PRO AND CON At the period when these events took place, I had just returned from a scientific research in the disagreeable territory of Nebraska, in the United States.

In virtue of my office as Assistant Professor in the Museum of Natural History in Paris, the French Government had attached me to that expedition.

After six months in Nebraska, I arrived in New York towards the end of March, laden with a precious collection.

My departure for France was fixed for the first days in May.

Meanwhile I was occupying myself in classifying my mineralogical, botanical, and zoological riches, when the accident happened to the Scotia.
I was perfectly up in the subject which was the question of the day.
How could I be otherwise?
I had read and reread all the American and European papers without being any nearer a conclusion.