A Peasant Naturalist. 73 



He did much collecting for him, and in the course 

 of their expeditions together, contrived to learn a 

 great deal about plants, insects, and birds, most 

 of which he retains in his old age. There is 

 nothing scientific in his knowledge, unless it be a 

 smattering of Latin names, which he brings out 

 with great relish if with some inaccuracy ; but it 

 is of a very useful kind, and is aided by a power 

 of eyesight which is even now astonishing in its 

 keenness. I first made his acquaintance in 1868, 

 and for several years he accompanied my brother 

 and myself in glacier-expeditions in all parts of 

 the Alps ; but it has been of late years, since we 

 have been less inclined for strenuous exertion, 

 that I have found his knowledge of natural history 

 more especially useful to me. He is now between 

 sixty and seventy, but on a bracing alp, with a 

 gun on his shoulder, his step is as firm and his 

 enjoyment as intense, as on the day when he took 

 us for our first walk on a glacier, eighteen years 

 ago. 



The mention of his gun reminds me, that 

 though my old friend's eyes and my own field- 

 glasses were of the greatest help to me, I could 



