1865.J 5 [Troyon. 



been deposited intentionally in the cofl&n. For a long time I could 

 not comprehend their signification, but I have learned that identical 

 deposits are sometimes still practised in certain Alpine valleys, with 

 the feeling that it is a means of protecting the defunct from the at- 

 tempts of the demon. Most of the tombs contain scattered embers 

 taken from hearths, the traces of which subsist at under one or two 

 feet of earth, around the circumference of the cemetery. As I have 

 quite recently made the observation to M. le Baron de Duben, Pro- 

 fessor of Anatomy at Stockholm, he has informed me that in our 

 own day the inhabitants of Dalicarlia and Wermland still spread over 

 the coffin of the departed burning coals, which they hide under 

 their clothes in a little case (cassolette), but he is not able to in- 

 form me what signification they attach to it. 1 find, also, from 

 time to time, flints, with steels (briquets), in allusion to the spark 

 of life which should one day reanimate the remains; but other 

 flints are lamellae and arrow-heads, to which they evidently attributed 

 the value of amulets, as the peasantry of many European countries 

 do to-day, when they discover some of these fragments (pisees), which 

 they carry under their clothes to keep ofi" or cure certain maladies. 

 I even possess in my collection an arrow-head of flint set in a heart 

 of gold, bought a few years ago from a Scotch peasant. 



Tombs of the kind of those at Bel-Air are found at numerous 

 points in Western Switzerland, and it is to be remarked that we 

 have just there the true ancestors of the present population. It is 

 not, therefore, without interest, to determine that the general form 

 of the crania of the Merovingian era was sensibly difi'erent from that 

 which obtains now. The typical form then was generally elongated, 

 with a decided posterior development, while the heads of our day 

 are rounder, and have a greater frontal development. We see, then, 

 the Christian civilization reacting on the development of the ence- 

 phalon in one and the same people, the road upwards being always 

 slower to travel than that of degradation. 



Be pleased, M., to accept the expression of my most distinguished 

 sentiments. Your devoted 



Fred. Troyon. 



Lausanne, November 10, 1864. 



Donations for the Library were received from the Royal 

 Astronomical and Geological Societies in London; the Essex, 

 Albany, and Franklin Institutes; the American Antiqua- 

 rian Society; the American Journal of Science and Arts; 



