To find so many of these machines, of unknown use and so remarkably similar in structure, in such widely separate districts as Ireland, North Germany, Styria, and Italy, must be a matter of interest to archæologists, and no one can say that the correct explanation of their use is to be found in any of the suggestions hitherto offered on this point. I may mention one element which may help in the solution of this problem, viz. that all the examples from Italy, Laibach, and Ireland were found in bogs that were formerly lakes. Perhaps this is true in regard to those from North Germany, but the point is not referred to in the short notices which have appeared of them. If these machines are really traps they could only be used in water where the animal could insert its head from below, and among amphibious animals the _otter_ and _beaver_ are the only ones to which all the conditions involved in the trap theory could apply.[36] _Organic Remains._--In the report of the investigations for the year 1877 Dr. Deschmann gives the following analysis of the osseous remains collected, which shows the relative frequency of the respective animals:-- Individuals. Individuals. Sheep, a horned variety 147 | Wild Boar 28 Stag 131 | Bear 18 Beaver 52 | Bison 17 Domestic Ox, with 48 pieces of horn 35 | Dog 16 Goat 31 | Roe 12 Badger 31 | Wolf 2 to 3 Marsh Pig 35 | Elk 3 to 4 Some of these bones contained crystals of vivianite, resembling in this respect the osseous remains found on some of the Scottish crannogs, especially that at Lochlee. (B. 373, p. 88.) The _Bos primigenius_ is also represented by a portion of horn 21 inches long. The presence of hazel nuts with gnawed holes also points to the existence of some small rodents, probably the dormouse. One or two bones (metacarpal bone of a deer and an ulna of the bear) are covered all over with groups of peculiarly-striated markings, as if made with a file; but for what purpose, or whether the work of man or of some rodent animal, remains a mystery. There is also a considerable quantity of the bones of birds, the spine bones of fish, jawbones of large pike, carp, etc., and a portion of the shell of a tortoise (_Emis lutaria_). Of human remains there are two skulls of adults, minus the facial part, another of a child, a lower jaw, and a few bones of the extremities.