O?' ARTS AND SCIENCES. -^19 



This latter service I porfonncd, and found a large and l)rilliaiit 

 assembly at the palace of the Luxembourg, (piite in Imperial style^ 

 notwithstanding the Repnl)li<;ni clcincMt which has recently entered 

 into the institutions of France. Tiie staircase was lined with (/ens 

 d' urines in uniform, a mounted police guarded the gateways, and one 

 of tiie regimental bauds played national airs witliin the palace. Noth- 

 ing could have been more cordial and gracious than the welcome given 

 me as a representative of the American Academy by the Prefet, M. 

 Ferdinand Duval ; and I had an op[)ortunity of meeting not a few of 

 the literary and scientitic celebrities of France, as well as the dele- 

 gates from other countries. 



The next day I proceeded, with my card of membership, and under 

 the escort of my accomplished friend, Colonel Perraud, to visit the 

 Exposition Geogra'phique^ which had been arranged in those parts of 

 the palace of the Tuileries which had escaped the torches of the Com- 

 mune. A niai'vellous and most multitudinous exposition it was, and 

 one which reflected the highest credit on the Geograpliical Society of 

 France, under whose auspices it was prepared. I could not have 

 believed it possible that any thing so dry, and so little a\sthetic, as 

 geography, could furnish the materials for so really interesting and 

 brilliant a show. It was, indeed, an exhibition of many other things 

 besides such as might be supposed to belong to geograi)hy proper. 

 Geology, archaeology, ethnology, antiquities of every sort, historic 

 and pre-historic, were gathered there, side by side with maps and 

 memorials of the most recent researches of modern travellers and 

 geographers. 



My eye lighted, for instance, on a photographic facsimile of the 

 "Mappamondo di Fra, Mauro " of 1459, and on copies or originals of 

 not a few other maps, on which there was no America. It was a 

 relief to turn from these and see, as I did, the beautiful chart, pub- 

 lished by our Coast Survey, of Boston Harbor, hanging at the very 

 entrance of the little American department. 



I remember seeing, too, the War Map used by the heroic Charles 

 XII. of Sweden, and not far off the manuscript notes and maps of 

 the not less heroic Livingston and Speke and other recent explorers 

 of Africa. 



A cast of the wonderful Meteorite of Greenland, weighing (the 

 original) twenty thousand kilos, if I remember right, occu])ied a whole 

 corner of one apartment. Facsimiles of Domesday liook and of the 

 black-letter Prayer Book of 1G3G attracted my eye in the English 

 division. 



