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 monsP 
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 
