MANUFACTURES OF THE STONE PERIOD. 137 



the fragment from which this drawing was copied, I am in a 

 position to state that the representation is very complimentary. 

 Although there can be little doubt that the skins of ani- 

 mals supplied the ancient Lake-dwellers with their principal 

 articles of clothing, still in several of the settlements, and 

 especially at Wangen and Robenhausen, both of which be- 

 long to the Stone age, pieces of rude fabric have been found 

 in some abundance. They consist either of flax fibres or 

 straw (fig. 123). The presence of spindle whorls has been 

 already mentioned. 



FIG. 123. 



Piece of Tissue from Robenhausen. 



The antiquities found at Wauwyl, Eobenhausen, at the 

 Pont de Thiele, at Moosseedorf, and elsewhere in small 

 lakes and peat-bogs, aa?e more or less covered by a 

 thick layer of peat, which perhaps at some future date 

 will give us a clue to their age. On the contrary, in the 

 large lakes no peat grows. At the entrance of the rivers, 

 indeed, much mud and gravel is of course accumulated ; the 

 Lake of Geneva, for instance, once no doubt extended for a 

 considerable distance up the Valley of the Rhone. But the 

 gravel and mud brought down by that river are, as every 

 one knows, soon deposited, and the water of the lake is else- 

 where beautifully clear and pure. 



