M. Aeppli of Meilen, on the Lake of Zurich, appears to have been the first to observe, in the bed of the lake, certain indications of human activity, which he justly supposed might throw some light on the history and condition of the earliest inhabitants of the Swiss valleys. In a small bay between Ober Meilen and Dollikon, the inhabitants took advantage of the lowness of the water to increase their gardens, by building a wall along the new water-line, and slightly raising the level of the piece thus reclaimed, by mud dredged from the lake. In the course of this dredging they found great numbers of piles, of deer-horns, and also some implements. The researches at this place conducted and described by Dr. F. Keller, have been followed by similar investigations in other lakes, and have proved that the early inhabitants of Switzerland constructed some, at least, of their dwellings above the surface of the water, as is done in the present day by savages in various countries, as for instance the Papous of New Guinea, whose huts, circular or square in form, are grouped on wooden platforms, elevated a few feet above the level of the water, supported by numerous piles driven into the mud, and connected with the land by a narrow bridge.
This method of construction, indications of which are found in various parts of Europe, was especially mentioned by Herodotus,[1] who describes the Pœonians of Lake Prasias, in Thrace, as living in cabins situated on a platform, supported above the water by great piles. Each cabin had a trap-door opening on to the lake, and the whole settlement communicated with the main land by a bridge.
The Swiss "Pfahlbauten," or lake habitations, have been described by M. Keller, in three memoirs presented to the Antiquarian Society of Zurich, in 1854, 1858, and 1860, and by M. Troyon, in a special work, "Sur les Habitation Lacustres," 1860, in which the author gives a general account of what has been done in Switzerland, and compares the results obtained in his native land, with the lake- dwellings of other countries and times. The discoveries in Lake Moosseedorf have been described in a special paper by MM. Jahn and Uhlmann (Die Pfahlbaualterthumer von Moosseedorf. Bern, 1857.); and we owe to M. Rütimeyer two works on the animal remains from the Pfahlbauten, the first "Untersuchung der Thierreste aus den Pfahlbauten der Schweiz," published by the Antiquarian Society of Zurich, in 1860; and still more recently a larger work—" Die Fauna der Pfahlbauten in der Schweiz." Collections of objects from these localities have also been made by many Swiss Archæologists.
The Flora has been studied by M. Heer, whose results are contained in the last memoir published by M. Keller. Nor must we omit to mention M. Morlot's short paper in the "Bulletin de la Societe Vaudoise," and his more recent "Leçon d'Ouverture d'un cours sur la haute Antiquité fait a l'Academie de Lausanne." From the conclusion of this lecture, indeed, I must express my dissent: not that I would
- ↑ Her. Book V. ch. 16.
