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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence
+by Louis Agassiz
+
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+Title: Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence
+
+Author: Louis Agassiz
+
+Release Date: July, 2004  [EBook #6078]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on November 3, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LOUIS AGASSIZ: HIS LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE ***
+
+
+
+
+This eBook was produced by Sue Asscher and Robert Prince.
+
+
+
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ
+
+HIS LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE.
+
+
+
+EDITED BY
+
+ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+I am aware that this book has neither the fullness of personal
+narrative, nor the closeness of scientific analysis, which its too
+comprehensive title might lead the reader to expect. A word of
+explanation is therefore needed. I thought little at first of the
+general public, when I began to weave together in narrative form
+the facts, letters, and journals contained in this volume. My chief
+object was to prevent the dispersion and final loss of scattered
+papers which had an unquestionable family value. But, as my work
+grew upon my hands, I began to feel that the story of an
+intellectual life, which was marked by such rare coherence and
+unity of aim, might have a wider interest and usefulness; might,
+perhaps, serve as a stimulus and an encouragement to others. For
+this reason, and also because I am inclined to believe that the
+European portion of the life of Louis Agassiz is little known in
+his adopted country, while its American period must be unfamiliar
+to many in his native land, I have determined to publish the
+material here collected.
+
+The book labors under the disadvantage of being in great part a
+translation. The correspondence for the first part was almost
+wholly in French and German, so that the choice lay between a
+patch-work of several languages or the unity of one, burdened as it
+must be with the change of version. I have accepted what seemed to
+me the least of these difficulties.
+
+Besides the assistance of my immediate family, including the
+revision of the text by my son Alexander Agassiz, I have been
+indebted to my friends Dr. and Mrs. Hagen and to the late Professor
+Guyot for advice on special points. As will be seen from the list
+of illustrations, I have also to thank Mrs. John W. Elliot for her
+valuable aid in that part of the work.
+
+On the other side of the water I have had most faithful and
+efficient collaborators. Mr. Auguste Agassiz, who survived his
+brother Louis several years, and took the greatest interest in
+preserving whatever concerned his scientific career, confided to my
+hands many papers and documents belonging to his brother's earlier
+life. After his death, his cousin and brother-in-law, Mr. Auguste
+Mayor, of Neuchatel, continued the same affectionate service.
+Without their aid I could not have completed the narrative as it
+now stands.
+
+The friend last named also selected from the glacier of the Aar, at
+the request of Alexander Agassiz, the boulder which now marks his
+father's grave. With unwearied patience Mr. Mayor passed hours of
+toilsome search among the blocks of the moraine near the site of
+the old "Hotel des Neuchatelois," and chose at last a stone so
+monumental in form that not a touch of the hammer was needed to fit
+it for its purpose. In conclusion I allow myself the pleasure of
+recording here my gratitude to him and to all who have aided me in
+my work.
+
+ELIZABETH C. AGASSIZ.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts, June 11, 1885.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+1807-1827: TO AGE 20.
+
+Birthplace.--Influence of his Mother.--Early Love of Natural
+History.--Boyish Occupations.--Domestic Education.--First School.
+--Vacations.--Commercial Life renounced.--College of Lausanne.
+--Choice of Profession.--Medical School of Zurich.--Life and
+Studies there.--University of Heidelberg.--Studies interrupted by
+Illness.--Return to Switzerland.--Occupations during Convalescence.
+
+CHAPTER 2.
+
+1827-1828: AGE 20-21.
+
+Arrival in Munich.--Lectures.--Relations with the Professors.
+--Schelling, Martius, Oken, Dollinger.--Relations with
+Fellow-Students.--The Little Academy.--Plans for Traveling.--Advice
+from his Parents.--Vacation Journey.--Tri-Centennial Durer Festival
+at Nuremberg.
+
+CHAPTER 3.
+
+1828-1829: AGE 21-22.
+
+First Important Work in Natural History.--Spix's Brazilian Fishes.
+--Second Vacation Trip.--Sketch of Work during University Year.
+--Extracts from the Journal of Mr. Dinkel.--Home Letters.--Hope of
+joining Humboldt's Asiatic Expedition.--Diploma of Philosophy.
+--Completion of First Part of the Spix Fishes.--Letter concerning
+it from Cuvier.
+
+CHAPTER 4.
+
+1829-1830: AGE 22-23.
+
+Scientific Meeting at Heidelberg.--Visit at Home.--Illness and
+Death of his Grandfather.--Return to Munich.--Plans for Future
+Scientific Publications.--Takes his Degree of Medicine.--Visit to
+Vienna.--Return to Munich.--Home Letters.--Last Days at Munich.
+--Autobiographical Review of School and University Life.
+
+CHAPTER 5.
+
+1830-1832: AGE 23-25.
+
+Year at Home.--Leaves Home for Paris.--Delays on the Road.
+--Cholera.--Arrival in Paris.--First Visit to Cuvier.--Cuvier's
+Kindness.--His Death.--Poverty in Paris.--Home Letters concerning
+Embarrassments and about his Work.--Singular Dream.
+
+CHAPTER 6.
+
+1832: AGE 25.
+
+Unexpected Relief from Difficulties.--Correspondence with Humboldt.
+--Excursion to the Coast of Normandy.--First Sight of the Sea.
+--Correspondence concerning Professorship at Neuchatel.--Birthday
+Fete.--Invitation to Chair of Natural History at Neuchatel.
+--Acceptance.--Letter to Humboldt.
+
+CHAPTER 7.
+
+1832-1834: AGE 25-27.
+
+Enters upon his Professorship at Neuchatel.--First Lecture.
+--Success as a Teacher.--Love of Teaching.--Influence upon the
+Scientific Life of Neuchatel.--Proposal from University of
+Heidelberg.--Proposal declined.--Threatened Blindness.
+--Correspondence with Humboldt.--Marriage.--Invitation from
+Charpentier.--Invitation to visit England.--Wollaston Prize.--First
+Number of "Poissons Fossiles."--Review of the Work.
+
+CHAPTER 8.
+
+1834-1837: AGE 27-30.
+
+First Visit to England.--Reception by Scientific Men.--Work on
+Fossil Fishes there.--Liberality of English Naturalists.--First
+Relations with American Science.--Farther Correspondence with
+Humboldt.--Second Visit to England.--Continuation of "Fossil
+Fishes."--Other Scientific Publications.--Attention drawn to
+Glacial Phenomena.--Summer at Bex with Charpentier.--Sale of
+Original Drawings for "Fossil Fishes."--Meeting of Helvetic
+Society.--Address on Ice-Period.--Letters from Humboldt and Von
+Buch.
+
+CHAPTER 9.
+
+1837-1839: AGE 30-32.
+
+Invitation to Professorships at Geneva and Lausanne.--Death of his
+Father.--Establishment of Lithographic Press at Neuchatel.
+--Researches upon Structure of Mollusks.--Internal Casts of Shells.
+--Glacial Explorations.--Views of Buckland.--Relations with Arnold
+Guyot.--Their Work together in the Alps.--Letter to Sir Philip
+Egerton concerning Glacial Work.--Summer of 1839.--Publication of
+"Etudes sur les Glaciers."
+
+CHAPTER 10.
+
+1840-1842: AGE 33-35.
+
+Summer Station on the Glacier of the Aar.--Hotel des Neuchatelois.
+--Members of the Party.--Work on the Glacier.--Ascent of the
+Strahleck and the Siedelhorn.--Visit to England.--Search for
+Glacial Remains in Great Britain.--Roads of Glen Roy.--Views of
+English Naturalists concerning Agassiz's Glacial Theory.--Letter
+from Humboldt.--Winter Visit to Glacier.--Summer of 1841 on the
+Glacier.--Descent into the Glacier.--Ascent of the Jungfrau.
+
+CHAPTER 11.
