Prehistoric Lake Dicellings of Switzerland. 327 



though the completeness of discoveries there has put other 

 similar finds into the background. Such aquatic settlements 

 have been traced near water in many parts of the Continent, 

 from the mound-like villages of Friesland to the morass houses 

 of Eoumania ; and in Ireland and Scotland they existed, and the 

 remains are described as Crannoges ; whilst in the Holderness 

 district of Yorkshire recent excavations have revealed pile 

 dwellings and weapons very like the Swiss examples ; and I am 

 myself inclined to think that our own Eiver Thames, when it was 

 much wider, and covered the low grounds of, say, the Erith 

 district, had in its shallows several of these curious old pile 

 villages, for many of the stone and bone implements sometimes 

 dredged up are very like the Swiss forms. For modern examples 

 we have only to read of the water-houses of the great African 

 lakes, and the shore pile-dwellings of the water Dyaks. 



As to the people who inhabited these curious houses, and who 

 made the varied assortment of implements, by which alone we can 

 judge of them : who can tell with certainty what they were, and 

 whence they came ? As regards their condition socially, we can 

 form some idea from the data to be obtained from the investi- 

 gation of the Swiss lake rehcs. Probably these pile-dwellings 

 sheltered an industrious and inoffensive race to whom we owe 

 much of what we know and possess to-day. That they were 

 fishermen is certain, for not only have numerous fish remains 

 been found among these relics, but fish-hooks of bone and horn 

 and stone of the earlier period, and of well-finished bronze in the 

 later. They were also hunters, as is shown by the remains of a 

 variety of animals known to us as ijame, and by the existence of 

 such weapons as would be used in the chase. In all probability, 

 they kept cattle and dogs, the former of course on the mainland; 

 perhaps they were the originators of domesticating these and 

 other animals. They also grew grain and fruit, as the charred 

 remains of these objects testify, and in this they may have been 

 the first real cultivators of the soil. The charred netting found 

 in the peat-bed shows exactly the same knot as is now used, and 

 who can say that it was not invented by them ? 



In connection with the age of stone, little or nothing has been 

 found of an ornamental or decorative character, but iu the over- 

 lying deposit with bronze objects a decided evidence of art exists, 

 an art, too, which is in its way superior to many similar 

 examples even of our time. Was this art latent in the period 

 before the discovery of bronze, and did it suddenly burst out 

 when suitable material was obtainable upon which to display it ; 

 or were these bronze-age people another race altogether ? At all 

 events we can only conclude, even from the examination of a 

 small collection as the one before you is, that the primitive 

 lake-dwellers of Switzerland were a remarkable people; that, 



