DUBLIN UNIVERSITY ZOOLOGICAL AND BOTANICAL ASSOCIATION. 15 



be required to remedy the effects of such a desolation, as the depth of 

 the deposit, often from one to two feet in thickness, precludes the pos- 

 sibility of its removal. When it is remembered that the same scene of 

 destruction extended for nearly 200 miles along the banks of the Loire, 

 some idea may be formed of the amount of labour and the value of the 

 crops buried beneath the debris of this desolating flood. 



One of our mornings at Tours was devoted to a visit to Mettray, and 

 spent in a most interesting examination of the Keformatory School, es- 

 tablished by the philanthropic efforts of M. deMetz and M. de Courteilles, 

 the former of whom still lives to witness and rejoice in the success of his 

 benevolent and holy labours. The mild and paternal, , but firm and 

 energetic, address of M. de Metz assures the stranger that he has before 

 him a man of exalted views and disinterested purpose, whose character 

 is sufficient to guarantee the success of any enterprise in which he might 

 engage ; and a careful scrutiny of the plans and labours of the Mettray 

 establishment shows that the undertaking is one of the noblest to which 

 such means can be devoted, and merits the success it has attained. Some 

 of the rewards applied to stimulate exertion, and the punishments to 

 repress idleness or vice, may appear too sentimental or theoretic to suit 

 the colder atmosphere of a more northern climate ; but the system, as a 

 whole, addresses the common affections and feelings of humanity, and 

 is capable of application to the criminal or neglected population of every 

 country ; and it is no small reflection upon the humanity and enlight- 

 enment of Britain that Mettray should have been working successfully 

 for sixteen years in a field of benevolent labour, that we are only begin- 

 ning to recognise as having claims upon the zeal and effort of every Chris- 

 tian philanthropist and enlightened politician. 



The corn-fields in the neighbourhod of Mettray supplied me with 

 abundant specimens of Specularia Speculum (Yenus' looking-glass), and 

 Melampyrum cristatum — the first unknown in Britain, except as a garden 

 annual, and the second confined to a few of the eastern counties in Eng- 

 land, and not a denizen of our Irish soil. 



On the 26th of June we left Tours for Bordeaux, and reached the 

 latter town, in about nine hours, by the Great Southern Railway. The 

 country passed through during 'the drive was monotonous and uninte- 

 resting, and as we approached Bordeaux became more so, from the vast 

 increase of vineyards. The weather also was becoming intolerably hot, 

 which rendered travelling by day fatiguing, and induced us to hasten 

 through Bordeaux, and locate ourselves 35 miles further on, at the 

 village of Arcachon, on the great salt-water lagoon of the same name, 

 where we hoped the heat of the sun might be tempered by the neigh- 

 bourhood of the sea. In this, however, we were disappointed — not a 

 breath of air disturbed the heated atmosphere, and the sandy hills of the 

 Landes, covered with forests of pines, and reeking with the odour of resin, 

 which exudes from the wounds with which the trunk of every tree is 

 gashed, did not contribute to mitigate the enervating influences of the 

 air, which maintained throughout our stay a temperature of from 78° to 

 86° Fahrenheit. Had herborizing been practicable, many novelties 