+
+1842-1843: AGE 35-36.
+
+Zoological Work uninterrupted by Glacial Researches.--Various
+Publications.--"Nomenclator Zoologicus."--"Bibliographia Zoologiae
+et Geologiae."--Correspondence with English Naturalists.
+--Correspondence with Humboldt.--Glacial Campaign of 1842.
+--Correspondence with Prince de Canino concerning Journey to United
+States.--Fossil Fishes from the Old Red Sandstone.--Glacial
+Campaign of 1843.--Death of Leuthold, the Guide.
+
+CHAPTER 12.
+
+1843-1846: AGE 36-39.
+
+Completion of Fossil Fishes.--Followed by Fossil Fishes of the Old
+Red Sandstone.--Review of the Later Work.--Identification of Fishes
+by the Skull.--Renewed Correspondence with Prince Canino about
+Journey to the United States.--Change of Plan owing to the Interest
+of the King of Prussia in the Expedition.--Correspondence between
+Professor Sedgwick and Agassiz on Development Theory.--Final
+Scientific Work in Neuchatel and Paris.--Publication of "Systeme
+Glaciaire."--Short Stay in England.--Farewell Letter from Humboldt.
+--Sails for United States.
+
+CHAPTER 13.
+
+1846: AGE 39.
+
+Arrival at Boston.--Previous Correspondence with Charles Lyell and
+Mr. John A. Lowell concerning Lectures at the Lowell Institute.
+--Relations with Mr. Lowell.--First Course of Lectures.--Character
+of Audience.--Home Letter giving an Account of his first Journey in
+the United States.--Impressions of Scientific Men, Scientific
+Institutions and Collections.
+
+CHAPTER 14.
+
+1846-1847: AGE 39-40.
+
+Course of Lectures in Boston on Glaciers.--Correspondence with
+Scientific Friends in Europe.--House in East Boston.--Household and
+Housekeeping.--Illness.--Letter to Elie de Beaumont.--Letter to
+James D. Dana.
+
+CHAPTER 15.
+
+1847-1850: AGE 40-43.
+
+Excursions on Coast Survey Steamer.--Relations with Dr. Bache, the
+Superintendent of the Coast Survey.--Political Disturbances in
+Switzerland.--Change of Relations with Prussia.--Scientific School
+established in Cambridge.--Chair of Natural History offered to
+Agassiz.--Acceptance.--Removal to Cambridge.--Literary and
+Scientific Associations there and in Boston.--Household in
+Cambridge.--Beginning of Museum.--Journey to Lake Superior.--"
+Report, with Narration."--"Principles of Zoology," by Agassiz and
+Gould.--Letters from European Friends respecting these
+Publications.--Letter from Hugh Miller.--Second Marriage.--Arrival
+of his Children in America.
+
+CHAPTER 16.
+
+1850-1852: AGE 43-45.
+
+Proposition from Dr. Bache.--Exploration of Florida Reefs.--Letter
+to Humboldt concerning Work in America.--Appointment to
+Professorship of Medical College in Charleston, S.C.--Life at the
+South.--Views concerning Races of Men.--Prix Cuvier.
+
+CHAPTER 17.
+
+1852-1855: AGE 45-48.
+
+Return to Cambridge.--Anxiety about Collections.--Purchase of
+Collections.--Second Winter in Charleston.--Illness.--Letter to
+James D. Dana concerning Geographical Distribution and Geological
+Succession of Animals.--Resignation of Charleston Professorship.
+--Propositions from Zurich.--Letter to Oswald Heer.--Decision to
+remain in Cambridge.--Letters to James D. Dana, S.S. Haldeman, and
+Others respecting Collections illustrative of the Distribution of
+Fishes, Shells, etc., in our Rivers.--Establishment of School for
+Girls.
+
+CHAPTER 18.
+
+1855-1860: AGE 48-53.
+
+"Contributions to Natural History of the United States."
+--Remarkable Subscription.--Review of the Work.--Its Reception in
+Europe and America.--Letters from Humboldt and Owen concerning it.
+--Birthday.--Longfellow's Verses.--Laboratory at Nahant.
+--Invitation to the Museum of Natural History in Paris.--Founding
+of Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge.--Summer Vacation in
+Europe.
+
+CHAPTER 19.
+
+1860-1863: AGE 53-56.
+
+Return to Cambridge.--Removal of Collection to New Museum Building.
+--Distribution of Work.--Relations with his Students.--Breaking out
+of the War between North and South.--Interest of Agassiz in the
+Preservation of the Union.--Commencement of Museum Publications.
+--Reception of Third and Fourth Volumes of "Contributions."--Copley
+Medal.--General Correspondence.--Lecturing Tour in the West.
+--Circular Letter concerning Anthropological Collections.--Letter
+to Mr. Ticknor concerning Geographical Distribution of Fishes in
+Spain.
+
+CHAPTER 20.
+
+1863-1864: AGE 56-57.
+
+Correspondence with Dr. S.G. Howe.--Bearing of the War on the
+Position of the Negro Race.--Affection for Harvard College.
+--Interest in her General Progress.--Correspondence with Emerson
+concerning Harvard.--Glacial Phenomena in Maine.
+
+CHAPTER 21.
+
+1865-1868: AGE 58-61.
+
+Letter to his Mother announcing Journey to Brazil.--Sketch of
+Journey.--Kindness of the Emperor.--Liberality of the Brazilian
+Government.--Correspondence with Charles Sumner.--Letter to his
+Mother at Close of Brazil Journey.--Letter from Martius concerning
+Journey in Brazil.--Return to Cambridge.--Lectures in Boston and
+New York.--Summer at Nahant.--Letter to Professor Peirce on the
+Survey of Boston Harbor.--Death of his Mother.--Illness.
+--Correspondence with Oswald Heer.--Summer Journey in the West.
+--Cornell University.--Letter from Longfellow.
+
+CHAPTER 22.
+
+1868-1871: AGE 61-64.
+
+New Subscription to Museum.--Additional Buildings.--Arrangement of
+New Collections.--Dredging Expedition on Board the Bibb.--Address
+at the Humboldt Centennial.--Attack on the Brain.--Suspension of
+Work.--Working Force at the Museum.--New Accessions.--Letter from
+Professor Sedgwick.--Letter from Professor Deshayes.--Restored
+Health.--Hassler Voyage proposed.--Acceptance.--Scientific
+Preparation for the Voyage.
+
+CHAPTER 23.
+
+1871-1872: AGE 64-65.
+
+Sailing of the Hassler.--Sargassum Fields.--Dredging at Barbados.
+--From the West Indies to Rio de Janeiro.--Monte Video.
+--Quarantine.--Glacial Traces in the Bay of Monte Video.--The Gulf
+of Mathias.--Dredging off Gulf of St. George.--Dredging off Cape
+Virgens.--Possession Bay.--Salt Pool.--Moraine.--Sandy Point.
+--Cruise through the Straits.--Scenery.--Wind Storm.--Borja Bay.
+--Glacier Bay.--Visit to the Glacier.--Chorocua Bay.
+
+CHAPTER 24.
+
+1872: AGE 65.
+
+Picnic in Sholl Bay.--Fuegians.--Smythe's Channel.--Comparison of
+Glacial Features with those of the Strait of Magellan.--Ancud.
+--Port of San Pedro.--Bay of Concepcion.--Three Weeks in
+Talcahuana.--Collections.--Geology.--Land Journey to Santiago.
+--Scenes along the Road.--Report on Glacial Features to Mr. Peirce.
+--Arrival at Santiago.--Election as Foreign Associate of the
+Institute of France.--Valparaiso.--The Galapagos.--Geological and
+Zoological Features.--Arrival at San Francisco.
+
+CHAPTER 25.
+
+1872-1873: AGE 65-66.
+
+Return to Cambridge.--Summer School proposed.--Interest of Agassiz.
