4 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 



composed of a few more houses than its sister ham- 

 let, is seen half a mile to the southeast, shaded by the 

 little forest such as borders nearly every town and 

 village in this region. The two hamlets are pleas- 

 antly situated in a richly cultivated country, on the 

 chalk uplands or downs of Picardy, amid broad acres 

 of wheat and barley variegated with poppies and the 

 purple cornflower, and with roadsides shaded by tall 

 poplars. 



The peasants to the number of 251 compose the 

 diminishing population. There were 356 in 1880, or 

 about that date. The silence of the single little 

 street, with its one-storied, thatched or tiled cottages, 

 is at infrequent intervals broken by an elderly dame in 

 her sabots, or by a creaking, rickety village cart driven 

 by a farmer-boy in blouse and hob-nailed shoes. The 

 largest inhabited building is the mairie, a modern 

 structure, at one end of which is the village school, 

 where fifteen or twenty urchins enjoy the instruc- 

 tions of the worthy teacher. A stone church, built 

 in 1774, and somewhat larger than the needs of the 

 hamlet at present require, raises its tower over the 

 quiet scene. 



Our pilgrimage to Bazentin had for its object the 

 discovery of the birthplace of Lamarck, of which we 

 could obtain no information in Paris. Our guide 

 from Albert took us to the mairie, and it was with 

 no little satisfaction that we learned from the excel- 

 lent village teacher, M. Duval, that the house in 

 which the great naturalist was born was still stand- 

 ing, and but a few steps away, in the rear of the 

 church and of the mairie. With much kindness he 



