1858-64.] STAY AT MONTAGNY. 77 



history establishments and organizations. Although 

 most cordially received by the French naturalists, Agas- 

 siz easily perceived the presence of a fear that he would 

 accept M. Rouland's previous offers ; but he foresaw 

 too many difficulties to yield even to such a tempting 

 proposal. As he said afterward, it would have been 

 impossible to reform anything at the Jardin des Plantes, 

 without deeply and irremediably wounding his friends, 

 Valenciennes, Henry Milne-Edwards, Decaisne, and 

 others. When they knew his final refusal, it was a 

 great relief to them all, and their pleasure in his visit 

 was increased a hundred fold. 



His return to Switzerland gave immense pleasure to 

 Agassiz, who, like a true Swiss boy, shed tears when 

 he again beheld the Alps. His distinguished mother 

 was enraptured to see her favourite child again, and 

 the few weeks they spent together passed like a dream 

 for her. Agassiz spent most of his time in her com- 

 pany at the beautiful country house of her eldest 

 daughter, Mrs. Cecile Wagnon, at Montagny, between 

 Yverdun and Grandson, "an beau Pays de Vaud " ; 

 and, on seeing them together, it was most evident, as 

 one of the family told me a short time afterward, that 

 the great attractiveness possessed by Agassiz was a 

 gift from his mother. They spent most of their time 

 in the " buvette," a sort of out-of-door sitting-room in 

 the garden ; and there, with the great panorama of the 

 Alps in the distance, and back of him the Aiguilles de 

 Baulmes and the Suchet, two of the old Jura mountains 

 where he used to hunt for plants, boulders, and traces 

 of old glaciers, Agassiz passed a summer of repose and 



