542 JOACHIM BARRANDE. 



them, and paid them the highest price for the fossils, although they 

 were not worth it ; but he said, " Let this be a lesson to you : auother 

 time I shall dismiss you from my employ." 



One of these men was so successful in deceiving him, that he was 

 fond of telling the story. One day this man appeared in great distress. 

 "What is the matter?" said Barrande. "Oh! my wife is danger- 

 ously ill." " Here, take this money and go to the doctor and the 

 apothecary." A few days later, he came all in tears, — his wife was 

 dead, he said. Barrande quickly gave him auother sum of money to 

 meet the funeral expenses. Time went on, and he came no more ; but 

 one day he appeared, looking anxious, scratching his ear, aud had evi- 

 dently a demand to make. " Well, what is it now ? " " O, I cannot 

 stay any longer all alone ; I want to marry again." " Have you found 

 any one suitable ? " '• Yes." " AYell, here is money that will help }0U 

 to celebrate your new marriage." The cunning peasant went away 

 delighted. Some time after, Barrande went to the village where the 

 peasant lived, aud, in talking with the Syndic or Mayor, he said, 

 " Such a one has had the misfortune, poor fellow, to lose his wife." 

 " Not at all : his wife is alive." •' I know," said Barrande, " but it 

 is his second wife." " I assure you you are mistaken, for his first 

 wife has never even been ill." Barrande laughed heartily, said noth- 

 ing, but did not employ the man again. 



Barrande edited his great work himself. H a'mg placed the first 

 two volumes with booksellers, their vexatious and absurd exactions 

 and commissions caused him to withdraw them, and he subsequently 

 sold his own works. His liberality was great, and he frequently pre- 

 sented these magnificent and costly volumes to public institutions, and 

 even to individuals. In America he gave the four large volumes last 

 issued, entitled " Acephales," to the Boston Societ_y of Natural History, 

 and to Jules INIarcou, James Hall, Charles A. White, J. S. Newberry, 

 F. V. Hayden, and C. King. He spared neither money, labor, nor 

 effort that this work might be as perfect as any that had Ixen pub- 

 lished. He employed the best draughtsmen, especially Humbert, who 

 had been long under the good training of the celebrated paleontologist, 

 Deshayes. Humbert passed nearly twenty-five years with Barrande, 

 and died at his work. He had established a French printing-press at 

 Prague, and the work is very correct ; so much so, that it could not 

 possibly have been done better in Paris. 



Taken one with another, all llie expenses included, each volume 

 represented an outlay of twenty thousand francs. This would make 

 for the twenty-two volumes published an expense of four hundred 



