306 AUDUBON 



selves within forty miles of Paris, and now saw patches of 

 vineyards and found fruit of all kinds cheap, abundant, 

 and good. We were put down at the Messagerie Royale rue 

 des Victoires, and I found to my sorrow that my plates 

 were not among the luggage ; so I did what I could about 

 it, and we went to lodgings to which we had been recom- 

 mended, with M. Percez. Mrs. Swainson's brother, Mr. 

 Parkes, came to see us at once, and we all went to the 

 Jardin des Plantes, or Jardin du Roi, which fronts on a 

 very bad bridge, built in great haste in the days of 

 Napoleon, then called Le pont d'Austerlitz, but now Le pont 

 Ste. Genevieve. I thought the gardens well laid out, large, 

 handsome, but not everywhere well kept. We saw every- 

 thing, then walked to the entrance of the famous Musee; 

 it was closed, but we knocked and asked for Baron 

 Cuvier. 1 He was in, but, we were told, too busy to be 

 seen. Being determined to look at the Great Man, w r e 

 waited, knocked again, and with a certain degree of firm- 

 ness sent our names. The messenger returned, bowed, and 

 led the way 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 

 to be greeted ; he was polite and kind to me, though my 

 name had never made its way to his ears. I looked at 

 him, and here follows the result : age about sixty-five ; 

 size corpulent, five feet five, English measure ; head large ; 

 face wrinkled and brownish; eyes gray, brilliant and 

 sparkling ; nose aquiline, large and red ; mouth large, 

 with good lips ; teeth few, blunted by age, excepting one 

 on the lower jaw, measuring nearly three-quarters of an 

 inch square. Thus, my Lucy, have I described Cuvier 

 almost as if a new species of man. He has invited us to 

 dine with him next Saturday at six, and as I hope to have 



1 George Chretien Leopold Frederic Dagobert Cuvier, Baron, 1769-1832 ; 

 statesman, author, philosopher, and one of the greatest naturalists of 

 modern times. 



