| General View of Lochspouts, and Site of Lake-Dwelling | Frontispiece |
| Loch of the Clans, Nairnshire. Plate I. | [34] |
| Plan and Sections at Lochlee. Plate II. | [150] |
| Barhapple Crannog. Plate III. | [188] |
| Plan of Buston Crannog. Plate IV. | [238] |
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
In searching back through the successive stages of human civilisation we arrive at a period when both written history and traditions fail. This prehistoric period, up to the commencement of the present century, was entirely lost in the thick veil of darkness which surrounded everything pertaining to the past history of the globe. As, however, the truths of geology became gradually formulated into a science, and men's minds got accustomed to apply the new methods of research to the elucidation of the origin and history of the human race, the sphere of prehistoric archæology became equally well defined. The group of phenomena with which it attempts to grapple occupies a sort of neutral territory or borderland between geology and history proper, from both of which, however, it receives large nutrient offshoots. The essential element which characterises the science of prehistoric archæology is an inductive process which depends on the clearness and precision with which the most primitive remains of human art and industries can be identified. But these remains, of whatever materials they may be composed, are liable to the destructive influences of time, and, sooner or later, they become obliterated by disintegration or decomposition. Few compound substances, even in the inorganic kingdom, resist this law, and as for the elaborate productions of the organic kingdom, such as plants and animals, they are hardly ushered into being when a counter process of decay begins, which ends in reducing them to their simple constituents, so that, in a short time, not a trace of their former existence remains. In the midst of these ever-changing activities of life and death which modern scientists have irrefutably shown to have been continuously and progressively at work for countless ages, it may be fairly asked—What is the nature of the evidence by which antiquaries have so largely extended their field of inquiry and propounded such startling opinions regarding the origin and antiquity of our race? In their case the evidence is due to exceptional circumstances which tend to counteract or retard the gnawing tooth of time, and cheat, as it were, Dame Nature out of her ordinary results. Thus, if the handicraft products of reasoning man, or perishable organisms, such as the bodies of animals, be accidentally deposited in the mud of a sea, lake, or river, or suddenly buried in the ruins of a city, or sunk in a bed of growing peat, or become frozen up in a field of perpetual ice, these exceptional results are apt to follow. Hence, an object may be preserved for centuries after its congeners, in ordinary circumstances, have crumbled into dust; or, if ultimately it should become decomposed, a cast or mould may have been previously formed by means of which, ages afterwards, an intelligent observer will be enabled to determine its distinguishing characteristics. In arctic regions the carcasses of animals known to have been extinct for hundreds of years have been found imbedded in ice and so thoroughly preserved that their flesh was actually consumed by the dogs of the present day; and it is not a rare occurrence to find in mossy bogs, such as those in Ireland, the bodies of human beings, that have become accidentally buried in them centuries ago, completely mummified by the preservative influence of the matrix in which they have been entombed. In short, these preservative qualities in nature are analogous to our artificial processes of pickling, embalming, or refrigerating, and had it not been for their occasional occurrence naturally, neither the science of geology nor that of prehistoric archæology would have much chance of being called into existence; nor could we now have any knowledge of the consecutive series of animals and plants that have inhabited this globe prior to the few centuries to which our historical records extend.
That these facts have failed to draw attention to lacustrine and other alluvial deposits as rich repositories of the remains of prehistoric man in Europe till about a quarter of a century ago, is more remarkable when we consider that ancient authors are not altogether silent on the habit prevailing among some races of erecting wooden abodes in lakes and marshes; that the Swiss lake villages, though singularly enough unnoticed by historians, were occupied as late as the Roman period; that frequent references have been made in the Irish annals to the stockaded islands, or as they are here called Crannoges, as existing in Ireland down to the Middle Ages; and that a similar custom is now found to be prevalent amongst some of the ruder races of mankind in various parts of the globe.
Hippocrates (De Aeribus, xxxvii.) speaks of the people in the Phasis, who live in the marshes, and have houses of timber and reeds constructed in the midst of the waters, to which they sail in single tree canoes. Herodotus (v. 16) also describes the dwellers upon the lake Prasias, whose huts were placed on platforms supported by tall piles in the midst of the lake, with a narrow bridge as an approach, and who, on one occasion, successfully resisted the military resources of a Persian army.
Villages composed of pile-dwellings are numerous along the shores of the Gulf of Maracaibo. "The positions chosen for their erections are near the mouths of rivers and in shallow waters. The piles on which they rest are driven deep into the oozy bottom, and so firmly do they hold that there is no shakiness of the loftily-perched dwelling perceptible, even when crowded with people.... Similar dwellings are found in other parts of South America, about the mouths of the Orinoco and the Amazons. They are the invention, not exactly of savages, but of tribes of men in a very primitive stage of culture."—(Illustrated Travels, vol. ii. pp. 19-21.)
Captain Cameron describes three villages built on piles in Lake Mohrya in Central Africa, and in his book of travels gives two sketches of these interesting abodes.—(Across Africa, vol. ii. p. 63.)