The lake-dwellings of Switzerland have obviously much more resemblance to those of lake Prasias, described by Ilerodotus, than to the C. of Ireland. But the Swiss at the same time can show examples of the Irish type. At Nidau Steinberg, in the lake of Bienne, there is an artificial mound of stones, resting on horizontal planks, and encircled by a row of upright piles. It is now submerged, but when—as the Swiss believe—the lake stood at a lower level, it must have been an island. At 3loringen, in the same lake, there is another pile-building, inclosing a mound of stones which has an area of about half an acre. A canoe which had been used in its construction lies with its load of stones at the bottom of the lake. Structures still more nearly resembling the Irish C. have been found in the lakes of Inkwyl, Nussbaumen, and Wauwyl.
History and tradition are alike silent as to the pile-buildings of the Swiss lakes. That they belong to a remote age, will readily be granted, even by those who may hesitate to accept " the stone, bronze, and iron periods" on which the Swiss antiquary rests their claims to "pre-historic" antiquity; or who may question the grounds on which the Swiss naturalist assigns them to the 15th c. before the Christian era. Of the remains found in them, many appear to be those of a rude people—such as spear-points, arrow-heads, axes, chisels, knives, and even small saws, of flint and stone; arrow-heads, daggers, hammers, bodkins, needles, pins, rings, bracelets, necklaces, of bone or horn. Articles of bronze, some of them richly ornamented, are at the same time of common occurrence; and swords and other objects of iron are met with in considerable numbers. Some of the Swiss archeologists seem at one time to have thought that the piles sur• rounded by stone and bone implements showed marks of greater age than the piles surrounded by bronze implements. It is now admitted, however, that both stone and bronze objects, and bronze and iron objects, are to be found in the same group of piles. It is to be remarked, too, that many of the objects of stone, bone, horn, bronze, and iron, are fashioned of the same shape, and for the same use, differing only in the sub stance of which they are made. Whoever the dwellers on the pfahlbauten were, their remains show that they grew wheat and barley; that they ate the flesh of the ox, the goat, the sheep, and the pig; that among the beasts of the chase which they hunted down was the now extinct species of the aurochs (see Bisox); that they had horses, dogs, and cats; that they had apples, pears, wild-plums, and wood-raspberries; that they baked pottery; that their women plied the distaff and knitted; that they made hempen mats; and that they wove linen cloths.
Hitherto, archmologists knew of lake-dwellings as existing only in Ireland and Switzerland; but in 1837, Mr. Joseph Robertson read a paper to the society of Scottish antiquaries, proving that they were to be found in almost every province of Scotland.
He not only ascertained the existence of about 50 examples, but was able to show from records that they were known in Scotland by the same name of C. which they received in Ireland. The resemblance between the Scottish and Irish types seems, indeed, to be complete. Every variety of structure observed in the one country is to be found in the other, from the purely artificial island, framed of oak-beams, mortised together, to the natural island, artificially fortified or enlarged by girdles of oak-piles or ramparts of loose stones; from the island with a pier projecting from its side, to the island com municating with the mainland by a causeway. If there be any difference between the C. of the two countries, it is that the number of C. constructed altogether of stones is greater in Scotland than in Ireland—a difference which is readily explained by the difference in the physical circumstances of the two countries. Among the more remark:L able of the Scotch C. is that in the loch of Forfar, which bears the name of St. Margaret,. the queen of king Malcolm Canmore, who died in 1097. It is chiefly natural, but has been strengthened by piles and stones, and the care taken to preserve this artificial barrier is attested by a record of the year 1508. Another crannoge—that of Lochindorb, in Moray—was visited by king Edward I. of England in 1303. about which time it was fortified by a castle of such mark that in 1336, king Edward III. of England led an army to its relief through the mountain-passes of Athol and Badenoch. A third cran noge—that of Loch Cannot., or Kinord, in Aberdeenshire—appea•s in history in 1335, had king James IV. for its guest in 1506, and continued to be a place-of strength until 1648, when the estates of parliament ordered its fortifications to lie destroyed. It has an area of about an acre, and owes little or nothing to art beyond a rampart of stones and a row of piles. In the same lake there is another and much smaller crannoge, which is wholly artificial. Forty years after the dismantling of the crannoge of loch Cannor, the crannoge of Lochan-Eileen, in Strathspey, is spoken of as " useful to the country in time of troubles or wars, for the people put in their goods and children here. and it is easily defended." Cannes hollowed out of the trunks of oaks have been found as well beside the Scotch, as beside the Irish crannoges. Bronze vessels, apparently for kitchen purposes, are also of frequent occurrence, but do not-seem to be of a very ancient type. Deer's horns, boars' tusks, and the bones of domestic animals, have been discovered; and in one instance a stone hammer, and in another what seem to be pieces for some such game as draughts or backgammon, have been dug up.