m
 
 U8RARY 
 
 SAN DIEGO 
 
 TOPSFIELD 
 
 TOWN 
 LIBRARY 
 
 1875
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD 
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS 
 
 FROM THE FRENCH OF 
 
 % 
 
 CHARLES BEAUGRAND 
 
 DAVID SHARP, M.B., F.L.S., F.Z.S. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THK ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON; HONORARY MEMBKH OF 
 
 HISTORY SOCIETY; AND MKMBICR OF THK ENTOMOLOGICAL 
 SOCIETIES OF FRANCE, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, 
 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 
 
 13 ASTOK Pl,ACK
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 THOUGH the majority of mankind are firmly convinced 
 that " The proper study of mankind is man," yet they 
 are also generally disposed to admit that some devia- 
 tion from the various beaten tracks of existence is 
 advantageous. Not very long ago one of the most 
 accomplished of our medical men, Sir James Paget, in 
 opening a session of the Working Men's College, 
 delivered an address on " Eecreation." In eloquent 
 words he declared this to be an absolute necessity for 
 our system, and he laid stress on the great value, in 
 this capacity, of hunting fishing, shooting, and even 
 of games of chance. 
 
 There is probably no change more recreative to the 
 mind and body, fatigued by long continuance of daily 
 routine, than natural history. In its pursuit, physical 
 exertion in the fresh air vies with change of mental 
 pabulum, and the wonderful variety of inexhaustible 
 nature brings to the mind a feeling compounded 
 of astonishment and satisfaction that is highly 
 recreative.
 
 IV 
 
 PREFA CE 
 
 Unfortunately, few can undertake the pursuit of 
 natural history without some kind of assistance. A 
 certain amount of book-knowledge is found to be 
 indispensable, and yet, to the mind not accustomed to 
 them, preliminary definitions and statements about 
 unfamiliar objects are apt to prove so dry as to 
 smother the nascent interest instead of stimulating 
 and encouraging it. 
 
 The author of this book has endeavoured to meet 
 this difficulty and to give a certain amount of intro- 
 ductory information in an attractive manner. Calling 
 to his aid the interest we always feel in human 
 character, he has attempted, by intertwining this 
 with a certain amount of more or less authentic 
 information on natural history subjects, to produce 
 a book that shall foster an interest in zoology. 
 
 Without pretending that his dramatis personce are 
 equal to those of Shakespeare, or that his scientific 
 attainments are on a par with those of Owen and 
 Huxley, we think it will be admitted that he has 
 succeeded, at any rate "indifferently well," in his 
 task ; and his book, which it appears has had a con- 
 siderable success in France, has therefore been 
 thought worthy of an introduction to the English 
 reading public by means of a translation. 
 
 The " science " in the book is but slight, but it is 
 hoped that it will be found sufficiently interesting to 
 induce the reader to look for himself or herself at
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 some of the objects alluded to, to test by observation 
 the truth of some of the statements, and to seek in 
 other less elementary works additional and more 
 precise information. 
 
 The classifications mentioned in the book are chiefly 
 those of Cuvier, and though now somewhat old are 
 still valuable, for the work of this renowned, savant, 
 though necessarily incomplete, was rarely erroneous. 
 The translator has occasionally introduced information 
 of a more recent date, and he has also ventured to alter 
 a few passages that, in the original, appeared to him, 
 for one reason or another, to be defective. For so 
 doing he hopes he may receive pardon from the 
 author and approval from the ever-gentle reader. 
 
 D. S.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The reader is introduced to several persons whom he will frequently 
 meet with in this narrative Doctor Bob and his son Mutual 
 anxieties Leon and Reue ; dissimilar but affectionate The arri- 
 val Black The cottage The new comer promises to completely 
 belie certain unpleasant anticipations 
 
 IL 
 
 Disenchantment What one can do at Villers when there is nothing 
 better A new and peculiar definition of zoology The labora- 
 toryChestnuts without chestnut-trees A new arrangement in 
 teeth An individual with 3,840 feet How to fish for the launce or 
 sand-eel A sea-worm and its mode of breathing Animal plants 
 A very badly educated creature The way one should adopt to grow 
 The four branches of the animal kingdom 
 
 III. 
 
 The beginning of conversion The star-fish A curious invasion A way 
 of eating and a way of running, by no means proper Absorption, 
 and afterwards Numerous posterity Animals that double them- 
 selves by division What may be seen on a shell An aquarium in 
 miniature fairyland in a glass of water What may be found in 
 oyster- water Uncle Bob himself asks to see Excursion in a new 
 world A fantastic waltz By what means the infinitely small 
 manage to play an infinitely large part A good thing from Michelet 
 The conversion becomes decided
 
 viii CONTENTS. 
 
 IV. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 A new character How a man sometimes looks like a Muter Father 
 Lucas His start in life He bad been several times round tbe 
 world, without thinking much of it Return to the native land 
 What Father Lucas calls his shepherd's round Why Leon enter- 
 tained so high an opinion of the old fisherman Unexpected news 
 Uncle Bob does not say all he thinks 40 
 
 A varied harvest The sea-mouse A microscopic array Tricks of the 
 chase and of war Crustaceans and Kabyles Changing armour 
 The danger of disarmament Science disconcerted Sacculina and 
 its wonderful transformations Ophiura Holothuria Chinese 
 cookery A suicide The hermit-crab An unedifying biography 
 An invitation . ........ 48 
 
 VI. 
 
 t for the fishing The surprise of Black A chameleon of the 
 waters Two lines from Deroulede The cuttle-fish's gift of tears 
 A strange locomotive apparatus Black dyed afresh -An ink used 
 for writing by the ancients--How Cuvier wrote and drew the 
 figures of his "Memoir on Cephalopoda" The cuttle-fish bone 
 classification of the Mollusca The spoils of the net ; sea-scorpion, 
 fishing-frog Stomach fishing Twice eaten A singularly placed 
 carpenter's tool Progressive wryneck A demented one Sad 
 accident Kene wouniled 61 
 
 vn. 
 
 Symptoms that may arise from th wound of the weever-fish The 
 poisonous structures of the weever ClHSsificntion of fishes A fanci- 
 ful etymology A shark's breakfast, according to Muller More 
 strange names Why fishes that live near the surface in the water 
 cannot penetrate to great depths Life in the abysses of the ocean 
 How a simple thread sufficed to overturn the theories of scientific 
 
 men Researches made by the English, Swedish, and Americans 
 
 Explorations of the Travaillwr and Talisman Surprising results 
 Remarks by Kene The invalid's nightmare ... 78
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 VIII. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 An uninviting form of cookery Light talking and good working A 
 constant sign Curious anatomical point An eye consisting of 
 many thousand eyes A magnificent preparation Three stomachs 
 to a single individual The classification of insects Queer names 
 again Aptera A flea's jump Unexpected maternal instinct The 
 reputation of the flea restored Diptera Number of strokes of a 
 gnat's wing in a second The bot-flies and Helophili Trans- 
 formations of a gnat Hemiptera Lepidoptera Butterflies have 
 feathers Depredators Neuroptera Devastating hosts White 
 ants Coleoptera Our friends and enemies 110 
 
 IX. 
 
 Congratulations are the order of the day Ineffectual strategy 
 Some respectable insects Ants and their flocks Dairy-farms of 
 blight Men, women, and workers To be an ant is no sinecure 
 Destruction of a home An eastern legend Tamerlane In 
 what way a mere ant may sometimes decide the fate of an 
 empire Hew Mr. Leon increased his collection on this occasion . 127 
 
 X. 
 
 More Hymenoptera Republic and monarchy Bees Expulsion of 
 the swarm A swarm in a letter-box Preparatory measures 
 House-cleaning and repairs Propolis Wax, honey Saint Bartho- 
 lomew's day in a hive Egg-laying, larvae Regal food A mortal 
 duel Orthoptera Cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers, &c. Ear- 
 wigs Undeserved censure Extraordinary increase of locusts and 
 Blattse A supposed omission Out of the ranks of insects The 
 Epeira diadema How the spider spins his web The trap-door 
 spider, navvy, mason, and upholsterer Argyroneta A tent under 
 water The struggle for existence 138 
 
 XI. 
 
 A sailor's marriage at Villers Titles of nobility A strange vessel 
 
 Good folk An acceptable gift The Albatross . . . .157 
 
 XII. 
 
 A letter Logical inferences Pietro Franceschini The Odysseus of a 
 gendarme An account of the acquaintance of Franceschini and 
 Uncle Bob The two barometers A false prophet .... 163
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 The Road to Touques on a fair-day Reptiles An example to be 
 imitated by the market-gardeners of France Doubtful forms A 
 reptile with a strong anatomical resemblance to a bird Birds 
 provided with teeth Uses of reptiles Barometer No. 2 seems 
 likely to be right 170 
 
 XIY. 
 
 A village inn at Touques in the year of grace, 1884 At the fair The 
 g. r . r . r -rand menagerie A trade truly requiring a natural calling- 
 Two anecdotes of tamers 182 
 
 XV. 
 
 Return to the cottage Two or three words about mammalia The 
 stomach of a chewer of the cud A well-applied mythological 
 name Terror of Dame Theresa Disgusting ! but a benefactor 
 Uncle Bob releases a criminal condemned to death . . . .192 
 
 XVI. 
 
 Continuance of bad weather Mother Goose, loto, or dominoes A took 
 of wonders Rotifers Artificial death and revival Tardigrades, 
 Kolpodes, Monads, and Vorticella How to obtain a desired 
 infusorian Mineral, vegetable, or animal? Diatomacese To 
 what the colour of some seas is due Foraminifera Polypes, 
 Hydra Experiments of du Tremblay How a single animal may 
 be made into several, and several into one A naturalist never 
 wearies 211 
 
 XVII. 
 
 With Franceschini Another barometer" Good-day, Major ! "A 
 mysterious voice Uncle Bob begins to fancy the keeper's house 
 must be haunted Jacob A fable of La Fontaine realised The 
 Norman character makes itself evident even in birds Rene's 
 classification Honest men and brigands Day thieves and noc- 
 turnal prowlers The waders and web-feet Climbers Gallina- 
 ceous birds Passerine birds Jacob sadly out of place Frances- 
 chini insists on a new classification 222
 
 CONTENTS. xi 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Three great categories of birds Injurious birds Birds of mixed quali- 
 ties Useful birds Certain birds not to bo proscribed at first 
 glance Some conclusive facts Frederick the Great and his cher- 
 riesCurious observation made in Paris Those that eat insects 
 Some figures An unjust and odious persecution The worst enemy 
 of rats, field-mice, and other rodents Birds as protectors of sailors 
 An English law Cormorant-fishing in China A possible cure 
 for the Phylloxera A proposal from Franceschini 
 
 XIX. 
 
 In the wood Interment of a field-mouse The population of an oak- 
 tree Gall-fly The origin of gall-nuts Parasites ot parasites The 
 surprise prepared by the keeper A park for insects New treasures 
 for the collection of Leon Arrest of an assassin Ocypus olens A 
 little-known way of butterfly hunting Wedded couples should be 
 well-matched Saint Francis of Sales might have become an excel- 
 lent entomologist The grebe A difficult problem solved by a bird 
 The return A conjugal drama . 253 
 
 XX. 
 
 On board the cutter Albatross At sea Medusae Rene is again a 
 "martyr of science" Physalia An old tale by Father Lucas A 
 Bailor's fancy that cost its author dear Phosphorescence of the 
 sea How the Medusae grow Alternation of generations Arrival 
 at Etretat 275 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Villers and Etretat The cliffs of Normandy The power of a drop of 
 water How shingle beaches are formed A "water-cat" Way 
 of getting rid of an octopus Every nook occupied The popula- 
 tion of a rock A new fauna The various zones of the tidal region 283
 
 xii CONTENTS. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 The return from Etretat Inventory A serious culprit The worst foe 
 of the Dutchman A selfish rascal The sponges of the Channel 
 Homeric combat between a negro and a sponge Clams A China- 
 man in a shell Signs of bad weather- A recollection of some 
 martyrs of duty Old mariner and true sailors .... 291 
 
 XXIII. 
 Epilogue 300
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 " AN ANIMAL ! THIS LITTLE BALL OP SPINES AX ANIMAL ? " . .14 
 
 SAND-EEL (Ammodytes tobianm, Guv.) 17 
 
 LUG OR Lou- WORM (Arenicola piscatontm) 18 
 
 "THE SPINES OF THE SEA-URCHIN HAD FALLEN OFF " ... 21 
 
 SPIDER CRAB (Maia squinado, Lat.); PKAWN (Palcemon serratus, Penn.); 
 SHRIMP (Crangon vulgar is, Fab.); HEHMIT-CRAB (Pagurus bernar- 
 
 dus, L.) 23 
 
 STAR-FISH (Astenas) 29 
 
 RADIATES (Serpulce, Ophiura, Rhizostomn, Star-fish, Sea-urchin) . . 31 
 
 ZOOPHYTES (Stony Coral, Sertularia, CeUularia) 33 
 
 BRYOZOA (Mois-animals) 34 
 
 SKRPULA 36 
 
 ANIMALCULE IN WATER 37 
 
 ' ' QUITE A WORLD OF POLYPES ON THEIR CARAPACE " . . . .50 
 
 DROMIA (Dromia vulgaris, Edw.) 51 
 
 SKA- CUCUMBER (Holothuria) 55 
 
 "A HYPOCRITICAL OLD FELLOW ". . 59 
 
 GASTEROPOD MOLLUSCA (Murex, Haliotii) . . ... .68 
 
 ACEPHALOUS MOLLUSC. RAZOR-FISH (Solen ensis) .... 69 
 
 FISHING-FROG (Lophius piscatorius, Lin.) 70 
 
 THE PHAWN (Palamon serratus) 72 
 
 COMMON CUTTLE-FISH (Sepia officinalis, Lin.) ..... 73 
 
 COMMON SHRIMP (Crangon vulyaris) 75 
 
 WKEVER-FISH (Trachimw draco, Lin.) 76 
 
 GURNARD (Trigla, Guv.) 77 
 
 HEAD OF THE WBEVER 80 
 
 SECTION THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF THE SPINE 80 
 
 SECTION OF SPINE AT THE BASE 80 
 
 COMMON STURGEON (Acipenser sturio, Lin.) ...... 81 
 
 SEA-LAMPREY (Petromyzon marinus, Lin.) 83 
 
 SHARP-NOSED RAY (Raja oxyrhynchus, Lin.) 84 
 
 SWORD-FISH (Kiphias gladius, Lin.) ....... 85
 
 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 THE TUNNY (Scomber thynnus, Lin.) 86 _ 
 
 THE RUFFE (Perca cernua, Cuv.) 
 
 COMMON CARP (Oyprinus carpio, Lin.) 
 
 SOL (Pleuronectes solea, Lin.) 
 
 SEA-HORSES (Hippocampus gut/atus, Cnv.) 
 
 PIPE-FISH (Syngnathus asquoreus, Lin.) 
 
 TUHBOT (Pleuronectes maximus, Burbo.) 
 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS OF THE Talisman. SPONGE (Holtenia) 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS OF THE Talisman. SPONGE (Adeonema) . 93 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS OF THE Talisman. Eustomias obscwtis, DIS- 
 
 . COVERED AT A DEPTH OF 8,800 FEET 94 
 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS OF THE Talisman. (Macrurus australis) . 95 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS OF THE Talisman. (Macrurus globiceps), 
 
 FISHED FROM A DEPTH BETWEEN 4,500 AND 10,000 FEET . . 96 
 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS OF THE Talisman. (Euripharynx pelecan- 
 
 oides). COAST OF MOROCCO, AT A DEPTH OF 8,000 FEET . . 97 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS OF THE Talisman. (Melanocetus johnsoiii). 
 
 BETWEEN THE AZORES AND EUROPE. DEPTH, 16,000 FEET . . 98 
 
 FOUR FACETS FROM THE P/TE OF A COCKCHAFER . . . 105 
 
 DIGESTIVE SYSTEM OF A CARNIVOROUS INSECT (Carabus) . . . 106 
 
 HEAD-LOUSE, MUCH MAGNIFIED 107 
 
 THE FLEA : NYMPH, PERFECT INSECT, AND LARVA .... 109 
 
 TWO-WINGED FLY (Musca) 112 
 
 RAT-TAILED WORMS (LARVAE OF Helophilm). AND THE SAME INSECT IN 
 
 THE PERFECT STATE 113 
 
 METAMORPHOSES OF A GNAT ..114 
 
 UNDER SURFACE OF THE PHYLLOXERA OF THE VINE. WINGED FORM. 
 
 MAGNIFIED ABOUT SIXTY TIMES . ... . . ... 116 
 
 PEACOCK BUTTERFLY 118 
 
 SCALES FROM BUTTERFLIES' WINGS, GREATLY MAGNIFIED . . .119 
 
 DRAGON-FLY (Libellula) 121 
 
 MAY-FLY (Ephemera) : NYMPH, PERFECT INSECT 120 
 
 WHITE ANTS (Termites) : DIFFERENT FORMS 122 
 
 COLEOPTERA: THE BROAD DYTISCUS (Dytiscus latissimus), THE GREAT 
 
 HYDROPHTLUS (Hydrophilus piceus) 123 
 
 EGYPTIAN SACRED BEETLE (Scarabceus) 124 
 
 TURNIP-FLY: NATURAL SIZE AND MUCH MAGNIFIED . . . .125 
 
 CORN-WEEVIL, MUCH MAGNIFIED ........ 126 
 
 WIRE-WORM: LARVA AND PERFECT INSECT 126 
 
 DERMESTES LARDARIUS 126 
 
 ANT-LION IN ITS PIT: THE BORN ENEMY OF ANTS . . . .130 
 
 RED ANT (Formica rufa, Latr.) 131 
 
 ANTS AND APHIDES 133 
 
 WASPS' NEST, WITH PART OF THE EXTERNAL COVERING REMOVED TO 
 
 SHOW THE CELLS 
 
 13G
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XV 
 
 PAGB 
 
 SWARM OF BEES 139 
 
 FRAGMENT or COMB, WITH BEES AT WOBK ON IT . . . .141 
 
 DRONE, OK MALE op THE HONEY BEE 142 
 
 COMMON EARWIG 143 
 
 FIELD-CRICKET (Gryllus campetHs) 144 
 
 A MIGRATION OF LOCUSTS. BENEATH ARE IMMATURE LOCUSTS . . 147 
 
 BLATT^E (COCKROACHES), COMMONLY CALLED BLACK-BEETLES . . 148 
 TRAP-DOOR SPIDER (Cteniza fodiens) AND ITS NEST . . . .151 
 
 ARGYRONETA AND ITS AQUATIC BALLOON 152 
 
 WATER-SPIDER 153 
 
 COBWEBS AND SPIDERS 154 
 
 A CHEAP BAROMETER 167 
 
 TORTOISE 173 
 
 FROGS' EGGS AND TADPOLES PARTIALLY DEVELOPED . . ... 175 
 
 MEXICAN AXOLOTL (Siredon m>iculatus) . . . . . . . 177 
 
 CAPILLARY NETWORK. OF THE FROG'S FOOT 179 
 
 AFRICAN LION 185 
 
 POLAR BEAR 189 
 
 QUADHUMANA: CAPUCHIN MONKEY 193 
 
 CHIROPTEKA : LONG-EARED BATS 195 
 
 CARNIVORA: PANTHER OB, LEOPARD . 196 
 
 RODENTIA: SQUIRREL 196 
 
 MARSUPIALIA : TASMANIAN KANGAROO (Macropus bennetti) . . . 197 
 
 SKULL OF A RODENT 199 
 
 TEETH OF AN INSECTIVOROUS ANIMAL 199 
 
 INSECTIVORA: SHREW-MICE - 199 
 
 INSECTIVOKA: HEDGEHOG 200 
 
 STOMACH OF RUMINANT 200 
 
 RUMINANTIA: ONE AND TWO-HUMPED CAMELS 201 
 
 BEAVERS AND THEIR DWELLINGS 203 
 
 PACHYDERMATA : ELEPHANT 204 
 
 EDENTATA : TATOU, OR ARMADILLO 205 
 
 CETACEA : GREENLAND, OR RIGHT WHALE 205 
 
 MONOTREMATA: SPINY ECHIDNA 206 
 
 EDENTATA: THE GREAT ANT-EATER 207 
 
 ORNITHORHYNCHUS ANATINUS. AUSTRALIA 209 
 
 THE TOAD. " SCARCELY VENOMOUS EVEN WHEN TOUCHED " . . 210 
 
 ROTII'ER VULGAKIS 213 
 
 KOLPODA CUCULLUS 214 
 
 BELL VORTICELLA (V. convalaria) 214 
 
 GROUP OF MONADS (Manas crepusculum) ...... 215 
 
 Enchelys pupa 215 
 
 VEGETABLE INFUSORIAN ( Volvox globator) 216 
 
 DIATOM, GREATLY MAGNIFIED . . . . . . . .216
 
 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PACK 
 
 FORAMINIFBRi, GREATLY MAGNIFIED 218 
 
 FRESH-WATER HYDRA ... 219 
 
 WADERS: WHITE STORK (Ciconia alba, Briss.), HERON (Ardea einerea, 
 
 Latr.), BARE HERON (Ardea lineata, Latr.}, RED FLAMINGO (Pheeni- 
 
 copterus ruber, Lin.) 227 
 
 " THESE HOOKED BEAKS AND RAPACIOUS FIGURES " 230 
 
 WOODCOCK (Scolopax rustieola, Lin.) 231 
 
 GALLING : REEVE'S PHEASANT, CURASSOW, SILVER PHEASANT, PEACOCK, 
 
 GOLDEN PHEASANT 233 
 
 WADING BIRD : AVOCET (Recurvirostra avoeetta, Lin.) .... 235 
 
 A DESTROYER DESTROYED 239 
 
 COAST BIRDS 242 
 
 STORK 243 
 
 PALMIPEDES : COMMON CORMORANT, PELICAN 245 
 
 LONG-EARED OWL (Asia otus, Lin.) 247 
 
 A TIT FAMILY 249 
 
 NECROPHOBI 256 
 
 HEMIPTBROX (Pentatoma ornatula) 257 
 
 THE PROCESSIONARY MOTH AND ITS LARVJE, THE LATTER ATTACKED 
 
 BY A BEETLE, Calosoma sycophanta, AND ITS LARVA . . . 259 
 
 CYNIPS AND GALL-NUTS, OR OAK-APPLES 262 
 
 STAG-BEETLE (Lwanus eervus] : LARVA, PUPA, AND MALE AND FEMALE 
 
 OF THE PERFECT INSECT 263 
 
 CARNIVOROUS BEETLES 267 
 
 TIGER-BEETLES 270 
 
 COCKTAIL-BEETLE (Ocypus olens) [271 
 
 CICADA ^ 273 
 
 JELLY-FISH (Ehizostoma cceruiea) 280 
 
 OCTOPUS OR POULPB (Octopus vulgar**} 285 
 
 LIMPET ( Patella vulgata, Lamarck) ' 287 
 
 SEA-SNAIL (Purpura lapillus, Lamarck) 288 
 
 SUBMARINE FORMS OF LIFE FROM THE TROPICAL SEAS . . . 293 
 PIECE OP WOOD PERFORATED BY SHIP-WORMS .
 
 .THE WALKS ABROAD 
 
 OF 
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 -o 
 I. 
 
 The reader is introduced to several persons whom he will frequently meet 
 with in this narrative Doctor Bob and his son Mutual anxieties Leon 
 and Rene ; dissimilar but affectionate Thearrival Black Thecottag-e 
 The new comer promises to completely belie certain unpleasant anticipa- 
 tions. 
 
 " Is the train from Trouville signalled ? " 
 
 " Not yet, Doctor, but the Paris express has reached 
 Trouville, and in a quarter of an hour, or twenty 
 minutes at most, your travellers will be here." 
 
 " That will give me time to look at the cuttings 
 you have just made, and perhaps I shall be able to 
 find in them some interesting fossils neglected by the 
 navvies ; supposing, sir, that you have no objection," 
 said a young man who accompanied the doctor, and 
 judging from the resemblance between them, evidently 
 his son. 
 
 This conversation took place on the 18th of August. 
 B
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 1884, at six o'clock in the evening, close to the 
 station, then in course of construction, of Villers-sur- 
 Mer. 
 
 The station-master, smiling, made a bow of acquies- 
 cence, and returned to the duties of his office. The 
 young man was on the point of availing himself of the 
 permission he had obtained, but looking at his father 
 he stopped at once. The doctor appeared to be suffer- 
 ing from some scarcely concealed anxiety, and under- 
 standing immediately the unspoken question conveyed 
 by the eyes of his son, decided he would no longer 
 restrain himself. 
 
 "You can scarcely understand, dear Leon, how 
 impatient I am to see if what I have heard about your 
 cousin Eene be not exaggerated. The attacks of 
 intermittent fever have caused him to cease his 
 studies abruptly some weeks before the holidays, and 
 his unusual delay this year in coming to our sea- 
 side abode causes me a good deal of anxiety about 
 him." 
 
 And as Leon was about to reply he continued : " I 
 know what you are going to say to me, and it is true 
 that I examined him before I came away and found 
 nothing seriously wrong. But then, unfortunately, a 
 doctor's prognosis is by no means infallible, and in the 
 weeks that have passed since then he may have got 
 worse. However, in ten minutes we shall know what 
 to think," he added, as if desirous of concluding, and
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 at the same time played with his walking-stick 
 amongst the gravel where they were pacing. 
 
 Doctor Boberral, shortened to Uncle Bob by his 
 family, and to "the Doctor" by the people of Villers, 
 although there were at least eight doctors in the 
 neighbourhood, is a fine specimen of an old gentleman : 
 pale, with long white hair, scrupulously shaven chin, 
 and a kindly but somewhat bantering expression. 
 His very restless grey eyes sometimes gleamed with 
 remarkable force through his bushy eyebrows, as if to 
 interpret the soul of his patient and penetrate to the 
 very seat of his malady, and sometimes by a sudden 
 change melted into an expression of extreme sweetness. 
 With a toilet always unexceptionable, he wears a hat 
 with wide border, the usual white cravat wound 
 three times round the neck before being tied, and in 
 his button-hole the rosette of the Legion of Honour. 
 
 In fact he is the best and most benevolent man I 
 know. 
 
 His visit to Villers for a short time every year, 
 was looked upon in the neighbourhood as a real 
 blessing. 
 
 Having been left a widower while still young, the 
 doctor had devoted himself more entirely than ever to 
 the cultivation of science and to the education of his son, 
 and had by these means been able gradually to assuage 
 his grief, though not to quite forget it. Considered 
 one of the first practitioners in Paris, he now carried
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 on only a small practice so that he might be able to 
 leave to his sou a few select patients, whose number 
 the latter might himself increase when sufficiently 
 experienced to succeed him. At the same time Dr. 
 Boberral did not stint his devotion when it was 
 required. It is a matter of history that during the 
 dreadful period of the siege of Paris in 1870, he 
 arranged an ambulance for the wounded and also 
 maintained a separate hospital for cases of fever. This 
 charitable inclination had cost him much, but it had 
 also procured for him the well-deserved distinction of 
 the red ribbon, and contributed more than a little to 
 the renown and confidence with which this really 
 learned man was regarded. 
 
 Leon, who had withdrawn a few steps, in reality less 
 to look for fossils than to compose his countenance, 
 could not help sharing to some extent the fears 
 expressed by the good doctor. He too had conceived 
 a very great love for his cousin, perhaps because of 
 the law of contrasts, for it would be difficult to imagine 
 a greater difference than that which existed between 
 these two young people. Leon was dark, thick-set, 
 proud of his tender moustache. An unwearied worker, 
 he had inherited the scientific tastes of his father, and 
 was devoting to the study of natural history the few 
 hours of repose that he could obtain from the serious 
 studies required during the last year of preparation for 
 his decree.
 
 TIW YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 Eene, whom we shall soon see, fair and tall, and 
 excessively slender, apparently only maintaining his 
 upright position by some sort of permanent gymnastic 
 feat, Parisian to the soul, playing the sceptic, and 
 careless by nature, was never so pleased as when 
 " masters " and professors would allow him to work 
 or dream in his own fashion, according to the caprice 
 of the moment. He was quite unattracted by the 
 study of either the exact or the natural sciences. 
 According to a favourite expression of his own, he 
 could not understand how any one could seek con- 
 verse with plants, animals, or stones ; and he pre- 
 ferred the boulevard to the country, a scene at the 
 theatre to a beautiful view, and could disconcert 
 with a single word his dear cousin, Leon, who 
 had often tried in vain to convert him to his own 
 ideas. 
 
 In the midst of the reflections of our two friends 
 there was heard the long metallic note sounded by the 
 horn of the distant signalman, repeated nearer and 
 nearer like a reversed echo. Leon, the doctor, and 
 others who had scattered themselves while waiting 
 for the train, now gathered together with eagerness. 
 
 Soon a prolonged rumbling was heard, a cloud of 
 smoke appeared in the cutting, spreading its broad 
 grey flakes over the blue sky, the whistle sounded 
 twice, and the train was in the station. 
 
 " Here I am at last," cried a gay voice, and at the
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 same time two arms embraced the doctor. "This 
 confounded train was delayed an accident on the line 
 near Lisieux three-quarters of aD hour's waiting in 
 the middle of the fields. Are you really quite well, 
 Uncle Bob ? by the bye, I have brought Black with 
 me. And you, Leon, how are you ? Are you always 
 collecting and dissecting?" 
 
 It is unnecessary to say that this human hurricane, 
 incessantly talking and gesticulating, was none other 
 than our Mend Kene, who was thus making up for 
 his time of compulsory quiet and prolonged dumb- 
 
 An old-fashioned omnibus with high wheels, and on 
 its yellow and dusty exterior bearing, like so many 
 others of its sort, as if it were the maker's name, this 
 inscription : " Correspondance du chemin de fer," 
 was waiting. Three places were reserved in this 
 ancient vehicle; but the new comer having declared 
 that he was " tired of being seated," the conductor, a 
 colossus with rubicund visage, wearing, in spite of the 
 season, a thick otter-skin cap, placed with a single 
 effort the luggage under its cover, and the three 
 friends quitted the station preceded by Black, a superb 
 spaniel, who profited by his newly regained liberty to 
 inspect as they went along the stock- grounds at the 
 barriers, to run after and yelp at the fowls in the 
 back yards, and to roll himself in the grass with 
 thorough enjoyment.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 The road from the railway station at Tillers has 
 fine trees on each side and forms a magnificent avenue 
 extending as far as the commencement of the village. 
 All three sauntered leisurely along it under the in- 
 fluence of that indefinable feeling of satisfaction that 
 one experiences in the country on a fine evening, 
 speaking of the absent friends in Paris that Kene had 
 quitted only that morning. As they went by, the 
 peasants leaning against their door-posts respectfully 
 greeted them by lifting their hats. When they came 
 to the houses Black went ahead like a dog who knows 
 his whereabouts, and a few minutes afterwards they 
 followed him into the cottage on the sea-shore. 
 
 "At last!" was the greeting of the old housekeeper 
 Theresa, who knew from long experience, that a dinner 
 kept warm is never enjoyed. The table had long 
 been spread, and showed an inviting display of bril- 
 liant crystal, and plates with blue flowers, while 
 conspicuous in its centre was a capacious soup-dish of 
 most appetizing appearance. 
 
 u Now," said the doctor, addressing his nephew, 
 " take off your bag, and to table, young men, if you 
 please." Eene wanted little pressing, and drew one 
 after the other from his game-bag, a book, three 
 papers, and (mothers are the same all the world over) 
 the remains of a cake, which must have been of 
 very respectable proportions when he started; and 
 although it had greatly diminished this did not
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 prevent the young Parisian saying as he unfolded his 
 serviette 
 
 " I don't know whether it is the country air, but I 
 feel already most immensely hungry." 
 
 "Ah ! ah!" thought the old savant, as he rubbed 
 his hands together, u he certainly is not so ill as I 
 feared he might be."
 
 II. 
 
 Disenchantment What one can do at Villers when there is nothing better 
 A new arid peculiar definition of zoology The laboratory Chestnuts 
 without chestnut- trees A new arrangement in teeth An individual 
 with 3,840 feet How to fish for the launce or sand-eel A sea-worm 
 and its mode of breathing Animal-plants A very badly educated 
 creature The way one should adopt to grow The four branches of the 
 animal kingdom. 
 
 THE following morning before Rene awoke the sun 
 had long since cast its beams through the curtains of 
 his apartment, but he soon arose with the contented 
 air of one who has slept well, opened his window, and 
 took a look at the sea. 
 
 There was already a considerable stir near the house 
 and on the beach. An old sailor had fastened a net 
 to some nails on a wall, and was mending its torn 
 meshes with great strokes of a shuttle. Beyond was 
 the immense expanse of blue water, infringed on near 
 its edge by the fishers for shrimps, who went back- 
 wards and forwards in the water up to the middle of 
 their bodies. Some fishing-boats, locally called "plates," 
 were returning with difficulty, and with much assist- 
 ance by oars and sails, to the port of Trouville. In
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 the far-off distance Cape Heve was seen, looming 
 vaguely as if half-effaced by a purple mist. The 
 young man from Paris, half-dressed, gazed on the 
 scene and breathed freely the air impregnated with 
 the saline odours wafted by the morning breeze. 
 After a few minutes of speechless admiration, " Upon 
 my word," said he, "I could almost believe one 
 breathes more freely here than in Eichelieu Street," 
 
 After a quarter of an hour he went downstairs 
 to the breakfast-room. His uncle and Leon were 
 there before him. 
 
 Naturally the question under discussion was, what 
 is the best thing to do for the day ? 
 
 " Suppose we make out our programme at once ? " 
 said Eene to his cousin. " First there is the casino, 
 entertainments and farces, players from Paris. By 
 the way, is the orchestra as alarming as it was last 
 year?" 
 
 " The casino, or rather the wooden shanty you saw 
 last year, is gone : it was demolished by a hurricane 
 during winter. They are building another, which is 
 intended to be superb, and will be opened in three 
 years." 
 
 Eene's face grew serious. 
 
 " I hope our companions and the friends we knew 
 
 last summer remain ? Colonel D , the unwearied 
 
 maker of pigeon-shooting matches and of rally-papers ; 
 Count T , the patron of polo and lawn-tennis ; our
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 friends L , with the ' three charming young 
 
 daughters,' as we used to hear repeated regularly 
 every Saturday by an ' echo of the shore.' " 
 
 "No, all gone," replied Leon. "The three charm- 
 ing young daughters are passing the season at Biarritz; 
 
 Count T is detained in Paris by a domestic 
 
 calamity and will not appear this year ; and as for 
 
 Colonel D , we shall not see him again : he has 
 
 been promoted and is gone to Tunis." 
 
 The Parisian's face became more and more serious. 
 
 "But your Villers is really a country of Hurons 
 and Apaches, then ! " But immediately aware of his 
 rudeness he added : " Never mind that ; we two 
 are together- all three together," he said, looking 
 at his uncle. " We shall be sure to find something 
 to do. Come now, make a proposal, you the elder. 
 Mr. Le*on," added he with comic gravity, " I call on 
 you ! " 
 
 "Well, to tell the truth, I don't see much, unless 
 we occupy ourselves with natural history, zoology." 
 
 On hearing this word the other started as if he had 
 received an electric shock. 
 
