generations, and which are called Celtic and Druidical monu- 
ments, though both Figuier and Lubbock are agreed that they 
arose long antecedent to the incursion of the Celts in Europe, 
and must have been as great a puzzle to them as they are to 
us. There exists not the slightest doubt but that they are se- 
pulchral, and that the majority were originally covered with 
earth and constituted mounds or tumuli, from which the earth 
has gradually become detached ; some, however, as for instance 
Stonehenge, were probably never covered. These Dolmens, 
as they are called, exist in large numbers in Brittany as well 
as in England, the Channel Isles and various other parts, and 
even in India we find their exact counterpart. Their essential 
construction appears to be two or three upright stones with 
others laid along the top. Numerous skeletons with flint 
implements and even fragments of dress and bronze arms 
have been discovered in these Dolmens. Perhaps no dis- 
covery has given us so clear an insight into the life and 
customs of the Stone and Bronze Ages, as the discovery of 
Swiss Lake Dwellings; this discovery was quite accidental, 
and resulted from an exceedingly dry season, which so lowered 
the water in the lakes that numerous piles, ancient canoes, 
pottery, &c. became visible. Explorations were made which 
demonstrated the fact that in remote ages dwellings had been 
erected on piles driven into the bottom of the lake, planks 
had then been laid over them and the wooden huts constructed 
on the flooring thus made. The object of their construction 
was, probably, safety from attack; the labour of driving the 
piles without adequate machinery must have been immense. 
Herodotus mentions a lake building, of a similar character, 
which existed over the lake Prasias in Thrace. He says - 
their habitations are built in the following way: ‘‘ On long 
piles sunk into the bottom of the lake planks are placed 
forming a floor, a narrow bridge gives accesstothem. These 
piles used to be fixed by the inhabitants at their joint expense, 
but afterwards it was settled that each man should bring three 
for every woman he married. On these ‘planks each has his 
hut, with a trap door down to the lake, and lest any of the 
children should fall through, they took care to attach a string 
to their legs. In this lake fish was so abundant that if a 
basket was let down from the trapdoor it might be drawn up 
