PREHISTORIC SCIENCE EN F^ITE. 547 



quired many of these wayward beasts to drag the carriages through 

 the four or five inches of dust underfoot. After three hours of such 

 wading, a little sheltered from the blazing sun by the clouds of dust 

 the mules raised, Otta was reached. Otta, or rather a sandy wild with 

 a thin growth of foot-high dwarf-oaks, some miles farther on, is the 

 spot our Tertiary phantom is supposed to have selected for his dwell- 

 ing. There was a lake there in those days. No one would be predis- 

 posed to acknowledge as an ancestor either man or ape capable of 

 displaying such bad taste in his choice of a home ; for in Portugal 

 beautiful and wooded retreats abound, so there was no excuse for set- 

 tling in a bare desert except perhaps the fishing. However, all duti- 

 fully hunted for this creature's remains ; but only one flake, near the 

 surface, was found by an Italian, Signor Belucci from Rome, and that 

 caused hardly less excitement than the discovery of a new gold-mine. 



But the dryness of the day and subject was exhausting, even to 

 those most affected by the fihvre tertiaire, and all readily abandoned 

 the dust of ages and flocked into a tent, a lodge in that vast wilder- 

 ness, which seemed to have come there by enchantment. Due justice 

 was done to the sumptuous breakfast prepared, for science does not 

 impair the appetite, and then followed endless toasts. The health of 

 the foreign members having been proposed, a representative of each 

 nation, French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, 

 and Slav, returned thanks in widely varying accents for their hospi- 

 table reception in Portugal. M. de Quatrefages was by far the best 

 orator, and the President, Senhor Joao d'Andrade Corvo, spoke well. 

 After much time, wine, and breath had been expended, a practical 

 Englishman, who meant work, and was not broken in to foreign dila- 

 toi'iness, proposed as a final toast Au silence et au travail. The hint 

 was taken, and hammers and sunshades again put in requisition, but 

 again with no decisive result. Two of the ladies of the party, escorted 

 by two gallant Frenchmen, made the difficult ascent of a neighboring 

 steep hill, to look down disdainfully on the worthy archseologists grub- 

 bing below like ants, and following as useless a quest as those minute 

 busybodies seem to indulge in as a rule. When it is mentioned that 

 the thermometer stood at 96, it would be superfluous to indicate the 

 nationality of the fair climbers. 



But for an opportune vineyard passed on the return journey, all 

 Europe might have been bereaved of her science, as the great expe- 

 dition nearly died of thirst. Anthropology would have been nipped 

 in the bud, and archaeology would have returned to the dust, had not 

 a supply of grapes averted the awful calamity. 



Next morning, Wednesday, primeval cannibalism was the subject 

 of debate, but " long pig " was not discussed for dinner, as might have 

 been expected, thanks to good Portuguese cookery. 



The day following the gay assembly were abroad again, going to 

 Santarem, where they were received with flags and rockets, welcomed 