 " Is that all .you can think of? " cried he. " Zoo- 
 logy, natural history that is you all over ; and you 
 think that is amusement ! tardigrades, plantigrades, 
 digitigrades, and other grades that I have forgotten. 
 Now see, and I will give you once for all a definition 
 of your science : Zoology is just like botany, which a
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 great writer, I forget who " (and as Leon could not 
 help smiling), "yes, a great writer" (measuring his 
 syllables with emphasis), "has defined botany as the 
 ' art of calling plants names in Greek ! ' " 
 
 u Come, come ! " said Leon, now laughing openly. 
 " This is a regular philippic, a denouncement, an 
 impeachment of us by the public prosecutor." 
 
 Eene was not disconcerted, on the contrary, he 
 continued more confidently 
 
 "I will allow you as much as this: suppose we 
 were living in one of those far-off countries where 
 extraordinary plants and wonderful animals are met 
 with wherever one goes, then I would be your faith- 
 ful companion, your Friday ; but here we are only 
 four hours from Paris four hours, when the train 
 is not delayed at Lisieux, be it understood. I 
 really do not see what sort of studies you can even 
 pretend to make here : I suppose you do not intend 
 to demonstrate that at Yillers there may be seen 
 oxen, horses, dogs and cats, as specimens of domesti- 
 cated animals, and as ferce naturce, partridges, hares, 
 and rabbits, until the shooting season commences, 
 of course. You may add that the natives wear ear- 
 rings and cotton hats, and I believe then your work 
 is exhausted." 
 
 " And suppose I prove to you exactly the opposite," 
 said Leon. " Suppose I show you that at only four 
 hours' distance from Paris, yes, even at Paris itself,
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 13 
 
 there are things of much interest in natural history to 
 see and to study ? " 
 
 And as Eene made a gesture of thorough incredu- 
 lity he added, " Meanwhile we will take a turn on the 
 shore. I take possession of you by authority, and we 
 shall see who is right, who wrong. Allow me a 
 couple of minutes to go to my laboratory and get my 
 botanical box and some bottles." 
 
 "I go under compulsion," said Eene, in a tone 
 worthy of a martyr on the way to the stake. 
 
 Leon's workshop, to which he gave the imposing 
 name of laboratory, was a small square apartment, 
 whitewashed and facing the garden ; on some tables 
 various kinds of chemical and physiological apparatus, 
 retorts, bottles, glass tubes of various sizes and dimen- 
 sions glittered gaily in the rays of the sun. Farther 
 on there were books, a series of carefully-labelled 
 phials, specimens of the minerals and fossils of the 
 district, and hanging on the wall here and there, 
 boxes and bags, with quite an array of fishing-lines 
 and butterfly-nets. In the middle of the room stood a 
 large working-table with a microscope covered by its 
 shade. A variety of nets were drying in front of the 
 door, and Leon took possession of the first that 
 was handy. 
 
 " We shall not see much to-day ; the tide has been 
 coming in for an hour already. However, we shall 
 have been, shall have made a beginning."
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 Two minutes brought them to the sands. 
 
 " Stop a minute, what is this?" Rene" called all at 
 once, as he was stooping down to pick up from the 
 sand a little ball of the size of a sweet chestnut, and 
 covered, like that fruit, with green spines. " So 
 chestnuts grow in the sand at Villers ! " 
 
 "AN AXIMAL! THIS LITTLE BALL OF SPIXES AX AXIMAL?" 
 
 "Yes, chestnuts, but not chestnut-trees," said 
 Leon. " And in fact you are not the first who has 
 noticed the resemblance ; almost everywhere this 
 curious animal is called a sea-chestnut, though natu- 
 ralists call it a sea-urchin." 
 
 "An animal! that an animal ! a little ball covered 
 with spines ? Perhaps it* is a fish. It might possibly
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 be so on the first of April, but this is not the time of 
 year for such jokes. Moreover, if it be an animal, 
 show me its mouth." 
 
 "Here it is," said Le*on, pointing out in the middle 
 of the flattened part of the urchin, a cavity closed by 
 five little pointed bones interlocked in one another. 
 "The jolly creature has good teeth, as you may see. 
 It has indeed in this an advantage over ourselves, for 
 its teeth, like those of the rodents, never wear out; or 
 rather, they grow up from the root just in proportion 
 as they wear away at the top." 
 
 " And so they have no need for dentists. Wonder- 
 ful ! And yet their lot does not appear to me an 
 enviable one. To begin with, they cannot do much in 
 the way of making excursions, as they have neither 
 fins, nor legs, nor feet." 
 
 " Completely wrong again ! Sea-urchins do have 
 legs and feet, not quite after the same fashion as our- 
 selves, certainly, for they have several hundred, dis- 
 tributed over all the surface of the body. On a 
 moderate-sized urchin 3,840 feet have been counted 
 by a patient naturalist, or rather 3 to use the scientific 
 term 3,840 ambulacral feet." * 
 
 "Not more than that! But I sincerely pity the 
 creature, for if I may judge from myself, who possess 
 only a single pair, it must be impossible for it to 
 remain quiet a single minute anywhere." 
 
 * The sea-urchins possess, moreover, " ambulacral brains.''
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 " Their arrangement permits the urchin to progress 
 in any direction. If it were still alive you would be 
 able to see a multitude of contractile tubes terminated 
 by a sucker. At the base of each tube there is a 
 sac acting as a reservoir of water. If our urchin 
 wishes to march, this sac contracts, the ambulacral 
 foot is distended with water, something like the 
 fingers of a glove if you blow into it ; the sucker 
 at the end is fixed on to the ground, the other 
 ambulacral feet repeat the operation, and the urchin 
 is out for a walk. 
 
 " I must not forget to add that this creature, so 
 fragile in appearance, is nevertheless able, on rocky 
 coasts where the surf is very violent, to pierce the 
 hardest stones, and to excavate a lodging for itself 
 even in granite." 
 
 Bene" had, without thinking, put the urchin in his 
 pocket and was no longer listening. 
 
 His attention for the last minute or two was directed 
 to two fishers. One of them, armed with a fork hav- 
 ing slender teeth, was walking backwards tracing a 
 deep furrow in the sand, while the second, attentive, 
 followed him step by step, then suddenly stooped 
 down, and, capturing something, put it in a box. 
 
 " What a singular occupation ! What can they be 
 doing?" said Kene*. 
 
 Then drawing a little nearer he saw that the box 
 was filled with small fish of elongated form, like eels.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 Directly one of these eels was brought to the surface, 
 it again buried itself in the sand with incredible 
 rapidity. 
 
 " These are sand-eels," said Leon. " Their muzzle 
 acts as a spade and digs for them retreats in the sand 
 
 SAXD-EEL (Ammodytes tobianus, Cuv.). 
 
 where they are perfectly safe, supposing no fishermen 
 come to dislodge them." 
 
 "And is it edible?" 
 
 " Yes, you gourmand, it is edible when you can get 
 enough of it. The fishers, however, prefer to use it as 
 a bait for their lines." 
 
 "And that old man yonder, making holes in the 
 sand with a spade, surely he cannot get very much all 
 alone ? Ah, what a nasty worm ! Perhaps that too 
 is for fishing." 
 
 A score or so of worms were wriggling in the old 
 c
 
 lg THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 man's receptacle. It was singular to notice that each 
 one had a constriction near the middle of the body, 
 and the second part was not so thick by one-half as 
 the first part was. In fact, it looked like two worms, 
 a large one and a small one, fastened together end to 
 
 end. 
 
 " And what in your scientific jargon may be the 
 name of this monster ? " asked Kene. 
 
 " Arenicola piscatorum." 
 
 "A fine name, certainly euphonious, and easily 
 understood: arenicola, an inhabitant of the sand; pisca- 
 
 LTJG OE LOB-WORM (Afeiilcoli pueatonun). 
 
 torum, sent into the world for the special benefit of 
 fishers. You see that at the proper moment I 
 can be an etymologist. But tell me what are these 
 tufts of small hairs disseminated over their bodies ? 
 It can scarcely be to prevent them from taking 
 colds." 
 
 " Xo, the tufts of hairs are not the furs of the lob- 
 worms ; they are really their branchiss, or respiratory 
 organs, if you prefer that term." 
 
 " How droll ! So that, according to you, these sea
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 19 
 
 worms breathe through the sides of their bodies and 
 by means of their hairs ! " 
 
 Le*on might have replied that in many creatures, 
 especially in worms and gasteropod mollusca, the 
 respiratory organs are placed in most peculiar posi- 
 tions in Tritonia, Glaucus, and ScyllaBa, on the sides, 
 in Aplysia on the back, and in Doris on the end oppo- 
 site to the head. He would probably have made 
 this learned dissertation, but was deterred by the 
 fear of some ironical or sarcastic reply from his 
 cousin. 
 
 But the latter was at the moment occupied with an 
 interesting experiment. He had taken a worm from 
 the fisherman and had placed it on the damp sand. 
 The worm, extending its proboscis, rapidly buried 
 it in the sand, then, by contracting the proboscis at 
 the bottom of the hole, the rest of the body followed, 
 and in a few seconds the worm had entirely disap- 
 peared. 
 
 " A pleasant journey to you ! " said Bene*. Then in 
 a lower voice and with a sententious air he added, 
 "And, really, it seems appropriate that an animal that 
 buries itself by means of its proboscis should breathe 
 through its sides." 
 
 The rising tide was gradually covering the sands, 
 driving the fishers before it. From under every stone 
 little crabs made their appearance, directing their side- 
 long courses towards their special element. Bene\
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 while walking, stooped from time to time to look at 
 them, and, his curiosity being sharpened, he plied his 
 cousin with questions. 
 
 " Are star-fishes animals ? " 
 
 " Yes, of course." 
 
 " And how do they live ? " 
 
 " Come along, I will tell you afterwards." 
 
 "And this pretty plant, without any stalk, with 
 coloured petals, blossoming in this pool of water? " 
 
 " This plant is an animal, and the animal is called 
 a sea anemone. But come along, or you will see that 
 we shall be caught by the tide." 
 
 "Really, really? Well, now, I have a great mind 
 to pluck it." 
 
 " Well, pluck it and see ! " 
 
 But as he stretched out his hand to take it the 
 anemone quickly closed itself, leaving externally only 
 the appearance of a gelatinous shapeless mass, not, 
 however, without having first squirted a jet of liquid 
 into the face of the young inquirer. 
 
 " Not polite, dear beast, not at all polite ! " And 
 laughing at his misfortune, the two young men quickly 
 made their way towards home. 
 
 Uncle Bob was waiting for them at the door. " Eh, 
 well, have you had a successful fishing to begin with ? " 
 he asked. 
 
 "A very poor one," said Rene, "three crabs, one 
 star-fish. Ah! but I was forgetting; we have also
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 captured a sea-urchin, a beast which possesses on its 
 own account almost as many feet as a whole squadron 
 of cavalry, horses included. Where the deuce have 
 I put it ? Oh, here it is, but the feet are left behind 
 on the road." 
 
 And indeed, owing to the friction of the pocket, the 
 
 "V. 
 "THE SPINES OF THE SEA-URCHIN HAD FALLEN OFF." 
 
 spines had fallen off. At their point of attachment 
 series of tubercles were left like lines radiating from 
 the summit to the base of the creature. 
 
 The sea-urchin being itself a little smashed, some 
 parts of its interior could be seen, formed of small 
 pieces arranged side by side. 
 
 "It is an ill- wind that blows nobody good," said
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 the doctor. "This fracture will enable us to learn how 
 sea-urchins are able to grow." 
 
 The two young men drew near with an air of 
 curiosity. 
 
 " All these plates," said the old doctor, " are main- 
 tained, as you may see, by a very thin pellicle ; this 
 skin constantly secretes a calcareous substance round 
 the plates, which on this account alt increase in size 
 together. It is by a similar, though much more 
 complicated process, that the growth of animals and 
 man is carried on. A small quantity is unceasingly 
 being added to the existing material, and the young 
 animal, or the young man, as the case may be, 
 grows from one year to another without being aware 
 of it." 
 
 " In my own case, I may frankly admit," said Kene", 
 "I have hitherto grown somewhat after the same 
 fashion as that in which M. Jourdain wrote prose 
 without knowing how." 
 
 Le'on, for some moments, had been meditating. 
 
 " What are you thinking of? " asked his cousin. 
 
 " Nothing of importance ; a strange coincidence : 
 we have seen in our short excursion the principal 
 types of the animal kingdom." 
 
 "How, then?" 
 
 " You shall hear : the fishes, ourselves, and the 
 sand-eel are representatives of the branch Yerte- 
 brata."

 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 25 
 
 " Are the representatives ! " cried Rene. " I really 
 think you do the sand-eel a great honour." 
 
 " We have seen the Annulosa in two of their chief 
 forms: crabs (Crustacea), marine worms (Annelida). 
 
 "The shells on which we walked, and which make 
 up a large portion of the sands, belong to the Mol- 
 lusca. 
 
 "Finally, the star-fish, the sea-urchin, and sea- 
 anemone are clearly and unmistakably radiates. So 
 that you see the collection is complete." * 
 
 " I see that I do not yet see. How are the radiates 
 distinguished ? " 
 
 "By the fact that their organs, instead of being 
 arranged on either side of the body in pairs, are 
 grouped round a central axis, so as to give rise to a 
 radiate or globular form." 
 
 "Very good. And the Annulosa?" 
 
 u The Annulosa have a higher structure : their 
 organs are arranged in pairs, they have no internal 
 skeleton, but their body is made up of a series of rings 
 placed one behind another, sometimes soft, as in the 
 case of the worms, but more often hard (in insects), 
 even shelly (in most of the Crustacea)." 
 
 * The four branches here indicated as composing the animal kingdom are 
 those proposed by Cuvier, the great French naturalist. Modern zoologists 
 have divided some of these groups, considering them not to be sufficiently 
 natural, and nine primary divisions of the animal kingdom are now accepted, 
 viz., Protozoa, Coalenterata, Echinodermata, Vennes, Arthropoda, Mol- 
 luscoidea, Mollusca, Tunicata, and Vertebrata. Some, however, do not 
 adopt the division of the Mollusca into three groups, and accept only seven 
 sub -kingdoms. TEANSLATOB'S NOTE.
 
 26 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 11 The vertebrates, to which we ourselves have the 
 honour to belong," added Kene" himself, not wishing 
 to pass for a complete ignoramus, "possess all of them 
 an internal skeleton, of which the most important part 
 is the vertebral column, or spine." 
 
 "All, or nearly all/' 
 
 " What ! are there then vertebrates that have no 
 vertebras?" 
 
 " Only one kind : an unfortunate little fish, the 
 Amphioxus, is in this anomalous condition, as if to 
 prove that all classifications are artificial made, in 
 fact, by learned men for their own convenience, and 
 that in nature the transition from one type to another 
 is never abrupt, but occurs in a gradual manner." 
 
 " As to Mollusca But I am afraid we must not 
 attempt to study them to-day, for want of examples." 
 
 " On the contrary, here are some splendid speci- 
 mens," said Uncle Bob, opening the door of the din- 
 ing-room, and pointing to a pyramid of oysters, with 
 their ponderous shells, heaped upon the table.
 
 III. 
 
 The beginning of conversion The star-fish A curious invasion A way oi 
 eating and a way of running, by no means proper Absorption and 
 afterwards Numerous posterity Animals that double themselves by 
 division What may be seen on a shell An aquarium in miniature 
 Fairyland in a glass of water What may be found in oyster-water 
 Uncle Bob himself asks to see Excursion in a new world A fantastic 
 waltz By what means the infinitely small manage to play an infinitely 
 large part A good thing from Michelet The conversion become 
 decided. 
 
 the repast Kene* spoke but little. This 
 strange world, of which he had just caught a glimpse, 
 could not but more or less disturb his mind. A little 
 ashamed of having hitherto scarcely even suspected 
 its existence, he felt his usual carelessness opposed by 
 the desire of knowing, and of being himself able to 
 explain. 
 
 That unseen enigma, that insoluble problem life, 
 in its wondrous manifestations, was already attract- 
 ing him with its mysterious power. There was then 
 after all in natural history something more than a 
 mere glossary of queer words, and it might be possi- 
 ble to inquire into the lives of the beings that surround 
 us with the same sort of interest that one feels in 
 following the plot of a play at the theatre.
 
 28 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 " At any rate," he mentally concluded, "as there is 
 nothing better to do I can but try it, and if it should 
 prove that I have not in me the stuff of which a 
 naturalist is made, I can forget it all when I enter the 
 express train on my way back to Paris." 
 
 In this state of mind he went out into the garden, 
 accompanied by his friend Leon. 
 
 Almost directly his foot touched the star-fish that 
 they had recently brought from the shore, and that 
 now lay motionless near the door of the workroom. 
 
 " You told me that this what-do-you-call-it was 
 a radiate animal. Cannot you tell me something more 
 about it?" 
 
 " Why trouble yourself about it ? " said Leon, smil- 
 ing. " You have already learned that it is not for 
 eating." 
 
 " We do not eat it, I understand well, but I should 
 suppose it must eat for itself." 
 
 " Undoubtedly, and in a most curious fashion." 
 
 "As if there could be fifty ways of eating. I am 
 myself only acquainted with one the true, the only 
 way, as in point of fact we have just exemplified : 
 putting food into the stomach by introducing it to the 
 mouth, and if you are greedy or in a hurry, doing it 
 by two mouthfuls at a time. " 
 
 " The star-fishes know better. The stomach itself 
 adopts the plan of coming to the food. Notice in the 
 centre of the fish, in the white part, an opening. Press
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 29 
 
 a little. Good ; there is the stomach. At first sight 
 it has the appearance of a transparent mass divided 
 into five equal parts; and yet I am not acquainted 
 with a gizzard of greater power than it. Last year 
 I had an opportunity of observing the devastation 
 committed on a bed of mussels by star-fishes. They had 
 settled on them by millions ; all the rocks were covered 
 with them, and from a little way off appeared quite 
 
 STAB-FISH (Asterias). 
 
 red. When an Asterias wanted its breakfast, it came 
 dragging along by the aid of its ambulacral feet and 
 rested its stomach on the hinge-joint of the shells of a 
 mussel. In a few minutes, by the action of the gastric 
 juices, the muscles of the hinge were dissolved, the 
 stomach penetrated between the shells of the mussel 
 and carried on there a suction so powerful that in a 
 brief time nothing remained of the mussel. The foot 
 itself, although so difficult to detach, shared the same
 
 3 o TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 fate as the other parts. The stomach of the ogre then 
 returned to its normal situation and the Asterias made 
 a fresh move to satisfy its appetite. So thoroughly 
 was this done, that in the course of a few days all the 
 mussels in the locality were exterminated. " 
 
 " What an appetite! This suggests to me another 
 question, not a very delicate "one. I understand 
 now how they eat, but what happens afterwards ? " 
 
 " The sequel is of primitive simplicity. The stomach 
 having come out to take its meal, comes out again, 
 when digestion is completed, to free itself from the 
 residue. In this way it is never troubled by dyspepsia 
 or digestive pains. The star-fishes, I may say in 
 passing, have not taken out a patent for their diges- 
 tive process, or the sea-anemones do the same thing. 
 Another peculiarity I must show you: each star- 
 fish is a real Mother Gigogne. Look," and with a 
 stroke of his knife Leon opened one of the rays of the 
 star-fish. 
 
 The inside was filled with eggs, not larger than a 
 pin's head. 
 
 " How many eggs do you think there are in this 
 one ray ? " asked Leon. 
 
 " At least two or three thousand." 
 
 " About that ; there are ten or fifteen thousand in 
 the whole animal. But all the creatures of this kind 
 have another and still more curious way of increasing 
 their numbers. Sometimes one of the rays of the
 
 /%"-,,. 
 
 
 r JS *%,V1 
 
 . pml 
 
 * ^i Jli'ao
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 33 
 
 Asterias becomes detached, or a portion of a sea-ane- 
 
 Stony Coral. 
 
 Cel/ularia. 
 
 mone is broken off. At the end of a short time the 
 D
 
 34- 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 wound heals, a new ray is formed, and no trace of the 
 accident remains. In due course the amputated 
 part, instead of drying up, throws out buds, and 
 completes itself so well that the end of the injured 
 
 BBYOZOA ( Moss-animals) . 
 
 Asterias is that it is replaced by two whole and 
 healthy individuals. 
 
 " From this you may guess something of the prodi- 
 gality of life in the bosom of the ocean. Do you wish 
 another example of it ? Here, then, is an entire 
 aquarium formed by a simple shell."
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 35 
 
 In a small glass vessel, the bottom of which was 
 covered with sand, there was to be seen one of the 
 valves of a St. James's shell. On its rough surface 
 this shell bore a strange population: some Escharae, 
 like stony concretions of rounded form, projected their 
 almost innumerable arms on every side, and these 
 moved themselves in all directions in order to seize 
 their unseen prey ; sertularians and cellularians, with 
 finely divided branches, erected their miniature fronds 
 in the water, covered with polypes like little flowers ; 
 while fixed to the shell some of the tube-dwelling 
 worms, twisted Spirorbis, Serpulae of whimsical lorms, 
 displayed their many- coloured branchiae at the extrem- 
 ities of their calcareous coverings. 
 
 Some other more fragile annelids were lodged in 
 the sand Terebellee, Sabellse ; these had no calcareous 
 covering, but grains of sand and fragments of shells 
 agglutinated round their bodies formed a mosaic cloth- 
 ing that almost entirely concealed them. Kene*, as- 
 sisted by a powerful lens, examined all these details 
 minutely. 
 
 " Do you know what I shall call that," said he. 
 11 It is really fairyland in a glass of water." 
 
 " Would you like to see now fairyland in a drop of 
 water ? Here is some water from the oysters that you 
 found so good. Let us look for a little at what it 
 contains after it has been kept a few days." 
 
 The microscope was brought out, and placed in a
 
 3 6 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 properly lighted spot. Leon put a drop of water 
 on a glass slide and arranged it under the object- 
 glass. 
 
 "I also should like to see/' said the doctor, " for 
 this is among the sights of which one never 
 tires." 
 
 It was indeed a marvellous exhibition. In this 
 drop of water, scarcely larger than a pin's head, there 
 
 was quite a world of animalculse, in a state of activity 
 like a Parisian crowd on the boulevards during a 
 holiday. Owing to their transparent bodies, the 
 organs of these singular animals could be seen, and 
 these microscopic beings, veritable protei, constantly 
 changed their shapes, sometimes elongating themselves 
 extremely, and sometimes becoming as round as a 
 ball, and the whole twisted and whirled about, with-
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 37 
 
 out apparent object, and as if engaged in a fantastic 
 waltz. 
 
 "The infinitely small," said the doctor, "perhaps 
 more bewildering than the infinitely great. These are 
 among the largest of the beings invisible to the naked 
 eye ; and what lies beyond them ? However much our 
 optical instruments are improved, however much the 
 field of our investigations is extended, always and 
 
 ANISLAXCUL33 IX WATEE. 
 
 always new beings are discovered whose existence 
 was before scarcely suspected, and we find ourselves 
 still on the threshold of a world that we know not 
 yet. 
 
 " And none the less this unknown universe surrounds 
 us closely, penetrates into ourselves, and develops 
 itself even within us. It sometimes forms the very 
 ground we tread on. I was reading only to-day that
 
 38 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 at Bilin, in Germany, they have discovered a bank of 
 tripoli more than forty feet thick and extending over 
 a considerable distance. Well, this tripoli is almost 
 entirely made up of diatoms. Ehrenberg, the micro- 
 scopist, has succeeded in measuring them, and calcu- 
 lates their number to be about forty millions in a 
 cubic inch. 
 
 " That is something striking, is it not, my friends ? 
 Does it not almost make you dizzy, and affect your 
 imagination with a sort of awe the sentiment, in fact, 
 expressed in this profound saying of Michelet : ' In 
 fathoming so profoundly the depths of life I expected 
 to meet with physical necessities, but what I do find 
 is justice, immortality, hope ! ' ' 
 
 "While speaking, the countenance of the doctor was 
 gradually transfigured ; his eyes beaming, his head 
 slightly thrown back with the effort of thought, he 
 was standing leaning on the table, not like a scientific 
 man making an investigation, but rather a poet in- 
 spired. 
 
 Justice, hope, immortality ! These, then, are the 
 supreme lessons of nature. This sayant, who had so 
 often contemplated the implacable working of death, 
 still spoke of immortality ; this aged man still spoke 
 of hope ! The two youths listened meditating, deeply 
 affected by his tremulous voice. 
 
 A complete silence Drevailed. Leon was the first to 
 break it.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 39 
 
 " And are you always longing for the casino or some 
 pigeon-shooting ? " said he to Bene. 
 
 " How soon shall we make our next excursion ? " 
 was the only reply. 
 
 Le"on was on the point of speaking, when a vio- 
 lent ringing of the bell was heard at the garden 
 gate.
 
 A new character How a man sometimes looks like a Mister Father 
 Lucas His start in life He had been several times round the world, 
 without thinking much of it Return to the native land What Father 
 Lucas calls his shepherd's round Why Leon entertained so high an 
 opinion of the old fisherman Unexpected news Uncle Bob does not 
 say all he thinks. . 
 
 A MAN past middle age, stout, and notwithstanding 
 his years still hale, of serious aspect, and somewhat 
 embarrassed in his movements, owing to his best Sun- 
 day costume, presented himself at the door. 
 
 The country folk, who are sometimes as apt as the 
 professors themselves in distinguishing genera and 
 species, are well aware of a profound distinction exist- 
 ing between a man and a sir or mister. The latter, who 
 may be at once identified, even by an unskilled eye, 
 usually wears a suit of cloth of more or less elegant 
 cut, and is invariably crowned with a hat. 
 
 The equipment of the man, on the other hand, is 
 made up of a blouse or stuff jacket, a cap flat or 
 peaked, or a wideawake hat, wooden shoes or nailed 
 boots, more or less thick according to his occupation. 
 
 Our new acquaintance might have been denned as 
 " a man dressed like a mister." His trousers of blue
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 cloth, far too large, flapped about his legs, which were 
 kept wide apart from the habit of accommodating him- 
 self to the rolling of the ship, and under his dress coat, 
 the large tails of which commenced almost at the 
 shoulders, there could be seen a thick vest of brown 
 wool. 
 
 He wore a felt hat pushed down as far as his ears, 
 as if to guard against the wind, and his thick grey 
 hair was coarse and rigid, like the coat of the wild 
 boar. 
 
 Add to this, that, as a curious bit of vanity, he wore 
 in his ears small gold rings, from each of which there 
 was suspended a little anchor, and that his countenance, 
 tanned by constant exposure to the sun, was sur- 
 rounded by whiskers and a beard almost completely 
 white, and you will have a tolerably faithful portrait 
 of the new arrival. 
 
 The doctor took some steps towards him. lt Father 
 Lucas ! " he said, and gave his hand to the old sailor 
 as if to encourage him. " But you are rigged out in 
 your best and got up in grand style ! Something 
 unusual and important must be going on." 
 
 " Yes, Mister Doctor," replied the old man, turning 
 his hat round by twisting it between the fingers in 
 which he now held it. "I would even venture to say, 
 sir, by your permission, something very serious." 
 
 " Let me hear about it," and Uncle Bob opened the 
 door of his study.
 
 42 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 " Well, what I wanted to say The door then 
 closed. 
 
 "Who is this old sea- wolf?" asked Eene, some- 
 what surprised at seeing his uncle receive a common 
 sailor with so much familiarity. 
 
 " A brave and noble-hearted man," replied Leon. 
 
 This old sailor was indeed a brave man : on great 
 occasions he wore on his breast several medals, dearly 
 bought by his courageous acts. 
 
 A cabin-boy from his cradle, like the other sailors 
 of this coast, and apprenticed amongst his father's 
 crew, his earliest memories were those of a fisher's boat, 
 where he slept amid the damp nets, the spare sails, or 
 the empty hampers. At sixteen years he was per- 
 fectly familiar with the navigation of his native 
 coasts, and when a little later he entered his country's 
 navy, the bluejacket had soon become a thorough 
 sailor. 
 
 Such countries as Australia and China, seemingly 
 most likely to cause astonishment, had been seen by 
 the young sailor with an uninterested eye and without 
 any feeling of surprise. The old sailors, during their 
 yarns in port on Sundays, or on evenings at sea, while 
 the nets dragged slowly through the depths, had 
 spoken of such things and many others. His educa- 
 tion had begun and ended in the year of his con- 
 firmation. Naturally he had but little imagination. 
 Thus the many nations, black, yellow, or bronzed, he
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 43 
 
 became acquainted with during his voyages interested 
 him, but little. "Skin, more or less dark, clothes 
 of a little different fashion : except that, people like 
 you and me," these were all his ethnographical 
 ideas. 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding his apparently unemo- 
 tional disposition, the love of his native soil had 
 gradually made itself felt, and had ended, as is so 
 frequently the case with sentiments of a painful 
 nature, by becoming a fixed idea by which he was 
 completely possessed. He continually remarked, " All 
 that is not worth Trouville." In his childhood his 
 curiosity made excursions into strange lands ; now 
 that he had the lands themselves before his eyes he 
 saw them almost without notice. His thoughts went to 
 and fro continually between Courseulles and the bay 
 of the Seine, the two spots that he knew so well but 
 should perhaps never revisit. Often and often, when 
 he sailed amidst the verdant isles of the interior sea 
 of Japan, some touch of landscape, some tree, some 
 trifle, would lead him back to his favourite idea. If 
 some pagoda reared in the distance the outline of its 
 quaintly sculptured roof against the azure blue, it 
 recalled to him the great tower of Ouistreham or the 
 twin steeples of Delivrande, and instinctively his ear 
 would endeavour to catch the sounds of the evening 
 hymn that the land breeze wafts to the sailor's ear. 
 And often of a night, during the long hours of his
 
 44 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 watch, while the vessel, with lights aloft, cleaved with 
 its prow the phosphorescent waves, and was followed 
 in its wake by a track of fire, Quartermaster Lucas, 
 his elbow resting on the stern, his eye losing itself in 
 the distance, would seek the two white lights of Heve> 
 that gleam each night sweet and clear like the looks 
 of a friend. 
 
 With such ideas, it will be understood that our 
 acquaintance would prolong his time in the navy na 
 more than necessary, and in fact he hastened, when 
 his dismissal was obtained, to cast off the blue jacket 
 and the lettered cap, to take up as in the past his 
 interrupted fishing, to marry and found a family of 
 sailors : it would be strange to see a sailor's son who 
 was not himself a sailor. His prayers, however, were 
 not at first all granted. Lucas had to begin with five 
 daughters, and only after ten years had he the great 
 satisfaction of seeing at last a son and heir. 
 
 At the time our narrative commences the five 
 daughters are all married to fishermen. The wily 
 Norman has them all established in different localities, 
 so that almost wherever the chances of his seafaring 
 may take him he is sure to find a good lodging and 
 supper, besides the pleasure of seeing his child. This 
 he calls his " shepherd's round." 
 
 His son had terminated this very year his service 
 to the State. 
 
 Leon sketched in a few words these details for his
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISES. 
 
 cousin. He had certainly the best of reasons for 
 holding the old fisherman in high esteem, having 
 been himself brought back by Father Lucas one day 
 when a treacherous current had carried him too far 
 from shore. Although an excellent swimmer, Leon 
 could no longer struggle, and was hastening, or rather 
 floating, to a certain death, when Lucas in his clothes, 
 just as he was, leaped into the water and brought 
 him safely back, with considerable danger to himself. 
 All the efforts of the doctor had not availed to induce 
 the old sailor to accept any reward for " so natural a 
 deed," but from this day forward the saviour of Leon 
 had the free run of the cottage. 
 
 When the interview was over the doctor opened 
 the door and Father Lucas said to Le"on 
 
 " By the bye, 1 have stranded my boat between the 
 baths and the cliff, and I think you will find some- 
 thing to collect there. I was obliged to do it, for it 
 is my last trip." 
 
 The young naturalist looking at him with an air of 
 astonishment, he added, half closing his eyes : 
 
 " Yes, it is settled. I am to part with my busi- 
 ness." 
 
 "Is it possible ! And who is to be your suc- 
 cessor ? " 
 
 " My son, thank heaven ! " 
 
 In this "thank heaven," there was an accent of 
 fatherly pride as well as a touch of regret.
 
 46 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 To give up after half a century of efforts his 
 unceasing wanderings on the ocean, no more to leave 
 the dry land, was a trying change of habits for the 
 old sailor, and a sacrifice rather than a relief. 
 
 The poor old man seemed already to foresee that 
 while his son would be afar off, and himself fixed at 
 home like a useless being, he should often feel a long- 
 ing for the sea, and would miss the waves with then- 
 spray striking his face and seasoning and hardening 
 his countenance. 
 
 Again, and this not the least of his regrets, he 
 must give up seeing so frequently the numerous 
 descendants who loved to clamber on his knees, for 
 paid voyages cost much, and by a strange anomaly 
 there is no one in the world more stay-at-home than a 
 sailor compelled to give up seafaring. 
 
 As soon as father Lucas was gone, the doctor made 
 his way to the railway station at Trouville, while the 
 young folks, following the advice of the fisherman, 
 went on board the Emily, stranded on the shore, to 
 obtain a supply of molluscs and crustaceans. 
 
 When the doctor returned in the evening, the two 
 cousins were not a little surprised at hearing him 
 make a long dissertation on the subject of fishing- 
 boats, and at his explaining the differences between 
 " a tub " and " a plate," a clincher-built yawl and a 
 plain yawl, with the thoroughness of one to the 
 manner born.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 47 
 
 What can Uncle Bob be thinking of? Is it possi- 
 ble that the doctor has somewhat tardily decided, 
 now that Father Lucas has retired from the sea, him- 
 self to leave the hospitals of Paris and drift along 
 without any special occupation ?
 
 V. 
 
 A varied harvest The sea-mouse A microscopic prray Trick* of the chase 
 and of war Crustaceans and Kabyles Clanging armour The danger 
 of disarmament Science disconcerted Sacculina and its wonderful 
 transformations Ophiura Holothuria Chinese cookery A suicide 
 The hermit-crah An unedif ying biography An invitation. 
 
 THE collection made on board the boat had been 
 superb, and in the receptacles that the cousins had 
 taken care to provide themselves with, there accumu- 
 lated one after another sea-mice with brilliant and 
 silky fleeces, Chitons with imbricated carapaces, that 
 is, coverings formed by scales arranged after the 
 fashion of the tiles on a roof. Then various kinds of 
 shell-fish : Oxyrhynchi with delicate bodies and spider- 
 like legs; hermit crabs of greedy movements, only 
 half covered by their shells ; Dromiae with grey and 
 velvety shell and rosy claws; spider-crabs, whose 
 curious carapace contains amongst the inequalities of 
 its surface quite a world of seaweeds, of polypes, and 
 of moss-animals a marvellous sight when well exam- 
 ined with the aid of a glass; and in addition a 
 strange collection of the lower animals. Holothurians, 
 called by the fishermen sea-cucumbers, because of
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 49 
 
 their elongate shape ; radiates* masquerading in the 
 form of molluscs ; ophiurians with long slender arms 
 radiating from a central disc ; Solasters, great star-fishes 
 with twelve broad rays, and of a yellow colour, thus 
 looking like so many suns. 
 
 In less than a quarter of an hour their receptacles 
 were filled, and, well- contented, they retraced their 
 road to the laboratory. 
 