+--Gift of Mr. Anderson.--Prospectus of Penikese School.
+--Difficulties.--Opening of School.--Summer Work.--Close of School.
+--Last Course of Lectures at Museum.--Lecture before Board of
+Agriculture.--Illness.--Death.--Place of Burial.
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+1. PORTRAIT OF LOUIS AGASSIZ AT THE AGE OF NINETEEN; copied by Mrs.
+John W. Elliot from a pastel drawing by Cecile Braun.
+
+2. THE STONE BASIN AT MOTIER; drawn by Mrs. Elliot from a
+photograph.
+
+3. THE LABORATORY AT NAHANT; from a drawing by Mrs. Elliot.
+
+4. THE BIRTHPLACE OF LOUIS AGASSIZ; from a photograph.
+
+5. HOTEL DES NEUCHATELOIS; copied by Mrs. Elliot from an oil sketch
+made on the spot by J. Burkhardt.
+
+6. PORTRAIT OF JACOB LEUTHOLD; from a portrait by Burkhardt.
+
+7. SECOND STATION ON THE AAR GLACIER; Copied by Mrs. Elliot from a
+sketch in oil by J. Burkhardt.
+
+8. PORTRAIT OF LOUIS AGASSIZ AT THE AGE OF FIFTY-FIVE; originally
+published in "Nature".
+
+9. COTTAGE AT NAHANT; from a photograph.
+
+10. MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY; from a photograph.
+
+11. PORTRAIT BUST OF AGASSIZ BY POWERS AT THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE
+ZOOLOGY; from a photograph.
+
+12. VIEW OF PENIKESE; from a photograph.
+
+***
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+PART 1. IN EUROPE.
+
+
+CHAPTER 1.
+
+1807-1827: TO AGE 20.
+
+Birthplace.
+Influence of his Mother.
+Early Love of Natural History.
+Boyish Occupations.
+Domestic Education.
+First School.
+Vacations.
+Commercial Life renounced.
+College of Lausanne.
+Choice of Profession.
+Medical School of Zurich.
+Life and Studies there.
+University of Heidelberg.
+Studies interrupted by Illness.
+Return to Switzerland.
+Occupations during Convalescence.
+
+JEAN LOUIS RODOLPHE AGASSIZ was born May 28, 1807, at the village
+of Motier, on the Lake of Morat. His father, Louis Rodolphe
+Agassiz, was a clergyman; his mother, Rose Mayor, was the daughter
+of a physician whose home was at Cudrefin, on the shore of the Lake
+of Neuchatel.
+
+The parsonages in Switzerland are frequently pretty and
+picturesque. That of Motier, looking upon the lake and sheltered by
+a hill which commands a view over the whole chain of the Bernese
+Alps, was especially so. It possessed a vineyard large enough to
+add something in good years to the small salary of the pastor; an
+orchard containing, among other trees, an apricot famed the country
+around for the unblemished beauty of its abundant fruit; a good
+vegetable garden, and a delicious spring of water flowing always
+fresh and pure into a great stone basin behind the house. That
+stone basin was Agassiz's first aquarium; there he had his first
+collection of fishes.* (* After his death a touching tribute was
+paid to his memory by the inhabitants of his birthplace. With
+appropriate ceremonies, a marble slab was placed above the door of
+the parsonage of Motier, with this inscription, "J. Louis Agassiz,
+celebre naturaliste, est ne dans cette maison, le 28 Mai, 1807.")
+
+It does not appear that he had any precocious predilection for
+study, and his parents, who for the first ten years of his life
+were his only teachers, were too wise to stimulate his mind beyond
+the ordinary attainments of his age. having lost her first four
+children in infancy, his mother watched with trembling solicitude
+over his early years. It was perhaps for this reason that she was
+drawn so closely to her boy, and understood that his love of
+nature, and especially of all living things, was an intellectual
+tendency, and not simply a child's disposition to find friends and
+playmates in the animals about him. In later years her sympathy
+gave her the key to the work of his manhood, as it had done to the
+sports of his childhood. She remained his most intimate friend to
+the last hour of her life, and he survived her but six years.
+
+Louis's love of natural history showed itself almost from infancy.
+When a very little fellow he had, beside his collection of fishes,
+all sorts of pets: birds, field-mice, hares, rabbits, guinea-pigs,
+etc., whose families he reared with the greatest care. Guided by
+his knowledge of the haunts and habits of fishes, he and his
+brother Auguste became the most adroit of young fishermen,--using
+processes all their own and quite independent of hook, line, or
+net. Their hunting grounds were the holes and crevices beneath the
+stones or in the water-washed walls of the lake shore. No such
+shelter was safe from their curious fingers, and they acquired such
+dexterity that when bathing they could seize the fish even in the
+open water, attracting them by little arts to which the fish
+submitted as to a kind of fascination. Such amusements are no doubt
+the delight of many a lad living in the country, nor would they be
+worth recording except as illustrating the unity of Agassiz's
+intellectual development from beginning to end. His pet animals
+suggested questions, to answer which was the task of his life; and
+his intimate study of the fresh-water fishes of Europe, later the
+subject of one of his important works, began with his first
+collection from the Lake of Morat.
+
+As a boy he amused himself also with all kinds of handicrafts on a
+small scale. The carpenter, the cobbler, the tailor, were then as
+much developed in him as the naturalist. In Swiss villages it was
+the habit in those days for the trades-people to go from house to
+house in their different vocations. The shoemaker came two or three
+times a year with all his materials, and made shoes for the whole
+family by the day; the tailor came to fit them for garments which
+he made in the house; the cooper arrived before the vintage, to
+repair old barrels and hogsheads or to make new ones, and to
+replace their worn-out hoops; in short, to fit up the cellar for
+the coming season. Agassiz seems to have profited by these lessons
+as much as by those he learned from his father; and when a very
+little fellow, he could cut and put together a well-fitting pair of
+shoes for his sisters' dolls, was no bad tailor, and could make a
+miniature barrel that was perfectly water-tight. He remembered
+these trivial facts as a valuable part of his incidental education.
+He said he owed much of his dexterity in manipulation, to the
+training of eye and hand gained in these childish plays.
+
+Though fond of quiet, in-door occupation, he was an active, daring
+boy. One winter day when about seven years of age, he was skating
+with his little brother Auguste, two years younger than himself,
+and a number of other boys, near the shore of the lake. They were
+talking of a great fair held that day at the town of Morat, on the
+opposite side of the lake, to which M. Agassiz had gone in the
+morning, not crossing upon the ice, however, but driving around the
+shore. The temptation was too strong for Louis, and he proposed to
+Auguste that they should skate across, join their father at the
+fair, and come home with him in the afternoon. They started
+accordingly. The other boys remained on their skating ground till
+twelve o'clock, the usual dinner hour, when they returned to the
+village. Mme. Agassiz was watching for her boys, thinking them
+rather late, and on inquiring for them among the troop of urchins
+coming down the village street she learned on what errand they had
+gone. Her anxiety may be imagined. The lake was not less than two
+miles across, and she was by no means sure that the ice was safe.
+She hurried to an upper window with a spy-glass to see if she could
+descry them anywhere. At the moment she caught sight of them,
+already far on their journey, Louis had laid himself down across a
+fissure in the ice, thus making a bridge for his little brother,
+who was creeping over his back. Their mother directed a workman, an
+excellent skater, to follow them as swiftly as possible. He
+overtook them just as they had gained the shore, but it did not
+occur to him that they could return otherwise than they had come,
+and he skated back with them across the lake. Weary, hungry, and
+disappointed, the boys reached the house without having seen the
+fair or enjoyed the drive home with their father in the afternoon.
