1890.] 07 [Lesley. 



made and tempered watch-springs, a delicate process, the knowledge of 

 which was hereditary in his family. 



At the age of nearly forty his fame as a bryological botanist induced the 

 King of Prussia to commission him to examine and report on the origin, 

 growth, size, quality and condition of the peat bogs of that kingdom. 

 Neufchatel the Canton still belonged to Prussia. He had been commis- 

 sioned by the Cantonal government and had reported on the peat bogs of 

 the Jura. Now he traversed the mountains of Germany, the shores of 

 the North sea and Baltic, and after publishing his report at Geneva, exam- 

 ined the bogs of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and if I mistake not 

 some of those of Great Britain ; but of this I am not sure ; and still later 

 those of Canada and the United States ; taking into the range of his 

 researches the Dismal Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina ; and going 

 out alone, unarmed and deaf, far over the prairies of the West, sleeping on 

 the grass without covering, sometimes several nights in succession. 



Lfisquereux followed Agassiz, Desor, Guyot and Matile to America in 

 1848. He settled his family in Columbus, Ohio, where his sons began 

 business on several thousand dollirs' worth of watches loaned for this 

 purpose by their father's friends, who took that method of enlarging their 

 trade. Agassiz had promised him scientific employment, but was unable 

 to carry into effect his friendly intentions. The family were at first in 

 great distress ; afterwards they prospered ; and the father was able to 

 devote the rest of his life to his adopted science. He was always poor ; 

 his work always poorly paid ; but he was one of the wisest, most cheerful, 

 and most contented of mortals. His modesty ran into self-depreciation ; 

 a sentiment sadly reinforced by the physical infirmity which cut him off 

 from easy intercourse with his fellow men, and made him not only unduly 

 grateful for the salaries or fees which he received for work ordered, but 

 unduly modest in the estimation which he placed upon his work. He 

 reminded me of some gentle wild beast or bird living on the chance re- 

 sources of nature, patient when he found but little, most thankful when 

 he found anything. But a very noble independence was manifest in all 

 his intercourse with others. His manners were simplicity and refinement 

 embodied and illustrated. His considerateness was best shown by the 

 restraints he imposed upon himself in conversation. His visits even to 

 his best friends were rare and short. He made excuse that it must be a 

 wearisome act of friendship to talk to a stone-deaf man. Yet he was a 

 delightful interlocutor. 



Only to those who grew accustomed to conversing with the lips alone 

 did he feel quite free to hold intercourse. He read language by watching 

 the movements of his friend's mouth. When introduced to a stranger, 

 and usually when meeting one of his old friends, the first question was : 

 " Will you speak in German, in French, or in English?" and according 

 to the answer he prepared himself for the conversation. "Did you tell me 

 that your friend Lesquereux was deaf? " said one to me one day. "Yes." 

 " But how is that possible ? I noticed him talking French in the most 