 A sea-mouse was the first specimen that found its 
 way on to the table. 
 
 As Rene was examining its varied tints with much 
 delight 
 
 "Look," said Ldon, "how formidably this annelid 
 is armed ! " 
 
 And with a pair of curved scissors he cut off some 
 hairs from the Aphrodita, and placed them under the 
 object-glass of the microscope. 
 
 Everything in the way of harpoons, of pointed 
 instruments, of straight and curved sabres, of cutting 
 and perforating arms, that an armourer could imagine, 
 was there represented a microscopic panoply. 
 
 "Your annelid is quite a walking arsenal," cried 
 Rene. " But what a singular mania for a villainous 
 grey crab " (this far from flattering epithet related to 
 the Dromia) " to make himself an overcoat with sea- 
 weeds." 
 
 * The sea-cucumbers belong to the Echinodermata, and are now, therefore, 
 removed from the Radiata by naturalists, though they were united therewith 
 by Cuvier. 
 
 E
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 And in point of fact the Dromia, like the spider-crab, 
 
 in 
 
 "QUITE A WORLD OF POLYPES ON THEIR CARAPACE." 
 
 is frequently covered with living animals and seaweed 
 that it carries about on its shell. There is, how-
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 51 
 
 ever, this difference between the two : the Dromia is 
 said to be provided with special claws for planting the 
 creatures on its own back, where they grow and some- 
 times completely cover it, while in the spider-crab the 
 growth may be due to natural causes. The result, 
 however, is the same, and enables stratagem to supply 
 the place of agility, for thus covered they are able 
 
 to remain concealed and motionless until some prey 
 shall venture within reach of their claws. 
 
 In connection with this it will be recollected that 
 during the conquest of Algeria the natives on several 
 occasions made use of a similar stratagem, and that 
 'walking bushes' glided unharmed during the night 
 into the midst of the advanced guard. These children 
 of the desert were no doubt proud of their invention, 
 and had no idea that they were merely imitators of the 
 miserable crabs. There is nothing new under the sun !
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 Kene* had been reflecting for a few minutes, and now 
 made up his mind to speak. 
 
 " I was thinking Ah ! but you know I am only a 
 stupid fellow, and know nothing of these things. You 
 won't laugh at me ? " 
 
 " Speak out, and you Avill see." 
 
 " Very well. Uncle Bob explained to us the other 
 day the mode of growth of animals of everybody, in 
 fact, But how do the Crustacea, as you call them, all 
 this series of creatures with rigid carapace, clothed as 
 it were in armour, manage about this. It strikes me 
 they must feel remarkably uncomfortable when their 
 costume becomes too small for them." 
 
 "And it so happens that these armour-bearers do 
 not grow in the same manner as other animals. The 
 metamorphoses of insects with their unyielding inte- 
 guments, and of the crustaceans with their rigid cara- 
 paces, are in fact a peculiar mode of growth : they grow 
 by stages. 
 
 " Thus the lobster before it becomes large enough 
 to grace our tables, and to undergo the posthumous 
 honour of la mayonnaise, has had to pass through about 
 a score of moults. This is the reason why you have 
 never met with a really infant lobster. Their appear- 
 ance quite changes as they grow up ; indeed, this 
 occurs to so great an extent, that up to the fourth 
 moult they swim by whirling about, and they are 
 thirty or forty days old when they first fall to the
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 53 
 
 bottom and become walk-about animals for the rest of 
 their days. Other crustaceans, before attaining their 
 final form, pass through analogous metamorphoses. 
 
 "The moulting time must be, I should think, a 
 most disagreeable moment in the existence of these 
 creatures. As a rule, the crustacean with his armour, 
 like a knight of the Middle Ages, fears, so to say, 
 no thing nor person. It sometimes happens that he 
 leaves a claw or a leg on the field of battle, but he 
 accepts his loss like a Stoic ; it grows again, and he 
 knows it. But as soon as he has shed his armour the 
 position is quite different ; while awaiting for his new 
 cuirass to attain the necessary solidity, this creature, 
 who was himself quite recently an insatiable Gar- 
 gantua, becomes a dainty mouthful for all sorts of 
 creatures, including occasionally some of his own 
 kindred. Crustaceans have not the conscientious 
 scruples of wolves, who, so they say, do not eat one 
 another. It is worth seeing, at the moment of moult- 
 ing, hoAv carefully they conceal themselves for fear of 
 having to submit to the same fate as that to which 
 they have submitted so many others." 
 
 "A fair requital, as things go here below, ;> said 
 Bene" philosophically. " If it were not for that the lot 
 of a crustacean would be a too happy one. " 
 
 While saying this he was amusing himself by turn- 
 ing over on the table a great crab, whose hind-body 
 was covered to a considerable extent by a sort of
 
 54 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 transparent moss, something like agglomerated soap- 
 bubbles. 
 
 " Sacculina," said Le*on; "a singular parasite of 
 the crab, and one that has for a long time defied the 
 perspicacity of the learned. Indeed, it was only last 
 year that its exact history was discovered." 
 
 " Something new, and yet true ! Let me hear it." 
 
 " With pleasure. The Sacculina, whose entire body 
 is not represented by this moss that you see, com- 
 mences by being a microscopic crustacean, a Cypris, 
 who comes quietly, and as if meaning no ill, and fixes 
 itself by one antenna to the still tender hind-body of 
 the quite young crab." 
 
 " Capital ! And what next ? " 
 
 " Then it undergoes a change. As the habitation 
 seems to suit it, and it has no desire to seek its fortune 
 elsewhere, it establishes itself in this position, casts 
 off its legs, no longer of any use to it, and replaces 
 them by a hollow needle of peculiar structure. And 
 it is by the aid of this organ, which is a perforator, 
 though itself pliable, that the heretofore Cypris, turn- 
 ing its outside inside, like a glove or stocking, glides 
 gradually into the interior of the crab. 
 
 " After this it can give up active life and live like 
 a lord. It finds in the interior of its host both bed 
 and breakfast, and this new arrangement suits it so well 
 that you may almost see it waxing fat. This it does 
 so thoroughly that its apartment soon becomes too
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 55 
 
 small for it, and it is obliged to leave some part of 
 its person out of doors ; this part you see, and this is 
 what the learned term Sacculina. I must not omit to 
 mention that this discovery is due to a French pro- 
 
 SEA-CUCUMBEE 
 
 fessor, M. Delaage, and that it cost him three years 
 of observation and experiment. 
 
 "Let us now pass to another;" but as he was 
 taking out of the box a magnificent Ophiura, the 
 creature unfortunately all at once became broken. 
 
 " Confound the animal ! Would you believe," added 
 he, addressing his cousin, "that I have collected at 
 least thirty specimens of this creature, and that I
 
 5 6 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 have not yet secured an unbroken one. Sometimes a 
 ray detaches itself, sometimes the disc breaks up. 
 Ophiura fragilis is a well-applied name. Let us hope 
 I shall do better with the Holothuria. 
 
 " This is another extraordinary being, with retrac- 
 tile feet and a mouth armed with tentacles disposed 
 in star-like fashion. But the internal organisation 
 is the most curious feature in this creature. For 
 example, the digestive canal, in which the stomach 
 is represented by a very slight swelling, ends in the 
 Holothuria in a small bladder containing you will 
 never guess what the breathing organs. 
 
 " In this country bolothurians, or sea-cucumbers, 
 are known only to fishermen and naturalists, and no 
 one suspects that they are the objects of a considerable 
 commerce in the far East." 
 
 "Do you mean to say any one buys such a thing as 
 that ? And, gracious heavens, what for? " 
 
 " For the manufacture of confectionery that sells at 
 improbable prices in China and Japan. It is a special 
 feast of the yellow-faced mortals. But, between our- 
 selves, even I must admit that, all things considered, 
 I should prefer something else.' 3 
 
 While he was speaking, the cucumber, possibly 
 disgusted at the depreciatory remarks that were being 
 made about it, suddenly expelled with violence all 
 the fluid it contained, as well as a portion of its ali- 
 mentary canal.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 57 
 
 " Alas, another suicide ! " said LeVm, " and I 
 believe it was our last remaining specimen." 
 
 But as he turned his botanical box over, a large 
 hermit-crab concealed in a corner fell out of it on to 
 the table. 
 
 "The last is the best," said the young naturalist ; 
 and, taking hold of his captive by the shell, he con- 
 tinued : " Here we have the most depraved, the most 
 immoral, the most cynical, of all the banditti and 
 corsairs of the sea." 
 
 " And yet bearing a venerated designation," said 
 Kene* timidly. 
 
 "Yes, but very inapplicable, unless you are willing 
 to imagine that the stolen shell it bears upon its back 
 is a hermitage." 
 
 " Stolen ! Is the shell, then, not its own making ? " 
 
 "It is completely incapable of making anything 
 whatever. This hermit is the personification of lazi- 
 ness, and a shameless parasite, living at the expense 
 of all about him. However, we must not forget (for 
 justice is a good thing even in the case of shell-fish) 
 that nature has been a little unkind to it. Its body 
 is, in opposition to that of all its allies, soft and 
 undefended by armour, except on the head, legs, and 
 claws. Now look." 
 
 And lighting a match he slightly warmed the shell. 
 The effect of this proceeding was soon apparent : 
 annoyed by the heat, the hermit hurriedly left its
 
 5 8 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 abode and shuffled about on the table in a most 
 awkward fashion. 
 
 " That is the best way of forcing it to give up 
 possession," said Le*on. " Treated in any other way it 
 is so obstinate that it would allow itself to be torn in 
 pieces rather than quit. Obstinacy, however, is one 
 of the least of its faults. 
 
 " It makes its debut, when still young, by an 
 assassination. Scarcely out of its cradle, it seeks a 
 shell of fitting size and instals itself therein, after 
 having as a fit preliminary devoured the owner. Then, 
 undeterred by any remorse, it starts to seek its fortune, 
 pillaging on all sides after the manner of the troopers 
 and freebooters of the good old times." 
 
 " A hermit certainly very like a vagabond ; but, 
 when his shelter becomes too small, what happens ? " 
 
 " He settles the matter at once by stealing another. 
 Probably at first he took possession of a Turbo shell ; 
 now that he is stronger it is probably the shell of a 
 whelk or Buccinum that he seizes. The hermit does 
 not allow himself to be embarrassed by so trifling a 
 matter. I am acquainted with a collection in which 
 there is a hermit that was found in the tropics, and 
 has taken up his abode in a great helmet shell, such 
 as you may see in the window of a natural history 
 dealer. The claws of this hermit measured more than 
 eight inches. 
 
 " The animal is by no means one of restricted tastes,
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 and if you place at its disposal in an aquarium some 
 snail- shells of suitable size, it will take advantage of 
 the opportunity and instal itself in one of them with- 
 out the least bashfulness. In the soundings made at 
 great depths in the Atlantic, hermits were met with 
 that, probably because they could do no better, had 
 
 " A HYPOCRITICAL OLD FELLOW." 
 
 excavated lairs for themselves in the bodies of sea 
 anemones. 
 
 " Now you have an account of these hypocritical 
 old fellows, and you will admit it is far from edifying. 
 So we will change the subject. To-morrow I propose 
 that we make a party for some shrimp-fishing at low
 
 60 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 water, and if Neptune and the west wind favour us, we 
 shall have a harvest. I say no more at present." 
 
 Meanwhile Uncle Bob had entered, and with a happy 
 face. 
 
 " All is going well," said he, as if talking to himself. 
 "By the way, do you know what Father Lucas told me 
 a little while ago ? His son is to be married next 
 Wednesday, and requests us in due and proper fashion 
 to be present at the nuptial ceremony. You may be 
 sure I have accepted for myself and for you too."
 
 VI. 
 
 Start for the fishing The surprise of Black A chameleon of the waters 
 Two lines from Deroulede The cuttle-fish's gift of tears A strange 
 locomotive apparatus Black dyed afresh An ink used for writing by 
 the ancients How Cuvier wrote and drew the figures of his "Memoir 
 on Cephalopoda "The cuttle-fish bone. Classification of the mollnsca 
 The spoils of the net : sea-scorpion, fishing-frog Stomach-fishing 
 Twice eaten A singularly placed carpenter's tool Progressive wry- 
 neck A demented one Sad accident Rene wounded. 
 
 PUTTING into execution his project of the previous 
 day, Le'on, carrying a net, and taking with him his 
 cousin who, like himself, carried a basket slung over 
 the shoulder, gave the word for an early start. As 
 they left the cottage, Black, without waiting to ask 
 for leave, raced on in front and appeared to thoroughly 
 approve of this morning- walk. 
 
 The two young men were dressed nearly alike : flat 
 woollen cap, jacket closed in front, knickerbocker 
 trousers equipments showing, in fact, that their 
 fishing intentions were of a serious nature. 
 
 A keen observer would not, however, have failed to 
 notice an evident difference between them. Le'on, 
 looking browner than ever in his well-set-on red 
 bonnet, was provided with a basket of refreshments,
 
 62 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 and in addition, like a true naturalist, had not forgotten 
 to take some large flasks, whose necks stuck out from 
 the pockets of his jacket. 
 
 His somewhat heavy net was well constructed, "a 
 net for a true fisherman," said Father Lucas, who had 
 been entrusted with its manufacture ; but our young 
 enthusiast did not appear in the least encumbered by 
 its weight. 
 
 Bene* somewhat pale, in a blue bonnet, gave the 
 idea of an operatic Masaniello, and to complete the 
 resemblance, he carried by his side a very miniature 
 fishing basket suspended by a red ribbon, and flourished 
 about with grand gestures a net with long handle, but 
 itself only about the size of one's hand, the smallest, in 
 fact, that he could find. 
 
 The Parisian liked fishing but detested fatigue. 
 
 Suddenly Black who, as we have said, was somewhat 
 in advance began to run round a small lake left by the 
 ebbing tide, and to bark vehemently. 
 
 "What can the dog be doing?" said Bene", "can 
 he too be making discoveries in natural history ? " 
 
 They approached, and what they saw might well 
 astonish any dog, or even one who was, like the owner 
 of Black, in search of strange fish. In this novel 
 aquarium there was an animal of strange form swim- 
 ming about, and vainly endeavouring to find an exit 
 to the open sea. 
 
 Figure to yourself a bag about three inches long,
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 63 
 
 surrounded by a broad border ; from this grey and 
 gelatinous body a short tube came out, and above this 
 a head of a shape defying definition, but recalling 
 somewhat the head of an elephant, with two square 
 eyes, whose iris gleamed like molten gold. 
 
 The trunk (if we may so call the curious appendage 
 at the end of the animal) was abruptly divided, form- 
 ing eight short elastic arms, furnished with suckers. 
 Two other processes, longer and more slender than 
 the rest of the arms, each terminated in a swelling or 
 dilatation covered with suckers. 
 
 The animal was no doubt greatly disturbed by the 
 evolutions and barking of Black, for it continually 
 changed its colour in an abrupt manner, at once remind- 
 ing Kene* of the two well-known lines of Deroulede 
 
 " II devint tout bleu, de bleu devint rouge, 
 De rouge violet, et de violet, mort ! " * 
 
 "This introduces you to the cuttle-fish or Sepia," 
 said Le'on. u It is, like its cousin the Octopus, a great 
 destroyer of crabs and small fish. These it seizes with 
 its suckers as they pass, or perhaps destroys them by 
 the stroke of its two clubs. Its beak you cannot see 
 at present, as it is concealed behind its arms, but it is 
 very hard and cutting (I speak from experience), and 
 in shape is not very different from the beak of a 
 parrot." 
 
 * ' ' He turned quite blue, from blue became red. 
 From red, violet, and from violet, dead ! "
 
 64 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 " Very good ; but that does not explain by what 
 means the Sepia can so change its colour." 
 
 " The method is very simple. In the interstices of 
 the skin there are globules of different colours. And 
 in accordance with the impressions made on the 
 animal, these globules are expanded or contracted, 
 and so produce the strangest effects. 
 
 " But the most curious point is that not only can 
 the Sepia become pale and change its colour, but it 
 appears also to have the gift of tears. At any rate, their 
 eyes, like our own, are well supplied with lachrymal 
 glands ; but as for telling you what sort of event 
 would be likely to bring tears from the eye of a cuttle- 
 fish, I must admit I cannot, for I have no trustworthy 
 information. 
 
 " The tube which ends at the edges of the sac 
 serves But wait a minute, the creature itself is 
 going to show us its use." 
 
 The Sepia was just then close to the edge, and Ldon 
 stooped as if to take it up, and seeing this the 
 cephalopod contracted the tube and ejected the water 
 it contained, and the rebound caused by this was 
 sufficient to take it to the middle of the pool. 
 
 " A most singular way of walking backwards," 
 said Kene", and then going roundabout he adroitly 
 caught the Sepia in his net and laid it on the sand. 
 
 Black, who had watched all his movements, at once 
 ran two or three times round the quiescent creature,
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 65 
 
 then suddenly stretching his legs, he leaped forward 
 in order to seize it. 
 
 But the Sepia, too quick for him, ejected by its tube 
 a thick black ink, that completely inundated the un- 
 fortunate Black. 
 
 The dog fled howling away, and without looking 
 to right or left, made straight as an arrow for home. 
 The two cousins were ready to die with laughing. 
 
 " Ah, ah ! " cried Kene, " a useful lesson. That 
 shows what one may get by quarrelling with those 
 one does not know ! Poor Black, discomfited and 
 dyed by a cuttle-fish. However, come here, doggy, 
 and I will console you. Black, Black ! " 
 
 But the dog did not hear him. Continuing his head- 
 long course, he was already disappearing amongst the 
 first houses. 
 
 "I must not say much about it," added his master, 
 " for I must admit I might have been similarly taken 
 in myself. Who could have guessed that such a crea- 
 ture contained in its inside a syringe full of ink, ready 
 for use against any rash person ? There must have 
 been at least a shilling's-worth. But I should like to 
 know whether one could write with it." 
 
 u So well," replied Leon, "that in point of fact, the 
 ancients scarcely knew of any other ink. It is only 
 since their time that the progress of chemistry has 
 enabled us to obtain other means of a more accessible 
 and less costly nature for use on paper. Cuvier, I 
 F
 
 66 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 believe, was the last to put the sepia ink to an impor- 
 tant use. As a fit whim for a scientific man, he made 
 use of it to write his memoir on Cephalopoda, and to 
 make the drawings. But I say, we are not making a 
 bad bag to-day. I had already some calamaries and 
 squids, cuttle-fish allied to the Sepia, in my collection, 
 and this specimen, after it has been prepared so as to 
 render the organs visible, and placed in alcohol, will 
 make a splendid specimen. The only portion of a 
 Sepia I previously possessed was their flat bone, with 
 which you are no doubt acquainted." 
 
 " What ! do you mean to tell me that the flat 
 biscuits given to birds to sharpen their beaks on are 
 obtained from these fish?" 
 
 " The Sepia is not a fish." 
 
 " And yet it is not a radiate ; still less an annelid; 
 nor a mollusc." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "Well, because the Sepia is far too knowing a 
 creature, and far too complicated in structure, to take 
 a place in the family of oysters and mussels ; as I 
 am sure Black would confirm if he could speak. And 
 besides, as you know, the cuttle-fish have no shells." 
 
 " That is true, but their near relatives, the argo- 
 nauts, have. Moreover, on such grounds the great 
 slugs would also not be mollusca." 
 
 " Quite so, although I admit that it did not occur to 
 me before. But then you neglected to tell me the
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 67 
 
 other day how the mollusca may be recognised and 
 into what categories they are divided." 
 
 "The mollusca are, as their name indicates, creatures 
 with soft bodies and without either external or internal 
 skeleton, for it would be going too far to call the one 
 bone of the Cephalopoda a skeleton. Some of them 
 are uncovered, others are protected by a shell. They 
 are divided into four classes : first, the Cephalopoda, 
 which have the feet placed around the head. To 
 these belong the Octopus, the Sepia, the squid." 
 
 "These certainly ought to be the most fleet of 
 animals," interrupted Bene. 
 
 u o 9 9 9 
 
 " Because they have always their legs on their 
 neck." * 
 
 " Is it impossible to induce you to be serious ? The 
 second class is that of Pteropoda, a not very numerous 
 group of animals inhabiting the great seas, having a 
 fin placed on each side of the mouth : examples, Clio 
 and Hyale. We shall not meet with any of them in 
 the waters of the Channel, so I pass them by. 
 
 " Finally, the last two classes are named respectively 
 the Gasteropoda, from the mode of progression of the 
 animals that compose the group, the lower part of the 
 body forming a sort of sucker or fleshy foot, by the 
 aid of which they drag themselves hither and thither. 
 
 * Rene's joke is lost in translation. To " have the legs on the neck " is 
 in English to take to one's heels. Thus the Cephalopoda are, in French, 
 always taking to their heels, but in English this is not the case.
 
 68 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 To this belong snails, top -shells or trochi, the cowries, 
 the helmet-shells, and the buccini or Triton's shells. 
 It is in this group that we find the mollusca of 
 greatest beauty and most varied forms. Lastly, the 
 
 Murex. 
 
 JIaliotis. 
 
 GASTEEOPOD MOLIAJSCA. 
 
 Acephala,* or if you prefer it, the molluscs that have 
 
 no head." 
 
 " Animals without a head ! How absurd." 
 
 " I am not joking. Have you ever seen the head 
 
 of a mussel or of an oyster ? " 
 
 " You are right," said the Parisian, a little abashed 
 
 at his own boldness, "but I admit this did not occur 
 
 * The name Acephala has suffered many -vicissitudes since the time of 
 Cuvier, and the group of mollusca without heads is now usually termed 
 Lamellibranchiata, or by some Conchifera.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 69 
 
 to my mind before. For this reason the Acephala 
 may really be the most molluscous, the most stupid 
 of all the mollusca. And indeed to pass one's entire 
 existence in a closed box can scarcely be productive 
 of much intelligence. But we have lost a good quarter 
 of an hour between our mollusca and the Sepia, and 
 the shrimps await. Advance, and let us try the fortune 
 of the net." 
 
 And the two young men, up to their waists in the 
 water, plied their nets on the bottom. The first 
 attempt was successful ; Eene brought up from the 
 
 ACEPHALOUS MOLLUSC. RAZOR-FISH (Solen ensis). 
 
 bottom, besides a handful of lively, leaping shrimps, 
 a fish with broad, spiny fins, and body covered with 
 thorns. An enormous mouth was the accompaniment 
 of an extremely broad head. 
 
 It was a bull-head, or sea- scorpion (Cottus scorpius), 
 a veritable Quasimodo in the watery world. This fish 
 is rejected by the French fishermen on account of its 
 small size and very oily flesh. But in some parts of 
 Norway, where the Cottus is very abundant, an oil is 
 extracted from its liver, and is probably credited to the 
 cod and sold as such. 
 
 Both in France and Norway the sea-scorpion, as
 
 7 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 depraved in morals as it is unprepossessing in appear- 
 ance, belongs to the detestable fraternity of loiterers 
 and prowlers. Lying in ambush behind some bunch 
 of seaweed, like the parties in question concealed in a 
 doorway, it throws itself suddenly on some fish who 
 may be passing near unsuspicious of any danger ; and 
 
 FISHING -FKoa (Loph'ws piscatorius, Lin.). 
 
 its multitudinous misdeeds have earned for it the 
 cognomen of sea-devil, a name which it shares, how- 
 ever, with the fishing-frog (Lophius piscatorius, L.). 
 
 " This again is another wily and knowing fellow. 
 You must often have seen this large fish in the 
 markets ; it has a repulsive appearance, a very broad
 
 TWO FOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 body with an enormous mouth surmounted by two 
 long filaments terminating above in bright, shining 
 surfaces. Possibly even you may have asked yourself 
 what means a fish of such awkward form and appear- 
 ance could adopt to satisfy its hunger. 
 
 " Well, it is done by counting on the faults of 
 other fish, in the same way as man himself only 
 too often takes advantage of the vices of his kind. 
 The fishing-frog spreads its snare, relying with good 
 reason on the greediness and inquisitiveness of its 
 neighbours. Buried in the mud, it vibrates the fila- 
 ments above its head, until some fish thoughtlessly 
 comes loitering around this novel bait. Then 
 you may guess the sequel. The capacious maw opens, 
 entombs the victim, and the game is recommenced. 
 
 "The market-women sometimes speculate on the 
 voracity of the fishing-frogs, and purchase them at a 
 low price, on the strength of what they may contain. 
 The fishing-frog swallows its prey in a gluttonous 
 fashion without any mastication, and they often find 
 in its stomach fish but little damaged, and sell them 
 to customers who are not very observant." 
 
 "And is this done frequently ?" asked Kene*, for 
 the idea that he might have eaten a sole fished from 
 the stomach of one of these rascals did not at all please 
 him. 
 
 " Possibly oftener than you think," replied his 
 cousin. "But let us now see what my luck has been.
 
 72 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 Xo doubt the bottom not far from here is rocky, for I 
 have found a rock-shrimp, or as it is commonly called 
 prawn, the scientific name being Palcemon serratus, 
 the saw-bearing palaemon. 
 
 " You would never guess where the prawn carries 
 his carpenter's tool ; it is, if you please, on its head, 
 and does not use it as an instrument to work with, 
 but as a defensive weapon. The saw is so placed that 
 
 I 
 
 THE PKA'WX (Palcemon serratus). 
 
 a fish cannot swallow the prawn head-first without 
 running the risk of being choked. The Palsemon is 
 well aware of this, and thus from fear he keeps his 
 face to the enemy." 
 
 Leon was on the point of dipping his net into the 
 water again, when Bene* stopped him by a gesture. 
 
 "Wretch, that you are; why, you are throwing away 
 a whole dish of fish ! I suppose, however, it would
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 75 
 
 not be right to kill these little plaice and liliputian 
 dab-fish, for a little fish grows to be a great one." 
 
 And he pointed with his finger to five or six little 
 Pleuronectes, about half an inch long. 
 
 " Look at them, well," said Le*on, holding them in 
 his hand, " and tell me how their eyes are placed," 
 
 " Like the eyes of other land-plaice I beg pardon, 
 I should say, other plaice from the sea. I fancy, 
 
 COMMON SHRIMP (Cmngon vulgaris). 
 
 however, that these have their eyes placed in not 
 quite so straight a line as their larger relatives. .To 
 what is that due ?" 
 
 "To their peculiar habits. When born, they are 
 symmetrical in shape, like other fish ; then gradually 
 the habit of resting on the sand compels the fish to 
 carry the head on one side, which thus becomes 
 deformed and then quite fixed." 
 
 "A sort of permanent wryneck, then! It is cer- 
 tainly very strange. But now it is my turn. Another
 
 7 6 THE WALKS ABROAD Of 
 
 fish ! It has a rather mischievous appearance, with its 
 black spines, and its eyes on the top of its forehead. 
 Is it also a devil of a third sort ? " 
 
 " Let it go, let it go ! " cried Le'on. " It is a crazy 
 fish." (The fishermen of the Boulogne region fre- 
 quently designate the Trachinus vipera, or lesser wee- 
 ver. by this name.) 
 
 Rene", however, put his hand to the bottom of the 
 
 tt-EEVEB FISH (Ti-Ucli'niHx ilfiin,. Lin.). 
 
 net, but as soon as he touched the fish he rapidly 
 withdrew it, uttering a cry of pain. 
 
 "Wounded! and I had warned you," said Leon. 
 " Fortunately I have brought with me some ammonia., 
 as I usually do." 
 
 And after rubbing the wound, he took his hand- 
 kerchief and bound up the injured hand. 
 
 " It is of no importance," said Rene", making, how-
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 77 
 
 ever, a grimace that completely belied his words. "It 
 is nothing." 
 
 But the pain, which was very acute, soon extended 
 to his arm, and a nervous shivering caused his teeth to 
 chatter, almost as if with intense cold. 
 
 GUBNARD (Trigla, Cuv.). 
 
 "Let us get back as quickly as possible," said 
 Le"on ; " it is the best thing we can do now." 
 
 And taking the two nets, with the wounded arm 
 resting on his shoulder, and feeling seriously grieved, 
 he followed the road that Black had traversed a little 
 while before.
 
 VII. 
 
 Symptoms that may arise from the wound of the -weever-fish The poison- 
 ous structures of the weever Classification of fishes A fanciful 
 etymovogy A shark's breakfast, according to Muller More strange 
 names Why fishes that live near the surface in the water cannot pene- 
 trate to great depths L/ife in the abysses of the ocean How a simple 
 thread sufficed to overturn the theories of scientific men Researches 
 made by the English, Swedish, and Ameri-jans. Explorations of the 
 Travailleur and Talisman Surprising results Remarks by Rene The 
 invalid's nightmare. 
 
 THE prick of the smaller weever-fish is not danger- 
 ous if cauterised at once. Nevertheless the doctor 
 thought it advisable to slightly open the wound, and 
 then, having dressed it, prescribed two or three days' 
 rest for the patient. The seaside excursions were 
 therefore for a time postponed. 
 
 " You may congratulate yourself on having escaped 
 so easily," said the doctor, as he placed the last 
 bandage in its position. "I have seen some cases, 
 where the wound was deeper and not attended to in 
 time, in which erysipelas and mortification ensued, 
 and the injured finger required amputation. " 
 
 The new naturalist made a rather awkward grimace. 
 
 " I suppose you are quite sure, Uncle Bob, that it 
 will not come to that, this time ? "
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 79 
 
 " Egad ! If I were at all uneasy, do you think 1 
 should have said anything to you about it ? " 
 
 Kene' was soothed by this argument. 
 
 " Is it then a real poison, like that of the viper, that 
 exists in the sting of this horrid creature, the Trachi- 
 nus viper a ? " said he. 
 
 u I know nothing on the subject," said Le'on. " A 
 good deal of inquiry has been devoted to it, but up 
 to the present time, without very much result, I 
 believe." 
 
 " But I know," said the doctor. " The poisonous 
 instrument of the weever is now understood, but it is 
 only quite recently ; * for until now its delicate 
 structure had caused it to escape the researches of 
 investigators." 
 
 The worthy gentleman then placed his glasses in 
 position on his nose, took up a pencil and a large 
 sheet of white paper, so as to be able to complete his 
 demonstration by an off-hand sketch, and commenced 
 as follows : 
 
 u The apparatus in question consists of a very 
 strong spine, divided internally into two channels, 
 and covered at its extremity by a membrane. This 
 membrane is apparently arranged in such a manner 
 as to prevent the escape of the poison under ordinary 
 
 * " Recherches faites au Laboratoire de Physiologic maritime du Havre," 
 par M. A. Bottard, presentees, comme these inaugurale, par M. A. Gressin, et 
 editees sous le titre : Contribution a T etude de Fappareil a venin chez lea poisson* 
 du genre Vive. A. Daw editeur.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 circumstances. Each of these channels terminates at its 
 base in a sort of conical cavity, filled by a whitish sub- 
 
 HKAT) OF THE WEEVKB. 
 
 o. Sheath of the spine. E, Spine, c, Follicle wi 
 
 SECTION THBOTTGH THE MIDDLE OF THE SPINE. 
 
 v, Blood-vessels, p, Skin and connective tissue. 0, Prolongation of gland. 
 
 SECTION OF SriXE AT THE BASE. 
 
 P, Skin. E, Cartilage. c, Gland-cells, or, Granular part, a, Gland with 
 epithelial contents and connective envelope, in the cartilage. 
 
 stance a sort of gland formed by cells. Some of these 
 are very large, and some have the appearance of having
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 been ruptured by the pressure of the liquid within 
 them. 
 
 "This liquid is the poison. If one touches the 
 extremity of the spine with the finger" (Eene here 
 made a gesture indicating that to have done it once 
 was quite sufficient) " one soon sees exude at the tip 
 
 SEA-LAMPEEY (Petromyzon marinus, Lin.). 
 
 a limpid drop, of a bluish colour when the animal is 
 living, but opalescent after it has been dead some 
 hours. As to the nature of the poison, there is reason 
 for believing that it produces nervous spasms." 
 
 "How annoying ! And I, too, who was taking so 
 well to zoology ! However, I have now the right to 
 consider myself a martyr to science ; and meanwhile
 
 84 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 I request that I may be instructed in the method of 
 the classification and determination of fishes, that a 
 similar misfortune shall not happen to me again." 
 
 " "With pleasure," said Leon. " Fishes are divided 
 into two great classes, the bony fishes, and the carti- 
 laginous fishes." 
 
 " So that in order to recognise them one must first 
 
 SHABP-NOSED BAY (Raja oxyrhyndtHs, Lin.). 
 
 dissect them ? Not a convenient method at all. How- 
 ever, let us continue." 
 
 "The cartilaginous fishes are themselves divided 
 into three orders: 
 
 " 1. The sturgeons. 
 
 " 2. The Cyclostomi, or suckers, in which the mouth 
 is suctorial. Type, the lamprey. 
 
 " 3. The selachian fishes (rays, sharks, sea-hounds): 
 a family essentially voracious, and great feeders."
 
 TWO YOUNG A T ATURALISTS. 
 
 "By the way, do you know what is the etymology 
 of the word requin ?" (the French for shark). 
 
 "Well, it is from the Latin word requiem, because 
 when a man falls into the sea near a shark, the 
 requiem or office for the dead may be said for him. 
 These fishes are not epicures, and their voracity, as 
 
 SWOKD-FISH (Xiphiax gladiiis, Lin.). 
 
 everybody knows, induces them to seize on all kinds 
 of food. And as may be supposed, many tales, more 
 or less improbable, have arisen from this. For 
 instance, the Danish naturalist, Miiller, gravely states 
 that in the Mediterranean, near St. Margaret's Isle, a 
 shark was captured weighing more than fifteen hun-
 
 86 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 dred pounds, and in the body of the said shark there 
 was the corpse of a horse quite entire." 
 
 " With the four shoes on the feet ? That appears to 
 me rather difficult of digestion." 
 
 " However that may be, the cartilaginous fishes 
 comprise the sharks, sturgeons, and lampreys." 
 
 THE TUNNY (Scomber thijuitus, Lin.). 
 
 "And how do you distinguish the bony fishes ?" 
 " By the position of the fins and of the gills, and 
 the form of the jaws. And it is from these that their 
 uncouth names are derived, almost enough to make 
 you shudder : to begin with, the Acanthopterygii, the 
 dorsal fin of which is furnished with spiny rays : ex- 
 amples, the gurnard, the tunny, the sword-fish. Next
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 the Malacopterygii, which, according as their ventral 
 fins are placed more or less backwards, are called abdomi- 
 nales (carp, pike, salmon, herrings), subbranchii (cod, 
 whiting, flat-fish) ; if these fins are altogether absent, 
 as in the eels, they are called Apodes. Finally we 
 come to the Lophobranchii, with the gills placed in 
 
 THE BUFF (Perca cerntia, Cuv.). 
 
 tufts (Hippocampus, or sea-horses), and the Plectog- 
 nathi, a small family of fish with the maxillary and 
 intermaxillary bones united : examples, the Diodon, or 
 porcupine fish. That is the end of the puzzle." 
 
