188 EETUEN TO ENGLAND : AND VISIT TO PAEIS 
was very bad and performed in boats, which were shot 
down from a bank on to the stream and pulled up and down 
the ;'iver, working many diagonals, at times fixed in the Pack 
and at others free again. In about IJ hours we were across 
in safety, but wet and cold enough. As, however, all the little 
Cabarets have hot coffee, the cold did not much matter. 
The third river was half fixed Ice with great holes of water, 
and the boats were dragged or pushed or rowed according to 
circumstances. We arrived late at Rotterdam. 
On the way home, a week later, all this had to be 
traversed again, it being impracticable to pick up the mail 
boat in the Rotterdam direction. 
I went the first thing next morning (March 6) to Miquel, 
an intelligent and agreeable man, full of Botany, and who 
will prove an acquisition to us. I spent the day with him. . . . 
Le3^den, March 7.— Blume received me most warmly, 
and has shown me such wonders in the Museum and at his 
house as are almost incredible ; he has all the Japan things. 
Blume promises me much, but he says I must take them 
myself, as he has no aid and no time to make selections. 
. . . You have no idea of the richness of this place, 
such beautiful drawings, as good as Fitch's or very nearly ; 
they beat the Paris ones, as Decaisne acknowledges. The 
Bird collection is superb, specimens, stuffing and attitudes. 
Here is a Penguin perfect, such a specimen I never saw alive ; 
it is a truly wonderful place. 
The Jardin des Plantes and this place are truly two 
epochs in my life. I must work very hard when I get home. 
I do not fear the lectures, but I am backward in British 
Botany. 
Next day, the 8th, he writes : 
Of all the Botanists I have seen, except Decaisne, Miquel 
is the one I like best and think the most promising ; he has 
an excellent and rare knowledge of structure and of exotic 
genera and species, and his respect for you is very great. . . . 
Next to yourself and Mr. Brown I think I am asked more 
for Darwin than anyone ; his book ^ has made him so many 
1 The Voyage, of the ' Beagle.' 
