Joffre Chaps And Some Others

e immemorial he had not shaven, had a good deal more salt than pepper about it, and had anyone taken the trouble to look more closely at his face beneath the mud and dirt that coated it, they would have noticed other signs of approaching old age, deep lines, for instance, and gaps among the teeth. Still his age did not prevent him from holding his own, and he had even found a way of making himself particularly useful. He did not discover the layer of limestone that formed the suessonian stratum, nor reflect upon the importance of its existence chapter{Section 12in the rock formation of Pile de France. The name of Elie de Beaumont, its principal discoverer, was totally unknown to him. In fact his first feeling had been one of supreme contempt for the soft whitish rock, parts of which fell away in lumps that the rain beat into a creamy slush. " Sandstone's the stuff for me," he would say. " If only this was sandstone. It goes in straight layers that you can cut through and find the sand beneath. Then the rain makes itself scarce, I can tell you." He quickly regained his sangfroid, however, when confronted by this new material that to all appearances filled him with disgust, and succeeded in procuring some tools from somewhere, I don't know how. Then, having successfully unearthed a layer of hardish limestone, he cut from it large rectangular slabs, the very sight of which gratified the eye, so beautifully even were they, and with these slabs he paved the fl...