As our peripatetic labours drew to a close, the next point to be considered was the method of grouping the materials under six divisions, corresponding with the prescribed number of lectures. This was by no means an easy task, as neither the geographical distribution, nor the historical order of the discoveries, could be exclusively selected as a cementing element in dealing with remains so diversified in character and of so wide a range in space and time. The plan which I have here adopted seems to me to combine the greatest advantages with the fewest drawbacks. Its rationale is as follows:--After introducing my subject by a short account of the circumstances that led to the discovery of the _Pfahlbauten_ in the Lake of Zürich, and glancing at the archæological importance and surprising results of this discovery in other Swiss lakes, the historical element is dropped, and I conduct my readers over Western Switzerland and Savoy, summarising the discoveries in the successive lakes as we move along. In the second lecture we again start near the same place and continue our explorations in an easterly direction, and having examined the Upper Rhine district we cross over to the great Danubian basin, which we follow downwards as far as the lacustrine trail carries us, and ultimately finish with Laibach near the source of the Drave. The third lecture is entirely occupied with the palafittes and terremare in the Po valley. In these wanderings we have virtually made a circuit of the great Alpine chain of mountains, and have seen that the habit of constructing lake-dwellings was prevalent in the upper reaches of the four principal waterways which diverge from its flanks, viz. the Rhine, Rhone, Danube, and Po.