34 HELEN ABBOTT MICHAEL 



contains an enormous tank where the flesh can be boiled from 

 whales and other large animals. Other smaller tanks are also 

 in the building. Within a few feet of the door rise up a wilder- 

 ness of rocks showing glacier action, pine forests, and a dense 

 impenetrable wilderness of green growth." 



Professor Hildebrandt showed her the ethnographical and 

 archaeological treasures of the museum, and she was much 

 interested in his description of the evolution of the modern 

 safety-pin, where gradually useless parts of the pin were dropped 

 "to forms of mere decoration," until the "ornamentation had 

 so far progressed as to be almost unrecognizable as the original 

 type." 



She remarks: "The idea of studying evolution by means 

 of stone and bronze implements and other archaeological rec- 

 ords was new to me, and my interest in all these studies re- 

 ceived a new impulse." 



Hildebrandt talked to her learnedly of dolmens, and the 

 stone implements found in them, and gave her an impromptu 

 sketch of one. She discovered that the assistant curator of the 

 museum, "who had written ably on antiquarian subjects, " bore 

 her mother's name of Montelius, and had not long previously 

 received a letter from a W. W. Montelius of Colorado, inquir- 

 ing if he could furnish any information regarding his family. 

 She remarks: "It seems the name may be common enough 

 here, since during the past hundred years it has been the 

 fashion to latinize every name. Persons living near the moun- 

 tains may have been called Borg-hjem, which would give the 

 name Montelius, from mons." 



Professor Hildebrandt also took her to his own home, which 

 she describes as "a story in itself," its study facing the north, 

 its walls lined to the ceiling with histories, Oriental works, and 

 books on his specialty. She noticed that there were no carpets 

 on the floor of white boards, only rugs under the tables. She 

 says : 



"Hildebrandt spoke much of the different Swedish customs, 

 and the matter of dropping titles. The younger of two acquaint- 

 ances would never suggest addressing the older without the 

 title Doctor, Professor, or Herre. When the proposition to call 



