According to the large number of lake-dwellings of the Stone Age in the Alpine lowlands, and according to the large quantity of products of primitive industry that have been found there, centuries must have elapsed between the moment when the first settlers rammed in the piles on which to build their dwellings and the end of the Stone Period. The huts of the settlements of the Stone Age were partly round and partly quadrangular, and, like the pile-hut discovered by Frank near Schussenried, were divided into two compartments--one for the cattle, and the other, with a hearth built of stones, for the dwelling of man. The floor of the hut was made of round timber with a mud foundation, and perhaps also with a mud flooring; in Frank’s hut the walls were formed of split tree-trunks, standing vertically with the split sides turned inward, firmly put together between corner posts. The round huts had walls of roughly intertwined branches, covered with clay inside and out; of this clay-plaster numerous pieces have been preserved, hardened by fire, with the marks of the branches. The pile huts of the lakes were connected with the water by block or rung ladders. Victor Cross found such a ladder in one of the oldest stations; it consisted of a long oak pole provided at fairly regular intervals with holes in which the rungs were inserted. [Sidenote: First Traces of Textiles] [Sidenote: In a Stone Age Kitchen] Of special importance in estimating the degree of civilisation attained by the lake-dwellers of the Stone Age are the remains of spinning and weaving implements and of webs and textile fabrics, plaited work, etc. Flax has been found wound on the implements made of ribs, that we mentioned above as flax combs; we have also mentioned the fixing of blades with flax, or threads made of it, and the numerous wide and narrow nets made of threads. For spinning the thread, spindles were used just like those of the present day, a spindle-stick of wood being fastened into a spinning-whorl made of stone, deer-horn, or clay. The distaff was probably not yet known; a loom has not yet been found, either; but numerous weaver’s weights, which served for spinning the threads, have been. Excellent webs, some of them twilled, were produced, of which we have many fragments. Remains of mats and baskets prove that those were manufactured from the materials still employed at the present day. Corn was baked into a kind of bread consisting of coarsely ground grains. The millstones that were used for grinding the corn are found in large numbers. They are rather worn, hollowed slabs of stone, and smaller flat stones rounded on the top, with which the grains of corn were crushed on the larger slabs. Some of the kitchen utensils we find already much improved. Large and small pots for storing purposes, earthen cooking pots, and dishes, and large wooden spoons and twirling-sticks--the latter probably for churning--have been preserved.