ing prices
for quarter pipes, containing from two hundred and ten to two hundred
and thirty litres. There is no fear of regrating here, nor the
likelihood of our having to drink water for some time."

On our homeward journey, we noticed bullocks, pigs, and sheep littered
down in some of the public squares and on the outer boulevards. The
stunted grass in the former had already entirely disappeared, and it was
evident that, with the utmost care, the cattle would deteriorate under
the existing circumstances; for fodder would probably be the first
commodity to fail; as it was, it had already risen to more than twice
its former price. Moreover, the competent judges feared that, in the
event of a rainy autumn, the cattle penned in such small spaces would be
more subject to epidemic diseases, which would absolutely render them
unfit for human food. In view of such a contingency, the learned members
of the Academie des Sciences were beginning to put their heads together,
but the results of their deliberations were not known as yet.

We returned on foot as we had come; private carriages had entirely
disappeared, and though the omnibuses and cabs were plying as usual,
their progress was seriously impeded by long lines of vans, heavily
laden with neat deal boxes, evidently containing tinned provisions. Very
few female passengers in the public conveyances, and scarcely a man
without a rifle. They were the future defenders of the capital, who had
been to Vincennes, where the distribution of arms was going on from
early morn till late at night. In fact, the sight of a working-man not
provided with a rifle, a mattock, a spade, or a pickaxe was becoming a
rarity, for a great many had been engaged to aid the engineers in
digging trenches, spiking the ground, etc.

I did not, and do not, feel competent to judge of the utility of all
these means of defense; one of them, however, seemed to be conceived in
the wrong spirit: I allude to the firing of the woods around Paris. With
the results of Forbach and Woerth to guide them, the generals entrusted
with the defence of Paris could not leave the woods to stand; but was
there any necessity to destroy them in the way they did? In spite of the
activity displayed, there were still thousands of idle hands anxious to
be employed. Why were not the trees cut down and transported to Paris,
for fuel for the coming winter? At that moment there were lots of horses
available, and such a measure would h