252 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



some intermediate point most likely to furnish 

 the data necessary for a rigorous comparison. I had 

 recourse to my usual councillors, the geological atlas 

 of MM. Dufrenoy and Elie de Beaumont and the 

 hydrographical atlas of M. Beautemps-Beaupre, and 

 from the indications afforded me by these works I was 

 induced to set forth for La Rochelle. It was in 1853, 

 on one of those gloomy evenings, which, by the cold 

 dampness of the atmosphere, made one feel as if 

 autumn had supplanted summer, that our diligence 

 was put upon the railway. At Saumur, our vehicle 

 was suffered to resume the use of its four wheels, 

 and at break of day we were passing one of those 

 military roads which have opened the way into the 

 recesses of ancient Vendee. Like many other useful 

 things in this world, our road was of a very modest 

 and unassuming kind, for it never attempted to 

 oppose or overcome the obstacles that lay before it. 

 Yielding to every accidental rise and fall of the 

 ground, it wound at one moment along the base of a 

 shady valley, at another round the sides of a 

 hill empurpled with flowering heather. An August 

 sun was rising above the horizon, gilding with its 

 rays the foliage of a grove of chestnut trees, and illu- 

 minating with its brightness masses of granite which 

 had witnessed the first cataclysm that had rent the 

 crust of our globe. The genial warmth soon restored 

 sensation to my stiffened limbs, and awoke a thousand 

 sweet sounds of birds and insects. Amid the rattling 

 of our wheels and the tinkling of the small bells 

 that adorned our horses, I felt the calm and solitude 

 around me in the same manner as at Paris I have 

 been conscious, amid the stillness of my own chamber, 



