THE AMEEICAN JOUENEY 207 



Strachey, E.E., and his wife. Strachey, like himself, was a 

 Himalayan traveller, who had surveyed the Kumaon valley, 

 and was both a geologist arid botanist. 



At the invitation of Professor Hayden, chief of the Topo- 

 graphical and Geological Surveys of the United States, they 

 joined the official surveying party which was at work in 

 Colorado and Utah, Nevada and California, whose formal 

 report, it was arranged, was to utilise their general botanical 

 results, especially in regard to the character and distribution 

 of the forest trees. 



On the Parthia there were only some thirty-five cabin 

 passengers, and he had a state cabin to himself. Finding some 

 excellent books on board, he had occupation in Macaulay, 

 Evelyn's ' Diary,' Keyes' ' Lives of Eminent Indians,' 

 Longfellow's Poems, and one volume of Lyell's ' Travels 

 in North America,' to beguile the tedious voyage, for the 

 Parthia was a slow boat, so that from the first, with 

 the prevailing west winds, he despaired of a ten days' 

 passage. 



Moreover he found the motion of the screw so unpleasant 

 as contrasted with the rhythmical beat of a paddle-boat's 

 engines, to which he was better accustomed, that he grew more 

 weary of this voyage than of any other he had taken. Boston 

 was reached on the night of July 8. One day was spent with 

 the Asa Grays ; three with Professor Sargent, curator of the 

 Botanical Garden at Harvard and of a magnificent park, the 

 Arnold Arboretum, which was not yet laid out, but was to be 

 the Kew of Boston. He was ' up to the eyes in trees, flowers 

 and shrubs.' 



Boston, with its charm of openness and good upkeep, the 

 cleanness and comfort of the labouring classes, where ' coach- 

 men and railway guards look and speak like gentlemen, and 

 in the market the butcher is as clean as the grocer, betraying 

 no disagreeable features of his trade in apron, hands or head,' 

 represents the best of long established culture, in contrast to 

 the grime of London streets. Comment on the comfort and 

 variety of the public conveyances rouses no astonishment in 

 those who can recall the frowsy discomfort of our omnibuses 