 " Eeally, you are not too exacting. But the jargon 
 is not merely Greek, it is Ivirghise or Cossack such
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 words as acanthopt . . , and malacopt . . ; and as in the 
 matter of all foreign languages my education has been 
 
 COMMON CAEP (Cijpiinus carpio, Lin.). 
 
 equally neglected, please talk to me of marine animals 
 for the future in my own tongue. Happy fishes ! " 
 
 SOLE (Pleuronectes solea, Lin.). 
 
 added he with a sigh of envy, " they have indeed 
 plenty of elbow-room, and must be able to make 
 magnificent excursions in their immense domain."
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 "Much less than you suppose/' said Uncle Bob. 
 " Each kind of fish, like the terrestrial animals, has its 
 area of distribution, beyond which it cannot pass. In 
 the case of many species the great currents of the 
 ocean form an impassable barrier. Here is an instance 
 of it. Formerly the shoals of. herring came by way 
 
 TUEBOT (PJeiironectes max t mm, Burbo.). 
 
 of the North Sea, along the coasts as far as the mouth 
 of the Seine, but at present they scarcely come 
 beyond Etretat. Some imperceptible change in the 
 condition of the bottom, in the composition of the 
 water, or perhaps in the direction of the currents, and 
 these innumerable hosts at once quit their old habits 
 and change their route."
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 " But probably they obtain their compensation by 
 making some fresh excursions at greater depths. 
 There must be scattered over the ocean some im- 
 mensely deep places ; and when a fish is tired of the 
 surface, I imagine there is nothing to prevent his 
 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS OF TILE ' ' TALISMAN. ' ' SPONGE (Holtmid). 
 
 going lower down and ruralising at a depth of say 
 eight or ten thousand feet." 
 
 '* No, no ! This very year some curious observations 
 have been made on this subject. Without being a 
 great physicist, you may be aware that the pressure 
 increases in proportion to the depth. Well, it was 
 desired to find out how fish behave at pressures of
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 93 
 
 two hundred, three hundred, and even five hundred 
 atmospheres. The result of the experiments proved 
 that fish that live near the surface can only descend 
 to a comparatively slight depth; under an increased 
 pressure they die ; and this is very remarkable the 
 water being forced into their tissues, their body 
 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS OF THE " TALISMAN." SPONGE ( 
 
 becomes rigid and brittle as glass. Naturally, the 
 simpler the organisation of the creatures, the greater 
 is their power of resistance, and a pressure that is 
 sufficiently great to kill a fish only stuns a crab, and 
 apparently does not produce much effect on a radiate 
 or a mollusc."
 
 94 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 "Under such conditions life must be fearfully 
 monotonous at these great depths. A dreadful dark- 
 ness, a solemn silence, and the only inhabitants two 
 pallid star -fish and three colourless anemones. Pheugh ! 
 it makes me shudder only to think of it." 
 
 " Until the last few years every one would have 
 agreed with you, including even the most accomplished 
 
 STJKStAEIXE EXPLORATIONS OF THE " TALISMAN." Eltsto 
 DISCOVERED AT A DEPTH OF 8,800 FEET. 
 
 naturalists. Judging from what they could see, they 
 had decided that life was impossible at great depths, and 
 had anyone ventured to say the contrary, they would, 
 in a professional and mathematical manner, have proved 
 that he knew nothing about it and was a fool." 
 
 " Ignorant men of knowledge ! But who, then, 
 demonstrated their error?"
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 95 
 
 " A thread. In 1861 the submarine cable laid 
 between Sardinia and Algeria broke, at a depth of 
 more than 6,500 feet. It was fished up, and you may 
 imagine the astonishment of naturalists when there 
 was found adhering to this cable a whole colony of 
 polypes, of annelids, and of shells. Some of the 
 species thus discovered were unknown in the Mediter- 
 
 STTBMAKINE EXPLOBATION S OF THE "TALISMAN. 
 
 ranean waters, and others had been met with pre- 
 viously only in the state of fossils. So that this was 
 greeted as a happy revelation, and Milne-Edwards,* 
 feo whom the pieces of the cable had been confided, 
 went so far as to say that ' such discoveries were well 
 
 * Milne-Edwards, one of the chief of the naturalists of France, has 
 recently died, and the author of the original work has inserted a note 
 announcing the fact, and expressing the respect and esteem in which he was 
 held, as well as the regret felt at his loss.
 
 <)6 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 worth a cable broken, and that it was to be hoped 
 that similar accidents would occur again.' 
 
 u Since this occurrence the English, Swedish, and 
 American peoples have fitted out ships for sounding 
 and dredging, with the object of revealing the won- 
 derful secrets of the ocean depths. 
 
 " The Government of France has held it a point of 
 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATION o Ui' XHii ' XAi.ls.MAN.' Miid'H i'l/.<, f/lobu'Cps. 
 FISHED FBOM A DEPTH BETWEEN' 4,500 AND 10,000 FEET. 
 
 honour not to be left behind, and in 1880 a despatch- 
 boat, the Travailleur, made its first voyage for this 
 purpose in the Bay of Biscay. The results obtained 
 were so satisfactory that it was decided to make a 
 second campaign in the Mediterranean Sea, and then' 
 a third in the neighbourhood of the Canary Islands. 
 And quite recently the Travailleur and the Talisman
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 97 
 
 made an exploration in the Atlantic, and the spoils 
 they obtained were exhibited in one of the galleries 
 of the Museum of Natural History at Paris. 
 
 "No doubt you, who though so mocking are yet of 
 an inquiring turn of mind, visited this exhibition. 
 It was the fashion in Paris to go there. 
 
 "There were some true marvels, and the species 
 that had been previously known only in a fossil state, 
 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS OF THE "TALISMAN." Eurlplifli-1/n 
 COAST OF MAROCCO, AT A DEPTH OF 8,000 FEET. 
 
 were in variety of form and beauty of colouring not 
 a whit behind those that were already familiar to 
 naturalists. 
 
 " There were siliceous sponges, Holtenia, that might 
 have been taken for birds' -nests, or cups made with 
 braided threads of glass. Other sponges, by the 
 
 H
 
 q8 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 strange shape of their skeletons, recalled the comb 
 made by bees. And farther on, side by side with 
 dense copses of corals, there were Echinodermata, 
 star-fishes, radiates of all sizes, forms, and colours, 
 such as naturalist had never seen even in dreams 
 before. And no doubt among the numerous horde of 
 crustaceans, you noticed a collection of shrimps of a 
 
 SUBMARINE EXPLORATIONS OF THE "TALISMAN." MeldHeoCetHfl joltnsoni. 
 BETWEEN THE AZORES AND EUROPE. DEPTH, 16,000 FEET. 
 
 to 
 
 carmine colour, some of which measured no less than 
 eight inches in length ? " 
 
 "Certainly," said Kene, "and I can admit freely 
 that it was these shrimps that most impressed me, for 
 I could not help thinking of the splendid effect they 
 would produce in the window of one of the restaurants 
 of the Palais Koval."
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 99 
 
 " And the savants of the expedition, rumour says, 
 did not think it necessary to abstain from tasting 
 them. Whether this was actually the case or not, the 
 collection did not suffer from it, and the materials 
 brought back by the expedition will require at least 
 ten years of study to work them out. 
 
 " You remarked a little while since that the depths 
 of the sea must be absolutely dark. Well, the fish 
 overcome this difficulty by lighting it themselves, and 
 by carrying their lamps about with them. Many fish 
 are furnished with luminous plates, and almost all the 
 inferior forms are phosphorescent : for instance, the 
 Brisingia, a magnificent star-fish which derives its 
 name from the favourite darling of a Scandinavian 
 divinity." 
 
 " What a strange world ! Is the Trachinus viper a 
 found among these fishes ? I mean, are the fishes 
 like those we are acquainted with ? " 
 
 " Not altogether so," said the doctor. " Indeed this 
 was one of the things that caused some surprise to 
 the naturalists of the expedition. The fishes found at 
 great depths are soft, without rigidity. To obtain the 
 necessary firmness they require to be submitted to a 
 pressure of several hundred atmospheres. When re- 
 lieved of this pressure, they decompose and pass into 
 the condition of a gelatinous mass." 
 
 u It is certainly a great pity," said Kene, "that we 
 cannot actually study these things for ourselves on
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 the spot, like the Captain Nemo of Jules Verne. How- 
 ever, seeing the constant progress made by science, I 
 shall not be surprised if we succeed in doing this 
 some day." 
 
 The following day, a feverish attack, induced to 
 some extent by the venom of the Trachinus vipera 
 brought a singular dream to the young Parisian. 
 Having been shot violently into space, he was revolv- 
 ing through unknown abysses. In the midst of 
 phosphorescent monsters great star-fishes vibrated 
 their arms, lighted up as if by some electric light ; 
 strange Echinodermata were seen, 'scattered here and 
 there, as if portions of heraldic designs belonging to 
 another world ; while, partly concealed in shado\r, 
 gigantic lobsters awaited his passing with open claws 
 and menacing antennae !
 
 VIII. 
 
 AJO. uninviting- form of cookery Light talking and good working A 
 constant sign Curious anatomical point An. eye consisting of many 
 thousand eyes A magnificent preparation Three stomachs to a single 
 individual The classification of insects Queer names again -Aptera 
 A flea's jump Unexpected maternal instinct The reputation of 
 the flea restored Diptera Number of strokes of a gnat's wing in a 
 second The bot-flies and Helophili Transformations of a gnat 
 Hemiptera Lepidoptera Butterflies have feathers Depredators 
 Neuroptera Devastating hosts White ants Coleoptera Our friends 
 and enemies. 
 
 RENE'S prejudices against zoology had gradually, and 
 without he himself being aware of it, been dissipated. 
 Certainly he would have been very surprised if any 
 one had told him that since his arrival at Yillers 
 science had gained an additional devotee ; but it was 
 nevertheless the case, and Uncle Bob noted it each 
 day with pleasure. 
 
 Rene, at first an uninterested listener, now gave to 
 these interesting demonstrations a more sustained 
 attention than might have been anticipated from his 
 natural disposition, and he not only listened but 
 actually inquired. 
 
 He had, in fact, become a valuable assistant, almost 
 a true disciple, to Leon. And the doctor's son derived
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 a feeling of genuine satisfaction from this change, for 
 he had good reason for believing that it was largely 
 due to his own influence. 
 
 But something of the careless scholar of former 
 days still survived in the young disciple of the 
 present time, and as a proof of this, Bene* took advan- 
 tage of the excellent excuse afforded by his wounded 
 hand for sleeping through the best part of the morn- 
 ing, and coming down very late to breakfast. 
 
 As he was taking his place in the breakfast room, 
 Le*on entered, diffusing around him a strong odour of 
 essence of turpentine and of benzine, and wearing a 
 large white apron over his clothes. 
 
 " Good day, lazy man ! " he laughingly said. 
 
 " Good hail, you dreadful poisoner ! " replied Bene*, 
 offering his sound hand to his cousin. " But what 
 calling are you engaged in this morning ? Have you 
 become apprentice to a dyer, or are you only practising 
 the art of painting in oil ? " 
 
 " Neither one nor the other. I am arranging my 
 collection and endeavouring to protect it from becom- 
 ing greasy." 
 
 The Parisian now looked at him with an air of 
 unaffected surprise. Evidently he did not at all 
 understand. 
 
 "Becoming greasy?" he repeated. "Then it is 
 neither dyeing nor painting, but it must be cooking. 
 And what are you getting ready ? "
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 103 
 
 " My collection of insects. I am preventing it from 
 spoiling. Perhaps you would like to help me." 
 
 " With pleasure, if my wounded hand will allow 
 me. But, as fair exchange is no robbery, you must 
 tell me about your insects and give me some know- 
 ledge concerning them, and I shall assist you in your 
 efforts to prevent their becoming fat." 
 
 So, after having breakfasted very heartily for a 
 sick man, he went to his cousin's workroom. 
 
 "To begin with," said he, looking at the boxes 
 opened and displayed on the tables, " I see quite a 
 bewildering series of different forms, although the little 
 creatures have a certain air of family likeness that I 
 can perceive without being able to define. Tell me, if 
 you please, what are the characters that constitute an 
 insect?" 
 
 "Insects are characterised by having the body 
 divided into three parts head, thorax, and abdomen, 
 the latter being formed by several rings or segments 
 placed one behind another. All, when they have 
 arrived at their perfect state, have three pairs of legs, 
 and undergo one or more, more or less abrupt, trans- 
 formations, passing the greater part of the period of 
 their existence in the condition of larvae, then becom- 
 ing nymphs or chrysalides, and then in the form of 
 perfect insects reproducing their kind. 
 
 " There is nothing more wonderful than the anatomy 
 of these liliputian beings. Thus they breathe by
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 means of tubes opening on the sides of their bodies, 
 and called tracheaB ; these tubes terminate externally 
 in orifices called stigmata." 
 
 " And are these organs numerous ? " 
 
 " Very numerous. A patient entomologist has 
 counted one thousand five hundred and sixty-four on 
 the caterpillar of the willow.* But this is only one 
 of the remarkable peculiarities of insects : many have 
 compound eyes divided into facets." 
 
 " Perhaps - like diamonds after they have been 
 cut ? " 
 
 "Yes, but with the difference that the facets are 
 much more numerous. They have counted, I believe, 
 
 four thousand in the house-fly." 
 it \ j? 
 
 "About six thousand, two hundred in the silkworm 
 moth." 
 
 i< T T 
 
 " Twelve thousand, five hundred and forty-four in 
 a dragon-fly."t 
 
 " What you are telling me sounds almost incredi- 
 ble ! I shall become a St. Thomas, and ask you to 
 show me that I may believe." 
 
 * There is here some error of memory or of pen. The stigmata in insects 
 are never more than twenty in number ; on the other hand, the tracheae are 
 so numerous, distributed as they are to all paits of the body, and ramifying 
 in a fine network around and amongst all the organs, as to defy counting. 
 Tossibly he refers to the number of muscles, of which Lyonnet counted 
 4,061 in the caterpillar of Cossus ligniperda. T--inslator. 
 
 t And twenty-five thousand and eighty-eight in a beetle (Mordella). 
 Translator.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 105 
 
 ki Nothing is easier; here is a large grasshopper, 
 and here is an excellent glass ; see then, and believe." 
 
 "Indeed it is true!" said Rene, who had laid 
 aside his brush in order to take the lens that his 
 cousin offered to him. " One ought to look at every- 
 thing in an insect, for all is remarkable, not only the 
 eyes, but the jaws, the antennae, the legs," and as lie 
 was speaking he passed the glass over the various 
 parts of the body of the grasshopper. " Eeally, you 
 should have made me acquainted with all this before." 
 
 " Tt is never too late to mend. Take a good lens, 
 
 FOUR FACETS FROM THE EYE OF A COCKCHAFER. 
 
 a, b, Retina, c, Crystalline cone, d, Curneal facet. 
 
 or a microscope, and any insect whatever, and you 
 find in it a field of study almost unlimited, especially 
 if you are of a mind to examine its anatomy and 
 dissect it. I happen to have, on this glass slide, a 
 splendid specimen : it is the digestive system of a 
 Carabus, that my father has been occupying himself 
 with preparing." 
 
 This beautiful preparation had demanded for its 
 execution the utmost patience and all the skill of a 
 practised and accomplished hand. The three dilata-
 
 io6 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 tions that form, as it were, three different stomachs, the 
 resophagus, the gizzard, and the true stomach, were 
 
 DIGESTIVE SYSTEM OF A CARNIVOROUS INSECT 
 
 perfectly distinct; and around the canal were still 
 attached the fine tubes that are called malpighian 
 vessels, whose function is not yet very definitely
 
 J 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 107 
 
 ascertained, but which have been supposed to be 
 biliary vessels. 
 
 " This is really superb," said the Parisian, as he 
 shifted the preparation from place to place under the 
 object glass, so as to seize all its details. "But before 
 commencing the study of the internal anatomy of 
 insects, I think it will be advisable to learn to dis- 
 tinguish them from one another ; for without some 
 sort of classification this must be, as you say, by no 
 
 HEAD-LOUSE, MUCH MAGNIFIED. 
 
 means an easy affair, seeing how numerous are their 
 kinds." 
 
 "Numerous indeed. Of all animals they are by far 
 the most numerous ; of ants alone there are known 
 about fifteen hundred different kinds. And so, in 
 order to keep from being lost in such a labyrinth, 
 several divisions have been adopted, and eight diffe- 
 rent orders are recognised, based on the number and 
 nature of the wings. They are 
 
 "1. Aptera, destitute of wings.
 
 108 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 11 2. Diptera, having two wings. 
 
 " All the other orders have four ; they are 
 
 ''3. Lepidoptera, whose wings are covered with 
 scales. 
 
 " 4. Hymenoptera, the veins of whose wings form 
 large meshes. 
 
 U 5. Neuroptera, the meshes of whose wings are 
 numerous and small., 
 
 " 6. Hemiptera, suctorial insects having usually one 
 pair of wings, in part harder than the other. 
 
 "7. Orthoptera, with somewhat thickened upper 
 wings, and with the under wings folding in longitu- 
 dinal plaits. 
 
 " 8. Coleoptera, with hard wings called elytra, 
 usually united along the back by a straight suture, 
 and with the under wings folding transversely.* 
 
 " With these summary indications you will readily 
 be able to find your way for a little in the intricacies 
 of entomological classification." 
 
 Kene* made rather a wry face ; and clearly Coleop- 
 tera, Orthoptera, and the rest had as much difficulty in 
 making themselves at home in his mind as had the 
 Acanthopterygii and Malacopterygii of the fishes. 
 
 * The number of orders of insects is still a matter of discussion and not 
 unfrequently a larger number than the above are adopted. The Neuroptera 
 are by some naturalists divided into two or three orders ; some separate the 
 Thysanura as distinct ; and others so treat the fleas, giving them the name 
 of Aphaniptera. The order Aptera, on the other hand, is now usually 
 abandoned, the true lice being placed in the Rhynchota or Hemiptera, and 
 the bird lice in the Orthoptera. Translator.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 109 
 
 "It is easy, very easy," he muttered; "probably 
 quite easy when you have seized the clue, and this 
 clue Stop ! as you have already done so much, 
 point out to me an example of each of these eight 
 orders." 
 
 " Very well," said Le'on, laying down his brushes 
 and forceps ; "I can see that we shall not do much at 
 the preservation of my collection to-day. But I do 
 
 THE FLEA: NYMPH, PERFECT INSECT, AND LARVA. 
 OF THE STIGMATA. 
 
 INDICATES THE POSITION 
 
 not regret it, as I am glad you are overcoming your 
 prepossessions. 
 
 " The principal components of the order Aptera are 
 the lice and the fleas." 
 
 " A most disagreeable and villainous set, to com- 
 mence with ! You do not keep any in your collec- 
 tion, I hope ? " 
 
 " One must have them represented, and I make my 
 collection as complete as possible. Only in the case
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 of these infamous creatures, I keep them separately, 
 mounted between two glass plates, and we will look 
 at them under the microscope. Here, to begin with, 
 is the common louse." 
 
 " Oh, horror ! And well it justifies the common 
 saying : ' As ugly as a louse ! ' 
 
 u And here now, on this other slide, is quite a collec- 
 tion of fleas : the human flea, the cat flea, the dog 
 flea, the flea of the chicken, and that of the pigeon, 
 with the complete arrangement of lances that. serves as 
 their stock in trade. You see that the lord of the crea- 
 tion, man, has by no means a monopoly of these pests." 
 
 "Do not let me look 1 nger at these disgusting 
 creatures, the mere sight of them makes me itch. 
 They are all of them, if animals at all, destitute of 
 physical and mental powers." 
 
 " This is certainly not true in the case of the fleas. 
 For instance, they have remarkable physical powers, 
 extraordinary strength and agility, so that they make 
 leaps of one thousand or fifteen hundred times their 
 own length. If a man could perform a proportional 
 feat he would be able to clear Mont Blanc with two or 
 three bounds." 
 
 " Then, according to you, the most hyperbolic of 
 compliments to an athlete would be to say to him, ' You 
 are as capable as a flea.' And their moral qualities ? " 
 
 "They certainly possess one maternal affection." 
 
 Kene* now looked at his cousin with an expression
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 that seemed to ask if he were joking or had become 
 crazy. 
 
 " I am speaking quite seriously," he affirmed in 
 reply to this unspoken interrogatory, which he per- 
 fectly understood; "fleas have a tender and provident 
 affection for their young. Their eggs are frequently 
 placed in the cracks of floors or amongst old furniture, 
 and almost always, side by side with the eggs, there 
 are found small black granulations that, when ex- 
 amined with the microscope, are seen to be specks of 
 desiccated blood; so that the young flea on its entry 
 into the world finds provisions ready for its use. 
 
 " This first stock being exhausted (and this soon 
 happens, for the flea from its very birth is endowed 
 with a voracious appetite), the mother flea brings 
 to her offspring the blood with which she has gorged 
 herself, somewhat in the same way as birds give 
 beakfuls of food to their little ones. So that you see 
 these degraded insects are not so bad as uninstructed 
 people suppose." 
 
 "Kind fleas, honourable fleas!" cried Kene*, parti- 
 ally convinced; "nothing less than this could have 
 made me respect them. I make my bow, and out of 
 respect for their good feelings I pardon them the 
 injuries they have inflicted on me." 
 
 "Now let us turn to some of the others. After the 
 fleas that have no wings, tell me about the insects 
 that have two."
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 " In the insects that have two wings, Diptera, the 
 mouth forms a proboscis composed of four parts a 
 sheath, a suctorial apparatus, and two palpi. If you 
 examine, even with a slight magnifying power, the 
 head of a fly, you will be able to recognise these 
 different pieces. Moreover, as they have only two 
 wings, and as it would not be right that they should 
 have fair grounds for being jealous of the better 
 endowed insects, they have instead of the second pair 
 
 TWO- WINGED FLY 
 
 of wings what do you suppose ? Balancers or 
 halter es." 
 
 " Like the rope-dancers at a circus. And what is 
 the use of these organs to them ?" 
 
 "Exactly the same;* and these little instruments 
 are even of more service to them than those of the 
 performers you have mentioned. Have you any idea 
 of the number of strokes a common fly makes with its 
 wings in a second ?' ; 
 
 " No doubt many ; here is one on the table, 
 suppose we ask it? "and stretching out his hand 
 
 * This is not established.-- Translator.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 1*3 
 
 Now 
 
 he captured the fly with his finger and thumb, 
 we can see: say thirty, perhaps forty." 
 
 " You are very far out. The number of strokes 
 of the wings of a fly is about six hundred per second, 
 and may reach as many as three thousand six hundred 
 during rapid flight; is not that surprising?" 
 
 VOEMS (LAKV.K OF UetipMttU), A.M. 
 INSECT IX THE PERFECT STATE. 
 
 1 ' Here are some other kinds of Diptera : Yolucella, 
 a wild creature resembling a humble-bee, and who 
 moreover takes advantage of this to obtain entrance 
 into the nest of the bee, where it deposits its eggs, 
 which when hatched devour those of its host; the 
 Helophili, whose larvae were named by Keaumur 'rat- 
 
 r
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 tailed worms,' because of a singular appendage, 
 
 arranged after the fashion of the tubes of a telescope,
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 115 
 
 so that the creature is able, when at the bottom of the 
 water, to breathe the air at the surface. Gastro- 
 philus, belonging to the (Estridae ; these lay their 
 eggs amongst the hairs of horses, and the animal, 
 when licking the spot, detaches them and swallows 
 them, and the larvae, developing in the stomach, are 
 well known under the name of bots. And here are 
 the gnats, with whose annoying bites you have been 
 long familiar. 
 
 " Here, too, is a preparation exhibiting the very 
 complicated instruments they use for this purpose. 
 But still more wonderful are the metamorphoses of 
 these creatures. 
 
 " Before becoming an aerial animal, the gnat, or 
 rather its larva, is a little worm of strange form, 
 with a complex arrangement of bristles, and inhabit- 
 ing pools and stagnant waters. 
 
 "When undergoing its final transformation the 
 pupa rises to the surface of the water, and remains 
 there until the swollen part of its outer skin dries 
 and splits ; the perfect insect then raises itself 
 into an erect position by gradually dragging itself 
 out of the skin, which meanwhile floats and serves 
 as a boat, the erect insect being like a little mast 
 and its wings like sails : truly a wonderful and fragile 
 skiff. 
 
 " In addition to great skill the creature requires 
 good fortune to bring this delicate operation to a
 
 n6 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 successful conclusion. At this moment when it is 
 ceasing to be an inhabitant of the water, contact with 
 the water that has hitherto been its proper element 
 is fatal to it, by preventing it from taking flight, so 
 that in rough weather many of these living barks are 
 shipwrecked, and the unfortunate insect perishes 
 without having been able to fly at all." 
 
 TINDER SURFACE OF THE PHYLLOXERA OF THE VINE, WINGED FORM. 
 MAGNIFIED ABOUT SIXTY TIMES. 
 
 "I must admit," said Eene, "that the examples 
 of the two orders you have told me about are 
 wonderful. Indeed, I suspect you made a judicious 
 choice on purpose to interest me. Was it not so?" 
 
 " Certainly not ; the choice of these two instances 
 was entirely unpremeditated, and in point of fact, any 
 insect taken by itself affords astonishment to one
 
 ' TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 117 
 
 who studies it. What is already known about insects 
 would fill large volumes, and to these every day, as 
 new observations are made, new chapters must be 
 added. But I promised to introduce you to a few 
 examples of each of the orders of insects. We have 
 interviewed the Aptera and Diptera, and will now 
 continue the series. 
 
 "To the Hemiptera or Ehynchota belong the Pen- 
 tatomse, some of which may be met with in great 
 quantities in autumn on the raspberries and the 
 flowers of the mullein, and may be recognised by their 
 very strong and disagreeable odour. 
 
 " This order also includes bugs ; the Eeduvii, who 
 disguise themselves with a covering of dirt, so as to 
 approach, without being perceived, the little creatures 
 they feed on, a proceeding analogous to that of the 
 spider-crabs that I have already told you about ; the 
 Cicada, the Aphides or green-fly, the pest of our 
 gardens and trees ; and the Phylloxera, the ravager ol 
 the vines, called vastatrix by the men of science 
 (these latter, by the way, have not succeeded in doing 
 it any other harm) ; and finally many aquatic forms 
 the Notonecta, or water boatman, the Corixa, NepaB, 
 or water- scorpions, and the Ranatrse. 
 
 "Now we come to the representatives of an order 
 with which you are well acquainted the butterflies, 
 in the naturalist's language, Lepidoptera, or scaled- 
 wings, a name that is perfectly well selected."
 
 u8 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 And taking a preparation on a glass lie placed it 
 under the microscope. 
 
 " What ! these wonderful petals, these delicate 
 flowers, they are only the feathers of the butterfly ? 
 You would never have supposed it." 
 
 Then, noticing that his cousin was admiringly con- 
 templating this iridescent display, where all colours, 
 from the delicate tints of the pearl to the fervid 
 
 i'EACOCK BUTTERFLY. 
 
 brilliancy of the ruby, were represented, Le"on added : 
 "It is a great pity that these beautiful creatures 
 should be so injurious. There is scarcely a plant that 
 is not subject to the depredations of one or more 
 species, from the humble and prosaic cabbage, whose 
 leaves are consumed to the very ribs by the white 
 butterfly or Pieris, to the oak, whose leaves serve as the 
 nourishment of several species. The vegetable world
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 119 
 
 has no more determined enemies, even among the 
 hordes of insects, than the Lepidoptera. It is true 
 that it is not the butterflies themselves that do the 
 harm, but the caterpillars ; however, as the butter- 
 flies produce the caterpillars, and the caterpillars 
 
 SCALES FROM BUTTERFLIES' WINGS, GREATLY MAGNIFIED. 
 
 the butterflies, it is much the same thing to the 
 
 vegetables." 
 
 " And I, who thought them incapable of the slightest 
 misdeed," said Kene', " confiding in their beautiful 
 adornments and their innocent movements ! You
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 will, however, I hope, make an exception in favour of 
 the silkworm. Though I admit that at present insects 
 inspire me only with a most limited confidence ; 
 including even this beautiful dragon-fly with trans- 
 parent wings, that belongs, I presume, to the same 
 order." 
 
 "Not at all: it belongs to the order Keuroptera, 
 among which we have also many enemies ; and 
 
 DRAGOX-FLT (LibeUuluj . 
 
 though the dragon-tiies and the may -flies do us no 
 harm, though the ant-lion destroys only ants, there are 
 other species that are not so scrupulous in respect to 
 us. The white ants, or Termites, especially have a 
 deplorable habit of excavating their habitations or 
 concealed galleries in furniture and other articles con- 
 structed of wood. So well do they accomplish this, 
 that sometimes they leave only a thin crust of wood, 
 and directly this is touched "
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 " Crack ! it goes. It must be funny to see the face 
 of the owner under such circumstances. These des- 
 troying and annoying insects must, however, be very 
 rare, for I do not recollect ever to have met with any 
 of them." 
 
 "Certainly they are rare with us,* though very 
 
 MAY-FLY (Ephemera}. 
 
 1'erffci, Insect. 
 
 common in some maritime towns, where they do an 
 immense amount of damage. This is especially the case 
 at Eochefort, where the insect has been introduced, 
 
 * In Britain there are no white ants, and they only occur in a few spots 
 in France, in the south ; but in North America they are more common. 
 Translator
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 though it is not quite known at what date, and by 
 whom." 
 
 "Probably by some furniture maker, or carpenter, 
 by virtue of the maxim : ' Is fecit cui prodest.' It 
 
 WHITE ANTS (Termites) : DIFFERENT FORMS. 
 
 seems, then, we may conclude that such insects as are 
 not valuable friends are dangerous enemies. And 
 this long series of Coleoptera, are they friends or 
 enemies ? " 
 
 " Some are the one, some the other, as in most of
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 123 
 
 the remaining orders that are numerous in species. 
 Amongst the Coleoptera we have many allies; the 
 carnivorous beetles are especially useful, as they 
 destroy many injurious insects. I have placed them 
 all together." And opening a large box: "Here 
 
 THE BEOAD DYTISCTT3 
 
 (Dytiscus latissimus) . 
 
 COLEOPTEEA. 
 
 THE GEEAT HYDBOPHILUS 
 
 ( Hydroph i I us piccus) . 
 
 are our friends," added Leon; "in the first place 
 the numerous family of the Carabidae : Carabus 
 with metallic colours ; Procrustes, with a skin like 
 leather in appearance; the Cicindelse, called tiger- 
 beetles by LinnaBus ; the Feronise and the Harpali. 
 Then the glow-worm tribe, that destroy snails and 
 perhaps caterpillars ; the Telephori, with silky appear-
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 ance; and also the Coccinellac, called in France betes 
 a bon Dieu, great destroyers of the Aphides or green- 
 
 fly- 
 
 " The burying beetles are also useful to us, their 
 office being to dispose of offensive remains; the 
 Staphylinida3, one species being said to destroy the 
 
 EGYPTIAN' SACKED BEETLE (Scar(lb(?1is). 
 
 larvee of flies ; the Silphge, some of which wage war 
 against snails ; the dung-beetles, with their disgusting 
 food. This, by the way, did not prevent the ancient 
 Egyptians from treating them as sacred ; the Ne- 
 crophori, already mentioned, which have the habit of 
 interring the bodies of smaller animals, possibly with
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 125 
 
 the intention of preserving them till they become 
 'high,' but more probably to provide a store for 
 their future offspring. Some day we shall see them 
 at their work, and then I can assure you that you 
 will not regret the time spent in watching them. 
 And now, shall we look at the injurious beetles ? " 
 
 With this he opened a box, in which were to be 
 seen transfixed by long pins many Coleoptera, as if 
 condemned and expiating their sins. First of all the 
 
 TURNIP-FLY : NATURAL SIZE AND MUCH MAGNIFIED. 
 
 chafers, who perhaps died regretting their juicy 
 leaves ; the Dermestidee, which frequently cause serious 
 injury to the finest furs; the weevils, and the corn- 
 weevils, dreadful scourges to our stores of grain in 
 barns and granaries ; Halticidse, so small that it had 
 been necessary to gum them on pieces of cardboard ; 
 and in addition a rear-guard of the destroyers that 
 devour roots, wither the young shoots, or perforate 
 the leaves. 
 
 "All these sorts," said Le*on, "I abandon to you ;
 
 126 
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 wherever you meet with them you may destroy, smash, 
 kill, or massacre, I absolve you in advance." 
 
 CORN-WEEVIL, MTJCH WIRE WORM : LARVA DERMESTES LARDAR1US. 
 
 MAGNIFIED. AND PERFECT INSECT. 
 
 The dinner bell, violently rung by an impatient ser- 
 vant, brought to an end the instructive conversation 
 of the young friends.
 
 IX. 
 
 Congratulations are the order of the day Ineffectual strategy Some 
 respectable insects Ants and their flocks Dairy-farms of blight 
 Men, women, and workers To be an ant is no sinecure Destruction, 
 of a home An eastern legend Tamerlane In what way a mere 
 ant may sometimes decide the fate of an empire How Mr. Leon 
 increased his collection on this occasion. 
 
 As the meal was concluding, " Suppose we take our 
 coffee in the garden?" said the doctor. "Nothing is 
 better than the open air for promoting and facilitating 
 digestion." 
 
 Uncle Bob's proposal was cheerfully and unani- 
 mously accepted, and our three friends, having installed 
 themselves comfortably under the arbour, the aromatic 
 mocha was brought thither to them. 
 
 " Now, my dear nephew," said the kind savant as 
 he dispensed the pleasant refreshment, "can you 
 imagine what rumour is saying abroad ? I have heard 
 that one of the greatest traducers of natural history 
 has recently been led into the right path on the shore 
 at Yillers ; that the aforesaid traducer, having already 
 passed the grade of martyr, thanks to the wound of a 
 certain Trachinus viper a, has none the less been seen,
 
 ia8 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 this very day, in the flagrant misdemeanour of ento- 
 mology, and this too under the fallacious pretext of 
 giving to the insects a necessary cleansing which 
 they still await." 
 
 Kene*, reddened at this direct attack, but he met it 
 thus 
 
 " It is not my fault ; Le*on is in the habit of study- 
 ing animals in our native.tongue. He makes as little 
 use as possible of those long words that seem to have 
 been invented on purpose to provoke. It is he, and he 
 alone, that should be reproached." 
 
 " Or rather congratulated, and this I do most heartily. 
 Pass me the sugar-basin, if you please." 
 
 Uncle Bob selected a lump, but as he was putting 
 it in his cup he suddenly made a gesture of annoyance. 
 
 "These detestable creatures again," he muttered. 
 " My instructions have been neglected." 
 
 The kitchen and dining-room of the cottage were, 
 in fact, infested by ants by those large red ants that 
 intrude themselves wherever provisions are to be 
 found active, and apparently countless, coming one 
 knows not whence, and returning, eagerly occupied, 
 incessantly seeking supplies. 
 
 If a bowl of milk were left for only ten minutes on 
 the kitchen table, one might have been sure of finding 
 at least three or four of these adventurers struggling 
 half-drowned in the useful liquid, like the famous 
 Duke of Clarence in his butt of Malmsey wine.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 129 
 
 The sugar-basin, to them a precipitous fortress, was 
 a special object for repeated assaults from these nungry 
 little creatures. Unfortunately for them, the doctor, 
 who much preferred sugar to formic acid, had resolved 
 to make an energetic defence of his goods, and as the 
 ants, in spite of all his precautions, always found some 
 way of slipping under the cover, he had surrounded 
 the fortress with a large moat filled with water. This 
 strategic moat was nothing less than a plate. 
 
