308 PITTONIA. 
Government, when he landed on our shores for the last visit 
to America. 
But in vain did we ply him with questions of how much 
that beautiful creature, a French cat, had eost him, which 
oecupied always a red velvet divan (made for her use) in one 
of the libraries, and which we called the library eat, not only 
beeause she was always there, but because of a most amusing 
fondness she had for certain volumes bound in russian leather. 
These she would often lie down by, if one of them lay on the 
carpet, or she would climb high upon the shelves to get near 
them, to caress and purr to them, as if they had life. We 
inferred that some odor of the leather gave her particular 
satisfaction. In vain, I say, did we ply “uncle Jack" with 
queries about what extravagance he had gone into in the 
purchase of that cat, and the importation of her from across 
the sea. His only answers were good-humored evasions. 
But we one day encountered an old sailor whom we knew to 
have served sometimes in the capacity of an errand boy across 
the sea, for Major Le Conte. He told us he had paid fifty 
dollars for the cat, and had received ten for his care of her 
across the water. Perhaps it was our friend's French blood 
by virtue of which, like Frenehmen generally, he held dogs 
in abhorrence and was fond of cats. The many sleek and 
well fed eats which formed part of the domestie zoological 
collection, and were liable to follow their master, a half dozen 
together, to any part of the house, were an inconvenience, 
sometimes, to such guests as were averse to the feline race. 
In one of our lady friends, Mrs. Spencer Baird, such an 
aversion was congenital, and amounted to an ungovernable 
horror When upon a certain occasion Mrs. Holbrook, of 
Charleston, wife of the celebrated herpetologist, was with us, 
and a party of zoological friends were to be received in the 
evening, Mr. Baird gave warning to Major Le Conte that Mrs. 
B. could not possibly come unless reasonably assured that no 
cat should be allowed to appear where she might be. Accord- 
ingly, the whole feline concourse had been enticed into one 
of the cellars, well fed, and the doors closed down upon them 
