On the Ancient Lake Habitations of Switzerland. 177 



has discovered a great number of crescents made of earthen- 

 ware (measuring about one foot across, from horn to horn), 

 compressed at the sides, and sometimes ornamented. 



They were probably affixed to the summit of their circular 

 huts. Dr. Keller considers them religious emblems, and to 

 be evidence of moon- worship. The remains of the mistletoe 

 have also been found. This parasitic plant has always been 

 associated with religious rites from the earliest times. 



Notwithstanding the profusion of bones of animals in the 

 Swiss pile-works, the occurrence of human remains is extremely 

 rare, which would seem to indicate, that although the confla- 

 grations by which the settlements had been destroyed at various 

 periods had been sudden and overwhelming, yet the inhabitants 

 had always managed to escape with their lives, in boats or 

 otherwise. 



Only one skull of the early Stone period, dredged up from 

 Meilen, on the Lake of Zurich, has yet been examined with 

 care. Of this, Prof. His observes, that it clearly resembles in 

 form the skull of the race at present prevailing in Switzerland, 

 which is intermediate between the long-headed and short- 

 headed form. 



The duration of time occupied by the epochs just described 

 must naturally be very great, to allow changes so important 

 as those we have indicated gradually to take place. In Den- 

 mark each period is marked by a complete change in the forest 

 trees of the country. The Scotch fir, the oak, and the beech- 

 tree, have each covered the land, and each in turn has died out, 

 and been replaced by its successor — a process requiring onany 

 tens of centuries to effect. 



The Swiss archaeologists and geologists have endeavoured, 

 by a very careful series of calculations, to estimate definitely 

 the periods of time and relative antiquity of the Stone and 

 Bronze ages. The calculations of M. Morlot are based upon an 

 examination of the delta formed by a torrent, known as the 

 Tiniere, which falls into the Lake of Geneva, near Villeneuve. 

 This delta was laid open by a railway cutting 1000 feet long 

 and 32 feet deep, and its structure throughout displayed such 

 regularity, as to imply that it had been formed very gradually, 

 and by the uniform action of the same causes. 



Three layers of vegetable soil have been exposed, each of 

 which must at one time have formed the surface of this cone- 

 shaped deposit. They are regularly inter-laminated among 

 the gravel, and exactly parallel to one another, as well as to the 

 present curved surface of the cone. The first of these ancient 

 deposits was traced over a surface of 15,000 square feet, at a 

 depth of about four feet. This layer, which was from four to 

 six inches in thickness, belonged to the Eoman period, and 