 Uncle Bob was as proud of his invention as a gene- 
 ral would be of a successful, unexpected manoeuvre. 
 Ants, it must be admitted, have no aquatic capacities, 
 so that when he discovered that his precautions had 
 been frustrated, he did not attempt to disguise his 
 surprise and annoyance, and his first impulse was to 
 lay the blame on the cook. 
 
 " So you have neglected my instructions ! " 
 
 Dame Theresa, however, would not admit this, and 
 made the most solemn asseverations that the sugar- 
 basin had, like a true fortification, never for a single 
 moment been without its surrounding zone of water. 
 
 " I am unable to understand it," said the savant. 
 
 " I think I can explain it," said Eene. u The sugar- 
 basin was, I believe, in the middle of the dumb-waiter 
 on the second shelf?" 
 
 "Yes, well?" 
 
 " Well, this morning, I observed two or three ants 
 walking about on the under side of the third shelf, 
 
 K
 
 130 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 just above the basin. The place being invincible from 
 below, ' they attacked it from above ; then, having 
 entered the basin, and not being able to get out again, 
 they have calmly awaited the turn of events." 
 The good doctor laughed most heartily. 
 
 ANT-LION IN ITS PIT : THE BORN ENEMY OF ANTS. 
 
 " So that it is I that am out-generaled ; it is I, an 
 educated, certificated medallist, that am duped by 
 these impertinent Hymenoptera ! After this, one may 
 well boast of being a man, and of passing as a learned 
 one ! However," he added, with an air of consoling
 
 TWO YO UNG NA TURALISTS. 1 3 1 
 
 himself, lt since it was destined that I was to receive a 
 lesson in strategy from some insects, it was well that 
 it should be from some of good reputation, known to 
 be clever, keeping a house of their own." 
 
 " And herds besides," added Le'on. 
 
 His cousin looked at him with an expression of in- 
 credulity. 
 
 "Herds!' 1 he repeated; "have you then another 
 history to narrate?" 
 
 " Yes, and a true one. You have had an illustration 
 
 BED ANT (Formica rufa, Latr.). 
 
 of the great love ants have for sugar. Now, as perhaps 
 you are aware, it is a curious fact that the aphides, of 
 which we have already spoken, have the faculty of 
 exuding a sugary substance. The watchful ants, 
 always busy, long since discovered the existence of this 
 natural source of sweetness, and as timidity is one of 
 the last of their defects, they calmly go and milk the 
 aphides, without, however, doing them any harm. 
 Naturally the latter, good-natured and feeble creatures, 
 allow them to do it, not being able, in fact, to prevent 
 it, so that the aphides in question become actually 
 the milch cows of the ants.
 
 J32 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 " There is still more; the ants have made a further 
 development quite as knowing in its way. l We lose 
 an enormous amount of time,' they said, ' in going 
 about here and there to milk our cattle, and, for busy 
 ants, time is money.' You will guess the sequel : 
 aphides established in, dwelling in, the nests of the 
 ants, where they are well taken care of, fed, fattened, 
 kept clean, petted, and so on, with the result that 
 there is always a supply of sugar at hand. Without 
 doing ourselves any injustice, can you suggest any 
 way by which we ourselves could have improved on 
 this?" 
 
 "No, indeed. But why should they be included in 
 the order Hymenoptera, seeing that these, as you told 
 me, are characterised by the possession of four mem- 
 branous wings with large meshes ? Ants, so far as I 
 know, have no wings at all." 
 
 "Yes, they have; but in most cases they are only 
 provided with them "for a short time at the period 
 when they are occupied with laying their eggs, and 
 even then not all of them, but only the males and 
 females." 
 
 " Your ' only ' is very strange. Are there then 
 ants that are neither male nor female? Are there 
 Auvergnats among them ? " 
 
 " Exactly, and these Auvergnats are the most 
 interesting of all the members of the ant tribe. They 
 are the workers, and on them devolve all the house-
 
 TIW YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 '33 
 
 hold operations. The males live like landlords ; the 
 females lay the eggs, and nothing more is asked of 
 them. As for the workers, their occupations are 
 
 ANTS AND APHIDES. 
 
 much more varied ; in the first place it is they who 
 construct the house." 
 
 " In fact, they are at once architects, bricklayers, 
 labourers, and miners. What next?" 
 
 " They take care of and milk the aphides." 
 
 " Dairymen."
 
 134 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 " On them also falls the duty of feeding the 
 males and females, and what is even more essential, 
 the Iarva3. These they fatten with truly maternal 
 solicitude." 
 
 " Foster-mothers." 
 
 "And of carrying the latter into the sun when it is 
 warm, or moving them from one chamber to another 
 warmer when it is cold." 
 
 "Nursemaids." 
 
 "And also of keeping watch over all the inlets 
 and exits, and of defending the community in case of 
 attack." 
 
 " And soldiers. Eeally to be an ant is by no means 
 a sinecure." 
 
 "It is an occupation that few men would be equal 
 to. But, without going far, we can see for ourselves 
 some ants in their home. I noticed yesterday at the 
 bottom of the garden a large stone, and many ants 
 
 were assembled there. Probably by lifting it " 
 
 And without waiting for the end of the sentence, the 
 three friends directed their way to a distant part of 
 the garden. 
 
 The stone was raised. Leon had not been deceived. 
 There was at once apparent a confused multitude of 
 tawny bodies, and a great interlacement of feet, as 
 well as a moving and running about in all directions. 
 Then gradually order was seen to be prevailing in the 
 midst of this disorde.-. The soil forming the floor of
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 135 
 
 the ants' nest was pierced by many little orifices ; one 
 by one the ants entered into these and disappeared 
 from sight. The larvse and pupoe (frequently called 
 ant-eggs) being unable to walk, were carried by their 
 guardians, three or four of whom sometimes joined 
 in a common effort in order to carry these precious 
 burdens out of the way of danger as speedily as 
 possible. 
 
 " These little creatures are really wanting in 
 nothing, : ' murmured the doctor. "Intelligence, 
 devotion to say nothing of the fact that their per- 
 severance is celebrated in one of the best anecdotes I 
 know as coming from the East, though whether it 
 be Persian, Tartar, or Mongol I do not now recollect ; 
 but this, however, is of little importance." 
 
 The word anecdote nearly always rouses the atten- 
 tion and excites the expectations of an audience. On 
 this occasion Uncle Bob did not wait to be pressed, 
 but continued 
 
 "It was at the time when Tamerlane was about to 
 commence his career as a conqueror. One day, his 
 forces having been overwhelmed, almost annihilated 
 by a disastrous defeat, he had been obliged to beat a 
 retreat, which, as you may well suppose, had put him 
 into a very bad humour. 
 
 " The next day, secluded in his tent, he was asking 
 himself what was now to be done, when he noticed 
 an ant climbing with much effort the canvas of the
 
 '30 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 tent. With a fillip he made the intrusive creature 
 fall to the ground. 
 
 " The ant again ascended ; a second fillip from 
 Tamerlane, followed by a third and a fourth, and 
 
 WASPS NEST ; WITH PART OF THE EXTERNAL COVERING REMOVED TO 
 SHOW THE CELLS. 
 
 each time the ant again mounted the canvas, not 
 appearing in any way discouraged. 
 
 "History is silent as to the number of times this 
 was repeated. But all at once, Tamerlane, striking 
 his forehead, a gesture which among all nations 
 signifies that an idea has occurred to a man : l This 
 example should be followed,' cried he ; 'the future
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 137 
 
 belongs to the persevering.' And leaving the ant to 
 continue its career, Tamerlane went out, and became 
 Tamerlane. And thus a little ant once decided the 
 fate of a great empire." 
 
 While the doctor was telling this, the last of the 
 ants had disappeared, and the three observers had 
 already turned away from the nest, when they noticed, 
 a few paces away in the alley, a child approaching 
 them, carrying a large parcel. At the sight of the 
 doctor he stopped short as if dumbfounded. 
 
 "What do you want, my little one?" said Uncle 
 Bob, patting him kindly on the cheek. 
 
 "It is a bumble-bee's nest that I have found and 
 brought to you, sir," said he, offering the parcel to 
 Le'on.
 
 X. 
 
 More Hymenoptera Republic and monarchy Bees Expulsion of the 
 swarm A swarm in a letter-box Preparatory measures House- 
 cleaning and repairs Propolis Wax, honey Saint Bartholomew's 
 day in a hive Egg-laying, larvae Regal food A mortal duel 
 Orthoptera Cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers, &c. Earwigs Un- 
 deserved censure Extraordinary increase of locusts and Blattae A 
 supposed omission Out of the ranks of insects The Epeira diadema 
 How the spider spins his web The trap-door spider, navvy, mason, 
 and upholsterer Argyroneta A tent under water The struggle for 
 
 LEON took a shining new silver coin from his purse, 
 and gave it to the child, who ran gambolling away. 
 
 " This is an opportune purchase," said the young 
 naturalist, as he located the great nest in his work- 
 room. "Next to the ants among the Hymenoptera, 
 we shall study the bees, for bees, humble-bees, wasps, 
 and hornets are all of one kindred, or nearly allied." 
 
 "They are first cousins, and the ants their second 
 cousins," said Ke'ne. "Well done ! I like families so 
 well arranged. I have no doubt we shall find the 
 bee-republic another model." 
 
 "A republic! But it is not one. The ants are 
 democrats ; the bees live under a monarchy, and 
 moreover, appear neither better nor worse off for so 
 doing. 
 
 " The hive is made up of a queen, of five hundred
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 '39 
 
 to twelve hundred males, and of fifty to thirty thou- 
 sand sterile workers. In this little world each one 
 
 SWARM OF BEES. 
 
 has his appointed place. If we follow the movements 
 of a young swarm from the moment when, being 
 sufficiently strong to shift for itself, it is expelled
 
 i 4 o THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 from the paternal abode, we shall see the bees, like a 
 little buzzing cloud, wandering about from tree to 
 tree, sometimes stopping and clustering together in a 
 dense mass, until a new home is found, or one is 
 provided by some bee-keeper. "When they escape 
 being thus appropriated, the new home is usually in 
 a hollow tree trunk, an old wall, or some similar 
 shelter. I have known bees to take up their abode 
 at the top of a steeple. Quite recently, in some 
 village of the Lower Seine whose name I have forgot- 
 ten, an inexperienced swarm found no better course 
 than to install itself in the letter-box of the post-office. 
 
 " The dwelling place being selected, the bees cleanse 
 and prepare it ; they close accurately all its openings 
 except one, and they cement the interior by means of 
 a varnish called propolis. This substance is also used 
 for another purpose. If, by some chance, an intruder 
 should find its way into the habitation, they expel it, 
 either living or dead, when it is not of too great a 
 size for their powers. But sometimes it proves to be 
 too heavy to be ejected, and what then is to be done ? 
 "With such a carcass within it the dwelling would not 
 be habitable. 
 
 " The bees are not embarrassed by such an affair. 
 They procure a supply of propolis, make use of it to 
 enshroud the body, and so, by this novel mode of 
 embalming prevent the access of air to it, after which 
 there is no further reason for apprehension : a sort of
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 141 
 
 mausoleum or monument, standing in the middle of 
 the hive, remains the sole vestige of the deceased 
 enemy." 
 
 " Certainly very ingenious. But now, about wax 
 and honey ? " 
 
 "I am coming to that. As soon as the abode is 
 made habitable the workers in wax begin to fabricate 
 the hexagonal cells with which you are familiar, and 
 
 FRAGMENT OF COMB, WITH BEES AT WOKE ON IT. 
 
 which serve the double purpose of storehouses for 
 provisions and of cradles for the future posterity. 
 
 " This wax is secreted by the bees. Formerly it was 
 supposed to be gathered from flowers, but it is now 
 known that it is secreted by means of a special struc- 
 ture on the hinder part of the body, and that it is not 
 pollen, kneaded or altered by working. 
 
 "With regard to honey, it appears that they in
 
 1 42 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 the first place obtain it from flowers, from which they 
 abstract it by suction, and disgorge it into the cells of 
 the comb. When everything is prepared, the queen 
 leaves the hive, takes a flight in the air, and returns 
 to lay her eggs. After this moment all the males are 
 massacred without any mercy." 
 
 " Without sparing any ? I think this detracts 
 much from the idyl of the bee. I was inclined to 
 fancy them models of all the virtues ! You were say- 
 ing that the queen returns to lay 
 
 " An egg in each cell ; but, like a prudent manager, 
 
 DBOXE, OB MALE OF THE HONEY BEE. 
 
 she proceeds in a recognised order : first the eggs of 
 workers, then the eggs that are to produce males, 
 and lastly, in much larger cells, eggs from which 
 queens are to arise, these latter at intervals of some 
 days, in order that several queens shall not be born 
 together, for this would probably give rise to fatal 
 disturbances." 
 
 "Such a proceeding may be called the perfection of 
 foresight. Offspring, and the future tranquillity of the
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 143 
 
 society are definitely assured, supposing, as you say, 
 that the eggs for queens do not fail." 
 
 "This latter contingency has been provided for as 
 well as the others. The larvae appear after two or 
 three days, and are fed by the attendants of the hive 
 for five or six days. Then they cease to eat, spin a 
 cocoon, and in this temporary shroud await the 
 moment when they also shall become perfect bees. 
 
 u One of the most curious facts is that the eggs and 
 
 COMMON EARWIG. 
 
 larvse that are to become queens are the same as the 
 eggs to produce the larvae of workers. It is the 
 nutriment given to them that differs : while the 
 workers receive only a rather thin paste, the future 
 queens are nourished by means of a much more sub- 
 stantial jelly. So that if, as the result of some unfor- 
 tunate event, they should be deprived of their queen, 
 they select a well-to-do larva of a worker, and this,
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 by virtue of the more substantial and efficacious food, 
 becomes a queen capable of affording eggs. Besides 
 being nourished with this superior food, the queens 
 also are reared in royal cells, of a larger size and 
 different form. 
 
 " Sometimes it happens that, in spite of all the pre- 
 cautions that have been taken, two queens attain at 
 the same time their complete development in the 
 
 FIELD-CRICKET. (Gnjllm campesi 
 
 hive. Then there arises a fatal duel, and only one of 
 the two may remain in the domain. The bees, though 
 such industrious little creatures, are very jealous and 
 intolerant. But suppose we return to the garden for 
 a little ? " 
 
 It was now about four o'clock in the afternoon, and 
 the crickets and grasshoppers concealed in the herbage 
 commenced their deafening noise.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 145 
 
 " These belong to the order Orthoptera," said Le*on ; 
 " the only one we have not discussed. They are in- 
 jurious and destructive creatures, both those that run, 
 like the Blattse, Mantides, and Forficulee (earwigs), 
 and those that leap, as the grasshoppers, the locusts, 
 the crickets, and the mole-crickets." 
 
 " How, then ! Is the familiar cricket an injurious 
 creature ? If so, there is another belief the less, and 
 Lamartine was not correct when he wrote the verse 
 that you no doubt are acquainted with 
 
 " ' Solitary cricket, 
 
 A voice from underground, 
 Arouse thyself and sing 
 A song for me.'* ' 
 
 "As we are speaking of Orthoptera, can you tell 
 me if earwigs really have the habit popularly attributed 
 to them of entering the ears of people and making 
 their lodging there ? " 
 
 " Certainly not ; they have never been known to do 
 such a thing. It is a mistake that is probably con- 
 nected with their name. This is perhaps derived from 
 the form of the appendages that terminate the body, or 
 from the shape of the wings when they are unfolded. 
 Their pincers are said to somewhat resemble in form 
 the instrument that jewellers formerly made use of 
 
 * " Grillon solitaire, 
 
 Voix qui sors de terre, 
 Ah ! reveille-toi 
 Pour moi."
 
 146 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 to pierce the ears of young people. The popular 
 error has perhaps arisen from some misconception thus 
 suggested. 
 
 " The statements made to the effect that in Algeria 
 the attacks of locusts are a most serious scourge to 
 the inhabitants are, however, no error, but unfortu- 
 nately are only too true. The whole of the vegeta- 
 tion, even to the last leaf, is destroyed and every 
 green blade has disappeared after the visit of one 
 of these immense clouds. They are so dense and 
 consist of such enormous numbers that in 1874 the 
 railway in the province of Algeria was blocked by 
 them. 
 
 " Indeed, the greater part of the insects of this order 
 are very prolific. Ships have been infested with 
 BlattaB to such an extent that it has been found 
 necessary to have recourse to organised fumigations 
 to destroy them, and they were afterwards taken 
 away by bushels.* 
 
 " We have now, I believe, passed in review all the 
 orders of insects." 
 
 " All, all ? " asked Bene*, with a mysterious intona- 
 tion, something like that which the sphinx of Thebes 
 must have adopted when, according to legend, he 
 proposed his charades to those passing by. 
 
 * In Cyprus, during the autumn and winter of 1881, 1,330 tons of the 
 eggs of locusts were destroyed at the instigation of the British Government. 
 Translator.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 H7 
 
 A MIGRATION OF LOCUSTS. BENEATH AEE IMMATURE LOCUSTS. 
 
 " Yes each one, all. Are you not yet satisfied ? " 
 " Well," said the Parisian, who in point of fact was 
 not at all sorry that he was able to catch his cousin
 
 148 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 tripping in connection with his favourite science, 
 "by some curious inadvertence you have forgotten 
 
 BLATTJE (COCKBOACHES), COMMONLY CALLED BLACK-BEETLES. 
 
 an important group one, too, that is not the least 
 interesting of them." 
 
 " What can that be ?" 
 
 " Look there ! "
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 149 
 
 Held by a thread between two branches of some 
 bushes there was a large spider, Epeira diadema, 
 which, quite unaffected by being the subject of con- 
 versation, was calmly taking the preliminary steps 
 towards the formation of its net. 
 
 " You are both right and wrong," said Le*on. 
 u You are right, for I had no recollection of the 
 spiders ; but you are wrong, inasmuch as spiders are 
 not insects. They are out of the category, as they 
 possess eight legs, and also lungs. The Myriapoda 
 (centipedes and thousand legs) also form a sepa- 
 rate class. The first of these two classes is named 
 Arachnida. The ordinary equivalent of this scien- 
 tific term may be given as the ' class of spiders ' ; 
 the second, Myriapoda, which means, 'myriad feet.' 
 Now we shall see how the spinning spiders construct 
 their web." * 
 
 The spider, at the moment when the young men 
 arrived, -had already fastened the end of its thread to 
 a twig, then letting itself fall, it attached the other 
 end a little lower down. This preliminary part of 
 the work being accomplished, it several times re- 
 
 * Those who dislike the spiders found in our houses should not on that 
 account allow themselves to be prejuduced against those that live in our 
 fields and gardens. These latter are in reality valuable friends to us because 
 of the little insects they devour as food. A friend of ours, who lives in 
 Mauritius, has furnished us with the following striking example of this : 
 " In some portions of the island the plantations were formerly surrounded 
 by large trees, where numerous spiders made their webs. In every place 
 where these trees have been felled and the spiders destroyed, little insects, 
 chiefly Diptera, have directly appeared in unexampled abundance."
 
 i 5 o THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 traced its steps, making use of this slender thread as 
 a bridge, and adding a new thread as required. Then 
 when this portion appeared to it to be sufficiently 
 strong, it prepared the other radiating lines in a 
 similar manner, adding finally the concentric threads. 
 There then only remained for construction the hiding- 
 place in which the proprietor of the web lies in 
 ambush to await the course of events. This den, 
 made out of a leaf that the spider is able, by means 
 of its silk, to roll into the form of a cylinder, is 
 arranged in such a manner that the creature in it 
 is made aware of the slightest shock that may be 
 communicated to the web, and also so that it can run 
 out at the first indication and pierce with its veno- 
 mous jaws any unfortunate insect that has allowed 
 itself to be captured. 
 
 The spider's web is not in reality formed by weav- 
 ing : it is simply gummed, and Le*on did not fail to 
 point this out. " The substance of which the silk is 
 formed is," he said, " a sort of viscous gum, secreted 
 by a gland, and issuing by four mammilla, pierced 
 by a multitude of little holes. Each thread, although 
 it appears single to the naked eye, is in fact a bunch 
 of threads soldered or gummed together, and drying 
 on contact with the air, after having been secured 
 to the other threads forming the structure of the 
 web. 
 
 " Each species, moreover, has its own way of work-
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 ing, and constructs its web, as well as forms its den, 
 in its special manner. The trap-door spider, very 
 common in the south of France, excavates in the 
 earth a well, or pit, of about one or two feet in 
 
 TRAP-DOOE SPIDER (Ctenlza fodiens) AND ITS NEST. 
 
 depth, and carefully lined. Like a wise animal, it 
 closes its dwelling by a lid, a true door, kept in place 
 by a hinge, and closed with a latch, the latch being 
 the spider itself. The inner side of the door has
 
 '52 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 attached to it some strong threads, by means of which 
 the spider, holding on to the sides and the lid, at the 
 same time lock and lock-maker, keeps its house safely 
 shut up, and without having any fear of losing the 
 door-key. 
 
 " But of all the spiders, the most extraordinary is 
 perhaps the Argyroneta, which has the excessively 
 
 ABGYBOXETA AXD ITS AQTTATIC BALLOON. 
 
 odd peculiarity of contructing its house under the 
 water. 
 
 " It is perhaps even more curious that this water- 
 spider does not possess any special organs, that would 
 enable it to breathe and live at large in the midst of 
 the liquid element ; the Argyroneta, in fact, breathes 
 air like other spiders. When it is on the point of 
 establishing a home, it begins by choosing a leaf at
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 153 
 
 the surface of the water, in order to form with this a 
 protection for the edifice. The Argyroneta being 
 covered with hairs and pubescence, air adheres to its 
 body, giving it a silvery appearance when in the 
 water, and it is thus enabled to live for some time 
 beneath the surface. Being thus provided with a 
 temporary supply of air, it constructs a web some- 
 thing like in size and shape to a thimble, secured by 
 threads to neighbouring plants. It then ascends to 
 
 WATER- SPIDER. 
 
 the surface, and again descending carries with it a 
 supply of air, which it discharges into the silken web, 
 and repeats this operation until this novel kind of 
 balloon is sufficiently inflated, when it takes up its 
 abode therein and makes excursions in search of prey, 
 which when captured it carries back to its subaquatic 
 balloon and devours at leisure. 
 
 " Father de Lignac states, moreover, that he was 
 acquainted with a case that appears almost incredible,
 
 154 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 namely that two Argyronetee of different sexes, having 
 their nests placed at some little distance from one 
 another, had actually established a silken gallery of 
 communication between them. 
 
 " I think you will admit that, however, extraor- 
 
 COBWEBS AND SPIDERS. 
 
 dinary may be the natural history of the ants and 
 bees, that of the spiders is also not without its 
 interest, and may induce us to try to overcome the 
 feeling of repugnance that is entertained for these 
 creatures by many people. I might add that it is
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 155 
 
 said that spiders are not insensible to the charms 
 of music. Although it is so well known, I may 
 remind you that Pellisson, when he was in the Bas- 
 tille " 
 
 Leon suddenly stopped. Another spider, with 
 enormous legs and hungry aspect, ' had suddenly 
 descended on the newly stretched threads. Possibly 
 his web had been destroyed, and he had not at the 
 time the material in his possession that would en- 
 able him to construct another, so that no resource 
 remained to him except to establish himself, by 
 the right of the strongest, on the territory of the 
 other. 
 
 The legitimate proprietor fled in alarm. At first it 
 endeavoured for a few moments to resist, but soon 
 perceiving that the struggle was an unequal one, it 
 pitiably retired and left the place. 
 
 Rene, who had watched in an attentive manner all 
 the phases of this drama, wished to crush the usurper, 
 but Leon prevented him. 
 
 "Why destroy it?" said he. "It is but obeying 
 the mandate of its nature. Everyone must live, and 
 if the first spider retired so promptly it was probably 
 that it felt itself able to construct a new web. More- 
 over, have we men the right to show ourselves so 
 severe ? " 
 
 The face of the Parisian grew serious, and his 
 memory carrying him back several years, Eene" re-
 
 i6 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 called the fact that if spiders impelled by hunger 
 sometimes usurp the place of others in order to live, 
 there were also men who had allowed to escape from 
 their lips these words whose shamefulness should not 
 permit them to be forgotten 
 " Might is greater than right."
 
 XL 
 
 A sailor's marriage at Villers Titles of nobility A strange vessel Good 
 folk An acceptable gift The Albatross. 
 
 IT will be recollected that Father Lucas had given an 
 invitation for a certain Wednesday, and this had now 
 come. This very day the fisherman's daughter was to 
 be married, and the doctor had promised to be present 
 with his friends at the ceremony. 
 
 Uncle Bob's young guest, who was not himself 
 attached to the old fisher by any tie, was delighted 
 with the prospect of being present he, a Parisian ! 
 at a ceremony so different from one of the kind at 
 Paris. " A sailor's wedding, fancy that ! No doubt it 
 will be a funny affair," but the mocking remarks and 
 ironical commentaries at the tip of his tongue were 
 arrested beforehand by a rather stern glance from the 
 doctor. It must not, however, be supposed that Bene 
 was of a malicious disposition ; it was rather that he 
 was very young, and a little rash and hare-brained. 
 And it was somewhat in this state of mind that he 
 entered the church, and awaited with some curiosity 
 the arrival of the affianced pair and their friends.
 
 i S 8 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 He had not long to wait. Soon the noise of 
 measured steps was heard on the pavement, and 
 gravely and slowly the parents and friends advanced. 
 
 Father Lucas was superb. On his ample breast 
 were displayed, glistening in the sun, two tiers of 
 medals, all earned by saving the lives of his fellows 
 at the risk of his own. And yet in point of fact the 
 number of rescues he had made far exceeded that of 
 the rewards obtained. 
 
 Amongst the surrounding group of relatives, of 
 friends, and of the companions of his toils, there were 
 also many bearing these tokens of courage and 
 devotion, which on the breast of a common sailor 
 figure as true proofs of undoubted deeds of courage, 
 not as the baubles of a puerile vanity. 
 
 The Parisian could not but be impressed and he 
 smiled no more. 
 
 The ceremony was performed in the presence of a 
 considerable assembly of the rough and simple natives 
 of the locality, who are too familar with the perils of 
 the deep to neglect the prayers of the church. After- 
 wards the wedded pair again crossed the threshold of 
 the church, and Father Lucas was on the point of 
 again entering his home, when he felt a friendly hand 
 placed on his shoulder. He turned and saw it was 
 the doctor. 
 
 " Can you speak with me for two minutes ?" said 
 the latter.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 159 
 
 " Willingly," and the pair receded a few steps in 
 the direction of the beach. 
 
 As the two cousins remained behind at a discreet 
 distance, " You may come with us," called Uncle Bob ; 
 "you will not be in the way." 
 
 The two young people followed with some eager- 
 ness, for their curiosity was now aroused. Those 
 invited to the wedding were for the most part now 
 gone home to get themselves ready for the festivity 
 usual in such cases, so that no one else noticed the 
 incident. The little group' had reached the strand, 
 when all at once the fisherman placed his open hand 
 above his eyes, so that he might see better when not 
 inconvenienced by the jays of the sun. 
 
 "Do not know it," he muttered as if speaking to 
 himself. " It is very strange. Don't know it." 
 
 Uncle Bob laughed in his sleeve. 
 
 " You don't know it ! What is it, then?" he remarked. 
 
 " Good gracious ! Do you not see yon white bark, 
 cutter-rigged, stranded below there on the sand, and 
 with a quite new flag flying at the top of the mast ? 
 I know every vessel of this coast know them all, but 
 that I don't know at all. I cannot recollect it unless 
 it is some pleasure-boat. But no, that is out of the 
 question: it is in too good a state and then it is 
 rigged for fishing." 
 
 They went a few steps nearer, the sailor keeping 
 his eyes steadily fixed on it. Then, his surprise may
 
 i6o THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 be guessed when he saw the boat salute by lowering 
 its flag. 
 
 " It must be some decent people very polite folk," 
 cried the good man. " I don't know them, but it's 
 all the same ; I shall go and have a look at their boat 
 and tell them what an old sailor thinks about them." 
 
 "This boat is for you," said the doctor. "It is my 
 wedding-present. You will be able to go about with 
 it, take friends for excursions, go and see your 
 children, make your shepherd's round according to 
 your own desire. How do you like the rigging ?" 
 
 The sailor was standing open-mouthed and quite 
 dumb-founded stupefied, in fact, by such a piece of 
 good fortune, which it would never have occurred to 
 him even to hope for. 
 
 " Is it true is it really true, what you are telling 
 me? You are not joking? It is really for me, this fine 
 boat, and all its rigging and tools ? Well, well, and 
 I accept it on two conditions. One is, that Mr. Leon 
 shall be its godfather, and that we make the first 
 voyage together. And if you ever want to make a 
 journey to Caen, to Courseuilles, to Etretat, or any- 
 where else, say the word, give only a sign, and old 
 Lucas will take the tiller for you." 
 
 And then, to emphasize the sincerity of his words, 
 he seized the doctor's hands with his own. The fiDgers 
 of the scholar almost cracked beneath his hearty grasp, 
 but he made no sign of complaint.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 161 
 
 Then the boat must be examined. Lucas poked it 
 about and investigated it with the thorough attention 
 of a craftsman. It was in fact quite new, and had 
 been brought from a building-yard at Trouville by 
 some sailors according to a plan arranged beforehand. 
 It was large enough to carry five or six persons, but 
 at the same time was so fitted out as to be capable 
 of being handled by one man. An orlop extending to 
 the stern both increased its stability and assisted in 
 keeping out the seas, and in case of severe weather 
 was capable even of protecting the passengers. As 
 fittings there were a table, some folding chairs, and 
 two berths arranged on each side. The storage- 
 place for the sails and ropes was covered by the 
 planking. 
 
 "Everything is as it should be," said the sailor 
 after a minute inspection. u In fair weather I could 
 cross the Channel in it." Then suddenly recollecting 
 the business of the moment, he added, "And my 
 mates, I was forgetting them. "Won't they be sur- 
 prised when I show them your present after we have 
 done breakfast ! " 
 
 After having again pressed the hand of the doctor, 
 he hurried away as fast as his old legs would carry 
 him. 
 
 The two young men were thoroughly pleased 
 without any pretence. Uncle Bob had in fact made 
 three happy by one stroke, for if Father Lucas was 
 M
 
 1 62 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 the owner of the boat, it was quite evident, that they 
 would get the use of it. So the doctor's nephew was 
 able to say with reason 
 
 " What name shall we give to our vessel ?" 
 "That, my dear boys," interrupted the donor, "I 
 have been obliged to attend to myself already. I am 
 sorry for it, for I should have preferred the pleasure 
 left to you. But our law in France is as imperative 
 in demanding a recognised name for a boat taking the 
 sea as for a child who has come into the world. I 
 have therefore brought our new acquisition into har- 
 mony with the official regulations by giving it a name 
 of my own choice. Eead and confirm." 
 
 On the stern of the vessel the young men saw, on 
 inspection, a carved figure of a white bird standing 
 out in bold relief, with its wings unfolded, while 
 above it in gilded letters, and just then brilliant in 
 the rays of the sun was the name 
 
 THE ALBATEOSS.
 
 XII. 
 
 A letter Logical inferences. Pietro Franceschini The Odysseus of a 
 gendarme An account of the acquaintance of Franceschini and Uncle 
 Bob The two barometers A false prophet. 
 
 "MB,. LEON 
 " DEAR SIR, 
 
 " My labels are completed, my collection of 
 forest birds and animals is mounted and varnished. 
 You kindly promised to classify them for me. Thank- 
 ing you again for your consideration, I have the 
 honour to inform you that you will find me at home 
 Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, from two till four in 
 the afternoon. If any of my duplicates should be of 
 use to you, it will give me great pleasure to place 
 them at your disposal. 
 
 " I am, Sir, 
 " Your very true and obedient servant, 
 
 " PIETRO FRANCESCHINI. 
 
 "Keeper. 
 
 " P.S. My obedient compliments, if you please, 
 to your father, Dr. Boberral." 
 
 A correct logician, or even a police magistrate, 
 (happily the two are sometimes combined in one
 
 i64- THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 person) into whose hands this letter might have come, 
 would undoubtedly have drawn certain inferences 
 from it, such as 
 
 1. That the writer of this letter was a gamekeeper. 
 Not a difficult inference this, seeing that he announced 
 it himself. 
 
 2. That the keeper was a Corsican. At least his 
 name, which was very Italian, pointed to this. 
 
 3. That this Corsican gamekeeper was a retired 
 gendarme. This might be gathered from the style of 
 his letter, which while striving to be as polite as 
 possible, still retained an official smack, and some- 
 thing of the formal and precise manner of a legal 
 document. 
 
 4. That the aforesaid Corsican, keeper, ex-gendarme, 
 employed his spare time in the formation of a collec- 
 tion of the animals of the locality, and that he had 
 not, from lack of the requisite knowledge, been able 
 to arrange it himself. 
 
 5. Lastly, if he were acquainted with the good 
 reputation of Uncle Bob, that this Corsican, ex-gen- 
 darme, presently gamekeeper and natural history col- 
 lector, had been the recipient of kind offices from the 
 learned doctor. 
 
 A logician who should have made all these infer- 
 ences would not have been in error. 
 
 Pietro Franceschini, after having patrolled on horse- 
 back various parts of France under the insignia of the
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 165 
 
 well-known cocked hat, had just attained the some- 
 what fabulous position of non-commissioned officer, 
 when the war between France and Germany was 
 declared in 1870. 
 
 Slightly wounded at Wissemburg, he had been able, 
 thanks to his thorough knowledge of the district, to 
 escape the clutches of the Prussians, and after a multi- 
 tude of wanderings, a veritable Odysseus, he had suc- 
 ceeded in reaching Paris a few days before the siege, 
 just in time to be enlisted as non-commissioned officer 
 in a company of pioneers. 
 
 This hazardous and adventurous life was exactly to 
 his taste. Frequently at night-fall with his men he 
 quitted the besieged city, and came into contact with 
 the advanced guard of the Germans, harassing them, 
 and letting them see, as he said, some of the dodges of 
 a gendarme. As hardy as a real Corsican, and cun- 
 ning as a fox, he invariably brought these nocturnal 
 expeditions to a satisfactory conclusion, and when he 
 returned at daybreak within the line of the fortifications, 
 he contrived to bring with him one or more prisoners, 
 as he did not wish " to get rid of a good habit." 
 
 But, as says an old proverb, " The pitcher goes 
 often to the well." As the result of taking so many 
 others by surprise, he had one night been taken by 
 surprise himself. In the skirmish he had received a 
 formidable slash across the face, and at the same mo- 
 ment a huge demon of a Uhlan pierced his shoulder by
 
 1 66 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 a thrust with his lance. In this pitiable condition he 
 was rescued with difficulty by his comrades, and 
 brought, they said mortally wounded, to the ambulance 
 of Uncle Bob. 
 
 Interested by the difficulty of the case, the surgeon 
 set himself, whether or no, to save him from his des- 
 perate state. He spared none of his skill or pains in 
 dressing his wounds, and rendering him a whole 
 man. Franceschini, too, performed his part of the task 
 by deciding with the obstinacy peculiar to a man of 
 his nature and calling, that he would not die as long 
 as there was the slightest chance of living. It is 
 scarcely necessary to add that he vowed eternal 
 thanks to the good surgeon for his almost miraculous 
 cure. 
 
