July
1926
The visitor from the Soviet Union [1] was apparently a very welcome sight for the eyes of the stern old man. [2] He eagerly showed me his herbarium and provided me with seeds and literature. Together with him I worked out a travel route through Algeria including stops in the Sahara. The conversations with Trabut were a great pleasure because of his wide views, concrete knowledge and soaring thoughts, as well as his evolutionary ideas.
The modest condition of his home indicated that even in the rich capitalistic countries science sets toilers to work, that to a great extent their work is unselfish and that it is in no way remunerated according to the value of the results achieved. This is especially characteristic of French scientists, something of which I was able to convince myself repeatedly. The conditions of the Pasteur Institute are modest too, although it has offered mankind more than any other institute in the world. I found the same applying to Tunisia as to France itself.
Above all it was necessary to get into the Sahara and see the oases. In July, Trabut stated, only ‘mad dogs and Englishmen’ go there. But to find anything of the harvests, it was imperative to get there right away; to hesitate was out of the question. The nearest
major oases were Biskra and Touggourt. A narrow-gauge railroad runs there. It was possible to travel around in the oases by car. 
Notes:
- That is, Vavilov. [↩]
- That is, Louis Charles Trabut. For an ‘immortal’ he’s hard to run to ground as an image. [↩]
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