152 The Lake-Dwellers of Switzerland. 



nephrite, found in the lake -dwellings, " The presence of what 

 is called noble nephrite, which is only known in the east, is not 

 more strange than the appearance of the Egyptian wheat, the 

 Cretan cattle fly, the oil-yielding poppy, and the glass beads 

 found at Wauwyl, which were either of Egyptian or Phenician 

 origin. Professor Heer does not assign a very high degree of 

 antiquity to the lake- dwellings, but thinks it probable that 

 they extended back to one or two thousand years before the 

 Christian era. Professor Rutimeyer, who has examined the 

 remains of the animals that co-existed with the lake-dwellers, 

 observes, " I cannot, however, refrain from expressing my 

 conviction, that even the oldest lake-dwellings do not by any 

 means exhibit to us the primitive population of our country. 

 I must, indeed, regard them as ' autochthones/ or, at least, as 

 very ancient inhabitants of these districts, for they possessed, as 

 domestic animals, a number of those that undoubtedly were in- 

 digenous here, particularly the urus and the marsh swine ; but 

 the fact that from the beginning they had the sheep and the 

 dog, the indigenous origin of which is, to say the least, highly 

 improbable, indicates their having descended from a still earlier 

 people. For my own part, therefore, I have little doubt of 

 the existence at one time of a genuine primitive population 

 throughout Europe. This appears to have been proved, as far 

 as France is concerned, hj the latest discovery at Aurignac." 

 In another passage the Professor adds, " The discovery at 

 Aurignac places the age of our lake-dwellings at a compara- 

 tively late period, although almost immediately under our peat- 

 beds, with their rich treasures, similar antiquities are found : 

 nay, still older remains are met with, only a little deeper, in 

 the slaty, brown coal of Durnten, perhaps forty feet under the 

 bed of the Lake of Pfiiffikon, than those of Aurignac, which 

 have beeu gnawed by hyenas after having been despoiled of 

 their marrow by human bands." 



A very important part of the work before us refers to the 

 settlements on the mainland, which corresponded with the lake- 

 dwellings, and were contemporaneous with them. At Ebers- 

 berg, -Burg, Uetliberg, and Windisch, settlements have been 

 discovered in which " the stone celts, flint knives, what are 

 called corn-crushers, tools of bone and bronze, as well as imple- 

 ments of bone and bronze, all appear perfectly identical with 

 the antiquities of the lake -dwellings on both sides of the Alps. 

 And in the presence of this fact, the correctness of the conclu- 

 sion cannot be doubted, in the slightest degree, that the settle- 

 ments of the same people who erected the lake-dwellings were 

 also spread over the mainland." 



The manufactures of the lake-dwellers exhibit an advance 

 from rude periods to tho time when Roman civilization exerted 



