 points in the mud, but above the heads of other piles, showing 

 that fresh settlements have been reared above the debris of the 

 old ones ; and as so much of all the material found has been 

 charred, there is reason to believe that the villages were frequently 

 destroyed by fire. The curious thing about the investigation of 

 these deposits is that it shows that there is a regular sequence of 

 marked ages ; for in the very lowest deposits stone is the material 

 of all implements of hardness, though horn and bone were used ; 

 a little higher up the stone is of a more finished type, whilst still 

 nearer the surface bronze occurs not only in vast and highly 

 finished condition, but almost to the exclusion of stone ; from 

 which it would appear as though there was a great gap between 

 the two periods, as very probably there was. But, to crown all, 

 Roman remains in iron occur plentifully over the surface mud, 

 though no record exists of the Eomans having knowledge of 

 these lake dwellings. No doubt the Roman relics which occur 

 there have no connection whatever with the relics of the lake 

 people, any more than the 16th century smoking pipes which are 

 found mixed up with the Roman remains have anything to do 

 with tliem ; or than the relics of medieval, Roman, and bronze- 

 age times which are brought up sometimes from the bed of the 

 Thames in one haixl of the dredge have anything to do with each 

 other. 



Such dwellings are by no means confined to Switzerland, 



