probable. He shrugged his shoulders and said: "On ne peut pas con- 

 trarier M. Gaudry," To that, no reply, consistent with good manners, 

 was possible. 



I spent Sunday in Strassburg, my first visit there, and was very much 

 interested in all that I saw. In the hotel reading-room, I picked up a 

 German newspaper and happened on one of those fantastic lies which 

 were often used in the campaign against America by the German 

 press. Originally begun at secret government instigation, in order to 

 discourage emigration, it was kept up after emigration had nearly 

 ceased. This particular fiction described a terrific hurricane, which had 

 laid waste the whole Atlantic coast of the United States, destroying all 

 the great cities from Boston to Savannah, with the loss of millions of 

 lives. Panic-stricken for my family, I was about to cable home for news, 

 when for the first time I noticed the date of the paper and saw that it 

 was a fortnight old. 



Some days later, I received a letter from my Wife, written on the 

 evening of the alleged catastrophe, one passage of which was substan- 

 tially as follows : "I am writing on the front porch by the light of your 

 study lamp, which shines through the window. It is a wonderfully calm 

 and peaceful evening, with cloudless sky and brilliant moonlight." 

 Altogether, it was a mysterious episode, for what could the paper expect 

 to accomplish by printing lies that were sure to be exploded in twenty- 

 four hours? 



The publishing house in Stuttgart, to which von Zittel sent me, was 

 an old established firm with the very long-winded name of the "Schwei- 

 zerbartsche Verlagsbuchhandlung." It was then in the hands of Mr. E. 

 Nagele with whom I had a very satisfactory interview. He agreed to 

 be the European publisher of the Patagonian Reports, wherefore the 

 name of the firm appears on all the title-pages. He was to attend to the 

 European business, with the exception of the lithographic plates which, 

 of necessity, I should have to look after myself. At last, I got a chance 

 to examine the wonderful fossils in the Stuttgart museum and to renew 

 my acquaintance with E. Fraas, who had succeeded his father as direc- 

 tor. Fraas was one of the most genial and lovable Germans I have 

 ever known and his early death was a great loss to science. 



A visit to my dear friends at Heidelberg brought home to me the 

 changes that death had wrought. The pension at Unterneckarstrasse 19 

 had been given up, for one of the sisters was dead and the other had 

 gone to keep house for her brother-in-law. It was with great sadness 

 that I walked past the house that was endeared to me by so many de- 

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