38 PREHISTORIC FISHING. 



of the Antiquarian Society of Zurich, who afterward acquired so much reputation 

 by the reports in which he elucidates the subject of Swiss lacustrine settlements, 

 proceeded to Meilen, in order to inspect the relics and the place where they had 

 been exhumed. Being an experienced antiquarian, he recognized without diffi- 

 culty the character of the relics, and, summing up his observations, concluded 

 that the piles had served as the supports of platforms on which the ancient 

 inhabitants of this locality erected their dwellings, thus living above the surface 

 of the water and at some distance from the shore, with which they communicated 

 by means of a narrow bridge. To Dr. Keller, therefore, belongs the merit of 

 having first pointed out the true character of lacustrine remains, and of having 

 inaugurated a series of discoveries hardly surpassed in importance by any yet 

 made in the domain of prehistoric archaeology.* It was now remembered that 

 in times not long past, fishermen had lived in cabins built in the Limmat, a 

 small river issuing from the Lake of Ziirich. The works of modern travelers 

 were found to contain accounts of certain Asiatic and Polynesian populations 

 who still inhabit buildings erected on piles in the water, thus perpetuating a 

 custom prevailing in times beyond record and tradition in the lake-regions of 

 Switzerland, and a passage in Herodotus, relating to the Pseonians, a tribe that 

 dwelled, 520 years before the Christian era, on Lake Prasias, in Thrace (modern 

 Roumelia), was now often quoted as illustrative of the ancient Helvetian mode 

 of life. There are also pile-dwellings in America.f 



* The English version of Dr. Keller's reports bears the title: The Lake Dwellings of Switzerland and other 

 Parts of Europe, by Dr. Ferdinand Keller, President of the Antiquarian Association of Zurich. Second Edition, 

 greatly enlarged. Translated and arranged by John Edward Lee, F. S. A., F. G. S., Author of " Isca Silu- 

 rum," etc. In two Volumes. London, 1878. Hereafter I shall often have occasion to quote this translation. 



f Alonzo de Ojeda, a Spanish nobleman, who had been a companion of Columbus on his second expedition, 

 undertook in 1499, independently, a voyage for the purpose of exploring the northern coast of South America. 

 He was accompanied by the Florentine, Amerigo Vespucci, who has left an account of this voyage, from which 

 Washington Irving derived the following statement: "Proceeding along the coast, they arrived at avast deep 

 gulf, resembling a tranquil lake, entering which they beheld on the eastern side a village, the construction of 

 which struck them with surprise. It consisted of twenty large houses, shaped like bells, and built on piles driven 

 into the bottom of the lake, which in this part was limpid and of but little depth. Euch house was provided with 

 a draw-bridge and with canoes, by which the communication was carried on. From this resemblance to the 

 Italian city, Ojeda gave the bay the name of the Gulf of Venice, and it is called at the present day Venezuela, or 

 Little Venice; the Indian name was Coquibaeoa." Irving: The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus; 

 New York, 1859; Vol. Ill, p. 28. 



It is worthy of notice that in the Gulf (Lake) of Maracaibo, south of the Bay of Venezuela, and communi- 

 cating with it, pile-buildings are still erected by the half-civilized Goajiro Indians. A German traveler, Mr. A. 

 Goering, gives an account of a visit to these Indians in " Illustrated Travels " (Vol. II, p. 19-21), an extract of 

 which, accompanied by representations of the dwellings, is contained in Keller's "Lake Dwellings" (Vol. I, 

 p. 778-9). " The houses, with low sloping roofs," he says, " were like so many little cock-lofts perched on high 

 over the shallow waters, and they were connected with each other by means of bridges, made of narrow planks, the 



split stems of palm-trees. We were invited to enter one of the huts. To do this we had to perform a 



feat worthy of some of the monkeys in the neighboring woods, for we had to climb an upright pole by means of 

 notches cut into its sides. Each house, or cock-loft, consisted of two parts, the pent-roof shelter being partitioned 

 off in the middle; the front apartment served the double purpose of entrance-hall and kitchen, the rear apartment 

 as a reception and dwelling-chamber, and I was not a little surprised to observe how clean it was kept. The floor 



