394 Proceedings of Royal Society of Pdinhurgh. [sess. 
supervision of M. Lorenz and Col. von Silber, who, in the interests 
of archaeology, collected and preserved the bronze objects. On its 
being afterwards suggested that they were relics of a palafitte, like 
those recently discovered in Switzerland, Col. von Silber sent an 
assortment of them to Dr Keller, with an explanatory statement of 
the circumstances in which they were found. In this notice Col. 
von Silber writes : — “ Lately, when reading the reports of the Swiss 
lake-dwellings, I remember the occurrence of a great number of 
pieces of burnt clay found in the mud. These pieces were of a 
blackish colour, remarkably thick, and without any definite form. 
I do not doubt that they have been fragments of the clay covering 
the huts of the lake-dwellings.” 
These reported discoveries induced the eminent archseologist. Dr 
E. Ereihorn von Sacken, to visit Peschiera for the purpose of 
investigating the reputed Pfahlhauten. In addition to special 
researches conducted by himself he had correct details of the results 
already obtained, and, from these sources, he drew up an admirable 
report, published in 1864, which clearly established the fact that 
there had been, in this part of Lake Garda, a true pile-dwelling of 
the Bronze Age. 
Meantime, archseologists were on the look out for palafittes in 
other parts of the lake. As early as 1861, Cav. Martinati detected 
piles at a place called Eocca di Garda, near Bardolino, which he 
considered to be the remains of lake-dwellings ; and Dr Alberti 
found similar evidence in two localities further south, viz., II Bor 
and Porto di Pacengo. But the story of the Lake Garda palafittes 
becomes now blended with another trail of research which had its 
origin, as follows, in the western region of the Po valley. 
In July 1860 M. Gabriel de Mortillet wrote a letter to Sig. 
Cornalia, president of the Italian Society of Natural Sciences at 
Milan, suggesting that remains analogous to those in the Swiss 
lakes might be found in the lakes of Lombardy. The reading of 
this letter elicited one or two statements of archseological impor- 
tance. The vice-president, Sig. Antonio Villa, recalled the fact that 
a bronze axe-head and some flint arrow-heads had been found in 
the turf-bog of Bosisio, at a depth of 10 feet; and the president 
mentioned that he possessed similar weapons which had been 
found, along with human bones, in the peat-beds of Brenna. 
