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Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
shown a consolidated mass of a black-looking material, which, on 
close inspection, was seen to be composed of grains of wheat. But 
the curious feature of this relic was that it retained the impression 
of a finely-woven tissue, evidently that of the sack in which the 
grain had been kept. 
Among the earlier lacustrine discoveries in N’orth Germany were 
those described by Dr Lisch, curator of the Antiquarian Museum 
at Schwerin. In 1863 peat-cutters began to find in the Lattmoor, 
near the town of Wismar, industrial relics which, on being looked 
into, proved to be remains of lake-dwellings. The lowering of 
the Persanzigersee, in the same year, disclosed a small island sur- 
rounded by a curiously constructed series of wooden compartments, 
the purpose of which had, for several years, puzzled antiquaries. 
Ultimately their mystery was explained by the discovery of similar 
structures in some of the other lakes in hforth Germany, which 
were shown to he the basements of lake-dwellings. Another 
structure of a similar type became exposed, about the same time, 
in the Aryssee, in consequence of the artificial lowering of its 
waters. The relics found on this settlement were of so mixed a 
character as to give rise to a discussion about its age, some archseo- 
logists maintaining that it must he dated as far hack as the Stone 
Age. On the other hand. Professor Virchow, who has devoted 
much attention to lacustrine research, believes that it, as well as 
many others in North Germany, belongs to a more recent period 
than that of the lake-dwellings of Switzerland and South Germany. 
Accordiug to him, some of the former have actually been proved 
to he synchronous with the BurgwMle, which originated with the 
Slavish people. 
Before the construction of the great sea-dykes in Holland, nearly 
the whole of West Friesland would have been in that hybrid con- 
dition described by Pliny, in which it was difficult to say whether 
it belonged to sea or ■ land {dubiumque terrae sit, an pars mavis). 
“Here,” says this writer, “a wretched race is found, inhabiting 
either the more elevated spots of land, or else eminences artificially 
constructed, and of a height to which they know by experience 
that the highest tides will never reach. Here they pitch their 
cabins ; and when the waves cover the surrounding country far 
and wide, like so many mariners on board ship are they,” etc. 
