This wide chronological range embraces the three so-called ages of stone, bronze, and iron, but it appears that the settlements belonging exclusively to the stone age were more numerous and more widely distributed than those of the metallic period. Bronze age settlements were almost peculiar to western and central Switzerland, while the iron age is scarcely represented beyond the lakes of Bienne and Neuchâtel, so that it would appear that the lake-villages commenced to decrease in number towards the close of the former. Of the vast quantity and variety of relics found on their sites, illustrative of the culture and social organisation of their occupiers, it is impossible here to give even the barest description; but this is less necessary, as more detailed accounts are now easily accessible to general readers. After the voluminous and well illustrated work of the late Dr. Keller (as translated by Dr. Lee, 2d ed.), there is no epitome of the subject more worthy of perusal than chapter vi. of Sir John Lubbock's great work on Prehistoric Times, 4th edition. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: The word Crannoge, by which the artificial island fort was designated in the Irish Annals (modified by Drs. Robertson and Stuart into Crannog), is derived from the Gaelic _crann_, a mast or tree; but as it is doubtful whether this etymology applies to the timber of which the island was constructed, or to the wooden huts erected over it, its use as a precise term to indicate the scope of this work would be equally doubtful. Hence I have preferred the word Lake-Dwelling.] [Footnote 2: _Journal of the Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland_, vol. ii. p. 305.] [Footnote 3: _Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy_, vol. i. p. 425.] [Footnote 4: _Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy_, vol. vii. p. 155.] [Footnote 5: _Ibid._ vol. viii. p. 417.] [Footnote 6: _Journal of the Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland_, vol. i. p. 362.] [Footnote 7: _Journal of the Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland_, vol. i. p. 583.] [Footnote 8: _Arch. Journal_, vol. iii. p. 47.] CHAPTER II. NOTICES, HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE, OF SCOTTISH LAKE-DWELLINGS PREVIOUS TO THE YEAR 1878.