+
+When he was ten years old, Agassiz was sent to the college for boys
+at Bienne, thus exchanging the easy rule of domestic instruction
+for the more serious studies of a public school. He found himself
+on a level with his class, however, for his father was an admirable
+teacher. Indeed it would seem that Agassiz's own passion for
+teaching, as well as his love of young people and his sympathy with
+intellectual aspiration everywhere, was an inheritance. Wherever
+his father was settled as pastor, at Motier, at Orbe, and later at
+Concise, his influence was felt in the schools as much as in the
+pulpit. A piece of silver remains, a much prized heir-loom in the
+family, given to him by the municipality of Orbe in acknowledgment
+of his services in the schools.
+
+The rules of the school at Bienne were rather strict, but the life
+led by the boys was hardy and invigorating, and they played as
+heartily as they worked. Remembering his own school-life, Agassiz
+often asked himself whether it was difference of climate or of
+method, which makes the public school life in the United States so
+much more trying to the health of children than the one under which
+he was brought up. The boys and girls in our public schools are
+said to be overworked with a session of five hours, and an
+additional hour or two of study at home. At the College of Bienne
+there were nine hours of study, and the boys were healthy and
+happy. Perhaps the secret might be found in the frequent
+interruption, two or three hours of study alternating with an
+interval for play or rest. Agassiz always retained a pleasant
+impression of the school and its teachers. Mr. Rickly, the
+director, he regarded with an affectionate respect, which ripened
+into friendship in maturer years.
+
+The vacations were, of course, hailed with delight, and as Motier
+was but twenty miles distant from Bienne, Agassiz and his younger
+brother Auguste, who joined him at school a year later, were in the
+habit of making the journey on foot. The lives of these brothers
+were so closely interwoven in their youth that for many years the
+story of one includes the story of the other. They had everything
+in common, and with their little savings they used to buy books,
+chosen by Louis, the foundation, as it proved, of his future
+library.
+
+Long before dawn on the first day of vacation the two bright,
+active boys would be on their homeward way, as happy as holiday
+could make them, especially if they were returning for the summer
+harvest or the autumn vintage. The latter was then, as now, a
+season of festivity. In these more modern days something of its
+primitive picturesqueness may have been lost; but when Agassiz was
+a boy, all the ordinary occupations were given up for this
+important annual business, in which work and play were so happily
+combined. On the appointed day the working people might be seen
+trooping in from neighboring cantons, where there were no
+vineyards, to offer themselves for the vintage. They either camped
+out at night, sleeping in the open air, or found shelter in the
+stables and outhouses. During the grape gathering the floor of the
+barn and shed at the parsonage of Motier was often covered in the
+evening with tired laborers, both men and women. Of course, when
+the weather was fine, these were festival days for the children. A
+bushel basket, heaped high with white and amber bunches, stood in
+the hall, or in the living room of the family, and young and old
+were free to help themselves as they came and went. Then there were
+the frolics in the vineyard, the sweet cup of must (unfermented
+juice of the grape), and, the ball on the last evening at the close
+of the merry-making.
+
+Sometimes the boys passed their vacations at Cudrefin, with their
+grandfather Mayor. He was a kind old man, much respected in his
+profession, and greatly beloved for his benevolence. His little
+white horse was well known in all the paths and by-roads of the
+country around, as he went from village to village among the sick.
+The grandmother was frail in health, but a great favorite among the
+children, for whom she had an endless fund of stories, songs, and
+hymns. Aunt Lisette, an unmarried daughter, who long lived to
+maintain the hospitality of the old Cudrefin house and to be
+beloved as the kindest of maiden aunts by two or three generations
+of nephews and nieces, was the domestic providence of these family
+gatherings, where the praises of her excellent dishes were annually
+sung. The roof was elastic; there was no question about numbers,
+for all came who could; the more, the merrier, with no diminution
+of good cheer.
+
+The Sunday after Easter was the great popular fete. Then every
+house was busy coloring Easter eggs and making fritters. The young
+girls and the lads of the village, the former in their prettiest
+dresses and the latter with enormous bouquets of artificial flowers
+in their hats, went together to church in the morning. In the
+afternoon the traditional match between two runners, chosen from
+the village youths, took place. They were dressed in white, and
+adorned with bright ribbons. With music before them, and followed
+by all the young people, they went in procession to the place where
+a quantity of Easter eggs had been distributed upon the ground. At
+a signal the runners separated, the one to pick up the eggs
+according to a prescribed course, the other to run to the next
+village and back again. The victory was to the one who accomplished
+his task first, and he was proclaimed king of the feast. Hand in
+hand the runners, followed as before by all their companions,
+returned to join in the dance now to take place before the house of
+Dr. Mayor. After a time the festivities were interrupted by a
+little address in patois from the first musician, who concluded by
+announcing from his platform a special dance in honor of the family
+of Dr. Mayor. In this dance the family with some of their friends
+and neighbors took part,--the young ladies dancing with the peasant
+lads and the young gentlemen with the girls of the village,--while
+the rest formed a circle to look on.
+
+Thus, between study and recreation, the four years which Agassiz's
+father and mother intended he should pass at Bienne drew to a
+close. A yellow, time-worn sheet of foolscap, on which during the
+last year of his school-life he wrote his desiderata in the way of
+books, tells something of his progress and his aspirations at
+fourteen years of age. "I wish," so it runs, "to advance in the
+sciences, and for that I need d'Anville, Ritter, an Italian
+dictionary, a Strabo in Greek, Mannert and Thiersch; and also the
+works of Malte-Brun and Seyfert. I have resolved, as far as I am
+allowed to do so, to become a man of letters, and at present I can
+go no further: 1st, in ancient geography, for I already know all my
+notebooks, and I have only such books as Mr. Rickly can lend me; I
+must have d'Anville or Mannert; 2nd, in modern geography, also, I
+have only such books as Mr. Rickly can lend me, and the Osterwald
+geography, which does not accord with the new divisions; I must
+have Ritter or Malte-Brun; 3rd, for Greek I need a new grammar, and
+I shall choose Thiersch; 4th, I have no Italian dictionary, except
+one lent me by Mr. Moltz; I must have one; 5th, for Latin I need a
+larger grammar than the one I have, and I should like Seyfert; 6th,
+Mr. Rickly tells me that as I have a taste for geography he will
+give me a lesson in Greek (gratis), in which we would translate
+Strabo, provided I can find one. For all this I ought to have about
+twelve louis. I should like to stay at Bienne till the month of
+July, and afterward serve my apprenticeship in commerce at
+Neuchatel for a year and a half. Then I should like to pass four
+years at a university in Germany, and finally finish my studies at
+Paris, where I would stay about five years. Then, at the age of
+twenty-five, I could begin to write."
+
+Agassiz's note-books, preserved by his parents, who followed the
+education of their children with the deepest interest, give
+evidence of his faithful work both at school and college. They form
+a great pile of manuscript, from the paper copy-books of the
+school-boy to the carefully collated reports of the college
+student, begun when the writer was ten or eleven years of age and
+continued with little interruption till he was eighteen or
+nineteen. The later volumes are of nearly quarto size and very
+thick, some of them containing from four to six hundred closely
+covered pages; the handwriting is small, no doubt for economy of
+space, but very clear. The subjects are physiological,
+pathological, and anatomical, with more or less of general natural
+history. This series of books is kept with remarkable neatness.
+Even in the boy's copy-books, containing exercises in Greek, Latin,
+French and German, with compositions on a variety of topics, the
+writing is even and distinct, with scarcely a blot or an erasure.
+From the very beginning there is a careful division of subjects
+under clearly marked headings, showing even then a tendency toward
+an orderly classification of facts and thoughts.
