Each structure seemed to have been adapted for one cottage, as between them there were narrow spaces which had got filled up with _débris_, and contained relics such as broken stone hatchets, carbonised cloth and fruits, etc. "We cannot imagine," continues Messikommer, "that this settlement was destroyed by fire, for although we occasionally met with burnt beams, not a single trace of conflagration was to be seen in the upright piles, which projected as much as 2½ feet above the floor--nay, even in most of them the bark was still in good preservation. "The products of the potters art were in general very coarse, and yet we found a few fragments which had been ornamented, and also parts of the rims of vessels made with washed or purified clay, and without quartz grains. Fragments of vessels also were found neatly polished, blackened, and with handles of a convenient form. No smaller implements were met with, such as pins, little chisels, etc. It is very singular that so few bones were found; the cow, stag, and the pig were the only animals the remains of which were discovered here. "At the bottom of some broken earthenware vessels there still remained grains of wheat and barley and hazel-nuts. Doubtless all the food, whether animal or vegetable, was kept in large or small vessels of earthenware." Subsequently, on two occasions, Messikommer was asked by archæological societies to give a practical exposition of this interesting _Packwerkbau_ for the edification of their members--once in 1872, when the meeting of the Swiss Natural History Society was held at Frauenfield; and again in 1877, when the German Anthropological Association met at Constance. (B. 406c.) On all these occasions Messikommer paid particular attention to the size and kind of cottages the lake-dwellers possessed. In 1862, from the stumps of piles protruding through a portion of undisturbed flooring, he estimated the size of the habitable area for each cottage at 24 feet long by 18 feet broad. On these floorings were seen the remains of food and industry, just as fresh as if the people had recently left the place. ("Die Mühle mit Gerste und Weizen daneben, als wäre sie erst gestern noch bewohnt gewesen.") He believes that each cottage possessed not only its own domestic utensils but also its weaving and corn-grinding machines, etc. The area occupied by the entire settlement was 20,000 square feet, and the nearest shore, when the basin was a lake, would be 30 or 40 yards distant.