
          631

* [continued from opposite page ] He said it was for his ducks, that he had many & that they laid many eggs, but that these were seldom fertile and that he had heard that the eggs of a duck to be properly fertilized the act of copulation must take place in water.  Here, too, we saw the dissected genital organ of a pig (they had killed two the day before) and we were surprised at its length.

that of Nov. last year.  In other words that means receiving 155° of heat
less in Oct and 240° less in Nov. or 395° less for the two months.
Then again taking the average mean temp. for Nov. for the last 31 years, this
Nov. was 4° colder.  To-day, everything was covered with hoar
frost.  How beautiful the shrubbery looked, even from a distance
there appeared to be cloudy something -- a halo -- surrounding [enveloping] it!

We went our usual route past the old hut to the branch.  Near the
old hut I collected a nice supply of winter berries.  We then went on
to the house of "Old Ben" who lives in Mr. H's place.  We never pass <s>him</s> his place
without having a little chat with him; to-day we found him in his
best of humour.  To-day he showed us his new spring, told us how he
made his wine, took us down into his wine cellar, insisted that we should
try his different wines and finally invited us into his own bed-chamber.

He seems to be perfectly contented with his lot; he gets a pension 
of $8 a month, which he says is enough for him, and told us why
he had remained a bachelor.  In speaking about the lady he was
to have married and who afterward married somebody else, in fact
was married 3 times and had buried her third husband; he thought
this was entirely due to the amorous nature of the woman and that
he no doubt would now also be dead had he married her.
        