VILLAGE FÊTE
MUSEUM
Tuesday, July 10th.—We went up to Paris at nine o'clock to see the museum; it was a fine morning, but rather cold. It is a very pretty drive; the country is beautiful about the Seine. There were a great many bluebottles and scarlet poppies in the corn, more than I ever saw in England; the fields looked like a sheet of blue and red. In Paris they sell pretty wreaths of bluebottles. We met a cart guarded by eight soldiers, with nothing in it but old chairs and broken tables. We arrived at Paris at twelve o'clock, and went to two flower-shops, where were beautiful artificial flowers. The carnations were scented. They had not many wreaths: the flowers that brides wear are the buds of orange flowers. We bought several single flowers, jessamine, roses, camilla,[38] japonica, etc. From this we all went to the cabinet d'Histoire Naturelle. We remarked the floating baths on the Seine. When we reached the Jardin des Plantes the museum was not open, so we walked in the garden till three o'clock, when the doors are opened. There was quite a crowd of people of all ranks. I think it is wonderful that the things are not hurt, as the people press close to the glasses. We went to the upper gallery first, that we might have more time to examine it. Several rooms open one into the other. There were soldiers with swords in their hands, walking up and down. We had not time to look at everything; we only skimmed over the things. The first rooms contain above two hundred monkeys; we scarcely looked at them at all. In this museum there seems to be every kind of creature. There is a great quantity of bats of all sizes; a rat with a young one on its back; some very small mice, marmottes, opossums, armadillos, lions, tigers, panthers, etc.; a horse; most beautiful little deer, some very small; a chevrotin; cats and dogs. These were all in glass cases round the room. In the middle of the room there were two enormous elephants, a rhinoceros, etc., a hippopotamus, which is a frightful-looking creature with an immense mouth. On the top of the cases there is a morse. In the middle of the next room there is a whale, a wild ox, a buffalo, and a cameleopard which almost touched the top of the room. There was the skin of a snake, like a trunk of a tree, near the top of the room. The animals in the middle of the room were not in cases. There was a great variety of springboks, sjrisboks, etc., in this room, and also porcupines, foxes, and a variety of other animals.
The most beautiful and amusing room was that in which the birds were. There were a great many owls; pink spoonbills, scarlet flamingoes, toucans, parrots of every colour, very pretty kingfishers, penguins, cassowarys, peacocks and hens; there was one petrified ibis. The most beautiful were the humming-birds; their colours were quite dazzling: some were very small, and others larger. There was one beautiful forked-tailed humming-bird: its throat was of the most brilliant green, and its breast amethyst purple; the rest of its body was a shining black. The topaz humming-bird is also very pretty; it has a yellow breast and a red topping. The red-throated humming-bird is also pretty, but not so brilliant as my favourite fork-tail. One of the larger humming-birds is all bright black, like velvet, except the neck, which is the colour of an emerald. No colours could express the brightness of their plumage. There were several nests which were whitish. In the same case with the humming-birds there were some scarlet creepers, very bright and pretty, and one or two blue creepers which were like precious stones. We examined this case longer than any other.
There was a glass case up the middle of the room in which were lobsters, corals, shells, sponges, etc. In one part all the insects were arranged. The butterflies were the most beautiful things I ever saw. There was one very large blue one that dazzled my eyes to look at; another black and bluish lilac; and the Amboyna butterfly, an immense green and black one, with most brilliant colours and shining like velvet. There were several small ones striped yellow and black; one very beautiful small scarlet and purple one; several very large greyish butterflies or moths which had small clear spots in their wings like glass; there were two or three smallish butterflies marked with every colour like marble. The large butterflies were excessively beautiful. There were several English ones beside them that looked quite dull and ugly. There were a great many large moths; one grey and a great deal marked was even bigger than the green butterfly; there was another beautiful large grey moth with purple eyes in its under wings. Besides the butterflies there were several other insects: dragon-flies, the colours of which were quite gone; enormous spiders; a great variety of bees; an ant lion at the bottom of a small pit; very large caterpillars; and a great many other insects.
We then went to the lower gallery, which is not so amusing; but there are some curious fishes, a crocodile, very pretty marbles, a large piece of gold ore, and a great variety of stones, etc. Instead of real precious stones there were only imitations in glass, which looked very shabby. I was very sorry to leave the museum; it was the most amusing and beautiful thing in France. It closes at five o'clock. After we had left it we returned to Versailles.