Page:Natural History Review (1862).djvu/38

Rh two of our most eminent contemporaries, M. Morlot points out that as Lyell, the reformer of Zoology, by studying tbe changes now taking place on the earth's surface, has explained the results which Geology brings before us, and thus arguing from the known to the unknown, has used the Present as a key to unlock the Past; so M. Thomson, by collecting the implements and recording the habits of existing savages, has thrown much light upon the manners and customs of ancient times. Fully recognising the imperfection of the record in the one case as well as in the other, we must guard ourselves against any hasty conclusions and generalisations, but it seems now to be well established that a considerable elongation of the received chronology is required in Archæology as decidedly, though not of course to such an extent, as in Geology.

Perhaps, also, we may regard it as, to say ihe least, highly probable, that in Northern Europe there have been three great epochs in the history of man— primary, secondary, and tertiary—the first of Stone, the second of Bronze, and the third of Iron. Inis conclusion, which we owe in the first instance to the Northern and especially to the Danish Archæologists, has been much strengthened by the recent researches in the lakes of Switzerland.

It is however probable, as was mentioned in our last number, that the Stone period will require much sub-division. In all classifications we are apt, at first, to take the apparent, for the real dimensions of the more distant portions, and it is only as we obtain a closer acquaintance with them, that we discover their real proportions. Thus, it would appear, that the Stone age must be divided into at least two periods; that of the drift on the one hand, and on the other hand, that to which the Danish Kjökkenmöddings and the Swiss Lake Habitations appear to belong.

These Lake-dwellings or "Pfahlbauten,"—a term whose nearest English equivalent is "Pile-works"—were made known to us in the following manner.

In consequence of the extraordinary dryness and coldness of the weather during the winter months of 1853 and 1854, the rivers of Switzerland did not receive their usual supplies, and the water in the lakes fell much below its ordinary level, so that in some places a broad strand was left uncovered along the margin, while in others shallow banks were converted into islands. The water level of this season was, indeed, the lowest upon record. The lowest level marked on the so-called stone of Stäfa was that of 1674, but in 1854 the water sank a foot lower. These unusual conditions, though very unfavourable to navigation, enabled the Swiss Archæologists to make the important discoveries which we are about to bring before our readers.