Paris and Vienna 



3! 



opportunity he packed and shipped a good 

 collection of fossils, most probably those which 

 he meant to send to London, had things gone 

 better. These were addressed to Professor 

 d'Archiac, but they never reached him ; an 

 accompanying letter was returned marked " gone, 

 left no address." Professor d'Archiac, he found 

 out later on, had become a monk in the Monastery 

 of La Trappe ! 



After correspondence lasting over a year the 

 box was ultimately located in Paris, and put into 

 the good hands of the famous E. Lartet, who had 

 been chosen to succeed d'Archiac in the Chair of 

 Palaeontology in the French National Museum 

 of Natural History. Lartet was then an old man 

 and thoroughly engrossed in revealing the artistic 

 culture of the Reindeer Age of Europe, so that 

 he could have been excused from taking any very 

 great interest in fossil reptiles. Besides, it was 

 1 870, and the Germans were overrunning France. 

 Nevertheless he wrote long encouraging letters to 

 Brown, his last one being an apology for dilatori- 

 ness in replying to Brown's letters, which had 

 been unavoidable on account of failing health. 

 In the midst of this correspondence Lartet died 

 without giving his first lecture in his new Chair, 

 and without Brown knowing what had happened 

 to his new-found friend. 



