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4 
210 General Notes, [February, 
that mysterious conflagration in which perished a civilization as 
old as that of Egypt, and as interesting as that of Hellas. 
ere is a marked difference between the habitations as 
between the implements, of the age of stone and the age of 
metals. The former, if more numerous, are less extensive; they 
were but from fifty to one hundred yards from the shore; the 
piles which formed their foundations are short, and made gen- 
erally of entire trunks of trees. Between the piles are found 
fragments of stag’s horns, broken stones, pieces of rude pottery, 
and bones of animals. The stations of the age of bronze, on the 
contrary, were large villages, built at a distance of from 200 to 
300 yards from the shore, on large, long, and often squared piles, 
between which are found remnants of fine pottery, and often 
entire vases, It is lower down, under the mud which has accu- 
mulated about the piles, that the great finds have been made. 
One of the most remarkable stations is the recently discovered 
village of Fenil. Although the exploration is not yet com- 
pleted, more than thirty articles in pure copper have already been 
found, and as similar relics have lately come to light at Greng, 
on lake Thorat, at Peschiera, on Lake Garda, and in other places, 
antiquaries may ere long deem it expedient to add to the three 
recognized ages an age of copper. 
The minute and systematic researches which have been made on 
the shores of Swiss lakes, albeit they have brought to light such 
a multitude of priceless relics, have not yet resulted in the dis- 
covery of a single Lacustrine habitation. A few charred planks 
and beams showing that they were destroyed by fire, are all that 
remain. Fortunately, however, we are not without light on the 
subject. A short time ago there was discovered in a marsh at 
Schussenried, in Wurtemburg, a well-preserved hut of the age of 
stone. The flooring and a part of the walls were intact, and, as 
appeared from a careful measurement, had formed, when com- 
plete, a rectangle, ten meters long and seven meters wide. e 
ut was divided into two partments, icating with each 
other by a foot-bridge, made of three girders. A single door 
looking toward the south, was a meter wide, and opened into a 
room 6.50 meters long and four meters wide. In one corner lay 
a heap of stones which had apparently formed the fireplace. 
This room was the kitchen, “the living room,” and probably a 
night refuge for the cattle in cold weather. The second room, 
which had no opening outside, measured 6.50 meters long and 
five meters wide, and was no doubt used as the family bed- 
chamber. The floors of both rooms were formed of sound logs, 
and the walls of split logs. This, be it remembered, was a hut 
of the stone age. It may be safely presumed that the dwellings 
of the bronze age were larger in size, and less primitive in their 
arrangements. At both periods the platform supporting the 
house communicated with the shore by means of a bridge (prob- 
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