374 SECOND JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1850, 



It is now the 20th, time passed fast. I work 

 to-day in herbariums De Candolle and Boissier, and 

 to-morrow morning we go to Freiburg and Berne and 

 the Bernese Oberland. We cannot be back now in 

 England so early as we expected ; but still hope to 

 be there by the 20th September. . . . 



Thursday morning, after an early breakfast, went 

 on by railroad to Kehl ; left our luggage and took a 

 carriage over the bridge of boats, across the lines of the 

 French republic (?) into Strasburg. Saw Schimper ; 1 

 then we went to the cathedral, viewed the grand front 

 of this imposing structure, and the wonderful spire, 

 the tallest in the world ; were much struck with the 

 grandeur of the interior, wholly lighted by stained 

 glass, the greater part of it 400 or 500 years old. 

 After visiting the Museum of Natural History, and 

 arranging with Schimper to meet him in Switzer- 

 land, where he is to pass with his wife (a Swiss lady) 

 a long vacation, we took our carriage and returned to 

 the Baden side of the river, and came on to Frei- 

 burg (in the Breisgau) that evening, reaching it in 

 the rain. . . . 



Professor Braun, 2 the brother of the first Mrs. 

 Agassiz, was very kind to us. He is a very interest- 

 ing man, of charming manners ; his wife very sweet 

 and charming, his children most engaging. Saturday 

 afternoon we took a carriage, and with Professor 

 Braun rode up a beautiful valley to the Hollenthal 

 (French, Vallee d'Enfer), a rocky and wooded gorge of 



1 William Philip Schimper, 1808-1880 ; an eminent bryologist and 

 paleontologist. 



2 Alexander Braun, 1805-1877 ; a distinguished botanist, the early 

 companion of Agassiz at Heidelberg ; professor at Berlin. " As an 

 investigator he stood in the front rank among the botanists of our 

 time" [A. G.]. 



