AN ENGLISH VENICE. 
243 
lake, is a layer or platform of timber and brushwood : this is from 
a foot to eighteen inches in depth, but the original mass was 
probably double the thickness and has suffered compression. 
Through its margin are driven small piles of alder-wood, and here 
and there, larger ones of oak, with the object of keeping the plat¬ 
form in place on its soft foundation, while to prevent it from rising 
and falling in times of flood, large beams of oak were used, through 
which also piles were driven. On the platform is a layer of clay 
which forms the circular mound already described ; it is slightly 
raised at the centre, and looks something like a plate turned upside 
down ; on it, as a floor, the dwelling was reared. Sometimes the 
clay forming the mounds is in several layers; this evidently means 
that the platform had sunk so that the dwelling was in danger of 
being submerged in the water or mud. Hence, it was necessary to 
raise the floor with more clay above the level of the water. In the 
case of some mounds this has been done five times, for there are 
that number of layers. In the centre of the mound are several 
pieces of local stone driven into the clay, forming a hard, incom¬ 
bustible surface on which a fire could be made, the smoke of which 
probably escaped through a hole in the roof of the simple hut 
warmed by it. The hut seems to have been composed of timber 
filled in with wattle and daub, as in similar lake-dwellings recently 
investigated in Wiirtemburg and Argyleshire. The wall-posts have 
been found in position, and there are marks of wattle on the clay. 
The hut was probably roofed with heather. In addition there is 
an entrance threshold and door-step, formed, like the hearth, of 
slabs of local stone. Such, then, is one of the lake-dwellings of 
Glastonbury, and admirably adapted it is to the conditions of its 
site. 
Not only have various separate dwellings been uncovered and 
investigated, but the eastern border of the settlement has also been 
brought to light ; this is formed by a thick line of timber and hurdle- 
work, with piles driven in to keep the whole village from shifting 
on the insecure foundation. It seems certain that on this side, 
at least, of the settlement, there was water; in it, peat was 
subsequently formed. Buried in the peat, several feet below the 
November, 1893. 
