THE REMAINS OF CITIES OF THE STONE AGE. 105 



sisted largely on fish and on wild animals, and laid 

 un-der contribution all the wild fruits of their country. 

 So far as known, their physical characteristics were 

 not materially different from those of the more modern 

 inhabitants of Switzerland. 



Unlike the Hochelagans, these lake-dwellers dis- 

 appeared or changed their mode of life at so early 

 a period that no mention of them occurs in written 

 history, nor was it suspected that such remains existed 

 until they were accidentally discovered. Yet the fact 

 that their remains, submerged and covered with lake 

 mud, and in some instances with peat, were removed 

 from all destroying or disturbing agencies, has led to 

 their preservation and recovery in a more perfect 

 state than can be the case with similar villages built 

 on the land, which may have been contemporary with 

 them. Thus semi-civilized village- dwellers may have 

 lived in Europe before the dates of the lake habita- 

 tions, without our having any knowledge of their 

 existence. 



The mode of life of these people was not without 

 example in America. Washington Irving has quoted 

 from the narrative of Amerigo Yespucci an account 

 of an Indian town named Coquibacoa, in the Bay of 

 Yenezuela, which consisted of twenty large houses, 

 like bells in shape, and supported on piles driven into 

 the bottom of the lake-like bay. From a fancied 

 resemblance to Ye nice in these structures, the bay is 

 said to have received the name of Yenezuela. The 

 debris of such a town would undoubtedly be in the 