+
+It is evident from the boyish sketch which he drew of his future
+plans that the hope of escaping the commercial life projected for
+him, and of dedicating himself to letters and learning, was already
+dawning. He had begun to feel the charm of study, and his
+scientific tastes, though still pursued rather as the pastimes of a
+boy than as the investigations of a student, were nevertheless
+becoming more and more absorbing. He was fifteen years old and the
+time had come when, according to a purpose long decided upon, he
+was to leave school and enter the business house of his uncle,
+Francois Mayor, at Neuchatel. He begged for a farther delay, to be
+spent in two additional years of study at the College of Lausanne.
+He was supported in his request by several of his teachers, and
+especially by Mr. Rickly, who urged his parents to encourage the
+remarkable intelligence and zeal already shown by their son in his
+studies. They were not difficult to persuade; indeed, only want of
+means, never want of will, limited the educational advantages they
+gave to their children.
+
+It was decided, therefore, that he should go to Lausanne. Here his
+love for everything bearing on the study of nature was confirmed.
+Professor Chavannes, Director of the Cantonal Museum, in whom he
+found not only an interesting teacher, but a friend who sympathized
+with his favorite tastes, possessed the only collection of Natural
+History in the Canton de Vaud. To this Agassiz now had access. His
+uncle, Dr. Mathias Mayor, his mother's brother and a physician of
+note in Lausanne, whose opinion had great weight with M. and Mme.
+Agassiz, was also attracted by the boy's intelligent interest in
+anatomy and kindred subjects. He advised that his nephew should be
+allowed to study medicine, and at the close of Agassiz's college
+course at Lausanne the commercial plan was finally abandoned, and
+he was permitted to choose the medical profession as the one most
+akin to his inclination.
+
+Being now seventeen years of age, he went to the medical school of
+Zurich. Here, for the first time, he came into contact with men
+whose instruction derived freshness and vigor from their original
+researches. He was especially indebted to Professor Schinz, a man
+of learning and ability, who held the chair of Natural History and
+Physiology, and who showed the warmest interest in his pupil's
+progress. He gave Agassiz a key to his private library, as well as
+to his collection of birds. This liberality was invaluable to one
+whose poverty made books an unattainable luxury. Many an hour did
+the young student pass at that time in copying books which were
+beyond his means, though some of them did not cost more than a
+dollar a volume. His brother Auguste, still his constant companion,
+shared this task, a pure labor of love with him, for the books were
+more necessary to Louis's studies than to his own.
+
+During the two years passed by Agassiz in Zurich he saw little of
+society beyond the walls of the university. His brother and he had
+a pleasant home in a private house, where they shared the family
+life of their host and hostess. In company with them, Agassiz made
+his first excursion of any importance into the Alps. They ascended
+the Righi and passed the night there. At about sunset a fearful
+thunder-storm gathered below them, while on the summit of the
+mountain the weather remained perfectly clear and calm. Under a
+blue sky they watched the lightning, and listened to the thunder in
+the dark clouds, which were pouring torrents of rain upon the plain
+and the Lake of Lucerne. The storm lasted long after night had
+closed in, and Agassiz lingered when all his companions had retired
+to rest, till at last the clouds drifted softly away, letting down
+the light of moon and stars on the lake and landscape. He used to
+say that in his subsequent Alpine excursions he had rarely
+witnessed a scene of greater beauty.
+
+Such of his letters from Zurich as have been preserved have only a
+home interest. In one of them, however, he alludes to a curious
+circumstance, which might have changed the tenor of his life. He
+and his brother were returning on foot, for the vacation, from
+Zurich to their home which was now in Orbe, where their father and
+mother had been settled since 1821. Between Neuchatel and Orbe they
+were overtaken by a traveling carriage. A gentleman who was its
+sole occupant invited them to get in, made them welcome to his
+lunch, talked to them of their student life, and their future
+plans, and drove them to the parsonage, where he introduced himself
+to their parents. Some days afterward M. Agassiz received a letter
+from this chance acquaintance, who proved to be a man in affluent
+circumstances, of good social position, living at the time in
+Geneva. He wrote to M. Agassiz that he had been singularly
+attracted by his elder son, Louis, and that he wished to adopt him,
+assuming henceforth all the responsibility of his education and his
+establishment in life. This proposition fell like a bomb-shell into
+the quiet parsonage. M. Agassiz was poor, and every advantage for
+his children was gained with painful self-sacrifice on the part of
+both parents. How then refuse such an opportunity for one among
+them, and that one so gifted? After anxious reflection, however,
+the father, with the full concurrence of his son, decided to
+decline an offer which, brilliant as it seemed, involved a
+separation and might lead to a false position. A correspondence was
+kept up for years between Louis and the friend he had so suddenly
+won, and who continued to interest himself in his career. Although
+it had no sequel, this incident is mentioned as showing a kind of
+personal magnetism which, even as child and boy, Agassiz
+unconsciously exercised over others.
+
+From Zurich, Agassiz went to the University of Heidelberg, where we
+find him in the spring of 1826.
+
+TO HIS FATHER.
+
+HEIDELBERG, April 24, 1826.
+
+. . .Having arrived early enough to see something of the environs
+before the opening of the term, I decided to devote each day to a
+ramble in one direction or another, in order to become familiar
+with my surroundings. I am the more glad to have done this as I
+have learned that after the lectures begin there will be no further
+chance for such interruptions, and we shall be obliged to stick
+closely to our work at home.
+
+Our first excursion was to Neckarsteinach, two and a half leagues
+from here. The road follows the Neckar, and at certain places rises
+boldly above the river, which flows between two hills, broken by
+rocks of the color of red chalk, which often jut out from either
+side. Farther on the valley widens, and a pretty rising ground,
+crowned by ruins, suddenly presents itself in the midst of a wide
+plain, where sheep are feeding. Neckarsteinach itself is only a
+little village, containing, however, three castles, two of which
+are in ruins. The third is still inhabited, and commands a
+magnificent view. In the evening we returned to Heidelberg by
+moonlight.
+
+Another day we started for what is here called "The Mountain,"
+though it is at most no higher than Le Suchet. As the needful
+supplies are not to be obtained there, we took our provisions with
+us. We had so much fun out of this, that I must tell you all about
+it. In the morning Z--bought at the market veal, liver, and bacon
+enough to serve for three persons during two days. To these
+supplies we added salt, pepper, butter, onions, bread, and some
+jugs of beer. One of us took two saucepans for cooking, and some
+alcohol. Arrived at the summit of our mountain, we looked out for a
+convenient spot, and there we cooked our dinner. It did not take
+long, nor can I say whether all was done according to the rules of
+art. But this I know,--that never did a meal seem to me better. We
+wandered over the mountain for the rest of the day, and at evening
+came to a house where we prepared our supper after the same
+fashion, to the great astonishment of the assembled household, and
+especially of an old woman who regretted the death of her husband,
+because she said it would certainly have amused him. We slept on
+the ground on some straw, and returned to Heidelberg the next day
+in time for dinner. The following day we went to Mannheim to visit
+the theatre. It is very handsome and well appointed, and we were
+fortunate in happening upon an excellent opera. Beyond this, I saw
+nothing of Mannheim except the house of Kotzebue and the place
+where Sand was beheaded.
+
+To-day I have made my visits to the professors. For three among
+them I had letters from Professors Schinz and Hirzel. I was
+received by all in the kindest way. Professor Tiedemann, the
+Chancellor, is a man about the age of papa and young for his years.
+He is so well-known that I need not undertake his panegyric here.
+As soon as I told him that I brought a letter from Zurich, he
+showed me the greatest politeness, offered me books from his
+library; in one word, said he would be for me here what Professor
+Schinz, with whom he had formerly studied, had been for me in
+Zurich. After the opening of the term, when I know these gentlemen
+better, I will tell you more about them. I have still to describe
+my home, chamber, garden, people of the house, etc.
+
+The next letter fills in this frame-work.
+
+TO HIS FATHER.
+
+HEIDELBERG, May 24, 1826.
