154 The Lake-Dwellers of Switzerland. 



of their manufacture. A simple cross plat under and over 

 making a square pattern is represented in one of the plates. 

 In other patterns (also depicted) " the warp is made of twisted 

 strips of bark, and the woof of flat bands ." Other patterns 

 are still more complicated. Many articles made of flax have 

 been discovered, and in some of them the famous " weaver's 

 knot " appears. Fishing nets were made of flax, and many 

 specimens of linen cloth, which, though rude as compared with 

 the productions of civilized races, yet evince considerable skill, 

 and are pronounced by persons in the trade to have been 

 made in some kind of loom. 



When specimens of linen cloth of a complicated pattern 

 were first obtained, it was thought that they might have 

 become accidentally associated with earlier fabrics, but investi- 

 gation convinced the Swiss antiquaries that " these question- 

 able specimens are the actual relics of the lake-dwelling 

 settlers, and belong to the same age as the implements of 

 stone and bone." 



The lake-dwellers were acquainted with some mode of 

 dressing and preparing the skins of animals they killed, but 

 the remains of their industry in leather have been very im- 

 perfectly preserved, and little more than the fact of its ex- 

 istence seems to have been ascertained. 



Our plate in vol. v. gives illustrations of the bronze work 

 of the lake-dwellers, and the volume before us contains an 

 immense number of engravings fully illustrating this very in- 

 teresting subject. From a chemical analysis made by Professor 

 Fellenberg, of Berne, it appears that the bronze of many of 

 the weapons and implements discovered in the western part of 

 Switzerland, consists of pure tin mixed with copper, contain- 

 ing a little nickel, "while not a trace of this metal is to be 

 found in bronze objects met with elsewhere.'" Copper of this 

 kind is afforded by the ores of the Valais, and it is conjectured 

 that the lake- dwellers worked these ores, and obtained their tin 

 from the Cornish mines. 



No definite line of demarcation separated the " stone age" 

 from the bronze period, but as metal implements became more 

 plentiful the stone ones gradually disappeared. Considerable 

 skill was attained in the manufacture of bronze articles, and in 

 many cases the form and the ornamentation is of a pleasing 

 kind. The lake-dwelling of Nidau-Steinburg, lake of Bienne, 

 has supplied very numerous illustrations of bronze manufac- 

 ture, including sickles, knives, celts, spear-heads, pins, rings, 

 hooks, etc. Many of the pins were of an ornamental character 1 

 (see our plate, vol. v.), and it would appear that armlets of 

 the same materials, engraved with elegant angular patterns, 

 were also in vogue. 



