182 
REVIEWS. 
THE SWISS LAKE-DWELLINGS.* 
T HE history of the past teaches us whence our progenitors came, how their 
arts and customs originated, and how our lines of thought and action 
were at first marked out feebly by an incipient civilization, and have been 
more deeply channelled, for the diffusion of moral integrity, good policy, and 
personal comfort, in later ages. Without the experiences of history no 
nation can be well governed ; without some knowledge of the past no man can 
be an eminent citizen of the state ; without a respect for the material evi- 
dence of the lives and doings of foregone generations no man, no community,, 
is at one with all the proper feelings and duties of humanity. 
Where research among ancient parchments, papyri, coins, and other defi- 
nitely inscribed monuments ceases to aid us in deciphering the past, we well 
know that the tombs and buried homes of still earlier, but unlettered races,, 
yield in many places abundant material for the historian. The antiquary 
searches and sifts such relics for evidences of the pre-historic peoples, their 
race-characters, their utensils and weapons, their associated animals, wild or 
tame, their usual habits of thought and occupation, and sometimes he can 
even form a notion of their objects and modes of worship. 
We lately noticed a most valuable repertory of facts t illustrating the 
customs and surroundings of some ancient tribes on British groimd. We 
have now to draw attention to an enlarged edition of Dr. Keller’s descrip- 
tions of the ancient Lake-dwellings of Switzerland and elsewhere. Of 
various ages, probably during a very long period of time, these timber 
structures in shallow water, near to, but separated from the shore, were 
habitually made in many parts of Europe, including the British Isles ; and 
such are still constructed in South America, Central Africa, Japan, and else- 
where. Defence from enemies and wild beasts was probably the chief 
motive for this kind of dwelling. When burnt by invaders, or deserted under 
other circumstances, the relics of the piles and floors, of pottery, of tools and 
ornaments, of stone and metal, and of charred wood, cordage, cereals, &c., 
are found on the sites, and made to tell the tale of the past, so far as anti- 
quary and naturalist can interpret their meaning, uses, and associations. 
* “The Lake-dwellings of Switzerland and other parts of Europe.” By 
Dr. Ferdinand Keller, &c. Translated by J. E. Lee, F.S.A., &c. Second 
Edition, greatly enlarged. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 725, Plates 206. London 
Longmans & Co. 1878. 
t Canon Greenwell’s “Ancient British Barrows.” See above, page 73. 
