128 CONSTRUCTION OF THE PLATFORMS. 



to bind the mass firmly together. It is evident that the 

 "Packwerkbau" is a much simpler and ruder affair than the 

 " Pfahlbaft," in which no small skill must have been required 

 to connect the perpendicular and horizontal piles firmly to- 

 gether. Still the "Packwerkbauten" were not suitable for 

 the larger lakes, as during storms they would have been in- 

 jured by the waves, which must have passed harmlessly through 

 the open-work of the "Pfahlbauten." We find, therefore, that 

 while the former method of construction prevailed only in 

 small lakes or morasses, the latter was adopted in the larger 

 lakes, and even sometimes, as at Ebersberg, on dry land ; a 

 custom which, however singular, exists even at the present 

 day, as, for instance, in the island of Borneo. 



After having chosen a favorable situation, the first step 

 in the construction of the Lake-habitations was to obtain the 

 necessary timber. To cut down a tree with a stone hatchet 

 must have been no slight undertaking. It is, indeed, most 

 probable that use was made of fire, in the same manner as 

 is done by existing savages in felling trees and making 

 canoes. Burning the wood and then scraping away the 

 charred portion renders the task far more easy, and the men 

 of the Stone period appear to have avoided the use of large 

 trees, except in making their canoes. Their piles were im- 

 bedded in the mud for from one to five feet, and must also 

 have projected from four to six feet above the water level, 

 which cannot have been very different from what it is at 

 present. They must, therefore, have had a length of from 

 fifteen to thirty feet, and they were from three to nine inches 

 in diameter. The pointed extremity which entered into the 

 mud still bears the marks of the fire and the rude cuts made 

 by the stone hatchets. The piles belonging to the Bronze 

 period being prepared with metal axes, were much more 

 regularly pointed, and the differences between the two have 

 been ingeniously compared to those shown by lead pencils 



