OF THE FRENCH GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 415 
road-side public-house, the hammers, knapsacks, bags of all kinds, 
and other accoutrements, lying about ; the costume and appearance 
of the people; every thing, in short, combined to make it one of 
the most extraordinary and amusing adventures I ever had. It was 
truly delightful, too, to see how completely every body threw him- 
self into the fun of the thing, and seemed to enjoy it perfectly for 
its very absurdity. 
After our singing was over, we marched forth again, and visited 
a bed of lias brought to the surface by a disturbance similar to that 
of Monturban, of which it almost forms a part; and when we had 
got satisfactory ideas and fossils on this point, we proceeded to view 
a bed of gypsum at no great distance, and then returned to Porren- 
truy by some carriages which had been ordered to attend us, and 
which we found at a neighbouring village. I should mention, by 
the way, that the weather had cleared, and that only the beginning 
and ending of our walk were rainy. 
As we arrived at our hotel by about half-past three, and were not 
to dine till five, we had time to make our toilets, and prepare for a 
grand dinner given by the town in our honour, and followed by a 
ball. The dinner was, I am sorry to say, not the very best I had 
ever eaten ; and I have the authority of French and German, Rus- 
sian and Italian, Swiss and American, for calling it, as it really 
was, execrable. I am almost sorry to put it on record, the thing 
was done with such hearty good will ; but the fact is undeniable. 
I should not forget, however, the giant of the table—a huge trout, 
nearly three feet long, brought in on a board because no dish could 
hold it, and as unfit to eat as extraordinary to look at. After din- 
ner we were regaled with a geological dessert, consisting of sucri- 
factions of terebratula and other shells; of a model in sugar of 
Mont Terrible, or some equally extraordinary Jura mountain ; and 
last, not least, of a large number of small ammonites and terebra- 
tule, put up in paper, with crackers ; and showing a fine example 
of the connexion of the physical sciences in thus enlarging the mind 
of the maker of bon-bons, while the philosopher sees with astonish- 
ment that a fossil is found where he had been accustomed to look 
for barley-sugar only. After dinner and two or three toasts, of 
course, most part of the company—the dinner having lasted three 
hours—were not sorry to join the ladies above, where dancing had 
already commenced. The ladies were—as ladies always must be— 
charming, and as there was a pretty sprinkling of Germans and one 
Pole there was no lack of variety ; but, however 1 may be accused 
of unpoliteness, I must neglect them, that a line or two may be 
