Lesley.] UU [March 21, 



from Mauch Chunk upward ; a trench two thousand feet deep cut from 

 north to south across one of the extensive limestone plateaus of the Jura 

 range ; the upper surface of the plateau being occupied partly by reclaimed 

 farm lands and villages, and in part by unreclaimed peat bogs traversed 

 by artificial drains, and quarried periodically for fuel. These peat bogs 

 were the young botanist's favorite tramping grounds ; and he got to know 

 every safe and every dangerous spot on their treacherous surfaces. He 

 made the acquaintance of every flower that grew on them and on the sur- 

 rounding cliffs. He devised'for himself an auger, like a flour inspector's, 

 with an adjustable handle ; and with this tool he investigated the charac- 

 ter and structure of the bog, its stratification, the specific gravity of its 

 different layers, the deformation of the sphagnum by pressure, and the 

 rate of its growth. He was the first to determine the true causes and con- 

 ditions of peat formation ; unconsciously making the first step in the sci- 

 ence of the geology of coal. 



Going for his education to Neufchatel;' his results were not accepted by 

 the naturalists, until, a Cantonal Commission being appointed, Agassiz being 

 one of the commissioners, he was permitted to demonstrate the subject on 

 the surface of the bog itself ; then his theory was accepted. I have in 

 manuscript an autobiography of the earlier portions of his life, and his 

 naive expressions of satisfaction at this victorious defense of his young 

 scientific work are very amusing. The whole of this manuscript, written 

 for my pleasure three or four years ago, is well worth a place in the pub- 

 lished Proceedings of this Society, and I am tempted to enrich from its 

 store of racy details this poor sketch of his most noteworthy career. 



When twenty four years old (1830) he married the daughter of one of 

 Goethe's intimate friends, General Von Wolffskeel, the Baroness Sophia 

 of Eisenach. Three sons and a daughter of this most happy union sur- 

 vive him. His wife would tell how she used to sit on Goethe's knee, 

 while the poet and her father conversed together. The account of his 

 courtship and wedding given in the manuscript makes charming pictures 

 of German life. 



Lesquereux had been appointed to a chair in the College at La Chaux 

 de Fonds. But his career as teacher of science was suddenly cut short by 

 an illness which destroyed his hearing. He went for relief to Paris, but 

 was treated by a noted oculist and aurist there with the brutal recklessness 

 customary at that time in the medical profession of that metropolis, and 

 which is not entirely unknown even at the present day. His eustachian 

 tubes were burst, and an inflammation of the brain superinduced which 

 threatened to destroy his sight. When he returned home he became stone 

 deaf, and never heard a sound from that time to the day of his death. In 

 despair he learned the trade of a chaser of the backs of watches, but gradu- 

 ally lost his health and courage and was long nursed by his devoted wife. 

 Tnen the strength of her admirable character made itself known ; for she 

 practiced her husband's art, and supported the family herself, until he 

 could resume his handicraft. Twelve years he engraved watches and 