+
+. . .According to your request, I am going to write you all
+possible details about my host, the employment of my time, etc.,
+etc. Mr.--, my "philister," is a tobacco merchant in easy
+circumstances, having a pretty house in the faubourg of the city.
+My windows overlook the town, and my prospect is bounded by a hill
+situated to the north of Heidelberg. At the back of the house is a
+large and fine garden, at the foot of which is a very pretty
+summer-house. There are also several clumps of trees in the garden,
+and an aviary filled with native birds. . .
+
+Since each day in term time is only the repetition of every other,
+the account of one will give an idea of all, especially as I follow
+with regularity the plan of study I have formed. Every morning I
+rise at six o'clock, dress, and breakfast. At seven I go to my
+lectures, given during the morning in the Museum building, next to
+which is the anatomical laboratory. If, in the interval, I have a
+free hour, as sometimes happens from ten to eleven, I occupy it in
+making anatomical preparations. I shall tell you more of that and
+of the Museum another time. From twelve to one I practice fencing.
+We dine at about one o'clock, after which I walk till two, when I
+return to the house and to my studies till five o'clock. From five
+to six we have a lecture from the renowned Tiedemann. After that, I
+either take a bath in the Neckar or another walk. From eight to
+nine I resume my special work, and then, according to my
+inclination, go to the Swiss club, or, if I am tired, to bed. I
+have my evening service and talk silently with you, believing that
+at that hour you also do not forget your Louis, who thinks always
+of you. . .As soon as I know, for I cannot yet make an exact
+estimate, I will write you as nearly as possible what my expenses
+are likely to be. Sometimes there may be unlooked-for expenditures,
+as, for instance, six crowns for a matriculation paper. But be
+assured that at all events I shall restrict myself to what is
+absolutely necessary, and do my best to economize. The same of the
+probable duration of my stay in Heidelberg; I shall certainly not
+prolong it needlessly. . .
+
+Now for the first time the paths of the two brothers separated,
+Auguste returning from Zurich to Neuchatel, where he entered into
+business. It chanced, however, that in one of the first
+acquaintances made by Louis in Heidelberg he found not only a
+congenial comrade, but a friend for life, and in after years a
+brother. Professor Tiedemann, by whom Agassiz had been so kindly
+received, recommended him to seek the acquaintance of young
+Alexander Braun, an ardent student, and an especial lover of
+botany. At Tiedemann's lecture the next day Agassiz's attention was
+attracted by a young man who sat next him, and who was taking very
+careful notes and illustrating them. There was something very
+winning in his calm, gentle face, full of benevolence and
+intelligence. Convinced by his manner of listening to the lecture
+and transcribing it that this was the student of whom Tiedemann had
+spoken, Agassiz turned to his neighbor as they both rose at the
+close of the hour, and said, "Are you Alex Braun?" "Yes, and you,
+Louis Agassiz?" It seems that Professor Tiedemann, who must have
+had a quick eye for affinities in the moral as well as in the
+physical world, had said to Braun also, that he advised him to make
+the acquaintance of a young Swiss naturalist who had just come, and
+who seemed full of enthusiasm for his work. The two young men left
+the lecture-room together, and from that time their studies, their
+excursions, their amusements, were undertaken and pursued in each
+other's company. In their long rambles, while they collected
+specimens in their different departments of Natural History, Braun
+learned zoology from Agassiz, and he, in his turn, learned botany
+from Braun. This was, perhaps, the reason why Alexander Braun,
+afterward Director of the Botanical Gardens in Berlin, knew more of
+zoology than other botanists, while Agassiz himself combined an
+extensive knowledge of botany with his study of the animal kingdom.
+That the attraction was mutual may be seen by the following extract
+from a letter of Alexander Braun to his father.
+
+BRAUN To HIS FATHER.
+
+HEIDELBERG, May 12, 1826.
+
+. . .In my leisure hours, between the forenoon and afternoon
+lectures, I go to the dissecting-room, where, in company with
+another young naturalist who has appeared like a rare comet on the
+Heidelberg horizon, I dissect all manner of beasts, such as dogs,
+cats, birds, fishes, and even smaller fry, snails, butterflies,
+caterpillars, worms, and the like. Beside this, we always have from
+Tiedemann the very best books for reference and comparison, for he
+has a fine library, especially rich in anatomical works, and is
+particularly friendly and obliging to us.
+
+In the afternoon from two to three I attend Geiger's lectures on
+pharmaceutical chemistry, and from five to six those of Tiedemann
+on comparative anatomy. In the interval, I sometimes go with this
+naturalist, so recently arrived among us (his name is Agassiz, and
+he is from Orbe), on a hunt after animals and plants. Not only do
+we collect and learn to observe all manner of things, but we have
+also an opportunity of exchanging our views on scientific matters
+in general. I learn a great deal from him, for he is much more at
+home in zoology than I am. He is familiar with almost all the known
+mammalia, recognizes the birds from far off by their song, and can
+give a name to every fish in the water. In the morning we often
+stroll together through the fish market, where he explains to me
+all the different species. He is going to teach me how to stuff
+fishes, and then we intend to make a collection of all the native
+kinds. Many other useful things he knows; speaks German and French
+equally well, English and Italian fairly, so that I have already
+appointed him to be my interpreter on some future vacation trip to
+Italy. He is well acquainted with ancient languages also, and
+studies medicine besides. . .
+
+A few lines from Braun to his mother, several weeks later, show
+that this first enthusiasm, poured out with half-laughing
+extravagance to his father, was ripening into friendship of a more
+serious character.
+
+BRAUN TO HIS MOTHER.
+
+HEIDELBERG, June 1, 1826.
+
+. . .I am very happy now that I have found some one whose
+occupations are the same as mine. Before Agassiz came I was obliged
+to make my excursions almost always alone, and to study in
+hermit-like isolation. After all, two people working together can
+accomplish far more than either one can do alone. In order, for
+instance, to utilize the interval spent in the time-consuming and
+mechanical work of preparing specimens, pinning insects and the
+like, we have agreed that while one is so employed the other shall
+read aloud. In this way we shall go through various works on
+physiology, anatomy, and zoology.
+
+Next to Alexander Braun, Agassiz's most congenial companion at
+Heidelberg was Karl Schimper, a friend of Braun, and like him a
+young botanist of brilliant promise. The three soon became
+inseparable. Agassiz had many friends and companions at the
+university beside those who, on account of their influence upon his
+after life, are mentioned here. He was too affectionate not to be a
+genial companion among his young countrymen of whom there were many
+at Heidelberg, where they had a club and a gymnasium of their own.
+In the latter, Agassiz bore his part in all the athletic sports,
+being distinguished both as a powerful gymnast and an expert
+fencer.
+
+Of the professors then at Heidelberg, Leuckart, the zoologist, was,
+perhaps, the most inspiriting. His lectures were full of original
+suggestions and clever hypotheses, which excited and sometimes
+amused his listeners. He knew how to take advantage of the
+enthusiasm of his brighter pupils, and, at their request, gave them
+a separate course of instruction on special groups of animals; not
+without some personal sacrifice, for these extra lectures were
+given at seven o'clock in the morning, and the students were often
+obliged to pull their professor out of bed for the purpose. The
+fact that they did so shows at least the friendly relation existing
+between teacher and scholars. With Bischoff the botanist also, the
+young friends were admitted to the most kindly intercourse. Many a
+pleasant botanical excursion they had with him, and they owed to
+him a thorough and skillful instruction in the use of the
+microscope, handled by him like a master. Tiedemann's lectures were
+very learned, and Agassiz always spoke of his old teacher in
+comparative anatomy and physiology with affectionate respect and
+admiration. He was not, however, an inspiring teacher, and though
+an excellent friend to the students, they had no such intimate
+personal relations with him as with Leuckart and Bischoff. From
+Bronn, the paleontologist, they received an immense amount of
+special information, but his instruction was minute in details
+rather than suggestive in ideas; and they were glad when their
+professor, finding that the course must be shortened for want of
+time, displayed to them his magnificent collection of fossils, and
+with the help of the specimens, developed his subject in a more
+general and practical way.* (* This collection was purchased in
+1859 by the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge,
+Massachusetts, and Agassiz had thus the pleasure of teaching his
+American pupils from the very collection in which he had himself
+made his first important paleontological studies.) Of the medical
+professors, Nageli was the more interesting, though the reputation
+of Chelius brought him a larger audience. If there was however any
+lack of stimulus in the lecture rooms, the young friends made good
+the deficiency by their own indefatigable and intelligent study of
+nature, seeking to satisfy their craving for knowledge by every
+means within their reach.* (* The material for this account of the
+student life of the two friends at Heidelberg and of their teachers
+was chiefly furnished by Alexander Braun himself at the close of
+his own life, after the death of Agassiz. The later sketches of the
+Professors at Munich in 1832 were drawn in great part from the same
+source.)
