1 78 On the Ancient Lake Habitations of Switzerland. 



contained Roman tiles, and also a coin. The second layer 

 "was followed over an area of 25,000 square feet, at a depth of 

 ten feet from the surface, and had a thickness of six inches. 

 It is referred to the Bronze epoch, for in it was found several 

 fragments of unvarnished pottery, and a pair of bronze tweezers. 

 The third layer was traced for 35,000 square feet, at a depth of 

 nineteen feet, and was six to seven inches in thickness. In it 

 were found a human skeleton, with a small, round, and very 

 thick skull, some fragments of very rude pottery, some pieces 

 of charcoal, and some broken bones. 



M. Morlot, assuming the Roman period (indicated by the 

 first layer) to represent an antiquity of from sixteen to eighteen 

 centuries, assigns to the second layer, representing the Bronze 

 age, an antiquity of 3800 years, and 6400 years for the third 

 layer of the Stone age. 



The second case is afforded by a settlement found buried iri 

 peat at the foot of Mount Chamblon, 5500 feet from the present 

 margin of the Lake of Neuchatel. The Roman City of 

 Eburodunum (Yverdon) was built on a dune extending from 

 Jorat to the Thiele. Between this dune and the lake, on the 

 site at present occupied by the city of Yverdon, no trace of 

 Roman antiquities has ever been discovered, from which it is 

 argued that the waters of the lake washed the walls of the 

 ancient Castrum Eburodense. 



If then 2500 feet have been uncovered in 1500 years, 

 M. Troyon infers that 3300 years must have elapsed since 

 the pile-dwellings at Chamblon were left dry. As this 

 settlement belonged to the Bronze period, the date arrived 

 at agrees very well with that obtained from the delta of the 

 Tinicre. 



I have only described the construction of the most usual form 

 of Swiss pile work ; that in which the platform is fixed to the tops 

 of the piles at a sufficient elevation above the lake to secure the 

 habitations against a sudden rising of the waters. But at 

 Wauwyl, in Lucerne,* the platform consisted of five laykks of 

 round timbers securely united together with interlaced branches 

 of trees and the interstices filled with clay. Nofast&n/ing <>/<tin/ 

 kind could ho discovered to connect the piles with this massive 

 platform, and it would scorn, from a close and careful examina- 

 tion, that the rows of piles only served to retain it in its place, 

 the platform itself floating upon the surface of the water and 

 rising and falling with it. 



Again, at the Steinberg, in the Lake of Bicnne, an arti- 

 ficial island has been formed by collecting a mass of round 



* See Dr. KclWs Memoir, Zurich, I860 (p. 73), already quoted, for 

 M. Suter's description of this remarkublo settlement of the Stone period. 



