i 4 8 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. v. 



The sciatica seems, however, to have soon 

 yielded to treatment. Within a few weeks he was 

 again on his travels. Towards the end of January 

 1864 he paid a visit to the South of France, to 

 the Vicomte de Lastic at Salette, to report upon a 

 collection of human remains associated with flint 

 implements and bones of Mammalia found in the 

 caverns of that district. ' I was met at the 

 station,' he writes to his wife, January 21, 1864, 

 ' at 5 p.m. by the Vicomte, and have had a most 

 kind reception. Found a blazing wood fire in my 

 dressing-room (for all was hard frost this morning 

 when I got out at Perigueux and began my day's 

 journey) ; the last forty miles through mountain 

 scenery like that we passed through in our High- 

 land trip — very beautiful. At Paris I spent some 

 hours in the Jardin d'Acclimatation, arriving at 

 7.30 a.m., and quitting the same hour the same 

 evening. . . .' 



1 February 5. — This is a charming family, 

 the representative ddbris of one of the old seig- 

 norial lords of the country. ... an old chateau, 

 hid in a valley alongside the river Aveyron, with 

 hills and precipices on each side. An old coach, 

 and coachman, and pair of black horses with long 

 manes and tails, just as figured in old books. No 

 neighbours.' 



In view of this expedition, Owen only gave 

 three lectures (on Fishes) at the Royal Institution, 

 as Fullerian Professor, before starting for France. 



