TRAVELS IN 
of fo tedious a conveyance, was a fight truly 
ravifhing. I had felt great anxiety refped:ing 
this firft colledion. When I called to mind the 
various ways in which it might be injured, the 
diiiance from which it was fent, the nature of 
the roads, the fucceffive and continual efFedt of 
hear andrainjand thecareleffnefs, perhaps, of the 
perfons to whom it had been intruded, I expedt- 
cd to find at beft nothing but a wreck. Ou the 
contrary, my animals had gained new life, and 
feemed to breathe under the eye of their maf- 
ter. Such cares, fuch precaution and delicacy| 
Gould not fail to render at laft my return agree- 
able to me. 
A vifit to the boxes which had arrived with 
me completed my fatisfadion. Every thing 
they contained was equally brilliant and whole. 
My birds, which amounted to a thoufand and 
eighty, were as frefli as at the moment when 
they were killed and prepared ; my butterflies re- 
tained all their purity, and there was not an in- , 
fed that had loft fo much as a feeler. On this ac* 
count the method I employed in packing and 
conveying them became additionally^ dear to 
xne. The kind of box that I invented for the 
purpofe has been defcribed in the firft volume 
pf my former travels; and experience has fo 
