fishes, 8 reptiles, 17 birds, and the remainder quadrupeds. Of the latter, eight species may be considered as having been domesticated, namely, the Dog, Pig, Horse, Ass, Goat, Sheep, and at least two species of Oxen. The bones very seldom occur in a natural condition, but those of domestic and wild animals are mixed together, and the state in which they are found, the marks of knives upon them, and their having been ahnost always broken open for the sake of the marrow, are all evidences of human interference.
Two species, the one wild, the other domestic, are especially numerous,—the Stag and the Ox. The remains of these two indeed equal those of all the others together. It is, however, interesting, that in the older settlements, as Moosseedorf, Wauwyl, and Robenhausen, (Lake Pfeffikon,) the Stag exceeds the Ox in the number of specimens indicated, while the reverse is the case in the more modern settlements of the western lakes, as, for instance, those at Wangen and Meilen.
Next to these in order of abundance is the Hog. More sparing again, and generally represented by single specimens where the preceding occur by dozens, are the Roe, the Goat, and the Sheep, which is most numerous in the latter settlements. With these rank the Fox and the Martens. The Fox indeed, appears, whether from choice or necessity, to have been eaten during the Stone period. This conclusion is derived from the fact that the bones often present the marks of knives, and have been opened for the sake of the marrow. While, however, it is very frequent in the Pileworks of the Stone epoch, it has not yet been found in any settlement belonging to the Bronze period. Oddly enough, the Dog is, at least in the lake dwellings of the Stone period, rarer than the Fox, though more common than the Horse or the Ass; and of other species but few specimens have been met with, though, in some localities, the Beaver, the Badger, and the Hedgehog appear in some numbers.
The Bear and Wolf, as well as the Urus, the Bison, and the Elk seem only to have occasionally been captured; it is probable that the latter species were taken in concealed pits.
From the small lake at Moosseedorf, M. Rütimeyer has identified the following list:—Of the Dog, 3 specimens; Fox, 4 specimens; Beaver, 5 specimens; Roe, 6 specimens: Goat and Sheep, 10 specimens; Cow, 16 specimens; Hog, 20 specimens; Stag, 20 specimens.
It is certainly very striking to find two wild species represented by the greatest number of specmiens, and particularly so, since this is no exceptional case; but the whole sum of the wild, exceeds that of the domesticated individuals, a result moreover which is confirmed by the other settlements of this epoch. Not onlv does this indicate a great antiquity, but it also proves that the population must have been sometimes subjected to great privations, not only from the necessary uncertainty of supplies so obtained, but also because we cannot suppose that foxes would have been eaten except under the pressure of hunger.
In his first memoir, Prof. Rütimeyer gives an interesting table,
