14 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



CHAP. II. 



Buffon — Departure from Montbard — Coral — Tro- 

 glodyte — Languedoc — Phalangiste — Preservation 

 of fishes — Pleasant anecdote — Gulf of Lions. 



On returning from my second voyage to Ame- 

 rica, I repaired to Montbard, where Buffon had 

 expressed a wish to see me. In this retreat I 

 passed the greatest part of six months; and that 

 period, which fled away with too much rapidity, is 

 assuredly the portion of my life which has furnished 

 memory with the most precious recollections. To 

 my abode at that temple of taste and the sciences 

 I am indebted for the little lam worth. They 

 were the winter months, and the severity of the. 

 weather secured us from intruders. My days flowed 

 there in a delicious succession, in the service and 

 society of the great man ; charming society, which 

 no inequality of temper ever ruffled, and which 

 I have no where since found ! Buffon was not of 

 the number of those men of letters whom Erasmus 

 humorously compares to the huge figures in Fle- 

 mish tapestry, which, to produce their effect, must be 

 viewed at a distance. His conversation was as agree- 

 able as interesting, and he blended in it an easy 

 gaiety, atone of good nature which put all around 



him 



