60 Primitive Man. 



pets and periwinkles, together with bones of mammals of 

 species all at present extinct. The heaps themselves are 

 from one to three yards in height by 100 to 350 yards long 

 and 50 to 70 wide. In these, located but a short distance 

 from the shores of the Baltic, and raised about three yards 

 above the sea level, cinders, rude pottery and flint implements 

 are found intermixed; but we discover no cereals, nor 

 instruments of metal, though the flints are of better work- 

 manship than those of the most remote palaeolithic age. 

 Kemains of the blackcock and the penguin, birds long since 

 non-existent in these localities, are also found, but no 

 human remains. The age of the heaps is in dispute some 

 placing it at 7000 years, others bringing them down to the 

 age of the dolmens. It does not seem possible to reconcile 

 scientific opinion on the subject. 



In the Winter of 1853-54 the waters of Lake Zurich 

 fell to the lowest level till then recorded. Prof. Keller 

 then first had his attention drawn to certain piles driven 

 into the bed of the lake. The closer examination of these 

 Avas the inception of a scientific interest among archaeolo- 

 gists, in the investigation of these structures, which proved 

 to be specially fruitful of results concerning prehistoric 

 man. Kemains of wild and domestic animals, various 

 forms of human skulls, implements of every description, 

 in bone, flint, bronze and iron, pottery of more or less 

 artistic workmanship, objects of art and ornament, woven 

 stuff's, grindmg-stones, mill-stones, grains, breads, fruit, 

 ashes, coal all these are found. The piles are from fif- 

 teen to thirty feet in length, their diameter three to nine 

 inches, and they project above the surface of the water 

 from four to six feet. They are sometimes placed in lines 

 parallel with the shore, sometimes at right angles to it, and 

 are either firmly imbedded in the mud, or su])ported by 

 heaps of stone at their base. They were united by trans- 

 verse beams, lield in position by wooden pins. On these 

 Ijeams was constructed a platform, of thick planks, or of 

 split trunks of trees roughly squared; and upon the plat- 

 forms were erected oval, circular, or rectangular huts, ten, 

 fifteen, or more feet in diameter, the walls being formed of 

 perpendicular posts fastened together by wattled branches, 

 lined with a cement of clay. The huts were covered by a 

 roof of bark, thatch, cane, reed, fern or moss ; a trap-door 

 in tlie platform communicated with the lake below. Each 



