326 General Notes. [March, 
mens of metallurgic art. One of them is a sample of the type 
still in common use, both in England and on the continent. The 
mouth-piece is jointed in the middle and twisted, the cheeks are 
furnished with “dees” for holding bridle and curb-chain ; and in 
shape and fashion the Proto-Helvetian bit differs hardly at all 
from the “snaffle” of English grooms and harness-makers. 
But it is much smaller (nine centimeters, 3.50 in. long.) than the 
modern bit, a fact which, together with the smallness of all the 
equine bones that have come to light, points to the conclusion 
that the horses of the bronze age were little, if any, larger than 
Exmoor ponies, 
Professor Virchow, to whom Dr. Gross has submitted the skulls 
found by him at Auvernier, declares that the brain capacity of the 
lake-men was equal to that of the men of our owntime. Their 
conformation, their cerebral volume, the peculiarities of their su- 
tures, place them on an equality with the highest type of Aryan 
skulls. That people so richly gifted by nature should have suc- 
ceeded so remarkably in the struggle for existence, affords no 
grounds for surprise. There was nothing in common between the 
lacustrine communities and the savage tribes whom a fatal law 
condemns to extinction so soon as they come under the influence 
of a civilization higher than their own. The lake-dwellers pos- 
sessed a singular aptitude for progress, a rare capacity for adapting 
themselves to their environment, and making the most of their 
advantages. 
The skulls examined by Dr. Virchow are doubtless those of in- 
dividuals who fell into the water by accident, possibly at the time 
of the great fires in which nearly all the villages of the bronze 
age seem to have perished; for the discovery at Auvernier of a 
place of sepulture, shows that the lake-dwellers disposed of their 
dead by laying them in the ground. This cemetery contained the 
bones of about twenty individuals, and the presence among them 
of stone and bronze articles, their positions on the lake shore, 
opposite a range of piles, leaves no doubt that the remains are of 
lacustrian origin. The appearance of the ground denotes the ex- 
istence of many other tombs; but the cost of exploring them has 
hitherto hindered the making of further explorations. 
As touching the antiquity of the lake-dwellings of Proto-Hel- 
vetia, there is very little to be said. No medals, coins, or other 
relics, whereby the date of their erection can even be approxi- 
mately determined, have been found. It may, however, with cer- 
tainty be inferred, from the absence of anything Roman, that the 
lacustrian vanished from the scene before the appearance in Cen- 
tral Europe of the legions of the eternal city. According to the 
calculations of Von Sacken, moreover, the Necropolis of Hall 
stadt, which is admittedly more modern than the lacustrian sta- 
os tions, dates from about 500 A. C., and as there is good reason to 
believe that several centuries elapsed between the destruction of 
