Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1895 — When Did They Live? [ARTICLE]

When Did They Live?

One of the most interesting questions relating to the early history of Switzerland is that of the probable length of time that has elapsed since the people called the “Lake Dwellers” occupied the curious houses whose remains are now found, there. A fresh examination of this question has lately been undertaken by Monsieur Vouga. The earliest of the Lake Dwellers belonged to the Age of Stone, and they were succeeded by others who made weapons and implements of bronze. Monsieur Vouga thinks that the people who made the stone implements lived during only one, or at most two, centuries on the shores of the Swiss lakes, and that for some reason, perhaps because of an inundation, they suddenly deserted their homes. Then for three thousand years the waters continued to deposit a slowly thickening layer of mud upon the sites of the abandoned villages. At the end of that time another people, who had acquired the art of making bronze, appeared upon the scene, the lakes having in the meantime, perhaps, sunk to their former level. These people remained there for two or three centuries, and then in their turn disappeared, and another layer of mud, occupying three thousand years more in the process of deposition, covered the remains of their dwellings and the relics of their art and industry. The muddy bottom of a lake forms a strange record-book for human history, ( but it is better than none at all. Friend—Why didn’t you ever marry? Maiden Lady—Because by the time my relations thought I was old enough to marry the men thought I was too old.— New York Weekly.