which, at Möringen, incloses another smaller mound, formed of stones, covering a surface of about half an acre. In the depths of this lake a large boat may be distinguished, which has evidently capsized when laden with stones for one of these artificial islands. It is of the extraordinary length of fifty feet, by three feet and a half in breadth, and is hollowed out of the stem of a single tree. Several smaller boats of the same build have also been found. Such vessels, termed einbäume, are said to have remained in common use in Switzerland down to the beginning of the present century, and I have seen them myself on the small mountain lakes of Bavaria.[1]
Such are the first investigated examples of the lake settlements of the early inhabitants of Helvetia. They belong entirely to the primæval and bronze periods, and may be taken as types of numerous later discoveries. Implements of iron have so rarely occurred, that their presence may be considered subsequent, and purely adventitious. The sword indeed found by Herr Müller at Möringen appears strongly to assimilate with those found in England, and ascribed to the late Romano-British period.[2] But to the subject of the use of iron we shall have occasion to recur.
The investigations of 1854 attracted general attention, and, as a natural consequence, a great number of fresh discoveries ensued. I am able to state, on the authority of our zealous colleague M. Frederic Troyon, who takes a deep interest in these researches, that precisely similar remains of lake-dwellings have been found in the lakes of Constance, Zürich, Bienne, Neuchâtel, Morat, and Geneva; in the small lakes also of Inkwyl and Moosseedorf (Canton de Berne); and in that of Annecy in Savoy. But greatly varying dates must be attributed to these establishments, so far at least as we may gather from the varying degrees of culture displayed in their respective reliques. Thus, for instance, the remains of Moosseedorf would appear far more ancient than those of Meilen, which approximate to the bronze period.
Constructions of the age of stone have been found in the lakes of Constance, Zürich, Inkwyl, and Moosseedorf; also in the fens of the Vallée de l'Orbe, above the Lake of Neuchâtel. Those of the age of bronze are far more numerous. M. Troyon's personal researches have ascertained the existence of thirty of this class in the Leman Lake alone, and of twelve in that of Neuchâtel; while Colonel Schwab has discovered no less than ten in the small lake of Bienne.
