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ject of natural history, he repeated a story told to him 

 by Thomas Hughes, author of "School-days at Rugby," 

 "Tom Brown at Oxford," and other popular books, when 

 he was visiting at Concord. It was at the expense of 

 one of the railroad guards of an English train. A lady 

 in the same carriage with him had a pet rabbit, and the 

 guard protested that the passenger car was not a proper 

 place for it ; whereupon a gentleman drew from his pocket 

 a turtle, saying that he, the guard, would not think of 

 ejecting that, and that the rabbit had as much right there 

 as the turtle. The guard went to headquarters to deter- 

 mine the question, and returning said, "cats is dogs, and 

 rabbits is dogs, and they must go in the baggage van ; 

 but turtles is insects, and they go free ; and rabbits must 

 pay." The Judge remarked that that was the only lesson 

 that he ever received in natural history. He also alluded 

 to the rivalry between the North Bridge at Salem and 

 that at Concord, and claimed that the latter had at least 

 the substantial fact of the graves of two British soldiers 

 killed there. He further referred to Hawthorne, spoke 

 of the important objects of the Institute, and concluded, 

 as he began, by saying that he was glad to welcome the 

 members to Concord. 



PROF. E. S. MORSE was called upon for an account of 

 his trip on the river. He said he had found plenty of 

 heat, but very little else, as his time on the river had 

 been very limited. He had been thinking what he should 

 take for a subject, if called upon to make any remarks, 

 and Judge Hoar's story of the tortoise had suggested the 

 subject of turtles. It was astonishing to an Englishman 

 to see the great number of turtles in this country ; in 

 England they are very rare. He proceeded to speak of 

 the similarity between the embryos of turtles and those 



