NOTES DURING 

 THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR. 



Feeling very strongly for the French peasantry, who 

 had lost their all during the ravages of the Franco-German 

 war, I joined a body of delegates for their succour ; and I 

 think that some memoranda from a journal kept during 

 that memorable time will be found interesting. Of course 

 I had other things to attend to than Natural History, but I 

 contrived to put together a few ornithological notes. Our 

 head quarters were at Metz. 



December 2)id, 1 870. Starting from Luxembourg, at length 

 we reached the French frontier. The people at the village 

 stations said they had had 300 Prussians billeted on them. 

 Some were kind to the women and children, some were not. 

 They had had sufficient to eat, and the only thing they 

 complained of was having their tools taken away. Presently 

 we passed some more small villages, whose inmates had 

 deserted them, and then Thionville came in sight. No one 

 who has not witnessed its effect can realize what war is. 

 Some of us were looking forward with a strange curiosity, 

 for in Thionville we had learnt that we should see a dire 

 sample of the dreadful scourge. Before its calamity fell 

 upon it, the town must have stood in a wood. Desolate 

 enough it looked now ; all its trees felled. Everything — 

 sheds, shrubs, and walls — levelled for a cannon-shot all 