+
+As the distance and expense made it impossible for Agassiz to spend
+his vacations with his family in Switzerland, it soon became the
+habit for him to pass the holidays with his new friend at
+Carlsruhe. For a young man of his tastes and acquirements a more
+charming home-life than the one to which he was here introduced can
+hardly be imagined. The whole atmosphere was in harmony with the
+pursuits of the students. The house was simple in its appointments,
+but rich in books, music, and in all things stimulating to the
+thought and imagination. It stood near one of the city gates which
+opened into an extensive oak forest, in itself an admirable
+collecting ground for the naturalist. At the back certain rooms,
+sheltered by the spacious garden from the noise of the street, were
+devoted to science. In the first of these rooms the father's rich
+collection of minerals was arranged, and beyond this were the
+laboratories of his sons and their friends, where specimens of all
+sorts, dried and living plants, microscopes and books of reference,
+covered the working tables. Here they brought their treasures; here
+they drew, studied, dissected, arranged their specimens; here they
+discussed the theories, with which their young brains were teeming,
+about the growth, structure, and relations of animals and plants.*
+(* See "Biographical Memoir of Louis Agassiz" by Arnold Guyuot, in
+the "Proceedings of U.S. National Academy".)
+
+From this house, which became a second home to Agassiz, he wrote to
+his father in the Christmas holidays of 1826:. . ."My happiness
+would be perfect were it not for the painful thought which pursues
+me everywhere, that I live on your privations; yet it is impossible
+for me to diminish my expenses farther. You would lift a great
+weight from my heart if you could relieve yourself of this burden
+by an arrangement with my uncle at Neuchatel. I am confident that
+when I have finished my studies I could easily make enough to repay
+him. At all events, I know that you cannot pay the whole at once,
+and therefore in telling me frankly what are our resources for this
+object you would do me the greatest favor. Until I know that, I
+cannot be at peace. Otherwise, I am well, going on as usual, always
+working as hard as I can, and I believe all the professors whose
+lectures I attend are satisfied with me.". . .His father was also
+pleased with his conduct and with his progress, for about this time
+he writes to a friend, "We have the best possible news of Louis.
+Courageous, industrious, and discreet, he pursues honorably and
+vigorously his aim, namely, the degree of Doctor of Medicine and
+Surgery."
+
+In the spring of 1827 Agassiz fell ill of a typhus fever prevalent
+at the university as an epidemic. His life was in danger for many
+days. As soon as he could be moved, Braun took him to Carlsruhe,
+where his convalescence was carefully watched over by his friend's
+mother. Being still delicate he was advised to recruit in his
+native air, and he returned to Orbe, accompanied by Braun, who did
+not leave him till he had placed him in safety with his parents.
+The following extracts from the correspondence between himself and
+Braun give some account of this interval spent at home.
+
+AGASSIZ TO BRAUN.
+
+ORBE, May 26, 1827.
+
+. . .Since I have been here, I have walked faithfully and have
+collected a good number of plants which are not yet dry. I have
+more than one hundred kinds, about twenty specimens of each. As
+soon as they can be taken out of the press, I'll send you a few
+specimens of each kind with a number attached so that you may
+identify them. Take care that you do not displace the numbers in
+opening the package. Should you want more of any particular kind
+let me know; also whether Schimper wishes for any. . .At Neuchatel
+I had the good fortune to find at least thirty specimens of
+Bombinator obstetricans with the eggs. Tell Dr. Leuckart that I
+will bring him some,--and some for you also. I kept several alive
+laid in damp moss; after fourteen days the eggs were almost as
+large as peas, and the little tadpoles moved about inside in all
+directions. The mother stripped the eggs from her legs, and one of
+the little tadpoles came out, but died for want of water. Then I
+placed the whole mass of eggs in a vessel filled with water, and
+behold! in about an hour some twenty young ones were swimming
+freely about. I shall spare no pains to raise them, and I hope, if
+I begin aright, to make fine toads of them in the end. My oldest
+sister is busy every day in making drawings for me to illustrate
+their gradual development. . .I dissect now as much and on as great
+a variety of subjects as possible. This makes my principal
+occupation. I am often busy too with Oken. His "Natur-philosophie"
+gives me the greatest pleasure. I long for my box, being in need of
+my books, which, no doubt, you have sent. Meantime, I am reading
+something of Universal History, and am not idle, as you see. But I
+miss the evenings with you and Schimper at Heidelberg, and wish I
+were with you once more. I am afraid when that happy time does
+come, it will be only too short. . .
+
+BRAUN TO AGASSIZ.
+
+HEIDELBERG, May, 1827.
+
+. . .On Thursday evening, the 10th, I reached Heidelberg. The
+medical lectures did not begin till the second week of May, so that
+I have missed little, and almost regret having returned so soon. . .
+I passed the last afternoon in Basel very pleasantly with Herr
+Roepper, to whom I must soon write. He gave me a variety of
+specimens, showed me many beautiful things, and told me much that
+was instructive. He is a genuine and excellent botanist, and no
+mere collector like the majority. Neither is he purely an observer
+like Dr. Bischoff, but a man who thinks. . .Dr. Leuckart is in
+raptures about the eggs of the "Hebammen Krote," and will raise
+them. . .Schweiz takes your place in our erudite evening meetings.
+I have been lecturing lately on the metamorphosis of plants, and
+Schimper has propounded an entirely new and very interesting
+theory, which will, no doubt, find favor with you hereafter, about
+the significance of the circular and longitudinal fibres in
+organisms. Schimper is fruitful as ever in poetical and
+philosophical ideas, and has just now ventured upon a natural
+history of the mind. We have introduced mathematics also, and he
+has advanced a new hypothesis about comets and their long tails. . .
+Our chief botanical occupation this summer is the careful
+observation of all our plants, even the commonest, and the
+explanation of whatever is unusual or enigmatical in their
+structure. We have already cracked several such nuts, but many
+remain to be opened. All such puzzling specimens are spread on
+single sheets and set aside. . .But more of this when we are
+together again. . .Dr. Leuckart begs you to study carefully the
+"Hebammen Unke;"* (* Bombinator obstetricans referred to in a
+former letter.) to notice whether the eggs are already fecundated
+when they are in the earth, or whether they copulate later in the
+water, or whether the young are hatched on land, and what is their
+tadpole condition, etc. All this is still unknown. . .
+
+AGASSIZ TO BRAUN.
+
+ORBE, June 10, 1827.
