CHAPTER XII. 



Visit to Paris — Bxron Cuvier — Reception at^ the Academy of Sci- 

 ences — Visits to Great Officials — Poverty of French Academy — 

 More of Cuvier and his Home — Great Gathering at the Institute — 

 The Report quoted — The Duke of Orleans — • Farewell to France. 



N September ist, i828, Audubon quitted London 

 for Paris, and his diary freshens a Httle after the 

 salt breeze of the Channel. Much space, how- 

 ever, is as usual devoted to matters quite trivial in them- 

 selves, and not likely to interest any circle beyond the 

 little domestic one for which the pages were intended. 

 The enjoyment of fresh scenes is youthful and honest — 

 quite unlike the pleasure of more sophisticated persons. 



On arriving in Paris, his first visit was to the Jardin 

 des Plantes, and to the great Cuvier. We shall select in 

 series his notes on this and other matters, suppressing, as 

 before, all the utterly pointless matter which fills up the 

 diary under so many a date. 



" We knocked, and asked for Baron Cuvier : he was 

 in, but we were told was too busy to be seen. However, 

 being determined to look at the great man, we waited and 

 knocked again, and with a degree of firmness sent up 

 our names. The messenger returned, bowed and led us 

 upstairs, where, in a minute. Monsieur le Baron, like an 

 excellent good man, came to us. He had heard much of 

 my friend Swainson, and greeted him as he deserves, and 

 was polite and kind to me, although he had never heard 

 of me before. I looked at him, and here follows the re- 

 sult. Age about sixty-five ; size, corpulent, five feet and 

 five, English measure ; head large, face wrinkled and 



