206 AN ENTHUSIASTIC NATURALIST.

bouring colonies at that time. Although almost
blind, he took it into his head to travel on foot
from Braunfels to Fredericksburg for the purpose
of collecting scientific curiosities along the way.
He started one fine morning, his only baggage
being a double pair of spectacles stuck on his nose,
a tin box slung from his shoulders, and some pro-
visions. The first day of his journey his box was
filled with rare plants, and his pockets crammed
with mineralogical specimens, while his hat was
covered with insects, fastened to it with pins. As
he had killed a great many serpents of large size,
he knotted them together, and coiled them round
his body. The next day, again, he killed a rattle-
snake, seven or eight feet in length, which he also
wound round his body, and which served him as a
belt. On he went in this most grotesque attire,
never for a moment thinking of the picturesque
and startling effect he must produce on the minds
of those who should meet him. Never relaxing in
his search for some new object to add to his varie-
gated accoutrements, and keeping his eyes con-
tinually on the ground, he was near marching into
the midst of a body of Comanches, who were deer-
hunting at the time. This walking collection of
plants, insects, and reptiles, which advanced majes-
tically towards them, so terrified them that they
fled panic-stricken as from a supernatural appa-