Notice of some curiously constructed Wooden Objects found in Peat Bogs in various parts of Europe, supposed to have been Otter and Beaver Traps

A drawing of the most perfectly preserved of these objects is here given .(fig.1), from which you will readily understand its main structural features.It consists of a flat solid piece of oak, shaped somewhat like a boat, and measuring 32 inches long, 12 broad in its widest part, and 4 thick.It is perforated in the centre by a rectangular opening 9 inches in length and 5 in breadth, into which are fitted two movable valves, each revolving on Its posterior margin as an axis lying in a groove, and having a projecting pivot at each end which fit into corresponding cavities in the framework.These valves are freely movable when pushed upwards, but this motion is arrested, just a little short of the perpendicular, by the slanting shape of their posterior margins, so that, when left to themselves, they always fall inwards-never backwards-and so close the aperture.In this condition-i.e., closed-the valves are at rest, and are prevented from falling downwards by about an inch of chamfering at each end of the aperture.The two terminal and symmetrical spaces which occupy the rest of the surface of the machine are each occupied by two elongated hollows, which, commencing near the margin of the central opening, gradually become deeper, till they end abruptly within a few inches of the extremities.The medial septum, towards its distal end, and the lateral margins formed by these hollows, are perforated transversely with round holes in Hue, so that a stick could be passed from side to side, leaving, of course, the portions crossing the hollows free.Along with the oak framework were found a few bits of round sticks, which Herr Schulz, Dr Deschmann's assistant, who was present at the discovery, believed to be the decayed remains of some kind of mechanism for working the machine.The other analogous object was in a fragmentary condition ; but, so far as could be judged from what remained, it was both in structure and dimensions identical with the former.As these singular objects were found not exactly on, but at a little distance from, the site of a lake dwelling, they were not at first included in the general collection of lake-dwelling remains-though, being found in the same archaeological stratum, there was no valid reason for their exclusion-and so they lay in the museum for several years as objects of a sui generis character.It was not till some German anthropologists

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