74 VISIT TO SPITZBEKGEN 



Most of his journeys were short trips to cities on the 

 Continent, where he visited the local museums and made 

 the acquaintance of their curators. In 1860 he went to 

 Holland and Belgium, and in the summer of 1861 to 

 Germany : 



I have not much to record of my wanderings. The 

 weather last week was insufferably hot, provoking one to 

 all manner of maniacal acts, even beyond those of which 

 the British tourist is usually guilty. I did nothing in 

 the way of Ornithology until I arrived in its Vaterland, 

 for so really Germany must be considered. I passed a 

 pleasant afternoon with Blasius at Brunswick, whom I 

 like much as a man, but I am not sure that the very 

 high opinion of him as a naturalist I had formed from 

 his writings is altogether carried out on further acquaint- 

 ance. Perhaps, however, his judgment is too profound to 

 get to the bottom of it in some few hours. I had a hearty 

 welcome from Baldamus, at whose parsonage I passed a 

 night, much pleased with his exceeding earnestness and 

 simplicity. At Berlin, I found in Cabanis the German 

 Sclater, skilled in the most abstruse mysteries of the 

 science, to whom you and I, poor wretches, are but as 

 mere proselytes of the gate, but a very agreeable fellow 

 to meet, the vivacity of the Frenchman overpowering the 

 Teutonic stolidity. Blasius did me the honours of the 

 University collection at Brunswick, and also of his own 

 private one, which is rich in N. Asiatic specimens. Bal- 

 damus' egg-cabinet is capital, nevertheless I can regard it 

 without jealousy, though in numbers of species he must 

 far excel me. Of the wealth of the Berlin Museum I need 

 not speak, for it is well known. Berlin itself seems the 

 most terribly sleepy place I have seen for a long time. 

 It would puzzle the very fastest young man to find any- 

 thing of a Spree, barring the river, and that is one of a 

 most sluggish nature. But the buildings are beautiful. 

 I arrived here last night, or rather early this morning, 

 after a most tedious journey, and have spent the day in 

 the picture gallery, for the first time in my life giving way 



