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tinue that part of the Catalogue descriptive thereof, attention, no doubt, 
will be paid to these most valuable evidences of the state of society in 
these structures. In the Helvetian ‘ Pfhalbauten,’ Keller asserts that 
the dwelling-houses were circular, formed of wood, and thatched with 
reeds,—such was probably the case with those in Ireland, the circular 
form being that of the oldest of our habitations, as the Cloghauns of 
Kerry’and Aran, and the form still preserved in many of the houses in the 
village of Keem, in Achill. The fact that ours were also formed of wood 
may explain the expressions used in our Annals, which describe the 
destruction of these places by storms and floods, or the ‘ burning’ of 
these ‘islands’ by predatory native chiefs, or plundering Danes. <An- 
other peculiarity of the Irish crannoges is that of each having a common 
hearth, probably to lessen the chance of accidental burning, as there was 
usually a great number of persons residing in each crannoge. 
“<There is still much to be expected from future explorations, but this, 
I think, I am warranted in stating, that the remains of flint and stone 
weapons and tools, in the Swiss crannoges, show that they were con- 
structed by a people in a less advanced state than those who made the 
Trish crannoges, and that they were chronologically much anterior. Cer- 
tainly the evidences derived from the antiquities found in ours, and which 
are chiefly of iron, refer them to a much later period than the Swiss ; 
while we do not find any flint arrows, or stone celts, and but very few 
bronze weapons, in our crannoges. Moreover, we have positive docu- 
mentary evidence of the occupation of many of these fortresses in the 
time of Elizabeth, and some even later. 
‘Tn the Swiss lakes two forms of pfhalbauten have been observed, one 
in which the artificial structure was like our Irish crannoge, placed in a 
natural shallow at some distance from the shore, and only accessible by a 
boat which has usually been found in connexion with them ; the other is 
that in which the fortress was connected with the shore by a piled gang- 
way or pier, but this may have been the result of the peculiar cir- 
cumstances of the locality. We have the same kind of thing in Ireland, 
as shown by the description given by Mr. Kelly of that at Cloonfinlough. 
This, however, is a very ancient description of dwelling, for Herodotus 
informs us that Megabyzus was unable to conquer the people on the 
shores of the Prasian Lake, whose dwellings were constructed in the fol- 
lowing manner:—‘ In this lake strong piles are driven into the ground, 
over which planks are thrown, connected by a narrow bridge with the 
shore. These erections were, in former times, made at public expense ; 
but a law afterwards passed, obliging a man for every wife whom he 
should marry (and they allow a plurality) to drive three of these piles 
into the ground, taken from a mountain called Orbelus. Upon these 
planks each man has his hut, from every one of which a trap-door opens 
to the water.’* 
‘The subject of these crannoges is suggestive of an interesting ques- 
* Terpsichore, Book v., par. 16, Beloe’s translation. 
