40 
of lakes in Switzerland called " Moor lakes." Its banks arc 
boggy, the bottom is muddy, and the water is thick in summer. 
After the water level had been lowered about eight feet in the 
winter of 1855-6, the remains of two settlements were discovered, 
one at the eastern and the other at the western extremity. 
ROBENHAUSEN. 
Robenhausen is a pile-settlement on the lake Pfaffikon, to the 
north of the lake of Ziirich. 
Some years ago, ancient implements were found in the peat 
near Robenhausen. In January, 1858, however, remains of an 
extensive lake-settlement were found by Herr Jacob Messikomer, 
in that part of the moor known as Himeri. 
The lake-dwelling of Robenhausen is situated in the peat 
moor on the southern side of the lake of Pfaffikon. The space 
covered with piles is nearly three acres ; it forms an irregular 
quadrangle about 2,000 paces from the ancient western shore of 
the lake, the whole of this distance now consisting of peat, and 
about 3,000 from the shore in the opposite direction. It was 
with this last-named side that the settlement, which of course 
was formerly entirely surrounded with water, communicated by 
means of a bridge or stage, of which the piles are still visible. 
The reason why the communication with the land was made in 
this direction, and not on the side where the land was nearer, 
appears to be that the gardens and pastures of the colony lay in 
the sunny district of the village of Kempten. 
The substructure of these dwellings was of piles, consisting 
partly of whole and partly of split stems ten or eleven feet long, 
of oak, beech, and fir- wood, sharpened at the end with stone- 
hatchets, and driven a few feet deep into the mud at a distance 
of from two to three feet apart. 
Later discoveries enabled Herr Messikomer to distinguish the 
piles of the different settlements from the nature of the wood 
and the character of the workmanship. 
The floor or platform supporting the huts was formed^ as is 
evident from the remains still existing, partly of cross-timbers 
and partly of boards, which were fastened to the upright piles 
by wooden pins. The outermost piles are bound together with 
hurdle-work of branches, large pieces of which have been found- 
Wangen. 
When the first account was published of the discovery of pile- 
dwellings, at Meilen, Herr Lohle remembered having seen simi- 
