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Rh undervalue what M. Morlot calls the Practical Utility of Geology, nor that I am less sanguine as to the future advantages of Archæology. Science, however, is like virtue, its own reward, and the improvement of the mind must be regarded as the highest object of study. However this may be, M. Morlot is, to use his own metaphor, labouring earnestly in the vineyard, and is improving the soil, though, as in the old fable, it may be in the false hopes of finding a concealed treasure. The Swiss Archæologists have, indeed, made the most of a golden opportunity. Not only in Lake Zurich, but also in Lakes Constance, Geneva, Neufchatel, Bienne, Morat, Sempach, in fact in most of the large Swiss lakes, as well as in several of the smaller ones (Inkwyl, Pfaffikon, Moosseedorf, Luissel), similar lake-habitations have been discovered. In the larger lakes, indeed, not one, but many of these settlements existed; thus, M. Keller mentions, in Lake Bienne, eleven; in Lake Neufchatel, twenty-six; in the Lake of Geneva, twenty-four; in that of Constance, sixteen; and many more, doubtless, remain to be discovered.

The dwellings of the Gauls are described as having been circular huts, built of wood and lined with mud. The huts of the Pileworks were probably of a similar nature. This supposition is not a mere hypothesis, but is confirmed by the preservation of pieces of the clay used for the lining. Their preservation is evidently due to the building having been decoyed by fire, which has hardened the clay and enabled it to resist the dissolving action of the water. These fragments bear, on one side, the marks of interlaced branches, while on the other, which apparently formed the inner wall of the cabin, they are quite smooth. Some of those which have been found at Wangen are so large and so regular that the Swiss Archæologists feel justified in concluding that the cabins were circular, and from ten to fifteen feet in diameter. Though, therefore, the architecture of this period was very simple, still the weight to be sustained on the wooden platforms must have been considerable, and their construction, which must have required no small labour, indicates a considerable population. It would, indeed, be most interesting if we could construct a retrospective census for these early periods, and M. Troyon has made an attempt to do so, though the results must, naturally, be somewhat vague. The settlement at Morges, which is one of the largest in the Lake of Geneva, is 1200 feet long and 150 broad, which would give a surface of 180,000 square feet. Taking the cabins as being 15 feet in diameter, and supposing that they occupied half the surface, leaving the rest for gangways, we may estimate the number of cabins at 311, and if we suppose that, on an average, each was inhabited by four persons, we shall have, for the whole, a population of 1244. Starting from the same data, we should obtain for the Lake of Neufchatel, a population of about 5000.