NOTES DURING 
THE FRANCO-GERMAN WAR. 
FEELING very strongly for the French peasantry, who 
had lost their all during the ravages of the Franco-German 
war, I joined a body of delegates for their succour; and I 
think that some memoranda from a journal kept during 
that memorable time will be found interesting. Of course 
I had other things to attend to than Natural History, but I 
contrived to put together a few ornithological notes. Our 
head quarters were at Metz. 
December 2nd, 1870. Starting from Luxembourg, at length 
we reached the French frontier. The people at the village 
stations said they had had 300 Prussians billeted on them. 
Some were kind to the women and children, some were not. 
They had had sufficient to eat, and the only thing they 
complained of was having their tools taken away. Presently 
we passed some more small villages, whose inmates had 
deserted them, and then Thionville came in sight. No one 
who has not witnessed its effect can realize what war is. 
Some of us were looking forward with a strange curiosity, 
for in Thionville we had learnt that we should see a dire 
sample of the dreadful scourge. Before its calamity fell 
upon it, the town must have stood in a wood. Desolate 
enough it looked now; all its trees felled. Everything— 
sheds, shrubs, and walls—levelled for a cannon-shot all 
