AND LOWER EGYPT; 10. 



whose nature it is to nestle under the excrement 

 of animals. 



Those whose taste leads them to make collec- 

 tions of natural history, well know how difficult it 

 is to preserve the colours of fishes. Drawn out of 

 the fluid in which they live, deprived of the mois- 

 ture without which they cannot exist, they soon 

 lose, together with life, the lustre and reflexes of 

 their scales ; their discoloured skin assumes a livid 

 and tawny hue, and, in our cabinets, they no 

 longer preserve that appearance of life, which 

 seems still to animate other classes of animals. 

 Every thing that appeared to me of possible at- 

 tainment in this way, I found in the possession of 

 M. Bories, doctor of medicine at Cette. He had 

 devoted his attention to natural history, and par- 

 ticularly to the preparation of fishes, and the spe- 

 cimens which he had collected still retained, if not 

 the brilliancy, at least a part of the colours of 

 animated nature. This naturalist made a secret 

 to me of his method of preservation ; promising at 

 the same time to communicate it to BufTon, on 

 condition of certain arrangements. I know not 

 what has resulted from the correspondence which 

 I was at pains to establish between them. 



We visited, on one side, the baths of Balaruc, 

 and> on the other, the vineyards of Frontignan, 



c 2 which 



