A PEASANT NATUEALIST. 43 



of lively minds as well as muscular bodies, has long been 

 limited to an occasional chat over a pipe in winter-time. 



But he remained an ardent hunter, and has always been 

 an excellent shot : and it was in this capacity, I believe, that 

 he first became useful to the Professor Fatio whom I mentioned 

 just now. He did much collecting for him, and in the course 

 of their expeditions together contrived to learn a great deal 

 about plants, insects, and birds, most of which he retains in his 

 old age. There is nothing scientific in his knowledge, unless 

 it be a smattering of Latin names, which he brings out with 

 some inaccuracy if with great relish ; but it is of a very useful 

 kind, and is aided by a power of eyesight which is even now 

 astonishing in its keenness. I first made his acquaintance in 

 1868, and for several years he accompanied my brother and 

 myself in glacier-expeditions in all parts of the Alps ; but it 

 has been of late years, since we have been less inclined for 

 strenuous exertion, that I have found his knowledge of natural 

 history more especially useful to me. He is now between 

 sixty and seventy, but on a bracing alp, with a gun on his 

 shoulder, his step is as firm and his enjoyment as intense, as 

 on the day when he took us for our first walk on a glacier, 

 eighteen years ago. 



The mention of his gun reminds me, that though my old 

 friend's eyes and my own field-glasses were of the greatest help 

 to me, I could not always satisfy myself as to the identity of 

 a species ; and two years ago I was forced to sacrifice the lives 

 of some six or seven individuals. This, it is worth knowing, 

 is illegal in Switzerland (or at any rate in the Oberland) 