 Two or three years afterwards, a keeper's place in 
 the forest of Touques being vacant, the gendarme, who, 
 in spite of his wounds, was still whole of eye and of 
 foot, easily obtained it on the recommendation of his 
 kind saviour. 
 
 At the moment when our acquaintance with him 
 commences Franceschini is a man of about fifty years, 
 thin, of nervous temperament and military bearing, 
 with hair closely cropped in conformity with the regu- 
 lation cut, and heavy, white, hanging moustache. His 
 wound, usually not very conspicuous on his parchment- 
 like skin, sometimes becomes, in certain states of the 
 weather, more conspicuous, and then appears in the
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 167 
 
 form of a violet line extending from the left eye to the 
 upper lip. 
 
 The day after the receipt of his letter, the doctor 
 pleased with the prospect of again seeing "the old 
 lion," engaged a phaeton for the afternoon, it being 
 four good leagues from Villers to the keeper's house, 
 
 A CHKAP BAEOMETEE. 
 
 and the doctor having left his horses and carriage 
 in Paris, in order to oblige himself to take walking 
 exercise. 
 
 The day was ushered in with every appearance of 
 becoming very warm. 
 
 " We shall want sunshades rather than umbrellas,"
 
 1 68 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 said Kene", as they were getting themselves ready for 
 a start. 
 
 "Let us see what our barometers say," replied 
 Leon ; and he entered his workroom. " First let us 
 look at No. 1." 
 
 No. 1 was a dial-faced aneroid barometer hanging 
 on the wall. Leon gently tapped it with his finger. 
 The needle did not move. 
 
 " The barometer is not rising," said he. 
 
 "But it is not falling," answered Kene, " and why 
 should you expect it to rise ? It is already standing 
 nearly at fine weather." 
 
 " Let us look at No. 2." 
 
 No. 2 was a very different instrument. The case 
 of a barometer was replaced by a vase three-parts 
 filled with water and covered with a piece of muslin, 
 the graduated scale by a genuine ladder of wood, and 
 the needle by a green frog with brilliant reflections, 
 and which at this moment had chosen to locate itself 
 at the bottom of the receptacle. 
 
 " Hum ! " said Leon, " this barometer is very low ; 
 which seems to show 
 
 " That your frog is silly enough to like the water," 
 replied Kene, who was determined to start, come what 
 might. 
 
 A lively cracking of whips interrupted the conver- 
 sation. It was the doctor, who, as he was not going to 
 walk, was determined at any rate to have the pleasure 
 of driving the party himself.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 169 
 
 There was no further expectation of a disappoint- 
 ment, for the carriage was at the door. Kene turned 
 to the vase, saying with an air of most withering 
 contempt 
 
 " Adieu, false prophet." 
 
 The frog did not see any necessity for a reply. He 
 contented himself with crouching more determinedly 
 than ever at the bottom of his receptacle, Tvhile 
 Kene agilely mounted next to his cousin. Black, 
 nose in the air, installed himself between the legs of 
 his master. The carriage disappeared.
 
 XIII. 
 
 The Eoad to Touques on a fair-day Reptiles An example to be imitated 
 by the market-gardeners of France Doubtful forms A reptile with 
 a strong anatomical resemblance to a bird Birds provided with teeth 
 Uses of reptiles Barometer No. 2 seems likely to be right. 
 
 AT Touques it was the day of the fair, and the road 
 to the town, though usually rather deserted, was on 
 this occasion traversed by many of the country people. 
 
 Milk-carts quite covered with mud, their usual 
 complement of tin cans replaced for the time being by 
 children rolling about in the straw ; tilburys driven 
 by heavy brazen-faced farmers, wearing blouses and 
 silk hats ; cabriolets, whose leathern hood, reddened 
 by long exposure to the storms, tottered and groaned, 
 the iron springs supporting it being old and rusty ; 
 in short all sorts and sizes of vehicles, known and un- 
 known, probable and improbable, had apparently been 
 brought into use, and raised thick clouds of dust 
 which almost blinded the travellers on foot. 
 
 Occasionally there might be seen groups of lasses 
 in their Sunday best, going in little parties together, 
 hand in hand, their important business being to select
 
 TIW YOUNG NATURALISTS. 171 
 
 from the wares of the hawkers at the fair a few gaudy 
 ribbons and perhaps some jewellery of brass or gilt. 
 
 Here and there, in the distance, might be distin- 
 guished some rather denser cloud of dust, and as it 
 was approached it proved to be a herd of oxen, driven 
 probably by a boy in a serge blouse and wooden shoes, 
 and armed with a large stick. Now and again the 
 weapon would fall with a dull thud on one of the 
 tawny rumps, and the enormous beast, shaking his head 
 and neck, would break for a few seconds into a lumber- 
 ing trot and again relapse into his lazy progress. 
 
 The heat was stifling ; occasionally the horse would 
 shake its mane and neck with impatience, hoping to 
 get rid of some of the flies that harassed it; and 
 under the burning rays of the sun the varnish of the 
 vehicle cracked and melted, burning and staining the 
 fingers that touched it. 
 
 Under such conditions conversation was not likely 
 to be very animated ; the travellers wiped their brows, 
 the dog panted and hung out its tongue. 
 
 Eene was the first to break the silence. Turning 
 round to Leon : 
 
 "Do you still believe in your 
 
 " Eeptile," replied his cousin who was dropping off 
 to sleep. 
 
 " Eeptile ! So be it. I thought, however, that 
 reptiles had no legs. Probably you will tell me that 
 there are. several classes of them?"
 
 1 72 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 Just then the carriage was passing through an 
 avenue of large trees ; and the cool shade a little 
 refreshed the young naturalist, who thereupon decided 
 that he would give the information asked from 
 him. 
 
 " Here, in a few words, is a summary of it. There 
 are four distinct orders of reptiles * 
 
 " The Ophidia, or serpents. 
 
 " The Saurians, or lizards. 
 
 " The Batrachians, or frogs. 
 
 " The Chelonians, or tortoises. 
 
 " With the possible exception of the viper (and in 
 Normandy the bite of the viper is not usually very 
 dangerous), all our reptiles are valuable friends to the 
 agriculturist. Although we are destitute of tortoises 
 in the north of France, yet the lizards and frogs des- 
 troy a great quantity of slugs and little insects. The 
 toad himself, the hideous and repulsive toad, is of such 
 real utility that the English market-gardeners, who 
 in this respect, it would appear, are better informed 
 than our own, are said to purchase them every year, 
 in Paris, in enormous quantities, and pay as much 
 as a penny apiece for them. On the other hand, it 
 must be admitted that in several other countries the 
 
 * At the present time the frogs or Batrachia, are not classed with reptiles, 
 but are considered to belong to another class called Amphibia. As, however, 
 the crocodiles are, by many naturalists, separated from the Sauria as a 
 distinct order, the number of orders of reptiles may still be said to be four. 
 Translator.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 1 75 
 
 reptile world is represented by crocodiles, alligators, 
 
 FBOGS EGGS A>'D TADPOLES PARTIALLY DEVELOPED. 
 
 snakes, and other creatures of very bad reputation. 
 In a certain sense reptiles may be termed hybrids,
 
 176 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 or rather animals of transition. Frogs, toads, and 
 salamanders undergo metamorphoses, something like 
 insects, and serpents change their skins in a similar 
 way to the Crustacea. 
 
 " By the conformation of their legs and of their 
 skeleton, the Batrachians, the Saurians, and the Tor- 
 toises approach the mammalia, while the cloaca of the 
 intestine, and their mode of reproduction by eggs, are 
 points of relationship with hirds. On the other hand, 
 serpents and eels (members of the fish tribe) have an 
 air of resemblance or kindred that cannot be ignored. 
 By the way," added Leon, who had become quite 
 wide-awake, " do you know which of the reptiles it is 
 that anatomically most resembles a bird ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Well, it is the tortoise : the mandibles, the conso- 
 lidated breastbones " * 
 
 " A bird and a tortoise ! What a pair of anatomical 
 relatives ! However much the sternum may be 
 soldered, I shall wait to admit the resemblance until 
 chickens have teeth." 
 
 " At present they have not teeth," said the doctor ; 
 " but they have had them ; certainly not chickens 
 exactly, but some fossil birds discovered a few years 
 ago by the American geologists. And it may be 
 mentioned as a coincidence that tortoises with teeth 
 
 The breast or plastron of the tortoise is not now considered homologous 
 with the breastbone of birds.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 179 
 
 have been discovered in the formations of the Tertiary 
 epoch. But to return to our native reptiles : I shall 
 remind you of the lizards, literally our friends, for 
 they are easily tamed." 
 
 " I should think so ! " exclaimed Eene ; "I kept a 
 whole tribe of them in my desk at school." 
 
 " The so-called salamanders, to which in old days 
 wonderful properties were attributed, amongst others 
 
 CAPILLARY NETWORK OF THE FROo's FOOT : A, AKTERY ; 
 C, CAPILLARY J V, VEIN. 
 
 that they could withstand fire. Speaking of that, I 
 often wonder what fables the ancients might have 
 manufactured about the axolotls, the strange reptiles 
 that are imported here from Mexico, and are beginning 
 to replace in aquariums the gold-fish now become 
 rather too commonplace. Finally come the frogs, 
 already alluded to. They supply us also with a ready 
 means of observing the circulation of the blood. This
 
 1 80 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 can be seen with a good magnifying power in the 
 transparent web or membrane uniting their toes. 
 And we must not forget the green frogs, whose duty 
 it is to act as cheap barometers." 
 
 "And who are worth about as little as they cost," 
 ejaculated Kene* who still entertained a malicious feel- 
 ing towards barometer JS"o. 2. 
 
 Just then a prolonged rumbling was heard in the 
 distance ; and while the doctor and Leon were listen- 
 ing with eagerness, " It is some heavily laden vehicle 
 going by," added the Parisian. There was, however, 
 no further possibility of mistake : a few minutes after- 
 wards the first gleams of lightning, precursors of 
 an approaching storm, were seen behind the great 
 trees. 
 
 "Look, obstinate man!" said Leon. "These, I 
 presume, are the lamps of your vehicle ! " 
 
 The storm rapidly increased; the cloud, at first 
 distant and almost imperceptible in the blue sky, 
 increased, and soon the azure firmament was covered 
 as if with an immense dark veil of slatey grey. 
 
 For a moment the little caravan stopped discomfited. 
 But as they were less than a mile from Touques, it 
 was decided to push on to there, and take shelter in 
 the meantime. 
 
 The doctor drove on the equipage with a heavy 
 stroke or two of the whip, and a few minutes afterwards 
 they reached one of the first houses. It was an inn,
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 181 
 
 placed at the beginning of the village, as is usual in 
 country places. 
 
 Feeling thankful for this usage, our four travellers, 
 Black being included, hurried to enter the shelter that 
 so opportunely presented itself.
 
 xrv. 
 
 A village inn at Touques in the year of grace, 1884 At the fair The 
 g-r-r-r-rand menagerie A trade truly requiring a natural calling Two 
 anecdotes of tamers. 
 
 IT was none too soon. Just as our travellers entered 
 the tap-room, the storm burst forth with fury, accom- 
 panied by torrents of rain and hail, which rattled like 
 a fusillade and rebounded from the windows. 
 
 Leon, Rend, and the doctor took up a position in a 
 corner, while the ostler took charge of the horse and 
 carriage, and placed them under shelter. 
 
 The room into which our friends had just entered 
 was a large square apartment. The walls were covered 
 with a flowered paper, and on them were displayed 
 three framed engravings, one representing some Arabs 
 overthrown by a sort of lion ; another some Indians 
 in process of being devoured by an animal that was 
 supposed to be a tiger. The third was the capture 
 of, probably, Sebastopol. Interspersed between these 
 three artistic efforts were portraits, one halfpenny 
 each, of distinguished persons and celebrated criminals,
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 183 
 
 alternating with bills, blue, yellow, red, announcing 
 the wonderful properties of divers new elixirs and 
 little known liquors, with the names and addresses of 
 the makers in letters of gold. 
 
 At the end, a gigantic yellow bill announcing the 
 times of departure and arrival of the trains of the 
 Western Kailway Co., served in lieu of a curtain. Such 
 was the establishment, and many like it may be found 
 quite near to some fashionable bathing-places a 
 village alehouse endeavouring to assume the appear- 
 ance of a town hotel, on account of the wandering 
 tourists who occasionally find their way to it. 
 
 The peasants, excited by the native cider, the 
 intoxicating beverage made from the apples of the 
 district, and possibly also by the unusual incidents of 
 the day, smoked, vociferated, and shouted, each at the 
 top of his voice, and rattled down their dominoes on 
 the marble tables with noisy emphasis. 
 
 The doctor, as well as his two companions, found 
 himself ill at ease in so numerous and boisterous an 
 assembly, so that as the first violence of the storm had 
 passed, the downpour of thunder- showers and hail 
 being succeeded by a steady rain, he hastened to get 
 out and find some other shelter. 
 
 A few paces farther on there was the outskirts of 
 the fair, with its rifle-shooting at a target of pipes, its 
 peripatetic pastrycooks, whose small establishments 
 diffused for some distance around them odours of the
 
 i8 4 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 dripping-pan and burning fat ; its bowling-places with 
 their grotesque announcements ; the dealers in sweets, 
 arrayed in the guise of Turks, and continually tintin- 
 abulating their little bells ; lotteries where children 
 always gain prizes of indigestible gingerbread, and 
 their parents, occasionally, of glassware and knicknacks 
 of a nature supposed to be artistic, that might well 
 arouse the cupidity of the negroes in Africa. 
 
 Still farther on, side by side with the caravans 
 painted in yellow, and doing double duty as dwelling- 
 places and as temples of the travelling fortune-tellers, 
 conjurors, intelligent mesmerics, all sorts of other 
 exhibitions were drawn up : deformed dwarfs, very 
 ugly giants, with huge painted canvases, explanatory 
 announcements, and occasionally a chained monkey, 
 rickety, angry, and grimacing at the door. 
 
 Uncle Bob cast glances right and left in search of 
 some respectable entertainment where they could 
 decently await the cessation of the rain, and soon per- 
 ceived a large canvas structure. On the front of this 
 edifice appeared an inscription some twenty feet in 
 length 
 
 " GKAKD ASIATIC MENAGEEIE." 
 
 They entered immediately, the only delay being 
 caused by Black, to whom the odour of lions appeared 
 to be but doubtfully attractive. 
 
 The menagerie was arranged, like others of the sort,
 
 AFRICAN LIoN.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 187 
 
 with the cages placed side by side. Behind the thick 
 iron bars were some lanky panthers and rheumatic 
 lions, dozing, or looking with a stupid air at the visi- 
 tors who were waiting the " description." 
 
 Occasionally a lion or other beast of prey, would 
 give utterance to a dull growling, and the blue long- 
 tailed parrots, the yellow-crested cockatoos, hanging 
 to their perches like trapezes, replied by discordant 
 shrieks. 
 
 A somewhat good-looking young woman, in a green 
 velvet bodice with silver embroidery, skin tights and 
 riding-boots, commenced the descriptive speech. 
 
 " Ladies and gentlemen, this is the terrible lion of 
 Nubia. His thick mane, his enormous strength, his 
 majestic gait, the echoing thunder of his voice, have 
 rightly procured for him the title of king of the 
 animals. 
 
 "With a single stroke of his tail he prostrates the 
 strongest and most powerful man, and by the strength 
 of his terrible jaw he conquers the largest animals." 
 
 All this was said in one note, with a shrill and gab- 
 bling utterance, something after the fashion of a child 
 rapidly repeating a lesson. 
 
 Then changing her tone and striking the bars of the 
 cage with her pointing-stick," Get up, Sultan ! " 
 
 The awkward animal raised itself in a reluctant 
 manner, and the tamer continued. 
 
 " Here is the crocodile" (she pronounced it crrro-
 
 i88 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 cccodille), "also called the alligator, of the river Nile, 
 whose proverbial ferocity has been related by many 
 travellers." 
 
 "Another mistake," muttered Leon; "crocodile 
 and alligator are two very distinct creatures." 
 
 " In these distant countries, woe to whoever allows 
 himself to be surprised by this terrible amphibian ! 
 For the crocodile of the Nile seizes its prey between 
 its fearful jaws, and dives to the depths of the waters 
 to devour it." 
 
 Then, in the same voice with which she had addressed 
 the lion, " Come now, give us a laugh," she said, and 
 struck the terrific jaws with her stick. 
 
 The saurian moved a little in its bath, opened its 
 eyes, and commenced to yawn, making a noise some- 
 thing like a steam-engine letting off steam. This was 
 all that the most persevering scholastic efforts of the 
 tamers had been able to teach it. 
 
 The girl rapidly covered up the bath with some 
 planks, and turning her back to this not very fascin- 
 ating subject, continued her description. 
 
 " After the animals of the torrid zone, we come to 
 the bear of the polar regions. Captured on an ice- 
 berg." 
 
 " Come away," said the doctor. 
 
 They made their exit, leaving the tamer to celebrate 
 in hyperbolic fashion the proverbial ferocity of the 
 polar bear.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 189 
 
 The rain was nearly over. 
 
 " What an occupation ! " said Leon; " What a life, to 
 be a tamer of wild beasts ! " 
 
 "Truly," his cousin replied, "to have before one 
 every morning the prospect of finishing the day as a 
 snack in the stomach of a lion or the bowels of a tiger, 
 and never be able for five minutes to feel sure that one 
 
 POLAE BEAK. 
 
 is not partly eaten ! Faugh ! I should want to be 
 well paid if I were to accept such a position." 
 
 " But they probably would not be anxious to take 
 you," said the doctor. u The very danger must have 
 some sort of fascination for these people, and keep them 
 to their wild beasts ; and the proof of this is that many 
 of them are quite able, if they wished it, to pursue a 
 less dangerous calling.
 
 iqo THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 " Indeed, there is more than this. If they have 
 the good luck to possess enough to retire on when they 
 are getting old, it is only with the greatest reluctance 
 that they will consent to forsake their beasts. I knew 
 a very rich, retired tamer, who kept most of his mena- 
 gerie at his own private residence. He himself took 
 care of the wild beasts, and never failed each morning 
 to go and smoke his pipe and read his paper in the 
 society of ' his lions.' And when his neighbours, 
 who could not reconcile themselves to his friends, com- 
 pelled him to part with them, the unfortunate old fellow 
 was ready to die of grief. 
 
 " Moreover, danger is among the things to which 
 one grows quite accustomed, as you may learn by 
 inquiring from soldiers and sailors, or doctors and 
 the officials of hospitals. To return to the tamers, 
 once when I was house-surgeon at the hospital, they 
 brought under my care an unfortunate devil who had 
 been mauled by a tiger. His body was simply a mass 
 of wounds ; it was something horrible ! He survived 
 it, however, though how I can scarcely imagine. A 
 little time afterwards, as I was crossing the court- 
 yard of the hospital, my patient came up to me, still 
 enveloped in his bandages, almost like an Egyptian 
 mummy, and said, ' Do you think I shall be in a 
 condition to make my reappearance at the fair at 
 Rouen, in three weeks' time ? ' 
 
 " He was positively wearying to be at it again;
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 191 
 
 and as I expressed my astonishment, ' This accident 
 was entirely owing to my own stupidity,' he added. 
 ' A tamer who keeps a sharp look-out is never bitten 
 by his animals.' And, heaven pardon me ! but I 
 believe he added, 'Besides, you see, we never die 
 
 of it; "
 
 XY. 
 
 Return to the cottage Two or three words about mammalia The stomach 
 of a chewer of the cud A well-applied mythological name Terror of 
 Dame Theresa Disgusting ! but a benefactor Uncle Bob releases a 
 criminal condemned to death. 
 
 OUR friends had returned to the itm. Although the 
 clouds were still very threatening, they nevertheless 
 promised to leave an hour or two of fine weather, and 
 the doctor took advantage of this to order the horse 
 to be put to, pay the score, and start again, with a 
 smart trot, on the road back to Yillers. 
 
 The rain had not produced a deep mud, though it 
 had drenched the ground and laid the dust. And the 
 road now displayed itself in an ochreous-red colour, 
 while the foliage, washed and refreshed by the mois- 
 ture, had regained a greener tint. 
 
 A few breezy gusts from time to time shook the 
 branches of the trees over the heads of our tourists, 
 sprinkling them as they passed with some drops of 
 cool water, and in the neighbouring marshes the 
 frogs, rejoicing in the renewed humidity, intoned a 
 triumphal croaking.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 193 
 
 " If we are ever to discuss the Mammalia, this is our 
 chance," said Eene to his cousin at the very spot 
 where, on going, they had talked about the reptiles. 
 
 " What do you suppose I can tell you about them 
 that you do not already know ? " asked Leon. " It 
 
 QUADKUKAXA 1 CAPTTCHIX MONKEY. 
 
 is now recognised that there are, at least twelve 
 orders * of Mammalia, viz. 
 
 " 1. The Bimana, to which we ourselves have the 
 honour to belong. 
 
 "2. The Quadrumana (monkeys). 
 
 * The number of orders of Mammalia is still a matter of some uncertainty. 
 Cuvier recognised only nine, while Glaus, one of the latest authorities adopts 
 fourteen, without including man. Translator.
 
 194 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 "3. The Chiroptera (bats). These in our country 
 live on insects, and help us to get rid of many 
 injurious creatures. 
 
 " 4. The Insectivora (hedgehogs, shrews, moles, 
 &c.). 
 
 " 5. The Carnivora (types: the bear, dog, cat, lion, 
 hysena, seal). 
 
 "6. The Eodentia (beaver, squirrel, rabbit, rats, 
 mice). 
 
 " 7. The Edentata, none of which are found in 
 Europe (armadillos, ant-eaters, pangolins). 
 
 " 8. The Pachydermata (elephant, hippopotamus, 
 rhinoceros, tapir, horse, pig). 
 
 "9. The Buminantia (oxen, deer, sheep). 
 
 "10. The Cetacea (whales, dolphins, narwhal). 
 
 " Lastly, llth, the Marsupialia (kangaroos and 
 opossums) ; and 12th, the Monotremata (Echidna and 
 Ornithorhynchus), peculiar to Australia. 
 
 " I only give you this list as a reminder, and the 
 few mammalia of our own country are so well known 
 that it seems almost unnecessary to allude to them. 
 Still, there is always something of interest to relate 
 about them, and we can, if you please, chat in a 
 familiar manner concerning a few of them. 
 
 il Take, for instance, the bats and the hedgehogs, 
 which you probably have an objection to. Well, both 
 of them are insectivorous, and in this capacity are 
 useful to us and claim our respect, although the
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 195 
 
 second of them is suspected by many, rightly or 
 wrongly, of having a too great fondness for apples. 
 Squirrels, on the other hand, you probably think 
 
 CHIEOPTEEA: LONG-EASED BATS. 
 
 charming. And yet they are injurious animals, like 
 almost all the rodents. But they may be pardoned, if 
 as some say, they are made into delicious pies in New
 
 igb 
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 York. Another rodent, one too that is amongst the 
 worst of our enemies, has been utilised in another 
 
 CAENIVOEA : PANTHER OR LKOPAED 
 
 fashion and while alive, a certain manufacturer in 
 England, an ingenious engineer, having invented a 
 machine for winding, turned by an apparatus kept in 
 
 EODEXTIA : SQUIRREL. 
 
 motion by mice. I have not heard, however, whether 
 this curious attempt has proved successful.
 
 
 II 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ill? 1
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 199 
 
 "Speaking of apparatus, no doubt you are acquainted 
 with the arrangement of the stomach of the ruminants, 
 
 SKULL OF A KODENT. 
 
 TEETH OF AN IXSECTIVOKOUS ANIMAL. 
 
 or animals that chew the cud. This stomach consists 
 of four separate parts: 1, the rumen, or paunch; 2, 
 
 INHECTIVORA : SHHEW-MICE. 
 
 the reticulum, or honeycomb bag ; 3, the psalterium, 
 or manyplies ; 4, the abonasum, or rennet-stomach.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 " The paunch and the manyplies each communicate 
 directly with the oesophagus, which is provided with a 
 deep groove running from the first to the third stomach. 
 
 INSECTIVORA : HEDGEHOG. 
 
 When the food is in a solid condition, it is passed from 
 the paunch into the honeycomb bag, where it is formed 
 into a ball and regurgitated. After being again chewed 
 it is swallowed, but being soft does not open the tube 
 
 STOMACH OF RUMINANT. 
 
 , (ESOPHAGUS ; pa, PAUNCH ; b. HONEYCOMB BAG ; /, MANYPLIES : 
 C, RENNET ; p, PYLORUS. 
 
 going to the honeycomb bag, but passes on into the 
 third and fourth stomachs, and so into the intestinal 
 canal.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 203 
 
 " You already knew this, so that, as I said, I 
 have really not much to teach you about the mam- 
 malia." 
 
 They now reached Yillers, and the horse and car- 
 riage, pretty well bespattered with mud, were returned 
 
 BEAVERS AND THEIE DWELLINGS. 
 
 to their owner, and our friends at once went back to 
 the cottage. 
 
 Through the open window of the workroom they 
 perceived barometer Xo. 2, which, it will be recol- 
 lected, had been an object of mockery and vituperation 
 to Eene when they were starting.
 
 204 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OP 
 
 " I have found a name for jour Batrachian," 
 said the latter to Le"on "a mythological name, 
 suited to its sinister and alas ! only too true pre- 
 dictions. By your permission we will in future 
 call it Cassandra." 
 
 "We will hope that Cassandra will not be always a 
 
 prophet of ill, and that to-morrow we may be able to 
 complete our interrupted excursion." 
 
 The servant was just then at the bottom of the 
 garden, occupied in picking some vegetables for the
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS 205 
 
 evening meal, and suddenly she gave utterance to a 
 piercing scream. 
 
 The doctor and the young men, in alarm, ran as fast 
 as they could. 
 
 11 There, there, sir ! " and with a trembling finger 
 
 EDENTATA : TATOU, OK ARMADILLO. 
 
 she pointed out a small dark object motionless in the 
 middle of the path. 
 
 CETACEA : GREENLAND, OR EIGHT WHALE. 
 
 It was an enormous toad, warty and horrible, 
 which, by the rain and cool air, had been brought 
 into a mood for wandering through the damp grass, 
 and so was composedly taking his turn round the 
 garden.
 
 206 
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 Alarmed by the piercing cry, it had come to a stand- 
 still, and remained there calmly, as if contemplating 
 the terrified domestic. 
 
 "Oh, sir, you do not see it," added Dame Theresa. 
 : The beast, the venomous beast ! " * 
 
 "No, no, you cockney, no," the doctor said in a 
 
 
 MOXOTKEJIATA : SPINY ECHIDNA. 
 
 paternal manner; "toads are only slightly venomous, 
 even when handled, and when not actually touched are 
 
 * According to the experiments of Professor Vulpian, the poison of the 
 toad, secreted by certain cutaneous glands, can only be active when it is 
 inoculated. This inoculation may induce death in animals of small size, 
 especially in rats and guinea-pigs. Death in such cases seems due to 
 stoppage of the action of the heart. Author's note.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 209 
 
 no degree injurious; and if this one has given you 
 a good fright, it is clear you have done the same 
 to it." 
 
 " But it is horrible ! these creatures are frightful. 
 Kill it, smash it at once, Mr. Le*on." 
 
 "Where should we stop, if we were to kill 
 
 OENITHOKHY.NCHUS AXATINTJS. AUSTRALIA. 
 
 everything that is ugly and repulsive ? " said the 
 old doctor. And pushing it out of the way with the 
 end of his stick into a row of raspberry canes : 
 "Go your way, little creature; it is not yet dusk 
 enough for you to be about. The world," he added 
 with a kindly smile, " is quite large enough for all 
 three of us." 
 
 p
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 From this time forward Dame Theresa always 
 avoided going into this part of the garden after 
 sunset. 
 
 THE TOAD. " SCARCELY YEXOMOUS EVEN WHEX TOUCHED."
 
 XVI. 
 
 Continuance of bad weather Mother Goose, loto, or dominoes A book of 
 wonders Rotifers Artificial death and revival Tardigrades, Kolpodes, 
 Monads, and Vorticella How to obtain a desired infusorian Mineral, 
 vegetable, or animal ? Diatomaceae To what the colour of some seas is 
 due Foraminif era Polypes, Hydra Experiments of du Tremblay 
 How a single animal may be made into several, and several into one 
 A naturalist never wearies. 
 
 WHEN they awoke the next morning the friends at 
 the cottage had no need to open the windows in order 
 to convince themselves that their proposed visit to the 
 keeper was again to be put off. 
 
 The sullen sky did not, as yesterday, send joyous 
 rays into their rooms ; rain was falling thickly and 
 steadily against the dripping panes, and these, lashed 
 at intervals by squalls, gave forth dull sounds like 
 muffled drums. 
 
 " It will go on till evening," said Father Lucas, 
 who had come to have a conference with the doctor. 
 
 Every sailor is a meteorologist whether he knows it 
 or not, and his weather forecasts are but rarely 
 deceptive. The friends were obliged therefore to 
 resign themselves to the idea of keeping the house all 
 day. Though this had scarcely begun, the two young
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 men were already, by glances, inquiring from one 
 another what was to be done. From time to time 
 Rene went into the workroom to consult Cassandra. 
 
 Cassandra gave no indication of. rising. 
 
 "Mother Goose, loto, or dominoes?" said Le*on, 
 without preface, to his cousin. 
 
 " A truce to unpleasant joking," said the Parisian. 
 " Certainly it is not worth while being a learned man 
 if you have nothing to amuse your friends with on 
 wet days, except some games borrowed from the 
 ancient Greeks, and by the Greeks very probably 
 from the Boeotians. I am suprised you do not make 
 the absurd proposal of showing me some toys or 
 picture books." 
 
 " Exactly ! Why not ? " cried Leon, pretending 
 that an idea had all at once occurred to him, though 
 the sly fellow had been thinking of it for at least 
 ten minutes. "Fortunately I have quite handy a 
 book very curious to read, and all the more amusing 
 inasmuch as both text and illustrations can be con- 
 stantly varied. 
 
 "Here it is : the microscope. With a good micro- 
 scope and appliances, and some knowledge of their 
 use, one may ensure never being lonely, even were 
 one in an out-of-the-way place in the country, and rain 
 should fall during forty days successively, as in the 
 time of the Deluge." 
 
 The microscope was taken out of its case.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 2I 3 
 
 " Here is the first chapter," said Le'on, taking up 
 with a pipette a drop of water, which he placed under 
 the object-glass of the instrument. " I offer you the 
 book ; read for yourself." 
 
 In the middle of the liquid some apparently great 
 
 ROTIFER VTTLGARIS. 
 A, THE ANIMAL IN WATER ; B, THE SAME DRIED. 
 
 creatures were rolling about their fusiform bodies : 
 they were some rotifers that Le'on had found without 
 difficulty in the water-gutter of the cottage. 
 
 " All very well when there is water in the gutter, 
 as there is to-day," said Eene, with an air of opposi- 
 tion ; " but supposing it were dry weather ? "
 
 214 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 "Then the rotifers, too, dry up, and await with 
 resignation better times. Should a little rain come 
 they will revive they or their posterity. This time I 
 
 ZOLPODA CTTCTTLLU3. 
 
 have played the part of Nature, by the help of a few 
 drops of water, and the rotifers have returned to 
 activity." 
 
 Then they viewed in succession : Tardigrades, 
 
 BELL VOETICELLA. ( r. convalario). 
 
 degraded, creeping, repulsive creatures ; Kolpoda, in 
 form like a little leech ; and Monads, the most micro- 
 scopic of microscopic beings, and to be found by
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 215 
 
 myriads in filthy water ; VorticellaB, posing their 
 globose bodies and open mouth, at the end of a long 
 twisted stalk, something after the fashion of a spiral 
 spring. 
 
 For each demonstration, Le'on had recourse to a 
 
 a 
 
 GBOUP OF MONADS Enchcli/s pupa. 
 
 (Monas crepitsculum). 
 
 new receptacle for his drop of water, and this was 
 
 noticed by his cousin who remarked 
 
 "Do you, then, keep all these kinds separately? " 
 " It is easier to study them when they are so. 
 
 Different sorts of infusions or decoctions are more 
 
 B 
 
 VEGETABLE INFTTSOBIAN ( VoloX 
 A, THE OBGANISM J B, DETACHED ZOOSPORE8. 
 
 specially resorted to by certain animalcules. For 
 instance, one finds more particularly 
 
 " Volvox and Yorticellee in infusions of hemp-seed. 
 
 " The species of Enchelys in infusions of hay or
 
 216 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 " The Kolpodse also in infusions of grass or hemp- 
 seed that have been kept for a long time. 
 
 " The species of Gonium in infusion of pears. 
 
 "Kotifers and some Vorticellae in little shells in 
 fresh water, and about the remains of aquatic insects. 
 
 " Monads in infusions of mushrooms. 
 
 DIATOM, GREATLY MAGNIFIED. 
 
 " Anguillulidse, paste or vinegar eels, in the sub- 
 stances denoted by their names. 
 
 " But many of the species may be found in abun- 
 dance in pools of water. So that sometimes a single 
 drop of stagnant water is inhabited by quite a minia- 
 ture menagerie.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 217 
 
 " Moreover one finds other things besides animals 
 in pools of water. Here, for instance, is something 
 else." 
 
 There was then displayed to the eyes of the as- 
 tonished pupil a whole collection of beings that can 
 scarcely be defined, of regular and geometric forms : 
 discs piled one on the other ; cubes, sometimes united 
 end to end, sometimes soldered by one of their angles; 
 spindles, fans, wheels what more shall I say ! " 
 
 " Well, this is really too extraordinary ! Animal, 
 vegetable, or mineral, I cannot for the life of me say 
 which I suppose them to be. Is it possible that it is 
 an assemblage of the three kingdoms, bound together 
 in one volume ? " 
 
 " These," said Leon, " are diatoms. They have 
 treated them as algse, not being able to do anything 
 better ; but the truth is that in the case of these 
 curious productions, the words vegetable and animal 
 have no longer their peculiar meaning. 
 
 "These beings with their silicious skeletons, which 
 are apparently nearly indestructible, increase them- 
 selves by segmentation and division. They are met 
 with everywhere in the water, in the air ; in fresh- 
 water, and in the ocean. Sometimes these infinitely 
 small atoms, massed in millions and billions, even alter 
 the colour of the sea : hence the names, Eed Sea, 
 Yellow Sea, Vermilion Bay. Be sure to recollect 
 that the largest of these diatoms measures only some
 
 2i 8 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 few hundredths of a millimetre in diameter, there 
 being 2,500 one-hundredths of a millimetre in a single 
 inch. 
 
 "Many live after the fashion of parasites ; almost 
 all, if not actually all, aquatic plants are covered 
 
 FORAMINIFERA, GREATLY MAGNIFIED. 
 
 with them. A simple washing with sulphuric acid is 
 generally sufficient to detach them. And, just as if 
 they were nevertheless in difficulty to find room, 
 these microscopic beings actually take lodgings in the 
 stomachs and on the scales of fishes.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 219 
 
 " In the seas, there is another class of creatures 
 scarcely less numerous and ubiquitous, though often 
 of somewhat larger bulk, that form as it were a sort 
 of complement to the diatoms : the Foraminifera, 
 whose forms are varied almost to infinity, are found 
 in large accumulations on the floors of the ocean, and 
 their skeleton is pierced in all directions by little 
 
 FBEsHWATEB HYDEA. 
 
 holes, from which project great numbers of vibratile 
 cilia3. Thus, besides infinitely small diatoms, there 
 are other infinitely small beings, and these also help 
 to make up the structure of worlds." 
 
