eely adopted the tourist's stick, six feet high, with
a long iron point. Bouvard preferred the walking-stick umbrella, or
many-branched umbrella, the knob of which is removed in order to clasp
on the silk, which is kept separately in a little bag. They did not
forget strong shoes with gaiters, "two pairs of braces" each "on account
of perspiration," and, although one cannot present himself everywhere
in a cap, they shrank from the expense of "one of those folding hats,
which bear the name of 'Gibus,' their inventor."

The same work gives precepts for conduct: "To know the language of the
part of the country you visit": they knew it. "To preserve a modest
deportment": this was their custom. "Not to have too much money about
you": nothing simpler. Finally, in order to spare yourself
embarrassments of all descriptions, it is a good thing to adopt the
"description of engineer."

"Well, we will adopt it."

Thus prepared, they began their excursions; were sometimes eight days
away, and passed their lives in the open air.

Sometimes they saw, on the banks of the Orne, in a rent, pieces of rock
raising their slanting surfaces between some poplar trees and heather;
or else they were grieved by meeting, for the entire length of the road,
nothing but layers of clay. In the presence of a landscape they admired
neither the series of perspectives nor the depth of the backgrounds, nor
the undulations of the green surfaces; but that which was not visible to
them, the underpart, the earth: and for them every hill was only a fresh
proof of the Deluge.

To the Deluge mania succeeded that of erratic blocks. The big stones
alone in the fields must come from vanished glaciers, and they searched
for moraines and faluns.

They were several times taken for pedlars on account of their equipage;
and when they had answered that they were "engineers," a dread seized
them--the usurpation of such a title might entail unpleasant
consequences.

At the end of each day they panted beneath the weight of their
specimens; but they dauntlessly carried them off home with them. They
were deposited on the doorsteps, on the stairs, in the bedrooms, in the
dining-room, and in the kitchen; and Germaine used to make a hubbub
about the quantity of dust. It was no slight task, before pasting on the
labels, to know the names of the rocks; the variety of colours and of
grain made them confuse argil and marl, granite and gneiss, quartz and
limestone.

And the