As to the houses which were erected on these platforms, though they have
utterly vanished, yet from a few remains we can judge something as to
the mode of construction. They seem to have been formed of trunks of
trees placed upright, one by the side of the other, and bound together
by interwoven branches. This was then covered on both sides with two or
three inches of clay. A plaster of clay and gravel formed the floor,
and a few slabs of sandstone did duty for a fire-place. The roof was of
bark, straw, or rushes. There does not seem to have been much of a plan
used in laying out a settlement. As population increased other piles
were added, and thus the village gradually extended. No one village
would be likely to contain a great number of inhabitants. Calculations
based on the area of one of the largest settlements in Lake Geneva,
gives as a result a population of thirteen hundred, but manifestly
nothing definite is known.

This brief description gives us an idea of a method of constructing
villages which, as we shall soon see, extended all over Europe, though
varied somewhat in detail. The condition of the remains indicate that
these settlements were often destroyed by fire. At such times quantities
of arms, implements, and household industries would have been lost in
the water, and so preserved for our inspection.

This mode of building found such favor among the early inhabitants
of Europe that it continued in use through the Neolithic Age, that
of Bronze, and even into the age of Iron. Passages here and there in
ancient histories evidently refer to them. Though they have long since
passed away in Switzerland, the Spaniards found them in Mexico, and they
are still to be seen in some of the isles of the Pacific. Remembering
this, we need not be surprised if we find in one small lake settlements
belonging to widely different ages. Here one of the Stone Age, there one
of the Bronze, or even a confused mingling of what seems to be several
ages in one settlement.<9>

There is scarcely a country in Europe that does not contain examples of
lake villages. From their wide distribution we infer that a common
race spread over the land. We will now mention some differences in
construction discovered at some places, where, from the rocky nature of
the bed of the lake, it was impossible to drive piles so as to form a
firm foundation. They sometimes packed quantities of stone around
the piles to serve as supports in a manner as