Soon after the discovery of the Irish crannogs, the attention of archæologists was directed to remains of lake-dwellings in Switzerland. It appears that during the winter of 1853-4 the inhabitants of Ober Meilen, near Zürich, took advantage of the low state of the water in the lake to recover portions of the land, which they enclosed with walls, and filled in the space with mud. When the workmen began to excavate, they came upon heads of wooden piles, stone celts, stags' horns, and various kinds of implements. The late Dr. Ferdinand Keller, President of the Antiquarian Society at Zürich, hearing of the discovery, took up the matter with much energy, and after careful investigation of the remains at Ober Meilen, came to the conclusion that the piles had supported a platform, that on this platform huts had been erected, and that, after being inhabited for many centuries, the whole wooden structure had been destroyed by fire. Dr. Keller called these structures pile-buildings (Keltische Pfahlbauten), but they are more commonly known in this country as Lake-Dwellings (_habitations lacustres_). The discovery at Zürich was almost immediately followed by the discovery of similar structures in the other Swiss lakes. Owing to the vast system of drainage carried on since, there has been a great increase to their number, so that, at the present time, it is well ascertained that there was scarcely a sheltered bay in any of the lakes of Switzerland and neighbouring countries but contained a lake village. The most common plan adopted by the constructors of these ancient dwellings was to drive numerous piles of wood, sharpened sometimes by fire, sometimes by stone celts, or, in later times, by metal tools, into the mud near the shore of a lake; cross-beams were then laid over the tops of these piles, and fastened to them either by mortises or pins of wood, so as to form a platform. In certain cases the interstices between the upright piles were filled with large stones, so as to keep them firmer. It appears also that the stones were brought in canoes and thrown down after the piles were driven in, in proof of which, a canoe, loaded with stones, was found in the Lake of Bienne, which had sunk to the bottom. Sometimes, when the mud was very soft, the upright piles were found to have been mortised into split oak-trees, lying flat at the bottom of the lake. Other erections were made by layers of sticks laid horizontally, one above the other, till they projected above the surface of the water, and thus presented a somewhat solid foundation for the platform. Upright piles here and there penetrated the mass, but rather served the purpose of keeping it together than of giving any support to the platform. These are called fascine-dwellings, and occur chiefly in the smaller lakes, and belong, for the most part, to the stone age.