The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-11-25
The Lake Dwellers.

Many years ago the people Of Eu-
rope were obliged 20 build their
houses and villages in the middle of
lakes and pools, or in some place
surrounded by water. In this way
they protected themselves against
wild beasts that infested the woods
around them, and from the savage
men, who were more cruel than the
beasts.
1t is probable that at this time
England, France and Germany were
nearly covered with forests, through
which monstroLs animals wandered.
Great hears, wolves. and possibly
the immense mammoth, drove men
and women before them. They took
refuge in the lakes and ponds of wa
ter they built their towns on piles
or stakes driven into the bottom of
the lake.
All over Europe the remains of
these singular retreats are found, but
the most remarkable are in Switzer-
land Here, where the waters of the
lake are low, great numbers of these
villages may be traced. The piles
on which they were built are still
there; sometimes even remains of
houses are found. The people who
lived in them were ofsmall size, APP
parently They used stone axes or
hatchets. and fought with arrows
pointed with flint. 1t is no wonder
that they fled from the wild beasts
of the forests.
These lacustrine villages, as they
are called. could not have been very
comfortable. The piles of stakes on
which they rested were cut in the
woods near by, and then dragged to
water side, where they were driven
into the deep mud and fastened to-
gether. A floor Of logs was laid
upon them. 1t seemed to have been
covered with brushwood, leaves and
grass. The house were built above,
probably wooden huts, scarcely
sheltered from the wind and rain.
The people who lived in them
knew how TO weave coarse linen or
wooden cloth, but usually must have
been clothed in skins-Rude orna-
ments of different kinds-rings.
chains of copper or bronze, weapons,
stone knives, hammers of stone,
beads-are found. Fire was evi-
IDENTIFY used, and the bones ofthe OK.
bog and goat are proofs that the la-
custrine people were not vegeta-
rians. But it is easy To imagine
how uncomfortable were their dwell
lings. The floor of the brushwood
must always nave been damp and
unhealthy; the chill winds of the
Swiss and German lakes pierced
through the huts; sometimes
stealthy enemy broke into their de-
fenses and burned the whole village
as if it were a nest of yenomous in-
sects. The ashes of many of the
towns are found at the bottom Of
the lakes, showing that they were
destroyed by fire. They were US
ually Joined to the shore by bridge
of stakes, over which an enemy
could pass.
Many of these towns are found in
the lakes and ponds of Ireland and
Scotland. Here they are called
"crannoges." They seem to have
been less carefully built than those
OF Switzerland but they still show
that the people who planned them
must have labored hard to provide
themselves with safe home. They
had canoes followed out from trunks
of trees, on which they carried their
piles out into the lake. They cut
down oak trees of considerable size
with their hatchets of stone or
bronze. In one ''crannoge" recentlv
discovered in Scotland more than
5000 trees some of great size, bad
been cut down and used in building
one of these villages in the midst of
a lake.
We who live in safe and pleasant
cities or country houses can scarce
lv believe that people could exist in
these wild retreats in the midst OF
the waters. Yet it seems that they
were inhabited by a large popula-
ton, even in Scotland. Here men,
woman and children lived and died,
sometimes perhaps as happy as if
they had lived in New York or in
Boston. They caught fish from
their house doors the children
swan in the waters; they some
times lived, like squirrels, on the
nuts in the forests.
Men have not. even yet given up
these lake dwellings. The savsges
in South America, Africa, New Gui-
nea and Borneo, still build them.
but they are said to be not so skill
full as were the builders on the Swiss
lakes Harper's Young People.