JOACHIM BARRANDE. 54:1 



System." In the fossils published in this celebrated book, by the care 

 of Agassiz, of Sowerby, and especially of Lousdale, he was happy to 

 find the forms he had collected so abundantly in Bohemia. His clas- 

 sifications agreed with those of England ; the groups of Longmynd, of 

 Llandeilo, Mayhill, Aymestry, Dudley, Weulock, and Ludlow, of the 

 Ens-lish s:eolo2;ists, were also found in the beds of the environs of 

 Prague ; and, as he said later, it was in gratitude for the service 

 rendered him by the " Silurian System," that he adopted the title of 

 " Systeme Silurien du Centre de la Boheme." 



Meanwhile the royal Bourbon family had left Prague for Goritz, 

 and, later still, for Frohsdorf. Barraude was chiefly domiciled at 

 Prague ; he had also an apartment in Paris, at No. 6 Rue Mezieres, 

 and later at 22 Rue de TOdeon. All geologists and paleontologists of 

 any reputation in either the Old or New World have visited Barrande 

 in these apartments, and were always received there with the perfect 

 courtesy of a gentleman of the old regime. 



Barrande was soon master of the German tongue, and several of his 

 memoirs were written in German. In order to direct more precisely 

 the search for fossils that the workmen in the quarries of Bohemia 

 were to undertake, and avoid being deceived, he learned to speak the 

 Tcheque. 



The cunning of the peasants and their desire for gain are shown in 

 the followuig anecdotes. Ten or twelve intelligent workmen were 

 employed by the year to collect fossils. Barrande showed them the 

 beds of rock, the forms of the fossils he especially wished to obtain, 

 and indicated their locality. In order to excite their emulation, he 

 promised the largest reward for fossds coming from certain places where 

 they were rare. It happened that several of these men ti-ied to de- 

 ceive him, bringing a certain number of fossils that they said were 

 found in the locality for which the highest price had been offered. 

 Barrande quietly placed the fossils before him, and, while talking with 

 them, arranged them in groups. He then said, very politely, '• You are 

 trying to deceive me: these fossils," pointing to a group, "come from 

 such a place, and not where you pretend to find them." The workmen 

 looked at one another astonished. They had been very careful to 

 assure themselves, by a spy employed for that purpose, that M. Bar- 

 rande was at his house ; they knew no one had seen them take the 

 fossils. Certainly he was a wizard, — an astrologer who had a pact 

 with the Devil ! As they were caught in their attem])ted deception, 

 they confessed. Barrande treated them with great kindness, as he 

 always did his inferiors, and bade them do so no more, — pardoned 



