1894 - 95 .] Dr K Munro on Lahe-dwdling Research. 389 
wliose vineyards came close upon the shore of the lake, began to 
extend them by enclosing portions of the exposed shore with a 
stone wall, and filling in the space with mud so as to bring its 
surface above the ordinary level of the water. In the course of these 
operations the workmen observed, in the mud taken from the bed 
of the lake, portions of rotten posts, together with stone axes, flint 
implements, and other worked objects of horn and bone, which 
excited their curiosity. Next day Mr Aeppli, the village school- 
master, heard through his scholars of the curious things turned up 
in these diggings, and as soon as his day’s duties were over he went 
to see the place. After inspecting some of the objects which the 
workmen had laid aside, Mr Aeppli thus expressed himself to the 
interested bystanders : — “ Hier hat die Menschenhand gearheitet^ das 
sind Wertzeuge und Gerdthe, die der Mensch einst gehraucht hat ; 
Hire Form gehdrt mensehlicher Thdtigheit an.’’^ {Die Pfalilhauten in 
den Schiveizer-Seen^ p. 8, F. Staub.) He then wrote a short account of 
what he had seen, and sent it to the Antiquarian Society at Zurich. 
Within four hours of the dispatch of his epistle three representatives 
of the Society arrived at Ober-Meilen, among them being the 
president. Dr Ferdinand Keller. 
After careful consideration of the facts. Dr Keller came to the 
conclusion that the piles had supported a platform upon which 
huts had been erected, and that, after a long period of occupancy, 
the entire structures were destroyed by a conflagration. 
This important deduction, fanned by the traditional stories of 
submerged cities long current among the fishing community, spread 
rapidly among the Swiss people and produced an immediate army 
of explorers who commenced a vigorous search for similar remains 
in this and the adjacent lakes. Guided partly by the recollection 
of previous finds, the significance of which became now apparent, 
and partly by the knowledge of local fishermen who, from practical 
experience of disasters to their fishing gear, could at once point to 
numberless fields of submerged woodwork, the efforts of these 
pioneer Lacustreurs were speedily crowned with the greatest success. 
In the spring of the same year the famous station, known as the 
Steinberg at Nidau, was discovered, as well as many others in the 
Lakes of Bienne, Neuchatel, and Geneva ; so that before the rej)ort 
of the Ober-Meilen discovery could be published in the Transactions 
