On the Ancient Lake Habitations of Switzerland. 1 79 



stones,* which are kept together by means of planks of wood, 

 and a circle of piles driven vertically around the mound which 

 is now considerably beneath the present surface of the lake, 

 owing to a supposed rise in the level of the waters. And, 

 lastly, a small island in the little Inkwyl Lake exactly reproduces 

 the crannoge which I have mentioned already as so frequently 

 occurring in the lakes of Ireland. Of these crannoges, which 

 are sufficient of themselves to form the subject of a separate 

 paper, I will only remark that no fewer than forty-six have been 

 discovered and described, from which remains of the Stone, 

 Bronze, and Iron Age have been obtained. They are frequently 

 referred to in the early annals of the country so far back as the 

 ninth century, and have been used as strongholds and refuges 

 by petty chiefs, rebels, marauders, and freebooters, down to the 

 close of the seventeenth century. They are extremely rich in 

 reliques, but little has yet been done in systematically examining 

 and separating their very miscellaneous contents. 



I have been informed that the Royal Irish Academy is 

 about to take active measures to harvest this rich field of archaeo- 

 logical treasures. 



Lake- dwellings have been noticed as having existed in several 

 parts of Asia. In a series of bas-reliefs found at Kouyunjik 

 in the palace of Sennacherib, are represented the conquests of 

 the Assyrians over a tribe who inhabited a marshy region ; 

 in one of these slabsf we see represented several small artificial 

 islands (formed apparently by wattling together the branches 

 and twigs of the willows which grew in the marshes, and erecting 

 a platform), in which are sheltered five or six people. Mr. Layard 

 has conjectured that these slabs represent the conquests of 

 the Assyrians over the inhabitants of the lower part of the 

 Euphrates.^ 



That lake-dwellings will yet be discovered in England is 

 highly probable. The fens of Cambridge and Lincolnshire and 

 the meres and broads of Norfolk seem ready to reward the 

 explorer. I will give a single instance in point. In draining a 

 mere near Wretham Hall, Thetford, Norfolk, numerous posts of 

 oak-wood, shaped and pointed by human art, were found 

 standing erect, entirely buried in the peat. At a depth of from 

 five to six feet from the surface were found some very large 

 antlers of the red deer, several of which, with the skulls 

 attached, had been sawn of, just above the brow-antlers. § 



* A canoe, laden with stones, was actually found near this spot, having 

 apparently capsized and sunk during the period when the Steinberg was in 

 course of construction. It is one of the largest known, and measures filty feet in 

 length and three and a half feet in width. 



+ Engraved in the Monuments of Nineveh, second series, pi. 25. 



X See Nineveh and Babylon, 1853, p. 584. 



§ See Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 185G, vol. xii. p. 356. 

 VOL. V. — NO. III. O 



