io The Primitive Inhabitants 



they had occupation for the indoor season. They found 

 leisure to fabricate ornaments, as well as implements for 

 use. Bracelets, necklaces, brooches, are not rare, and 

 the abundance of hair-pins, ornamented as well as plain, 

 suggests that the ladies of the lakes had ample tresses, 

 and took pride in them. The identity of the grain 

 cultivated, and the weed of southern origin mingled 

 with it, indicate intercourse with southern Europe. 



The duration of these settlements must have covered 

 a considerable lapse of time. The amount of remains 

 and refuse could only accumulate in centuries. The 

 settlement of Robenhausen presents proof of a different 

 sort. Here are found the ruins of three settlements, 

 one above the other; the first two apparently destroyed 

 by fire, the last abandoned. The growth of several feet 

 of peat, upon each bed of debris, between it and the 

 next succeeding, shows that a long interval elapsed be- 

 tween the destruction of the successive villages. More- 

 over, the villages belong to three different stages of 

 civilization — the ages of stone, of bronze, and of iron. 



In all parts of the world stone implements appear to 

 have been used first. Then the soft metals, copper and 

 tin, were brought into use. And, finally, when the 

 less obvious iron was detected in its ore, and contriv- 

 ance for blast heat to smelt it was invented, civiliza- 

 tion took another advance. These three stages are rep- 

 resented in the lake dwellings. It is possible, indeed, 

 that three different types of civilization might exist side 

 by side, even in the narrow compass of Switzerland. 

 But they appear, in fact, to have been successive. In 

 the villages where metal is not found, the bones of wild 

 animals predominate ; w 7 hile those belonging to the 



