Fraas — Pre-historic Settlements. 547 



this has been done to such an extent that the spring -head, which 

 before (as ruentioned above) was 8 feet above the Feder See, now is 

 13 feet below it, and the supply of water — now far greater than 

 before — is made available first for the mills of Mr. Kaes, and after- 

 wards for the royal foundry of Schussenried. While these works 

 were going on, a great number of stags' horns and bones wei'e found, 

 and excited the curiosity of the resident naturalists : the matter was 

 then taken up jointly by the Eoyal Cabinet of Natural History, and 

 that of Antiquities, and very singular facts were brought to light 

 during the excavation. Gigantic horns of the reindeer, from four to 

 five feet long, and smaller ones, down to those of quite young fawns, 

 lay there in the mud by hundreds : they were mixed with bones of 

 the extremities, the skull, and the vertebrse of the same animal. 

 The whole of these bones had been cracked and broken evidently to 

 get out the marrow ; so as to recall the accounts given us by travellers 

 of the Ostiaks and Koriaks, who esteem the warm brain and marrow 

 of recently-killed animals as very great delicacies. A large pro- 

 portion of the horns have been formed in a very simple and inarti- 

 ficial manner into clubs or hammers, awls (some of which have 

 projecting ears), or into agricultural tools, and other implements of 

 incipient industry. 



Here, then, we have the fact of the existence on this spot of one 

 of the earliest known settlements of the human race. Let us glance 

 for a moment at the changes which have taken place in this locality. 

 But a short time since there was here the pleasant little tarn, the 

 spring-head of the brook Schussen — 700 years ago the Premonstra- 

 tensian Monks built their monastery — 1000 years still earlier a 

 Eoman road, with all its traffic, is said to have passed this way ; 

 but long before all these periods there existed here a settlement 

 where human beings carried on all the avocations of life. Judging 

 from the remains of their feasts, which appear to have been thrown 

 into the clear little pond, these early settlers had abundance of 

 animal food. Besides the remains of deer, there were found the 

 broken skulls and bones of oxen, bears, and wolves ; bones of birds 

 and fish were also met with. Even the flesh of the northern glutton 

 ( Gulo horealis) was not despised, as is proved by a broken skull and 

 some well-preserved teeth. Great hopes had been entertained of 

 finding the skulls and bones of this primaeval race of men, so that 

 they might be examined by the critical eyes of the 19th century. 

 These hopes, however, have not been gratified ; but many particulars 

 respecting the settlers may be gathered from the specimens found in 

 the pond of Schussenried. The flint implements and the tools of 

 reindeer horn are the evidence of great labour and perseverance ; 

 the abundance and variety of animal remains indicate their joyous 

 feasts, and they also tell us what was their favourite food ; while 

 their ornaments and paints give us some faint notion of the manners 

 of these settlers be^'^ond the mere supply of the necessities of life. 



After these general remarks, we will give a few detailed particulars 

 as to the excavation and its results. 



The " relic bed " (as it is now called), or the bed in which lie the 



