Mr. Pentland. 113 



vinces. M. Biot liad written home, that he had 

 found in Aberdeen not one alone, but many, who 

 perfectly understood the object of his journey, and 

 were competent to converse with him on the sub- 

 ject Cuvier said such a circumstance constituted 

 one of the striking differences between France and 

 England ; for in France science was highly cultivated, 

 but confined to the capital. It was at M. Cuvier 's 

 that I first met Mr. Pentland, who made a series of 

 physical and geological observations on the Andes 

 of Peru. I was residing in Italy when I published 

 my "Physical Geography/' and Mr. Pentland* kindly 

 undertook to carry the book through the press for 

 me. From that time he has been a steady friend, 

 ever ready to get me information, books, or any- 

 thing I wanted. We became acquainted also with 

 M. Gay-Lussac, who lived in the Jardin des Plantes, 

 and with Baron Larrcy, who had been at the head 

 of the medical department of the army in Egypt 

 under the first Napoleon. 



***** 

 At Paris 1 equipped myself in proper dresses, and 

 we proceeded by Fontainebleau to Geneva, where 

 we found Dr. Marcet, with whom my husband had 



* Joseph Barclay Pentland, Consul-General in Bolivia (1 83G-39), died 

 in London, July, 1873. He first discovered that Illimani and Sorata 

 (not Chimborazo) were the highest mountains in America. (See 

 Humboldt's "Kosmos.") 



