2 MY SECOND VISIT TO THE ENGADINE. 



the season, both florally and entomologically, was unusually 

 forward, and I was urged by Professor Frey to start early, 

 for he wrote on the 22nd June — "For the Engadine the first 

 half of July may be very good, but the second will be almost 

 too late." But at the time I received this admonition, I 

 w^as already aware that the second half of July would be 

 well advanced before I could reach the Engadine, for I could 

 not see my way to leaving home before the 13th of July. 



My friends from Stettin were to start on the 7th of July, 

 so that I calculated they would be there more than a week 

 before me ; but yet I hoped that we should have some plea- 

 sant days together and expected to profit by their experience. 



I slept at Dover on the 13th of July, and the following 

 day had a splendid passage in the " Prince Imperial" (does 

 this vessel still bear that name?) to Calais ; on board I read 

 in the *' Times" that the candidature of the Prince of Hohen- 

 zollern for the throne of Spain had been officially withdrawn, 

 and so any qualms I might have had as to the ■possibility of 

 war on the Continent were at an end. 



Conceive then my astonishment when at Rolandseck the 

 following evening I heard that France had declared war 

 against Prussia ; I thought the waiter was romancing. 



Having had some experience of travelling in time of war 

 (in 1859 seeing the Austrian soldiers at Augsburg en route 

 for Solferino), I saw no sufficient reason to turn back — be- 

 sides I had a month to spend in Switzerland — and possibly 

 I might find the course quite clear when I wished to return; 

 moreover, the attraction of the coolness of the high stations 

 in the Engadine was not to be lightly overlooked after the 

 roasting and frying we had undergone at home — so on the 

 16th July we continued our journey to Frankfort. 



We found all our friends at Frankfort evidently very ill 

 at ease ; having so recently experienced a hostile occupation, 



