226 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



chapel at Zermatt prayers were offered for the 

 Queen of England and on our account for Pres- 

 ident Garfield, and thanks were given for our safe 

 return. 



As for our own party, an Englishman who was 

 there afterwards said : " I never saw anything like 

 it. Every one of those Americans rushed right 

 out into the street and crowded around, and I 

 actually thought that every one of those ladies was 

 going to kiss the Professor ! " 



But not one of them did ! 



I afterwards received from "John the Baptist" 

 the following letter, which will be of interest as 

 the composition of an illiterate but very intelligent 

 man. I give it literatim. It will be noticed that 

 while the construction of the sentences is generally 

 correct, the words are mostly spelled by ear, — 

 not an easy thing to do in the French language. 



Valtournenche, le i6 Decbre, iS8i. 

 Monsieur Jordan. 



Cher Monsieur, — J'ai regus votres lettres le 15 cou- 



rent, laquelle a ^t^ pour moi un grand plaisir, premiere- 



ment en aprenant que M^.*" Gilbert ^tait parfaitement geri. 



Je regretais toujours de ne pa vous avoir prie de me 



donner de ses nouvelles en arivents dans votres patrie. 



Je vous prier de le saluer bien de ma part, et en meme 



tempts le remercier du cadou que vous m'avez remis 



en son nom a Saas. En second lieu je vols avec plaisir 



que vous ne vous etes pas contenter de me payer large- 



ment mes servisses de I'ete pass6. Vous voulez encore 



travailler pour me donner une renomee parmi les Ameri- 



cains, s'est plus que je ne merite. Je vous en remercie 



infiniment. Je regrete beaucoup d'etre dans I'impossi- 



bilit^ de pouvour vous en rendre le reciproque. Je ne 



