272 



Description of an Oak Pile found in the Lake of Geneva, 



Platform. 



Mr. Staekey presented to the Academy a wooden pile, which he had 

 himself brought from Switzerland in the month of October, 1862, it 

 having been given to him in the kindest manner by M. Frederic Troyon, 

 the eminent Swiss antiquary, to whom he had been introduced by Mr, 

 "Wilde, Mr. Starkey conceived that it might be considered valuable and 

 interesting, not only as an object of antiquity, but as illustrative of the 

 crannoge remains of this country. Along with the pile he presented 

 an explanatory paper, drawn up for him by M. Troyon at the time, of 

 which the following is a translation : — 



This pile I raised on the 15th of September, 1862, from among 

 the lacustrine remains at Thonon, on the Lake of Geneva. The site had 

 been occupied during the stone period, and continued to be so until the 

 end of the bronze -period. We find here instruments of stone and of 

 bronze, but none of iron. 



" The length of the pile is 4 ft. 4 in. ; the thickest end was buried 



3 ft. 4 in. in the bottom of the lake ; 

 so that the upper end projected only 

 one foot above it. It must be borne 

 in mind, that when the water is at 

 its extreme height, the place from 

 which I drew this stake is sunk 12 

 feet beneath the surface. The plat- 

 form supported by these pillars was 

 at least 4 feet above the highest level 

 of the water, so as to allow of the 

 waves passing beneath the planks 

 which supported the huts. 



" It follows from hence that this 

 pile must originally have been 20 

 feet long, — that is, 4 feet in the silt 

 of the lake, 12 feet in the water, and 



4 feet above it. 



''In many of these sites there may still be seen tht»usands of the 

 piles which supported the platforms, burnt down, as most of them were, 

 to the surface of the lake at the 

 time when these lacustrine vil- 

 lages were destroyed. It is by 



degrees, and by the extremely ^ ^-^-^ - ^^^^^^^ 

 slow action of ages, that the 

 water has worn the piles, which 

 on the sites referable to the 

 bronze period still stand from 1 

 to 3 feet above the bottom ; 

 while on the sites destroyed be- 

 fore that period they are gene- 

 rally worn down to the bed of 

 the lake. 



Silt. 



