Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 24.djvu/322

308 that lake, and of a good part of the finds of the Lake of Neufchâtel, so that he has been able to form a collection unequaled in its richness, in the number of the specimens, and in the rarity of the pieces, frequently unique, that he has accumulated.

Wishing to give the scientific world a share in the enjoyment of these treasures, he has published in a beautiful quarto volume descriptions of the principal results of his researches, illustrated by photographic plates, in thirty-three of which are represented more than nine hundred and fifty of the more important pieces. I do not hesitate to style Dr. Gross's the finest known collection in prehistoric archæology, for while the series in some large museums may be more numerous than those of Dr. Gross, the latter have the superiority over all the others of relating to a single civilization, in different ages of its development, and to the same people in all the details of its intimate life with an incomparable luxury of illustration. The ruins of each one of our lake-villages may be compared to a Pompeii on a small scale. Let us suppose fifty Pompeiis, the destruction of which took place, one after another, during the ages from the primitive times of Roman history to the end of the decline of the empire, and we may be able to calculate what treasures of documents we might find in them wherewith to restore the history of industry, of art, and of civilization in ancient Italy.

The study of the larger collections of Swiss antiquities gives us a very clear impression of the wealth of the lacustrine populations, especially of the period known as the fine bronze age. We see in them universally evidences of abundant resources, and in no case of poverty. The inhabitants of the palafittes had at their disposal mechanical means, probably simple, but sufficient to fix in the ground the thousands and tens of thousands of piles on which they built their villages Having an agriculture, and raising cattle, they were only exceptionally obliged to have recourse for food-supplies to the more primitive art of the chase. An extensive commerce brought them metals, amber, glass beads, and worked objects of foreign origin. A pure taste raised their artisans to the dignity of real artists. The reader who observes in Dr. Gross's plates the remarkable elegance of the designs of arms, of tools and ornaments of bronze, and of potter's work, like those represented in Fig. 2 (Nos. 1, 3, 4, and 10), can not deny that the civilization of the Swiss lake-dwellers was rich and flourishing.

The mass of metal they possessed was considerable; and, having regard to the innumerable picespieces [sic] of bronze found at some of the stations, I believe it will not be wrong to assert that in proportion to the population they had a weight of bronze at their disposal nearly equal to the weight of iron, aside from the heavy castings of the large agricultural machines, to be found in any of the most prosperous existing villages of the country. A figure will give an idea of this abundance and richness. M. Gross has made an account of the bronze pieces