 To assist him in his microscopic work, Leon had 
 established in a glass globe a sort of small artificial 
 pond with some mud, several plants and insects, and 
 on its surface some pieces of duckweed. Tired of
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 looking through the microscope, Rene was engaged 
 in examining this. 
 
 " There are cuttle-fish in your pond," said he all 
 at once, pointing out a mass of gelatinous arms in 
 constant movement near the surface of the liquid. 
 
 What he mistook for cuttle-fish was merely a 
 colony of hydras, freshwater polypes creatures 
 which may vie with any others in tenacity of life, 
 according to the celebrated experiments made by du 
 Tremblay. 
 
 Du Tremblay, when he made these observations, was 
 a schoolmaster in some little town, I have forgotten 
 which, in Holland, Jost in the midst of marshes. These 
 marshes were peopled by many of the freshwater 
 polyps called hydras, and, in the absence of other 
 amusements, this naturalist found a pleasure in study- 
 ing them. He first noticed that these animals can be 
 multiplied by division, and that to obtain two hydras, 
 it was sufficient to cut one Hydra into two pieces. 
 Having settled this point, he examined their organ- 
 isation. It is certainly not very complicated. The 
 body of a Hydra consists simply of a bag, the inside 
 of which forms the stomach. By exercising skill 
 and patience du Tremblay managed to turn one of 
 these polyps inside out, somewhat like a glove, so 
 that what was stomach became outside and vice versa. 
 The experiment was a success: the polyp seemed 
 quite comfortable notwithstanding this remarkable 
 change in his personality.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 Du Tremblay did not with this end his interesting 
 discoveries. " Since out of one Hydra you can make 
 two," he sagely reasoned, "out of two probably one 
 can be made." This was both said and done, and the 
 patient naturalist, after some unsuccessful efforts, 
 succeeded in fastening together several hydras, end 
 to end, in such a way as to merge their several indi- 
 vidualities in one. 
 
 And thus we see that in the most unfavourable 
 localities the naturalist need never weary.
 
 XYII. 
 
 With Franceschini Another barometer "Good-day, Major!" A mysteri- 
 ous voice Uncle Bob begins to fancy the keeper's house must be haunted 
 Jacob A fable of La Fontaine realised The Norman character 
 makes itself evident even in birds - Rene's classification Honest men and 
 brigands Day thieves and nocturnal prowlers The waders and web- 
 feet Climbers Gallinaceous birds Passerine birds Jacob sadly out 
 of place Franceschini insists on a new classification. 
 
 AT last the clouds were scattered, and the barometer, 
 the Cassandra-barometer as well, indicated " set fair." 
 Again they put to, started, and arrived at Touques, 
 this time without any noteworthy incident. 
 
 The keeper, with a very short clay pipe between 
 his teeth, was quietly taking his ease on a bench 
 outside the door, when the rumbling of the vehicle 
 roused him from his quiescence. 
 
 He rose, laid down the pipe on his seat, advanced 
 in military style, and in a superb bass voice saluted 
 with the words 
 
 " Good day, Major ! " 
 
 Uncle Bob certainly had never been major ; but no 
 doubt, in the opinion of the ex-gendarme, the rosette 
 of the legion of honour in his buttonhole was a 
 sufficient justification for the nattering title, which
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 223 
 
 conferred on him the dignity, certainly well merited, 
 of a position in the permanent army of duty's 
 volunteers. 
 
 "Tush!" he said, but nevertheless with an evi- 
 dent air of satisfaction ; "no usurpation of rank, if 
 you please. I have at least never been more than a 
 simple soldier in the ranks of duty, and it ought to 
 be I that should present arms to you, Mr. Sergeant. 
 As, however, I do not carry any, I can only offer you 
 my apologies for not having come before this. We 
 started the day before yesterday, but we beat a 
 cowardly retreat, being conquered by the rain." 
 
 " I am to blame," cried Franceschini. " Triple 
 blockhead that I am ! I might have foreseen that 
 change of weather. When I wrote my letter to you 
 everything indicated that we should have a storm : 
 everything, even my scar, which became violet, like a 
 bishop's cassock. I ought to have observed this, but 
 somehow or other when one has as villainous a phiz 
 as mine, one does not waste much time at the looking- 
 glass." 
 
 They entered the house, and found there was 
 already set out for them a snack prepared on the 
 spur of the moment by Madame Franceschini, the 
 wife of the keeper he having, as we ought previously 
 to have explained, taken a wife very soon after 
 coming to the district, in order that he might take 
 better root.
 
 224 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 There is one thing that country people have never 
 been able to understand, and that probably they never 
 will understand. It is that others cannot have such 
 good appetites as themselves. On this occasion the 
 fruits were superb, the bread excellent, the butter 
 and the cider such as are only to be found in Normandy. 
 The three guests did honour in their best style to 
 this impromptu collation, discussing at the same time 
 the object of their visit. 
 
 " All the birds are ticketed with the names given 
 to them in the district," said the keeper, as he was 
 uncorking in a most careful manner a bottle of the 
 wine of the district. " But it still remains to classify 
 them according to their regiments, in proper battle 
 array. That you will be able to do, and I have the 
 most complete confidence in your ability." 
 
 " Must see," replied, from behind the door of the 
 next room, a sharp voice seeming to come almost 
 from beneath the ground. 
 
 The two young men looked quite astonished. Some- 
 one, then, was listening to their conversation ! Fran- 
 ceschini bit and twisted his moustache. 
 
 The doctor also heard it, but thinking it was the 
 trick of some ill-bred child, paid no attention. Leon 
 thought it well to do the same as his father. 
 
 " Yery well, we will classify the collection," said 
 he, " and if I cannot do it all myself, I am sure my 
 cousin will not refuse to lend me a hand."
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 225 
 
 " Certainly, cerrr-tainly," replied the voice. 
 
 " Yes certainly," said Bene, in a way to be heard 
 by the mysterious interlocutor. " I must admit I 
 am no ornithologist ; I know that well, but I can 
 at any rate give a piece of good advice when 
 necessary. It is not well to mock me." 
 
 " Per-haps, well, must see ! " replied the voice, 
 drawling in an unmerciful manner. 
 
 This time Uncle Bob no longer kept silence. 
 
 " One of two things : either I am getting silly or 
 some ill-mannered person is mocking us ; unless, in- 
 deed, we may be in some haunted house," he added, 
 in the tone of a man who is very sceptical about such 
 kinds of witchcraft. 
 
 "Neither one nor the other, Major," said the 
 keeper by way of excuse. " I had put Jacob out of 
 the way, and now he is taking his revenge. The 
 best thing I can do is to introduce the culprit to 
 you." 
 
 He opened the door. 
 
 "Now then, come along, Jacob ; come in, come 
 in," and through the half-open door there hopped 
 in a magnificent raven, of a deep blue-black colour. 
 
 A triple burst of laughter greeted his entrance. 
 
 "But it is really a learned bird, a phenomenal 
 creature, and worth more than all the menagerie at 
 Touques ! Come here, Jacob, come here, then ! " 
 
 And each " come here " was accompanied by a 
 Q
 
 226 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 shower of crumbs and scraps. Jacob, who never in 
 his bird's memory recollected such a feast, came and 
 picked them up without fear, even at the feet of the 
 visitors. Then, when his appetite was satisfied, he 
 hopped familiarly on to the shoulder of his master. 
 
 "He is a foundling," said this latter. " It was 
 during some most fearful weather that I discovered 
 Jacob in the forest. A gale had dislodged him from 
 the nest ; he was half-frozen, and three-parts drowned 
 by the rain quite moribund, in fact. Instinctively I 
 picked him up, without intending to keep him, possi- 
 bly thinking he might have a more gentle death. 
 When I reached home I placed him near the fire in a 
 blanket. 
 
 "'You would have done better to have left him 
 where he was,' my wife said to me, 'for he was past 
 suffering.' 
 
 " And indeed I thought I was only prolonging his 
 agony. The next morning, to my great surprise, he 
 still lived. ' Suppose he should recover ! ' said I, 
 still without believing it. 
 
 "He did, however, recover; and in spite of our 
 predictions I believe the rascal is now likely to out- 
 live us all." 
 
 "And how did you teach him?" asked Rene. 
 "Until now I have not seen any talking ravens 
 except in the fables of La Fontaine." 
 
 ' His learning was done almost entirely by him-
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 229 
 
 self. He hears the country people talk, and amuses 
 himself by imitating them. It is because of this that 
 hesitating expressions such as, ' Well !' 'Perhaps so ! ' 
 and ' Must see ! ' are his favourite phrases. On the 
 other hand, I never recollect hearing him say ' Yes ' 
 or 'No,' these words being very little used in Nor- 
 mandy." 
 
 They rose from table and entered the room in 
 which the keeper had arranged his museum, as he 
 called it. 
 
 The furnishings were of military simplicity : a desk 
 made of deal, covered with papers and books, three 
 chairs, and the arms and accoutrements of the soldier's 
 military period, arranged as a sort of trophy between 
 the white muslin curtains of the two windows. The 
 rest of the apartment was devoted to the birds. 
 These were to be seen in all directions on the desk, 
 on shelves, under glass shades. The beams of the 
 ceiling served as supports for some scutcheons of 
 varnished wood, bearing branches of trees, on which 
 were placed the larger birds, with spread-out wings, 
 as if about to take flight. 
 
 "We must proceed in due order," said Leon; and 
 turning to Kene", "You were just saying that we 
 ought not to despise you. Let us see, then ; how 
 would you commence ? " 
 
 " I should begin by leaving all the respectable 
 kinds together, and by putting in one corner all these
 
 230 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 hooked beaks and rapacious figures." And Rene 
 with his finger pointed out a large owl and a kestrel 
 falcon, which in truth had very much the appearance 
 of two brigands. 
 
 The rapacious forms were placed together on one side. 
 
 "We will call them Raptatores," said Le*on, "the 
 
 THESE HOOKED BEAKS AND RAPACIOUS FIGURES." 
 
 name used in our system of classification. Now that 
 we have them all together, do you not think they 
 may be made into two groups ? " 
 
 " Undoubtedly. There are evidently two distinct 
 classes first the brigands that carry on their opera- 
 tions in daylight, and next the owls and other prowlers 
 who do their work at night."
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 231 
 
 " In other words, then, diurnal and nocturnal 
 Eaptatores." 
 
 " Very good. But now let us turn our attention to 
 the honest kinds." 
 
 The classification was now a more difficult matter, 
 for the honest kinds are so numerous, amongst birds 
 at any rate. However, Kene* was not discouraged. 
 
 "First we will use two or three shelves for those 
 with very long beaks, most of them, too, having also 
 
 WOODCOCK (Scolopax rusticola, Lin.). 
 
 long necks. At any rate, that will be some out of 
 the way." 
 
 And speedily, the bustards, plovers, peewits, snipe, 
 curlews, sandpipers, cranes, herons, storks, rails, 
 water-hens all the waders in fact were brought 
 together, forming one group of allied kinds. 
 
 " Let us now make a finish of the water birds," 
 said Lie* on. " Side by side with their long-legged 
 friends, let us place the web-footed kinds."
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 And so the web-feet were next arranged. As 
 they were very numerous, and as, if the feet were 
 left out of consideration, they were not very similar 
 to one another, it was necessary to make several 
 subdivisions of them, the most important being, 
 the grebes, the sea-gulls, the cormorants, and the 
 ducks. 
 
 " Now for the fourth order," said Le*on. But 
 seeing that his cousin was now in difficulties he 
 concluded the classification himself. 
 
 " First the climbers, the born protectors of our 
 forests, frequenting the trunks of the trees in search 
 of insects : woodpeckers, wrynecks, cuckoos, and 
 creepers. 
 
 " Then the Gallinse or game birds, the edible order 
 par excellence, created, one might suppose, for the 
 particular satisfaction of the lovers of the table: 
 partridges, quail, pigeons, grouse, pheasants, &c., to 
 say nothing of our domestic fowls. 
 
 " We have progressed by a process of elimination," 
 continued the young naturalist ; " and now nothing 
 remains for our consideration but the perchers or 
 Passeres" 
 
 " Now then," cried Ke*ne, " about Jacob, the mag- 
 niloquent and voluminous Jacob. Would you place 
 him in the same order as the wrens, the finches, or 
 the tits ? If I were him and had so clever a tongue 
 I should protest against this."
 
 fl ft- 
 
 - - 
 
 -- -^ 
 
 m 
 
 EEEVE'S PHEASANT. CUEASSOW. SILVEB PHEASANT. PEACOCK. GOLDEN PHEASANT.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 "Certainly, cerrr-tainly ! " hissed the bird, who ap- 
 peared to know that they were talking about him, and 
 to wish to assume a part in this protest. 
 
 " Where would you enrol him ? The order of 
 perchers is a negative one, without any real distinctive 
 
 BD : AVOCET (Rccurvirostra acocetta, Lin.). 
 
 character of its own, a sort of naturalist's chaos, 
 where everything that is not web -foot, wader, rapa- 
 cious, climber, nor game-bird, is thrown into the 
 general mass. Some subdivisions of it have been 
 formed, which are chiefly based on the form of the
 
 236 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 beak and the arrangement of the toes. This is all that 
 has been accomplished. * 
 
 "And now," he added, addressing himself to the 
 keeper, " I must compliment you on your collection, of 
 which you have indeed every right to be proud, for 
 there are many amateurs who would plume themselves 
 on it. I hope the classification of it, now that it is 
 finished, will meet with approval." 
 
 Franceschini rubbed his ear with the air of a man 
 who does not think "Yes," but does not like to say 
 "No." 
 
 "Perhaps yeu had thought of some other way of 
 arranging it," said the doctor, who apparently divined 
 his thoughts. 
 
 " Well, yes ! I should like to have it settled what 
 are the injurious species we ought to destroy, and 
 which are useful, so that we should protect them. If 
 this were only indicated by some mark or word on the 
 label by the side of the name of the species, it would 
 be sufficient. Perhaps, Major, you would kindly 
 undertake this ? " 
 
 The "Major" smiled at this new proof of con- 
 fidence. 
 
 " Yes, but, yes, but but that is extremely difficult. 
 The question is a very complicated one ; and appa- 
 
 * Since the time of Cuvier, several fresh classifications of birds have been 
 made ; but naturalists are not at all agreed on the subject, and the Passeres 
 are always a great difficulty. Translator.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 237 
 
 rently all the more intricate because torrents of ink 
 have been poured out with a view of settling it. 
 However, as you seem to desire it, and as I am now in 
 the saddle, I will give you my own opinion." 
 
 Here follows, very carefully reported, the opinion 
 of Uncle Bob on this subject.
 
 xvm. 
 
 Three great categories of birds Injurious birds Birds of mixed qualities 
 Useful birds Certain birds not to be proscribed at first glance Some 
 conclusive facts Frederick the Great and his cherries Curious obser- 
 vation made in Paris Those that eat insects Some figures An unjust 
 and odious persecution -The worst enemy of rats, field-mice, and other 
 rodents Birds as protectors of sailors An English law Cormorant- 
 fishing in China A possible cure for the Phylloxera A proposal from 
 Franceschini. 
 
 " THREE classes may be distinguished amongst birds : 
 injurious birds, birds of mixed qualities who do both 
 good and harm, and useful birds. 
 
 " Some birds are injurious by destroying game and 
 useful animals. As instances, the eagles and falcons, 
 and also the jays and magpies, who are constantly on 
 the look-out for the eggs and young of other birds. 
 Others, like the kingfisher, affect the fish and fry of 
 our rivers. To the injurious class also belong certain 
 birds that eat the fruit or other parts of plants 
 the grosbeaks, the bullfinches, the thrushes, and even, 
 though we say it with regret, the pigeons. These do 
 harm by their depredations on our fruit-trees and in 
 our gardens. 
 
 " Thus it is fair that these destroyers should be 
 themselves destroyed, though it will be well under-
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 239 
 
 stood that some at any rate should not be exter- 
 minated : pigeons, for instance, that are domesticated 
 and used as food. 
 
 " As for the birds of mixed qualities, it is difficult to 
 give any decided opinion as to how they should be 
 
 A. DESTROYER DESTROYED. 
 
 treated. For instance, the buzzards and the shrikes 
 destroy an enormous quantity of small rodents ; but 
 they also wage war against the birds that destroy 
 insects. 
 
 " The blackbirds, warblers, sparrows, and redbreasts
 
 24 o THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 are also great insect-hunters, though their well-known 
 weakness for cherries and other sweet fruits makes 
 us sometimes look upon them as very troublesome 
 friends. 
 
 '' The same may be said of crows, partridges, gold- 
 finches and other finches, though there is a difference, 
 as these birds attack grains or seeds rather than fruits. 
 
 " To sum up, we must conclude that in the case of 
 these birds of mixed qualities it is as dangerous to 
 acquit them entirely as it is to condemn them without 
 appeal. And it is all the more difficult to decide, as 
 many of these gramnivorous birds not only eat insects 
 themselves but also feed their young ones with them. 
 
 " Here are some conclusive proofs. 
 
 " In Prussia, Frederick the Great observing one 
 day that the sparrows were far too familiar with his 
 cherry-trees at Potsdam, resolved to exact a full 
 penalty for their wrongdoing high treason I pre- 
 sume we ought to call it. A price was set on the 
 heads of the pilferers. Two years afterwards not a 
 sparrow remained in the country, but on the other 
 hand there also remained no cherries in the royal 
 gardens, the whole region being devastated by cater- 
 pillars and other insects. Complaints arriving from 
 all quarters, the king himself recognised his mistake, 
 and the sparrows were reinstated at a very great 
 expense. A little more, indeed, and apologies would 
 have been offered to them.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 241 
 
 " In Hungary, and in the Grand Duchy of Baden, 
 the destruction of birds produced similar results.* 
 
 " Even in Normandy, at Montville, in the depart- 
 ment of the Seine Infe'rieure the idea of destroying 
 the crows was adopted, and it was found by experi- 
 ence that their ravages were not to be compared 
 with the evils they prevented, and the crow was 
 rehabilitated, t 
 
 " A last instance. In the middle of Paris, in the Rue 
 Vivienne, there was one day discovered round a nest 
 of sparrows one thousand four hundred wings of cock- 
 chafers. So that at the very least seven hundred 
 chafers, each one an enemy, were destroyed for a 
 single brood. 
 
 " To the aid of these kinds, whose services we, on 
 the whole, pay for pretty cheaply, come some powerful 
 assistants whom we are not required to pay at all, and 
 whom therefore we ought at all times and in all places 
 to protect. In the realm of nature there exists only 
 one serious enemy of the insect, only one capable of 
 efficiently opposing its ravages. This is the bird an 
 implacable enemy, pursuing the insect at all times and 
 in all its stages. Each insectivorous bird has, too, its 
 speciality. The woodpeckers and the climbers, guided 
 by some mysterious instinct or unknown signs, seek 
 
 * Baron Dumast, quoted in " Bulletin de la Societe d'Acclimatation de 
 Nancy," 1857, pp. 10, 11. 
 
 t Address read to the Senate, 24th June, 1861, by President Bon jean, on 
 the preservation of birds.
 
 242 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 insects under the bark and in the wood of trees, where 
 they are carrying on their ravages unseen. The cuckoo 
 attacks hairy caterpillars that other birds refuse to 
 swallow ; the European rollers, grasshoppers and 
 
 COAST BIED&. 
 
 locusts ; the hedge-sparrows, snails and larvee, as- 
 sisted in this task on the banks of the rivers by the 
 godwits, sandpipers, snipe, and indeed by the waders 
 generally. 
 
 "Pursuing another system of tactics, the swallow,
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 243 
 
 the martin, and the goatsucker hunt on the wing. In 
 the stomachs of eighteen martins killed at different 
 times, the naturalist Florent Prevost, who set himself 
 to make a systematic study of the food of birds, found 
 the remains of six thousand eight hundred and ninety 
 one insects, being about an average of four hundred 
 
 insects for each bird, and that for a single meal. Such 
 figures require no comment. 
 
 "It is difficult to form an idea of the enormous 
 amount of larvae of insects destroyed by small birds 
 such as tits, wrens, warblers, wagtails, fly-catchers, 
 pipits. It. has been calculated that the wren, the tiny
 
 244 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 wren, in the course of a year causes three millions of 
 eggs of butterflies and other insects to disappear ; the 
 blue tit about six millions and a half. As each pair 
 of tits produces about six young ones, we may consider 
 that each family of this little bird destroys at least 
 twenty -four millions of insects. " * 
 
 " Poor little birds, so frequently and ruthlessly mas- 
 sacred, when they are actually occupied in working 
 for us ! " 
 
 " The screech-owl, and other owls in fact, all the 
 nocturnal raptatores should be protected, for a single 
 one exterminates more little rodents than a whole 
 regiment of cats would. 
 
 " The cat, supposed to be a great ' ridder,' is a con- 
 summate sycophant, and knows that he can always 
 depend on the larder in case of necessity. He hunts, 
 in fact, in amateur fashion. Hunting is in reality for 
 him a pastime and amusement, a healthful sport, that 
 gives him a good appetite after the long hours passed 
 lazily in the sun or on the hearthrug. But as for the 
 owl, it hunts to live, and to procure food for a whole 
 brood of hungry beaks, who cry famine if they have 
 to pass only a short time without being gorged with 
 nutriment. A large quantity of bodies of rats and 
 voles are required for the support of such a family. 
 
 " The sea-birds, guillemots and others, that nest in 
 
 * See on this subject an excellent work, "Useful and Injurious Birds," 
 by H. de la Blanchere.
 
 PALMIPEDES. 
 
 COMMON COEMOEAXT.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 247 
 
 the cliffs, and in hazy weather by their cries and screams 
 warn the sailors of their proximity to the coast, must 
 on this account be also considered as among our allies. 
 
 LOXG-EABBD OWL (Asia otits, Lin.). 
 
 In England severe penalties are inflicted on destroyers 
 of guillemots ; and heaven only knows how many ship- 
 wrecks have been prevented by the agency of these
 
 248 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 birds. In France, the race of guillemots has been 
 nearly destroyed, the birds having been shot without 
 any mercy by sportsmen desirous of proving their own 
 skill and the excellence of their weapons by bringing 
 down their game, which though inedible, offers a 
 difficult mark to the gun." 
 
 "Brave bravery, in truth ! " 
 
 " The Chinese (we always return to the Chinese) 
 hunt the cormorant, but with a more practical object in 
 view. They train them for fishing, in a manner simi- 
 lar to that in which falcons were trained in the middle 
 ages for hunting birds. 
 
 " It appears that these palmipedes, after their train- 
 ing has been completed, bring a great profit to their 
 owners, and are sold for a high price in the markets of 
 the Celestial Empire. 
 
 " I am surprised that no ingenious sportsman should 
 have yet entertained the idea of introducing this 
 method of fishing among ourselves ; its success would 
 be certain. And, as we are now touching on subjects 
 that closely concern agricultural economy (for there is 
 no greater economy in agriculture than to protect our 
 friends and destroy our foes), perhaps you would 
 like to know my true opinion on a pest, a veritable 
 Egyptian plague, that costs many millions to France 
 every year the phylloxera. With a view to arresting 
 its ravages, considerable sums are expended on 
 chemicals and complicated apparatus, only an inade-
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 251 
 
 quate result being, however, usually derived from 
 their use. In some cases, indeed, the best that can be 
 said is that these heroic remedies only destroy the 
 disease by killing the patient. According to my ideas, 
 there is but one preservative whose action is likely to 
 be really efficacious, and of which no one apparently 
 dreams : it is the bird. 
 
 " There should exist, probably there actually exists, 
 in the countries from which the phylloxera came to 
 us, some bird the born enemy, the patent destroyer, 
 of this insect ; a bird that searches for it without 
 truce round the roots where it lurks among the 
 leaves it attacks, and hinders it from multiplying itself 
 indefinitely. Let this foe of the phylloxera be sought 
 for, and an attempt made to acclimatise it in France. 
 On the day when it shall have been discovered and 
 set to work at its duty, more will have been done 
 towards the destruction of this dreadful insect than 
 all the chemicals in the world could do in fifty years." 
 
 After the collection was fully arranged Franceschini 
 contemplated it with pride. He could now, without 
 blushing, do the honours of it, when occasion should 
 arise, even to " the scientific men of Paris. " 
 
 The good man never pronounced these five words 
 without an accent of profound respect. To him it 
 was a supreme ideal. Fancy it ! " Men of science 
 of Paris ! " 
 
 The great heat of the day was now gone by. Close
 
 z 52 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 at hand were the outskirts of the forest of Touques, 
 with its lofty trees, which apparently extended their 
 waves of foliage without interruption as far as the 
 horizon. The keeper proposed a stroll in the wood. 
 
 " Are you still making a collection of insects ? " he 
 added, turning to Leon. 
 
 And as the latter signified an affirmative 
 " Ah, well, I know a spot. I have in fact made 
 certain arrangements. But come along, I think you 
 will not be disappointed."
 
 XIX. 
 
 In the wood Interment of a field-mouse The population of an oak-tree- 
 Gall-fly The origin of gall-nuts Parasites of parasites The surprise 
 prepared by the keeper A park for insects New treasures for the col- 
 lection of Leon Arrest of an assassin Ocypus olens A little-known way 
 of butterfly-hunting "Wedded couples should be well-matched Saint 
 Francis of Sales might have become an excellent entomologist The 
 grebe A difficult problem solved by a bird The return A conjugal 
 drama. 
 
 OUR friends asked themselves with some curiosity 
 what could be the keeper's meaning, and how he 
 intended to secure for them the rich harvest of insects 
 he alluded to in such enigmatical fashion. But 
 Franceschim, in spite of their inquiring glances, 
 thought proper in a roguish manner to keep the secret 
 of his surprise. 
 
 They provided themselves with the implements neces- 
 sary for the purpose of catching and preserving insects, 
 some of which Leon always carried with him during 
 his excursions : boxes, butterfly-nets, and of course 
 the umbrella that is held inverted under the trees to 
 catch the insects that are made to fall by beating or 
 tapping the foliage with a stick. Then the little 
 party proceeded along a path in the wood, headed by 
 Franceschim, proud of doing the honours of his
 
 254 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 domain, as he pompously called it, to his friends. 
 With legs covered by long gaiters of yellow leather, 
 he led the way and directed the little expedition. 
 
 They advanced slowly, the path being bordered 
 at the sides by the deep ruts left by the waggons 
 of the woodmen, filled in places by muddy water 
 which had stagnated there since the last rains, while 
 between the ruts the horses had deeply imprinted 
 their footmarks in the soft earth. 
 
 The light was becoming more slanting, and across 
 the leaves of the hazels scattered golden spots on the 
 foliage, and striped rays of glittering beauty on the 
 sombre turf that bordered the path. 
 
 At the first turning in the road a bird flew away 
 with heavy flight only two paces from the tourists, 
 and at the same moment Kene* cried out : 
 
 "Gentlemen, I announce the decease of a field- 
 mouse." 
 
 I do not know whether the reader may share my 
 impression, but in the country I never see without 
 a certain feeling of melancholy the body of a tiny 
 rodent. In vain I reason with myself, recalling that 
 during its little life it was an injurious beast,- and that 
 the carcase of a foe smells always sweet, if we may 
 believe a Eoman emperor of gloomy reputation (and 
 in the matters of foes and carcases this emperor 
 might well have been an authority). But fruitlessly ! 
 The shrivelled legs, with their extremities pale and
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 255 
 
 naked, like the hands of infants, and appearing to 
 stretch themselves out in a supplicating manner ; the 
 delicate moustache of bristles ; the lips drawn out as 
 if by a last agony ; in short, this despised creature, a 
 body of the size of the finger, now the sport of the 
 infinite, death ! all this gives me a feeling of sad- 
 ness, and I find myself murmuring some words of 
 pity, if not of regret, for the defunct little animal. 
 
 Our promenaders possibly experienced something 
 of this feeling but did not dwell on it ; and Le*on, who 
 in fact did not like to lose anything that could be 
 of assistance to him in his favourite studies, at once 
 proposed to carry off the little corpse. 
 
 "Take it away? You must surely be joking," 
 replied his cousin. "It is already in full process of 
 decomposition. A very little longer, and it will walk 
 without any assistance." 
 
 As if to prove the truth of what Kene" had just said, 
 the little carcase, to his great astonishment, commenced 
 to shift its position. 
 
 "Attention ! " called the doctor, " the funeral 
 ceremonies have already commenced." 
 
 Five large beetles, of a black colour, as is befitting 
 to every respectable undertaker, with some yellow 
 bands like belts of leather on their elytra, had thrust 
 themselves beneath the body of the rodent, and had 
 commenced their sinister duty. They had already, in 
 fact, disappeared from sight, and it was only by a
 
 256 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 somewhat penetrating odour, like that of musk, that 
 
 NECROPHORI : 3, N. germanicus ; 4, N. fossator ; 4', T.A-RVA ; 4", PUPA. 
 SILPHA : 1, S. thoracica ; 2, quadr \punctata. 
 
 their presence was revealed. A few paces from the
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 257 
 
 spot, the earth, being there lighter, could be more 
 easily stirred. The Necrophori having discovered this 
 beforehand had chosen this position, and their burden 
 had to be removed to it. There, with their front legs, 
 which supplied the place of pick and shovel, they 
 commenced to dig the grave, throwing the earth on 
 either side as they carried on their work. 
 
 Little by little the body was seen to get lower. 
 When it had descended to the required depth the 
 
 (Pentaiomd ornatula). 
 
 Necrophori commenced to cover it with earth. After 
 this it only remained for them to wait till it was in a 
 fit state for them to deposit their eggs there. 
 
 "Not badly done. A very good sort of funeral for 
 beings of that sort," said Keue". " But this is not 
 filling our boxes." 
 
 And as he spoke, with a sudden access of industry, 
 he began with his beating-stick to beat in an unmer- 
 ciful manner the branches of a young oak-tree. 
 s
 
 258 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 The leaves fell around as thick as hail, bringing 
 down with them an abundant supply of spiders, 
 caterpillars, earwigs, and insects of all sorts, which 
 rapidly took to flight in various directions, being 
 fortunate if the young collector did not arrest them in 
 their night, and place them in his box as if in a 
 prison. 
 
 It is surprising what a world may be found on an 
 oak-tree; and each species and variety of the tree 
 has on its various parts its special guests, to give the 
 list of whose names would, however, carry us too far. 
 But in the first place there is the numerous host of 
 beetles or Coleoptera ; the stag-beetles whose larvae 
 live in the old wood of large trees ; and the Anobia ; 
 also Orchestes, which, less ambitious, contents itself 
 with the twigs and leaves ; Balaninus glandium, to 
 which the acorns serve as food and abode ; some 
 Chrysomelidae, that attack the young shoots ; while 
 nearer to the ground and on the underwood, Silphse 
 and Calosomatae carry on a war of extermination 
 against the processionary caterpillars. 
 
 In the world of Lepidoptera the frequenters of the 
 oak may be said to be legion. Many amongst them 
 are so intimately connected with this tree, and belong 
 so entirely to it, as to receive their names from it : 
 Thecla quercus, Botnbyx quercus, Tortrix qucrcus, and 
 others. 
 
 But of all these denizens the most surprising in its
 
 KY MOTH AND ITS LAKV^i, THE LATTER ATTACKED BY A 
 
 ri/E, Calosoiiui xi/<-j//t/!>it(t, AND ITS LAEVA.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 261 
 
 way of working is without doubt the Cynips, although 
 it is little known to the ordinary observer. This 
 Hymenopteron is completely associated with the tree, 
 and locates itself thereon at a fixed spot that it has 
 itself selected, and there causes a habitation to grow 
 up in which it establishes its posterity. You have 
 no doubt often noticed on the leaves, along the ribs, 
 or at the base of the stalk, some peculiar objects, 
 some fleshy excrescences, that resemble aborted apples. 
 These are the productions of the Cynips or gall-fly. 
 Its piercing apparatus, by penetrating into the plant, 
 sets up some peculiar affluence of sap, and thus is 
 formed an excrescence that gradually increases in 
 size. In this the offspring is produced, and hidden in 
 it, after the manner of La Fontaine's rat retired from 
 the world in the cheese, it grows up to its full size as 
 a grub or maggot, and comes out in the winged form 
 to carry on the continuance of the species. 
 
 It is to a Cynips of an oak of the forests of the 
 East, the Quercus infectoria, that we owe the gall-nuts 
 whose use is so widely diffused by commerce, and 
 which form one of the ingredients of writing ink ; so 
 that large numbers of people devote their industry to, 
 and obtain the means of existence from, this tiny 
 creature. And, wonderful fact ! this pigmy living on 
 a giant tree has its own pigmies devoted to it ; this 
 guest is itself the host of parasites. The little habita- 
 tion of the Cynips frequently gives shelter to a num-
 
 262 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 ber of tiny Chalcidiens, insects so small that many of 
 them can scarcely be perceived, and these devour the 
 Cynips, having discovered some means of entering 
 
 CYNIPS, AXD GALL-XUT8, OE OAK-APPLES. 
 
 its abode and of there depositing their eggs. Some 
 of these tiny parasites live within the bodies, or even 
 in the eggs, of other insects. And it is indeed possible
 
 STAG-BEETLE (LuC(lHUS CCmts) : LAEVA, PtJPA, AXD MALE 
 THE PEEFECT INSECT. 
 
 ID FEMALE OF
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 265 
 
 that this is not the last of the parasitism : these 
 Chalcidiens may be themselves attacked by other still 
 more minute insects ! Each creature is a means of 
 livelihood to others, and the smallest is a microcosm, 
 quite a universe in miniature. 
 
 Such were the meditations that Dr. Boberral for a 
 while abandoned himself to. All at once he seemed 
 to awake from his dream : " Come," said he, " this is 
 strange sort of speculation for a doctor ! But we 
 must attribute it to the oak-tree itself, the weird 
 tree with which the Greeks and Druids long, long 
 before my time associated their mythical conceptions. 
 My nephew, better advised, contents himself with 
 utilising it as a means for obtaining the objects of his 
 naturalist's desire." 
 
 Just then Franceschini, thinking it time to satisfy 
 the ardour of the young man, invited him to come on 
 a little farther. 
 
 " Come along," said he, with a mysterious smile, 
 " my insect park is only a few steps from here, and 
 without taking so much trouble as this we shall find 
 many more there. Come ! " 
 
 An insect park ! What could he mean by that ? 
 Neither Kene*, Le'on, nor the doctor himself could 
 guess ; but they started oif with fresh enthusiasm, and 
 soon reached a clearing. In the middle of it might 
 still be seen the remains of a wooden hut, erected 
 there by a workman some years before as a temporary
 
 266 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 shelter during the period of summer. The grass and 
 moss were now regaining the ground from which 
 they had been banished for awhile, and were reappear- 
 ing on the trodden soil that had formed the floor of 
 the habitation. Outside the ruined hut were some 
 disconnected boards, covered with moss ; formerly 
 they had probably formed part of the door of the 
 cabin but were now overthrown and scattered hither 
 and thither. 
 
