1 68 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. ^ 



measurement appears to have been — length, 4^ inches ; 

 width, 43 inches. The strongest branch, which may be 

 looked upon as that for the outer border of the hoof, had 

 the holes punched coarsely (that is, farther from the ex- 

 ternal border) ; and the inner or weaker branch, Jiner, 

 or nearer the outer edge. The holes were a little more 

 rectangular than is usually seen in these primitive spe- 

 cimens. M. Troyon was in doubt as to the epoch to 

 which this mound, and the bones, spurs, bits, and other 

 articles, belonged ; but elsewhere he appears to refer the 

 shoes to the second ' iron age,' or the Helveto-Roman 

 period ' (see fig. 22). In speaking of these articles, 

 this able antiquarian remarks : ' A horse-shoe has been 

 discovered, with arrow-heads and lances, in a tumulus 

 in the neighbourhood of Aussee, which appears to me 

 to resemble that of Chavannes. Another has been found 

 in a tumulus in the Canton Berne, but its form is ex- 

 actly that of those met with in the Roman ruins. We 

 see horse-shoes like those of Chavannes, but of more 

 advanced workmanship, from the battle-field of Cressy, 

 and preserved iii the Artillery Museum of Paris.' "" Baron 

 Bonstetten gives a drawing of a fragment of a shoe of 

 this description, obtained by workmen who were de- 

 molishing a tumulus standing between Sariswyl and 

 Murzelen, Canton Berne. It is merely the toe-piece 

 of the shoe, without holes or any other indication of its 

 antiquity. In three other tumuli explored by this rrch^- 

 ologist, arms and several objects in bronze were recovered, 



' Rapport sur les Collect. d'Antiq. du Musee Cantonal a Lausanne, 



^ Colline de Sacrifices, p. 12. 



