SOCIAL LIFE 189 



eclipses have, however, shown that curved rays are a 

 reality. 



From Spain I went by diligence to Bordeaux, 

 meeting my wife at the station on her arrival from 

 Paris, and we started for a tour in the Pyrenees and 

 for a stay of some weeks at Luchon. Here I became 

 for the first time bitten with the mania for mountain 

 climbing. As during a few years previously the 

 primary purpose of fences had seemed to be to afford 

 objects for leaping over, so now that of mountains 

 seemed to be for clambering. Mr. Charles Packe, 

 who was an authority on the mountains and botany of 

 the locality, often accompanied me, and the outings 

 were enjoyed excessively. Among other things, I 

 was immensely taken by the sleeping-bag that each 

 French soldier carries who watches the mountain 

 passes through which Spanish smugglers try to steal. 

 It is worn on the back like a heavy knapsack. These 

 bags are made of sheep-skin with the wool inside. 

 On cold days the soldiers sit inside them, pulling the 

 bag up to their waists. They are thus able to keep 

 their posts in trying weather, which smugglers would 

 otherwise have been ready to utilise for their own 

 purposes. I tried the efficiency of one on an interest- 

 ing night. A heavy storm was gathering, but before 

 the evening closed and before the storm broke, I 

 had time to find a good place on a hill some 

 1000 feet or more above Luchon, and there to await 

 it inside my bag. Nothing could have been more 

 theatrically grand. The thunder - clouds and the 

 vivid lightning were just above me, accompanied by 

 deluges of rain. Then they descended to my level, 

 and the lightning crackled and crashed about, then 