 " This is my park," said the keeper ; " and it is here 
 that I have placed my baits : some earthworms, some 
 portions of snails, and a spoonful or two of molasses 
 spread on the boards. We shall see if my devices 
 have proved successful." 
 
 The planks were turned over, and a crowd of insects 
 of several kinds were immediately discovered ants, 
 Carabidse with brilliant armour, and sunshine beetles, 
 or Amaraee. It was a sort of miniature Noah's ark ; 
 each kind had attracted others. In the same way as, 
 on the foliage they consume, caterpillars are pursued 
 by their ferocious enemies, the Calosomata, the Feroniee, 
 the tiger- beetles, so the woodlice and little snails 
 that had come there in the hope of quietly awaiting 
 the arrival of the freshness of evening, had not failed 
 to attract the unwelcome visits of Procrustes, SilphaB, 
 and Staphylinidse. The arrival of our friends produced 
 a general stampede among both the slaughterers and 
 their victims.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 267 
 
 Le'on had scarcely ever before met with so grand a 
 chance. The boxes and receptacles at once began to 
 
 CARNIVOBOUS 
 
 ABOVE, Calosoma sycophanta ; TO THE EIGHT, Carabtis -auratus AND 
 LAKVA; BELOW, Carabm purpurascens. 
 
 fill. By this one stroke his modest collection of insects 
 would be increased by many specimens, perhaps by 
 some of fresh sorts. And he collected and collected,
 
 268 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 almost by handfuls, without discrimination, without 
 remorse. At last, wearied of the slaughter, the boxes 
 were put away, and our four friends prepared to con- 
 tinue their ramble. 
 
 " Shall we not take this one ? " said Bene*, pointing 
 with his finger to a superb granulated Carabus. 
 
 " It is no good ; we have already ten or a dozen of 
 it, and it is a useful insect. We shall acclimatise some 
 of his brethren in our garden at the cottage, and as 
 for this one we may leave it in peace." 
 
 But fate had decided otherwise. A great Staphy- 
 linus concealed behind a root suddenly made a sortie 
 from its ambush and bore down on the unhappy carabe. 
 With a stroke of its mandibles the insect was almost 
 decapitated. All this was done in less time than it 
 takes to tell it ; a flash of lightning would have been 
 almost sufficient to have, illuminated the transactions 
 of this little tragedy. 
 
 "But you, my good fellow, you shall perish miser- 
 ably." And stooping down Bene" seized the Staphy- 
 linus, and unflinchingly detained it, notwithstanding 
 the disagreeable odour of nitrous ether that the insect 
 spread around it an odour which has procured for it 
 the name of Ocypus olens. 
 
 As the Parisian was on the point of shutting it up 
 with the others 
 
 "Mind what you are about," said the doctor; 
 " before night all our captives will be massacred and
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 269 
 
 torn to pieces. Here is a tube containing already a 
 male Ocypus ; yours is, I think, a female : it will be 
 better to keep them by themselves." 
 
 He offered the tube to Kene", who hastened to avail 
 himself of the good advice, humming a well-known 
 song 
 
 " H faut des epoux assortis, 
 Dans les liens du mariage."* 
 
 " You see my plan is a very simple one," said the 
 keeper, who, however, was none the less proud of the 
 find. " Lepidoptera may be captured by a similar 
 method. You place on the trunks of the trees a 
 mixture of sugar or molasses with some beer, and 
 these gay ones come and cannot forsake it. You 
 know the proverb that says you may capture more flies 
 with a drop of honey than with a pint of vinegar." 
 
 ;< Yes," the doctor laughingly replied. "And 
 evidently Saint Francis of Sales, to whom the author- 
 ship is attributed, might have become an eminent 
 entomologist if he had not been a great saint." 
 
 They returned through the marshes that exist on 
 either side of the river Touques. In a creek a bird, 
 called the little grebe, was sporting about. The 
 moment it saw our friends it dived and disappeared. 
 
 " Can it be drowned ? " said Eene", who after two 
 
 * Spouses should be well assorted 
 For the bonds of holy wedlock.
 
 2 7 
 
 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 minutes of waiting was surprised that it did not rise 
 to the surface. There was, however, not the least 
 need for anxiety on this point : the grebe was simply 
 
 TIGEE-BEETLE8. 
 
 1, Cicinrfela campeslris ; 2, Cteindela sytratica. 
 
 concealed under some foliage. Its body was entirely 
 covered by water, with the exception only of the beak, 
 at the extremity of which the nostrils are placed,
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 271 
 
 and it rested quietly in this position concealed entirely 
 from the eye, and would indeed have remained so for 
 hours had it been necessary. 
 
 " The grebe is a very strange creature. Can you 
 guess what plan it has invented to save itself the 
 trouble of hatching its eggs ? It builds its nest at the 
 
 LE (Ocypus olc/tit). 
 
 surface of the water with green leaves and vegetables, 
 being apparently aware that this material in the pro- 
 cess of fermentation will develop sufficient heat to 
 enable the bird to dispense, at any rate to some extent, 
 with the process of incubation. 
 
 " Better still ! As this fermentation could not be pro- 
 duced without a disengagement of deleterious gases,
 
 2-12 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 that might be sufficient to kill the young grebe in 
 the egg, it is necessary, while utilising the heat, to 
 neutralise the effect of the gases. The grebe is not 
 nonplussed by such a trifle, and the nest is accord- 
 ingly constructed and ballasted in such a manner 
 that the eggs are partly in the water, and by this 
 the gases are dissolved or absorbed as fast as they are 
 formed.* 
 
 It must be admitted that a graduate of one of our 
 technical colleges could not have solved the problem 
 (which, as has been seen, is not without its difficul- 
 ties) proposed by nature to the grebe in a happier 
 manner. 
 
 The time for departure had now come, so with 
 some regret they entered the keeper's lodge, then put 
 to the horse, and at last departed, only, however, 
 after Franceschini had filled the vacant places of the 
 vehicle with a whole assortment of birds carefully 
 stowed away. 
 
 Just as they were reaching their own cottage 
 
 "I have a proposal to make to you," said Uncle 
 Bob, " an excursion of two days." 
 
 The idea was at once approved of. 
 
 " Then, if you please, you must get everything in 
 readiness to-night. To-morrow morning we embark 
 
 * Paul Xoel. "Feuille des jeunes Naturalists," No. 116. (But it is 
 probable that in the construction of this theory imagination has taken too 
 large a part. Translator.}
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 273 
 
 for our first voyage on board of Father Lucas's new 
 vessel." 
 
 " And where shall we go to ? " 
 
 " To Etretat." 
 
 " Unanimously accepted," said Kene*. " After insects 
 we go back to fishes ; after the forest, the ocean ! " 
 
 Then his restless and impulsive mind bringing him 
 back all at once to the events of the day : " By-the-by, 
 and what about my own particular collecting to-day, 
 that concluded with a wedding in a bottle ? Let us 
 
 see what has become of my establishment of a pair of 
 Staphylinus." 
 
 Saying this he took out the tube. A sad spectacle 
 presented itself to his eyes. 
 
 Of the male, more than three parts were devoured ; 
 there remained but little more than the hard wing- 
 cases. The unfortunate creature must, however, 
 have fought bravely for his life ; and the female in 
 the struggle had two legs torn off, and was resting, 
 nearly motionless, at the bottom of the tube. 
 T
 
 27 4 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 "Come, then, this is good," said the Parisian; 
 " another conjugal drama." And then, in a tone of 
 bitter reproach : " For shame, wretch. What an ex- 
 ample to set to youth ! An infamous creature, that 
 has crunched up her husband ! "
 
 XX. 
 
 On board the cutter A Ibatross At sea Medusae Rene is again a "martyr 
 of science " Physalia An old tale by Father Lucas A sailor's fancy 
 that cost its author dear Phosphorescence of the sea How the Medusae 
 grow Alternation of generations Arrival at Etretat. 
 
 " AEE you all there ? One, two, three ! Courage, boys, 
 courage ! " And Father Lucas, with the help of five 
 powerful sailors, pushed into the sea the bark that, 
 drawn up on the sand, had awaited the rise of the 
 tide. A blue pennant hung at the top of the mast, 
 and a large tricolour flag, quite new, fluttered from 
 the boom. 
 
 Their provisions, luggage, and some lifebelts (it is 
 well to foresee everything when about to trust oneself 
 to the ocean) had been sent down beforehand. 
 
 After them the three voyagers arrived. The young 
 men boldly entered in the water half-way up their legs 
 in order to get on board the vessel. As for Uncle Bob, 
 he was obliged to resign himself to being carried by a 
 sturdy sailor, by the aid of whose shoulders he gained 
 the deck of the cutter. 
 
 u Is all ready ? " said Father Lucas ; " then we will 
 start."
 
 276 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 All the sails were run up; the Albatross gently 
 yielded to the wind. The old sailor, with bent back 
 but attentive eye, took in one hand the rope of the 
 sheets, in the other the tiller. Then one after the 
 other, sailors, beach, the houses of Villers, began to 
 disappear, while afar off Cape Antifer vaguely dis- 
 played its huge white outlines. 
 
 When they were fully out at sea, "You are not 
 sick," said Uncle Bob to his nephew. 
 
 " Sick ! How could anyone be so in such weather ? 
 besides, I have not time to feel ill. There is too much 
 to see, and I am enjoying it all too much." 
 
 And indeed they had a magnificent panorama 
 before their eyes. The Albatross was now traversing 
 the great roadstead of Havre. A whole flotilla of 
 vessels, with their furnaces half extinguished, or sails 
 half clewed up, were at anchor quietly waiting until 
 the tide was sufficiently full to permit them to enter 
 the port, something after the fashion of wearied 
 travellers, who with faces turned towards the desired 
 goal enjoy a moment of repose before completing the 
 last stage of their journey. 
 
 Here and there were to be seen pilot boats, whose 
 full -spread sail appeared on the sky almost like a 
 bird on the wing ; large heavy fishing -boats, hauling 
 their nets, and whose stem, painted red, was reflected 
 on the trembling surface of the deep. On the right, 
 lighted up by the rosy rays of the sun, appeared the
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 277 
 
 town with its crowd of roofs and its forest of masts ; 
 to the left was the horizon, heaven and ocean united, 
 and forming between the coast of Calvados and Cape 
 Antifer a quarter of an immense circle. 
 
 Leon had placed himself in the fore part of the 
 vessel, and without speaking he remained there as if 
 fascinated, seated and leaning on his elbow, fully 
 occupied with gazing. 
 
 Eene with much curiosity noticed the Medusae, 
 through whole shoals of which the vessel occasionally 
 passed. Carried about at the mercy of the currents, 
 they were displayed in the water like globes of opal 
 surrounded by a circle of amethyst. 
 
 "What strange creatures!" he suddenly said to 
 the doctor. " In vain I have looked quite through 
 them, but I see no stomach, nor anything else. Have 
 they, then, no internal organs ? " 
 
 "It is rather because their organs are also trans- 
 parent," said Uncle Bob. " If you were to place a 
 Medusa, for a few hours only, in a coloured liquid, 
 such as a solution of carmine, you would afterwards 
 be able to study all the details of its structure with 
 facility." 
 
 Eene considered it a point of duty to put himself 
 in a position to make the experiment, so, taking up a 
 net that was at hand, he captured a Medusa and 
 flung it on the deck. 
 
 Now that it was out of the water it appeared to be
 
 278 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 nothing but a gelatinous and shapeless mass. Never- 
 theless the budding naturalist without hesitating took 
 hold of it. 
 
 " Oh ! and three times oh ! " he cried, quickly 
 withdrawing his hand from contact with the jelly- 
 fish. 
 
 "What is the matter?" asked Le'on, whom this 
 cry had roused from his reverie. 
 
 " The matter is that I have taken hold of a handful 
 of nettles. The ink of the Sepia, the prick of the 
 ' crazy-fish,' the sting of the jelly-fish I think I 
 have had my share of these things. When we have 
 got to ten we must chalk it up. Villainous creature ! 
 horrible and disgusting beast ! " he added while vigor- 
 ously rubbing his hand. 
 
 " That is nothing," said Father Lucas, " who had 
 not thought it necessary to quit the tiller. Why, I 
 have seen in the tropics many other kinds, including 
 the Physaliae, great Medusae something like bladders 
 galleys, as the sailors call them." 
 
 "Perhaps you mean the Physophora hydrostatica?" 
 said the doctor. 
 
 "Yes, indeed; that was, I think, the name the 
 officers gave them. The bladder is surmounted by a 
 sort of crest, which serves as a sail to the jelly-fish. 
 Below are large twisted arms like corkscrews ; you 
 can see that from as far off as this. 
 
 " The first time I made the acquaintance of these
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 279 
 
 beasts was on board of the Diana, a corvette bound 
 to the Gaboon. The major had about a dozen of 
 them placed in a large tub and covered up with a 
 tarpaulin, intending to study them. 
 
 "It was very hot; not a heat like this, but like 
 what one feels only in the tropics, and that very likely 
 you will never feel. The douches that the sailors 
 gave to one another, the frequent washings of the 
 deck, sometimes repeated as often as six times a 
 day, nothing was any good ! We were stewing, my 
 children were stewing as if Old Nick had cast us all 
 into his stevvpan." 
 
 The old sailor here paused for a minute, and passed 
 his hand over his brow, as if to drive away a painful , 
 reminiscence, and then continued his narrative. 
 
 " We had thought of taking a dip overboard, and 
 being towed by a rope ; but there were a lot of those 
 miserable sharks. They caught every morsel thrown 
 overboard before it reached the water ; but this was 
 not sufficient to prevent them from grinning and 
 showing us their teeth in a most villainous fashion. 
 It may be a fine thing to be a sailor, but one does not 
 care to have such fellows for neighbours. So all 
 through the day I looked with the corner of my eye 
 at the major's tub, and thought how much I should 
 like to take a bath in it The clear water tempted me 
 too strongly. 
 
 "Well, when the night comes, I get up, I proceed
 
 28o 
 
 THE \YALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 very gently, and there I am in my tub. No ! by Jove, 
 only to think of it again makes me sting all over a 
 regular fine bath, a dish of stinging nettles. I got 
 out, I never yet know how, covered with pimples 
 from head to feet. I had three days of it without 
 being able to stir. The jelly-fish next day were 
 found smashed to jelly. Fortunately it was supposed 
 
 JELLY-FISH (Rhizostoma caerulea). 
 
 that the heat had caused them to die of apoplexy. 
 If the major had known of the adventure he would 
 never have forgiven me. 
 
 " This major was a learned man, but he had some 
 very queer notions. He used to say (you will know 
 if it is right) that it is the jelly-fish that make the sea 
 phosphorescent."
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 281 
 
 " The major was right. The phosphorescence of 
 the sea is really due to myriads of minute Medusae. 
 They are altogether singular animals, and many of 
 them undergo very strange metamorphoses." 
 - " Tell us about it, Uncle Bob," said Kene, throw- 
 ing overboard with his foot the jelly-fish, which again 
 commenced swimming as if nothing had happened. 
 
 " Thus. The Medusa commences by producing an 
 egg. From this egg issues, not a Medusa, but a sort 
 of infusorian, furnished with vibratile ciliae, which for 
 some time leads a free life by rotating, but finishes 
 by attaching itself to some object under the water. 
 There it grows, branches out, and becomes a polype. 
 ' " Then new changes take place and contractions 
 are formed, so that the creature becomes like a series 
 of superposed discs. It breaks up, the discs become 
 detached, and each forms a jelly-fish, which grows and 
 later on produces eggs, and so the round is continued 
 Medusae and polypes, one after the other. The 
 series of transformations goes on in these lower beings 
 in such a way that the children are always dissimilar 
 from their parents, but resemble a generation of beings 
 that preceded these." 
 
 They were approaching Etretat. The bark was 
 coasting beneath huge cliffs of chalk, mighty deposits 
 left by the seas of far distant geological epochs, and 
 that now rear themselves like colossal walls opposed 
 to the immensity of ocean.
 
 2 82 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 By degrees as they advanced the cliffs became 
 more broken up. Soon the Needle appeared, and 
 then the Cradle. These rocks stand there like the 
 last vestiges of some cyclopean architecture. After 
 these the beach again, with bathing machines, cap- 
 stans planted in the shingle, and the tarred boats 
 which, when they are no longer sound enough to 
 encounter the perils of the ocean, they make use of 
 for small shops. They had arrived. 
 
 While Uncle Bob, like a thoughtful provider, went 
 to prepare a domicile for the little party, and Lucas 
 was occupied with the boat, the young men went and 
 took a glance at the great rocks that the ebbing tide 
 was beginning to disclose.
 
 XXI. 
 
 Villers and Etretat The cliffs of Normandy The power of a drop of water 
 How shingle beaches are formed A " water-cat " "Way of getting 
 rid of an Octopus Every nook occupied The population of a rock 
 A new fauna The various zones of the tidal region. 
 
 THE distance separating the sands of Villers from the 
 beach of Etretat is scarcely more than ten or a dozen 
 leagues. It would, however, be difficult to imagine a 
 greater contrast than exists between these two water- 
 ing-places. 
 
 Villers, stretching out along an immense carpet of 
 fine sand, extends eastwards almost indefinitely, and 
 appears, with its villas arranged one after the other, 
 like forlorn sentinels by the roadside, to offer its 
 hand to Deauville, which begins a league farther on. 
 To the west, the suburban houses are placed one 
 higher than the other on the gentle declivity of a cliff 
 of brown clay, the upper part of which is broken and 
 interrupted. 
 
 Etretat on the contrary, compressed between the 
 grasp of its two great cliffs, has its limits on each side
 
 284 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 marked out for ever. Huge strata of chalk three or 
 four hundred feet in height, almost as massive and 
 imposing as granite, defy the efforts of man. Air 
 and water are their only masters. The air, weathering 
 them, disintegrates the rock, and scatters afar the 
 dust it has rubbed from the great mass ; the water, 
 filtering into the almost imperceptible fissures of the 
 rock, dissolves it, and the nearly invisible moisture 
 works more effectually than either powder or dyna- 
 mite. 
 
 As the result, enormous blocks are detached and fall 
 like monstrous projectiles on the crushed shingle. 
 There the sea takes possession of them and completes 
 the work. The chalk is dissolved away, and the 
 insoluble silex, pounded, broken, crumbled, and worn 
 in every way, forms the shingle that the sea rolls 
 with a monotonous thunder as far as the mouth of 
 the Seine. 
 
 Two shores so different as Villers and Etretat could 
 not be inhabited by the same creatures. At Villers 
 delicate animals are able to repose on the sand, as if 
 on a soft cushion. To Etretat belong the solid and 
 hardy species that have nothing to fear from the shock 
 of the waves, and who find a sheltering-place in the 
 hard rocks. 
 
 " A water-cat ! " * 
 
 * "Chatrouille," a local slang name for which the Translator has been 
 obliged to invent an equi% - alcnt.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 287 
 
 " Turn his bonnet ! " 
 
 These two almost simultaneous exclamations were 
 uttered by two children, two young natives, who 
 were engaged in seeking for crabs, by turning over 
 the large stones covered with seaweed. 
 
 ""Water-cat? turn his bonnet?" repeated Rene. 
 " What the deuce can they be talking about ? " 
 
 He went nearer, and one of the children he 
 who had first cried out raising himself up, waved 
 
 LIMPET (Patella vulgata, Lamarck). 
 
 an enormous Octopus in the air in a triumphant 
 manner. 
 
 " Wasn't long over it, eh ? " said he to Rene, 
 showing him his capture. " Directly you find your- 
 self caught by a water-cat, you must catch hold of 
 his head and turn him inside out like a bag. Will 
 you buy this one, sir ? " added the young Norman, 
 without stopping. 
 
 "No indeed, I am very much obliged to you," said 
 Rene, looking with disgust at the hideous beast, 
 whose arms, furnished with innumerable suckers, 
 hung down in a flabby style. " What should you 
 expect me to do with it ? " 
 
 "Booh! Have it cooked and eat it," replied the
 
 288 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 child, apparently very much astonished that anyone 
 should be in doubt about so simple a matter. 
 
 Then seeing he was not able to make a good thing 
 out of it, he placed the monster in his basket and 
 went off. 
 
 " It is a fortunate circumstance," said Leon, " that 
 the gigantic cuttle-fish, if they really exist, are so 
 well-mannered as never to let themselves be seen. 
 A mere dozen of poulpes like that described by Victor 
 
 SEA -SNAIL (Purptira lapiHut,, Lamarck). 
 
 Hugo in the ' Travailleurs de la Mer,' would render a 
 seaside place quite uninhabitable ! " 
 
 While speaking, the young naturalist by his own 
 example gave the signal for exploration. Close at 
 hand there began a heap of large rocks, still wet with 
 the salt water, veritable dwelling-houses for marine 
 animals, and covered by a thick mantle of green sea- 
 weed and shells of various sorts. 
 
 In such a spot no room is wasted. On the surface 
 are mussels attached firmly by their byssus ; limpets 
 with conical shells, who manage to clin to the rock,
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 289 
 
 by creating a vacuum beneath them ; acorn shells, 
 that appear on the rock as little white projections, 
 very hard and sharp, all these being species that 
 have nothing to fear from the shocks of the waves. 
 In the crevices, and in the minute hollows where 
 protected from the surf, periwinkles and dog peri- 
 winkles (PurpuraB), deposit their eggs ; while still 
 more in the interior, some in the very heart of the 
 rock, the numerous group of the corroders of the 
 stone, the piddock, the Saxicavse, the Yenerupis, carry 
 on without any relaxation their incessant though 
 unseen task of destruction. 
 
 If the ear be applied to the rock, a noise arising 
 from their unceasing action may be heard, a strange 
 sound, almost defying description, caused by the 
 energy of vital action within the interior of the life- 
 less rock. 
 
 Farther off, at the limit of low water, commences a 
 zone in which the action of the sun's rays is less 
 powerful, and here the agreeable and lively green 
 tints are replaced by more sombre shades of bistre- 
 brown and olive. 
 
 Between the great brown stalks and the interlaced 
 leaves of Laminaria, there is also a considerable popu- 
 lation, of a quite different character. This is a lurk- 
 ing-place for certain molluscs without shells, the 
 species of Doris and Tritonia, designated by the fishers 
 under the common name of sea-slugs. As well as 
 
 u
 
 2 go TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 Aplysia, whose respiratory organs are placed on the 
 middle of the back, and which secretes a violet 
 ink. 
 
 This zone is prolonged seawards for a considerable 
 distance ; beyond it is the abyss. This is inaccessible 
 and unknown, no human eye having yet examined its 
 depths.
 
 XXII. 
 
 The return from Etretat Inventory A serious culprit The worst foe of 
 the Dutchman A selfish rascal The sponges of the Channel Homeric 
 combat between a negro and a sponge Clams A Chinaman in a shell 
 Signs of bad weather A recollection of some martyrs of duty Old 
 mariner and true sailors. 
 
 AFTER an excursion of two days, conscientiously 
 devoted to the examination of Etretat and the neigh- 
 bourhood the Manhole, the Cauldron, the Needles, 
 as well as the great springs at Bruneval they com- 
 menced their homeward journey on hoard of the 
 Albatross. With one of those sudden changes so 
 frequent on the coasts of the Channel, the wind now 
 blew from N.E. to S.W., bringing with it great banks 
 of clouds. The surface of the water, slightly agitated 
 by a swell, receiving no longer the rays of the sun, 
 had become of a more glaucous colour. Sky overcast, 
 breeze slight, as the sailors say. 
 
 However, old Lucas when he was consulted, had 
 not any hesitation in giving the signal for departure. 
 " A leading wind to come with, and a leading wind 
 to return with ! Why, the v^eather is made expressly
 
 292 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 for us ! With only half her sails the Albatross will 
 skim along like an American cutter." 
 
 Accordingly they started. 
 
 "When Etretat had disappeared from sight, and they 
 were beginning to follow the long line of cliffs, they 
 went over the inventory of the preceding day. 
 
 The doctor, who had only passed a few minutes on 
 the beach, opened his botanical box, and took out of 
 it a large piece of wood. 
 
 " It is not for lighting the fire with," said he; " it 
 is simply a sample of the ravages that the ship- worms ' 
 are able to effect. Have you ever seen such a cut- 
 ting-up ? " 
 
 And in point of fact this piece of wood, pierced by 
 holes in various directions, was reduced almost to the 
 condition of a sponge. On its sides, and on the ex- 
 posed parts, the galleries hollowed out of the wood 
 could be seen lined with a calcareous layer. 
 
 " And here is the culprit ! " added Uncle Bob, 
 exhibiting a sort of worm, half dried up, and ter- 
 minated by a pigmy shell. "It is the Teredo navalis, 
 an implacable enemy of maritime constructions. 
 When piles are driven in sea- water to form break- 
 waters or piers, or when wooden vessels are left 
 stationary for some time in port, it comes boldly and 
 establishes itself in them, eating away atom by atom 
 of the construction by means of its shell, as if with 
 an auger. Pile work, made from the heart wood of
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 295 
 
 oak, has been known to give way suddenly after a 
 few weeks, being mined by these invisible workmen. 
 In Holland, especially in that part of the country that 
 is preserved from the invasion of the sea by means of 
 dikes, the damage caused annually by these molluscs 
 is very considerable. 
 
 " These other smaller holes, that you see at the 
 end of the wood, are made by an enemy of the ship- 
 worm, which fact, however, does not prevent it from 
 being equally our enemy. It is a crustacean, and the 
 selfish rascal would wish to have the monopoly of 
 destroying our artificial marine constructions. It is 
 the Limnoria terebrans. Our captain knows it well, 
 only he gives it another name, calling it, I believe, the 
 gribble." 
 
 "Very good bait for fishing-lines/' sententiously 
 remarked the fisherman, pulling at his pipe. 
 
 " That is all my find, except a Spongia oculata, one 
 of the few kinds of sponges found in the Channel, all 
 of which, moreover, are quite small. In warm seas, 
 sponges, on the other hand, sometimes attain enor- 
 mous dimensions. Witness the colossal sponge pre- 
 served in the museum at Havre, which was obtained 
 about thirty years ago under circumstances that are 
 worthy of being narrated. 
 
 "As they were disembarking on to a lighter in 
 some port of Mexico I have forgotten which one 
 some cases of machinery imported in a vessel from
 
 296 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 Havre, as the result of some piece of awkward man- 
 agement one of these cases fell into the sea. A. 
 squad of negroes was immediately set to work to 
 recover it. And it happened that one of these 
 negroes fell, as if into a trap, into the sponge in 
 question, which was just deep enough and large 
 enough to contain the whole body of a man. 
 
 "The poor devil, maddened with fright, thought 
 himself lost. By a desperate shock he succeeded in 
 detaching the sponge from its attachment, and both 
 
 PIECE OF WOOD PEBFOBATED BY SHIP-WORMS. 
 
 of them rose to the surface together, the man in the 
 sponge. This negro-eating sponge is, I believe, the 
 largest specimen that has ever been secured." 
 
 " Now that we are talking of big things," said 
 Eene, " can you tell me what are the largest of all 
 the shells?" 
 
 " A species of Tridacna giant clams, or holy-water 
 basins as they are called. These sometimes attain a 
 diameter of three feet. They are obtained chiefly in 
 the Indian Ocean."
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 297 
 
 " I know them well enough," said old Lucas. " I 
 have eaten them when I was in India." 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 "Well, it is detestable. But there is one thing 
 about them that you probably do not know ; it is that 
 in China they make use of these shells, which we use 
 here as holy-water basins, as troughs for horses. 
 Indeed, I knew an old quartermaster who declared 
 he had seen them so large that they were used as baths 
 by the mandarins. You can't believe some quarter- 
 masters ! " 
 
 They were entering the bay of the Seine. In the 
 north the sky was becoming blacker and blacker, 
 while, by a curious optical effect, to the south the 
 houses of Trouville and all the details of the coast of 
 Calvados were denned with remarkable clearness. 
 Some flocks of sea-gulls appeared as white patches 
 against the black sky, and made with all possible 
 rapidity for the coast. 
 
 " We must make for Trouville as quickly as pos- 
 sible," said the captain of the Albatross ; " there will 
 be a pretty good hatful of wind to night." 
 
 He gave a stroke of the tiller, and noticing on the 
 larboard side of the vessel the buoys of Amfard, which 
 were bobbing about on the waves, he lifted his woollen 
 bonnet by way of saluting them. 
 
 This gesture did not escape the three voyagers, and 
 in response to the unspoken request of their eyes he
 
 298 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 said : " A very sad recollection. About two years 
 ago, in the spring it was the 26th of March, I shall 
 never forget the date I had been already detained at 
 Havre for three days by stormy weather. In the 
 morning I went down to look at the sea, thinking 
 how long it was likely to last, and to see if the wind 
 was not moderating a bit. Bah ! it was stronger than 
 ever. 
 
 " Then I saw plainly, down here near this buoy, 
 an English cutter, the Vivid, on the point of being 
 lost. 
 
 " With a telescope you could see the men, who 
 had climbed into the rigging and were making signals 
 well, that sort of thing, you know but then to 
 venture out in such weather ! 
 
 " They could not be deserted like that, and I said 
 to myself, ' Ah ! if I were ten years younger ! ' Just 
 then I see the lifeboat going out, with its crew of 
 eleven ; it was No. 4. ' Hurrah ! boys,' I cry to 
 them, ' Hurrah ! ' But they were never seen alive 
 again. 
 
 "Another squad got under way in spite of the 
 danger, but it was all over with the first crew. 
 No. 4 had been manned by eleven men, and the 
 next day they recovered eleven bodies. 
 
 " And when they gave them a magnificent funeral, 
 with the soldiers and music, and all the weeping 
 (they had deserved it, poor fellows ! ), I was there in
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 299 
 
 the church leaning against a pillar, and I said to 
 myself below my breath : ' They were sailors, true 
 ones ! ' " 
 
 He was silent for a moment, and then as if speaking 
 to himself again, he muttered 
 
 " True ones ! " 
 
 The three excursionists looked at him without 
 speaking, and while the cutter skimmed rapidly 
 along, sloping under her sails, two big tears rolled, 
 in silence down the wrinkled cheeks of the old 
 sailor.
 
 XXIII. 
 EPILOGUE. 
 
 " THERE is no company too good to part," says an old 
 proverb, and the time came when the portmanteaus 
 had again to be packed, closed, and strapped up for 
 the return. 
 
 " Already ! " sighed Kene*, who had been occupied 
 all the morning with the unpleasant task. 
 
 " Already ! " repeated mechanically Ldon and the 
 doctor. 
 
 It must be, however. The end of the vacation was 
 at hand, and Uncle Bob himself would only be able to 
 stay a week longer at Yillers. The yearly leave that 
 his position in the medical schools at Paris permits him 
 to take was on the point of expiring, and professional 
 duty required his speedy return. 
 
 They sat down to table, without much appetite, it 
 must be admitted, and at the very moment when the 
 meal was finished the door was opened and the ser- 
 vant announced
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 301 
 
 " The omnibus for the railway, sir ! " 
 
 Have you ever noticed the effect produced by such 
 words, when it has become necessary to tear oneself 
 away from an agreeable sojourn ? The idea of depar- 
 ture has not been allowed to take possession of the 
 mind. If one has thought of it, a glance of the eyes at 
 the surroundings has assured us that the moment of 
 separation is not yet here. But the clock strikes, and 
 brings one to the stern reality. 
 
 " The omnibus for the railway, sir ! " 
 
 The luggage was again stowed away on the omnibus, 
 and Kene", who a few weeks before affected such a 
 complete nonchalance, and gaily mocked the scientific 
 tastes of his cousin, Rene* the giddy and incredulous 
 Parisian of the previous year, returned a last time to 
 the workroom at the moment of leaving the cottage as 
 if to say good bye to it. 
 
 And when, having said adieu to Uncle Bob, he was 
 on the point of mounting the steps of the carriage that 
 was to take him back to Paris 
 
 " Thank you much ! " he said to Le'on, pressing his 
 hand with warmth. u You have taught me to observe, 
 you have shown me how one may in any place occupy 
 and train the intellect. Again I thank you." 
 
 The train started, and the young man leant out so 
 that he might get one more glimpse, through the 
 trees, of the peaceful cottage where, instead of excit- 
 ing pleasures, he had found during his short vacation
 
 302 THE WALKS ABROAD OF 
 
 the tranquil and strengthening solace that is brought 
 by study. 
 
 Then in turn the cottage and trees disappeared, 
 and Bene* ensconced himself in a corner and lulled 
 by the monotonous rumbling of the train fell asleep. 
 
 At the time these lines are written nearly a year 
 has elapsed, and Uncle Bob is again making his pre- 
 parations for a return to Villers. He will find some 
 changes there. 
 
 Father Lucas has gone to reside at Trouville. He 
 can there find better shelter for his boat, the Albatross, 
 and give it more attention. For the greater part of 
 the year he lives the life of a retired man, but during 
 the season of fine weather excursions to sea are a 
 source of considerable profit to him. 
 
 The fishermen of Trouville hold him in great respect, 
 and when a difference of opinion arises between two 
 sailors, it is to the old patriarch that appeal is made. 
 His decisions are treated as final. 
 
 So Father Lucas has become an authority. 
 
 Franceschini, in recognition of the services he ren- 
 dered as non-commissioned officer in 1870, received, 
 when he had ceased to expect it (possibly Uncle Bob 
 may have known of it), a military decoration. Some- 
 times, when seated in the midst of his treasured collec- 
 tion, he gazes fixedly at the brilliant token displayed 
 on the wall, and believes that the sight is a sovereign 
 remedy for rheumatism and attacks of gout, from 
 which he sometimes suffers.
 
 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 303 
 
 Jacob, who when young was of so happy a disposi- 
 tion, has, now that he is older, become an impudent 
 chatterbox and an incorrigible thief. 
 
 Yes, dear readers, I regret to inform you that it is 
 impossible to deny that Jacob has a natural talent for 
 theft. Everything that glitters excites his cupidity, 
 and only yesterday, by chance his storehouse was 
 discovered under the stairs. Here is the inventory of 
 its contents 
 
 Two thimbles. 
 
 A small key. 
 
 A penholder. 
 
 Two or three dozen pins. 
 
 About the same number of needles. 
 
 Some nails and screws. 
 
 Two half-franc pieces. 
 
 The cover of a sardine-box. 
 
 One majr well ask what Jacob intended to do with 
 such an accumulation. 
 
 And your two principal characters, Kene* andLe*on? 
 
 Le"on, a medical student, has passed his first exami- 
 nation with honours ; and his thoughtful turn of mind, 
 and the remarkable grasp of his intelligence, cause it 
 to be prophesied that he will be a worthy successor to 
 his father. 
 
 Kene* is about in a few days to pass his last exami- 
 nation as Bachelor of Arts ; after which he proposes to 
 enter the college of Saint Cyr. With his careless
 
 304 TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 
 
 courage and his frank good-humour there is but little 
 doubt of his becoming one of our best officers. 
 
 There is, however, a dark side to every picture, 
 and formerly the prospect of long days to be passed 
 in garrison in the provinces dismayed him. But now, 
 even should he have to pass whole months in the 
 midst of the marshes, he is no longer afraid of ennui. 
 For this terrible complaint he knows a perfect anti- 
 dote : study the pursuit of knowledge. 
 
 Can time be long when one has to learn ? 
 
 Can anyone who is an observer weary ? 
 
 THE END.
 
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