SKETCH OF COUNT POURTALES. 549 



was less gay than at Pesth, not being impromptu. The supper was 

 the great feature of the entertainment. Footmen in gorgeous liveries 

 brought in trays of tempting delicacies, fish, flesh, fowl, and good red 

 wine, to which all were prepared to do justice after a hard day's work. 

 Only there were no plates, knives, forks, or other appliances of civiliza- 

 tion. Nothing but large wooden toothpicks. 



All hang back, eying longingly the dainties good manners forbade 

 them to seize, and watching what course royalty would pursue. 



But the court, nay, royalty itself, unhesitatingly took a toothpick, 

 dug it into the chosen morsel, poised it a moment in the air, and it was 

 gone. Thus emboldened, all possessed themselves of these handy in- 

 struments, and dug in their turn, roving and sipping like bees, though 

 all with inward misgivings as to whether they had been spirited away 

 suddenly to China or some other Eastern haunt of the primitive chop- 

 sticks. On after-inquiry it was learned that in all large court as- 

 semblies these toothpicks were put in requisition, as it was feared 

 that silver forks might be pocketed by the guests. It was neither as 

 an insult to scientific honesty, nor a compliment paid to the archaelogi- 

 cal tastes of the Congress, that such primeval weapons were used. 



The day after this last and most foreign experience nearly all these 

 learned birds of passage had flown some to the wintry north, others 

 to the sunny south, all bearing a grateful remembrance of a charming 

 week, and of the warmth of Portuguese hospitality ; all speculating as 

 to when and where would be their next merry meeting. M'aser^s 

 Magazine. 



SKETCH OF COUNT POUKTALES. 



BY the death of this able naturalist, in the full maturity of his 

 powers, American science has sustained a great and irreparable 

 loss. We give a likeness of him from the only photograph we could 

 find, and, as no biography of him, that we are aware of, has been 

 written, we are indebted for the materials of this statement to such 

 fragmentary notices as have been furnished to the press since his death. 

 Louis FRAisrgois de Pourtales was of the Swiss nationality, and 

 was born in 1823. He belonged to an old family, which had branches 

 also in France, Prussia, and Bohemia. He was educated as an engi- 

 neer, but showed from boyhood a predilection for natural history. He 

 became a student of Professor Agassiz, and was one of his favorites, 

 accompanying him to America in 1847, and joining in his early labors, 

 first at East Boston, and subsequently at Cambridge. In 1848 he 

 entered the Government service in the department of the Coast Sur- 

 vey, and continued in it many years. Professor Theodore Lyman, 

 writing of Pourtales in the " Boston Advertiser," says : 



