SCIENCE AND THOUGHTS 55 



tragic of all, for either the bag or the science so 

 disagreed with the ferrets' digestion that all 

 three died on the following day ; so that was the 

 end of the ferrets and of the handbag likewise. 



From these tragedies we may turn to less 

 dramatic subjects. In the summer he went a 

 tour in Switzerland with Tyndall and Huxley, 

 and writes the following account of it to Mr. 

 Darwin : 



15 Lombard Street, 

 23rd August 1863. 



My dear Mr. Darwin — I am very sorry to hear so 

 sad an account of your family, but hope that you are 

 now getting out of your troubles. Atherley called here 

 the other day and gave a flourishing account of William, 

 but leaving him for a fortnight was even more compli- 

 mentary. 



My Swiss tour was most successful ; besides spending 

 a week in the mountains with Tyndall and Huxley, 

 which was capital fun, I visited nearly all the collection 

 of Lake antiquities and saw five of the Pfalbauten 

 themselves. Three of them, those at Nernier, Thonon, 

 and Morges in the Lake of Geneva, I saw from a boat. 

 The water was from 8 to 12 ft. deep, but so clear that 

 I could see quite well the piles and other things at the 

 bottom. 



We thought we saw a hatchet, and I undressed and 

 dived for it. After two or three ineffectual attempts 

 we poked at it with a pole, and it turned out to be only 

 a bit of wood. 



At Wauwyl the old floor (of the lake) is covered by 

 three or four feet of peat, and the lake has been drained. 

 We spent several hours in digging, and got three hatchets, 

 three or four implements in bone, and a great many bits 

 of pottery and more or less broken bones. 



There also the beams forming the floor are preserved 

 in the peat, and one could stand, as it were, on the old 

 floor. I have got a hymenopterous insect which uses 

 its wings to swim with in the water. Probably it is 

 looking for a victim on which to lay eggs ; but it strikes 

 me as a most curious adaptation, and one which would 

 interest you much. 



