; comfort was
evidently carefully considered, for cushions were all around; the sofa
was handsomely covered with worsted embroidery. A long study-table was
full of books and papers.

"I had waited but a few moments when Humboldt came in; he was a smaller
man than I had expected to see. He was neater, more 'trig,' than the
pictures represent him; in looking at the pictures you feel that his
head is too large,--out of proportion to the body,--but you do not
perceive this when you see him.

"He bowed in a most courtly manner, and told me he was much obliged to
me for coming to see him, then shook hands, and asked me to sit, and
took a chair near me.

"There was a clock in sight, and I stayed but half an hour. He talked
every minute, and on all kinds of subjects: of Dr. Bache, who was then
at the head of the U.S. Coast Survey; of Dr. Gould, who had recently
returned from long years in South America; of the Washington Observatory
and its director, Lieutenant Maury; of the Dudley Observatory, at
Albany; of Sir George Airy, of the Greenwich Observatory; of Professor
Enke's comet reputation; of Argelander, who was there observing variable
stars; of Mrs. Somerville and Goldschmidt, and of his brother.

"It was the period when the subject of admitting Kansas as a slave State
was discussed--he touched upon that; it was during the administration of
President Buchanan, and he talked about that.

"Having been nearly a year in Europe, I had not kept up my reading of
American newspapers, but Humboldt could tell me the latest news,
scientifically and politically. To my ludicrous mortification, he told
me of the change of position of some scientific professor in New York
State, and when I showed that I didn't know the location of the town,
which was Clinton, he told me if I would look at the map, which lay upon
the table, I should find the town somewhere between Albany and Buffalo.

"Humboldt was always considered a good-tempered, kindly-natured man, but
his talk was a little fault-finding.

"He said: 'Lieutenant Maury has been useful, but for the director of an
observatory he has put forth some strange statements in the 'Geography
of the Sea.'

"He asked me if Mrs. Somerville was now occupied with pure mathematics.
He said: 'There she is strong. I never saw her but once. She must be
over sixty years old.' In reality she was seventy-seven. He spoke with
admiration of Mrs. Somerville's 'Physical Geography,'--said it was
excellen