The next day I visited the market, and in five days I had filled a
great barrel with different kinds of fish and fresh-water turtles,
beside making several skeletons and various dissections of
mollusks. Wishing to employ my time as usefully as possible, I
postponed my visits to the savans of the city, and the delivery of
my letters, till I was on the eve of departure, that I might avoid
all invitations. I had especial pleasure in making the acquaintance
of the two Le Contes, father and son, who own the finest collection
of insects in the United States. I can easily make some thousand
exchanges with them when I receive those that M. Coulon has put
aside for me, with a view to exchange. . .Every morning Auguste
Mayor went with me to the market before going to his office and
helped me to carry my basket when it was too heavy. One day I
brought back no less than twenty-four turtles, taken in one draught
of the net. I made four skeletons, and dissected several others.
Under such conditions the day ought to have thirty-six working
hours.
Were I an artist, instead of describing my voyage from New York to
Albany, I would draw you a panorama of the shores of the Hudson. I
know nothing except the banks of the Rhine to compare with those of
this magnificent river. The resemblance between them is striking;
the sites, the nature of the rocks, the appearance of the towns and
villages, the form of the Albany bridges, even the look of the
inhabitants, of whom the greater number are of Dutch or German
origin,--all are similar.
I stopped at West Point to make the acquaintance of Professor
Bailey of the Military School there. I already knew him by
reputation. He is the author of very detailed and interesting
researches upon the microscopic animalcules of America. I had a
pamphlet to deliver to him from Ehrenberg, who has received from
him a great deal of material for his large work on fossil
Infusoria. I spent three most delightful days with him, passed
chiefly in examining his collections, from which he gave me many
specimens. We also made several excursions in the neighborhood, in
order to study the erratic phenomena and the traces of glaciers,
which everywhere cover the surface of the country. Polished rocks,
as distinct as possible; moraines continuous over large spaces;
stratified drift, as on the borders of the glacier of Grindelwald;
in short, all the usual accompaniments of the glaciers are there,
and one may follow the "roches moutonnees" with the eye to a great
distance.
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