+
+. . .Last week I made a very pleasant excursion. You will remember
+that I have often spoken to you of Pastor Mellet at Vallorbe, who
+is much interested in the study of the six-legged insects. He
+invited me to go to Vallorbe with him for some days, and I passed a
+week there, spending my time most agreeably. We went daily on a
+search after insects; the booty was especially rich in beetles and
+butterflies. . .I examined also M. Mellet's own most excellent
+collection of beetles and butterflies very carefully. He has many
+beautiful things, but almost exclusively Swiss or French, with a
+few from Brazil,--in all about 3,000 species. He gave me several,
+and promises more in the autumn. . .He knows his beetles
+thoroughly, and observes their habits, haunts, and changes (as far
+as he can) admirably well. It is a pity though that while his
+knowledge of species is so accurate, he knows nothing of
+distribution, classification, or general relations. I tried to
+convince him that he ought to collect snails, slugs, and other
+objects of natural history, in the hope that he might gain thereby
+a wider insight. But he would not listen to it; he said he had
+enough to do with his Vermine.
+
+My brother writes me that my box has arrived in Neuchatel. As I am
+going there soon I will take it then. I rejoice in the thought of
+being in Neuchatel, partly on account of my brother, Arnold
+(Guyot), and other friends, and partly that I may study the fishes
+of our Swiss lakes. The species Cyprinus and Corregonus with their
+allies, including Salmo, are, as you know, especially difficult. I
+will preserve some small specimens in alcohol, and, if possible,
+dissect one of each, in order to satisfy myself as to their
+identity or specific variety. As the same kinds have received
+different names in different lakes, and since even differences of
+age have led to distinct designations, I will note all this down
+carefully. When I have made it clear to myself, I will send you a
+catalogue of the kinds we possess, specifying at the same time the
+lakes in which they occur. As I am on the chapter of fishes, I will
+ask you:
+
+1. What are the gill arches?
+2. What the gill blades?
+3. What is the bladder in fishes?
+4. What is the cloaca in the egg-laying animals?
+5. What signify the many fins of fishes?
+6. What is the sac which surrounds the eggs in Bombinator obstetricans?
+
+. . .Tell Dr. Leuckart I have already put aside for him the
+Corregonus umbla (if such it be), but can get no Silurus glanis.
+
+I suppose you continue to come together now and then in the evening
+. . .Make me a sharer in your new discoveries. Have you finished
+your essay on the physiology of plants, and what do you make of
+it?. . .
+
+BRAUN TO AGASSIZ.
+
+CARLSRUHE, Whitsuntide, Monday, 1827.
+
+. . .I am in Carlsruhe, and as the package has not gone yet, I add
+a note. I have been analyzing and comparing all sorts of plants in
+our garden to-day, and I wish you had been with me. On my last
+sheet I send some nuts for you to pick, some wholly, some half,
+others not at all, cracked. Schimper is lost in the great
+impenetrable world of suns, with their planets, moons, and comets;
+he soars even into the region of the double stars, the milky way,
+and the nebulae.
+
+On a loose sheet come the "nuts to pick." It contains a long list
+of mooted questions, a few of which are given here to show the
+exchange of thought between Agassiz and his friend, the one
+propounding zoological, the other botanical, puzzles. Although most
+of the problems were solved long ago, it is not uninteresting to
+follow these young minds in their search after the laws of
+structure and growth, dimly perceived at first, but becoming
+gradually clearer as they go on. The very first questions hint at
+the law of Phyllotaxis, then wholly unknown, though now it makes a
+part of the most elementary instruction in botany.* (* Botany owes
+to Alexander Braun and Karl Schimper the discovery of this law, by
+which leaves, however crowded, are so arranged around the stem as
+to divide the space with mathematical precision, thus giving to
+each leaf its fair share of room for growth.)
+
+"1. Where is the first diverging point of the stems and roots in
+plants, that is to say, the first geniculum?
+
+"2. How do you explain the origin of those leaves on the stem
+which, not arising from distinct geniculi, are placed spirally or
+scattered around the stem?
+
+"3. Why do some plants, especially trees (contrary to the ordinary
+course of development in plants), blossom before they have put
+forth leaves? (Elm-trees, willow-trees, and fruit-trees.)
+
+"4. In what succession does the development of the organs of the
+flower take place?--and their formation in the bud? (Compare
+Campanula, Papaver.)
+
+"5. What are the leaves of the Spergula?
+
+"6. What are the tufted leaves of various pine-trees? (Pinus
+sylvestris, Strobus, Larix, etc.). . .
+
+"8. What is individuality in plants?"
+
+The next letter contains Agassiz's answer to Dr. Leuckart's
+questions concerning the eggs he had sent him, and some farther
+account of his own observations upon them.
+
+AGASSIZ TO BRAUN.
+
+NEUCHATEL, June 20, 1827.
+
+. . .Now you shall hear what I know of the "Hebammen Krote." How
+the fecundation takes place I know not, but it must needs be the
+same as in other kinds of the related Bombinator; igneus throws out
+almost as many eggs hanging together in clusters as obstetricans;
+fuscus throws them out from itself in strings (see Roseld's
+illustration). . .I have now carefully examined the egg clusters of
+obstetricans; all the eggs are in one string and hang together.
+This string is a bag, in which the eggs lie inclosed at different
+distances, though they seem in the empty space to be fallen,
+thread-like, together. But if you stretch the thread and press the
+eggs, they change their places, and you can distinctly see that
+they lie free in the bag, having their own membranous envelopes
+corresponding to those of other batrachian eggs. Surely this
+species seeks the water at the time of fecundation, for so do all
+batrachians, the water being indeed a more fitting medium for
+fecundation than the air. . .It is certain that the eggs were
+already fecundated when we found them in the ground, for later, I
+found several not so far advanced as those you have, and yet after
+three weeks I had tadpoles from them. In those eggs which were in
+the lowest stage of development (how they may be earlier, nescio),
+nothing was clearly visible; they were simply little yellow balls.
+After some days, two small dark spots were to be seen marking the
+position of the eyes, and a longitudinal streak indicated the
+dorsal ridge. Presently everything became more distinct; the mouth
+and the nasal opening, the eyes and the tail, which lay in a half
+circle around the body; the skin was so transparent that the
+beating of the heart and the blood in the vessels could be easily
+distinguished; the yolk and the yolk sac were meanwhile sensibly
+diminished. The movements of the little animal were now quite
+perceptible,--they were quick and by starts. After three or four
+weeks the eggs were as large as peas; the bags had burst at the
+spots where the eggs were attached, and the little creatures filled
+the egg envelopes completely. They moved incessantly and very
+quickly. Now the female stripped off the eggs from her legs; she
+seemed very uneasy, and sprang about constantly in the tank, but
+grew more quiet when I threw in more water. The eggs were soon
+free, and I laid them in a shallow vessel filled with fresh water.
+The restlessness among them now became greater, and behold! like
+lightning, a little tadpole slipped out of its egg, paused
+astonished, gazed on the greatness of the world, made some
+philanthropic observations, and swam quickly away. I gave them
+fresh water often, and tender green plants as well as bread to eat.
+They ate eagerly. Up to this time their different stages of
+development had been carefully drawn by my sister. I now went to
+Vallorbe; they promised at home to take care of my young brood, but
+when I returned the tadpoles had been forgotten, and I found them
+all dead; not yet decayed, however, and I could therefore preserve
+them in alcohol. The gills I have never seen, but I will watch to
+see whether they are turned inward. . .
+
+BRAUN TO AGASSIZ.
+
+CARLSRUHE, August 9, 1827.
+
+. . .This is to tell you that I have determined to leave Heidelberg
+in the autumn and set forth on a pilgrimage to Munich, and that I
+invite you to be my traveling companion. Judging by a
+circumstantial letter from Dollinger, the instruction in the
+natural sciences leaves nothing to be desired there. Add to this
+that the lectures are free, and the theatre open to students at
+twenty-four kreutzers. No lack of advantages and attractions,
+lodgings hardly more expensive than at Heidelberg, board equally
+cheap, beer plenty and good. Let all this persuade you. We shall
+hear Gruithuisen in popular astronomy, Schubert in general natural
+history, Martius in botany, Fuchs in mineralogy, Seiber in
+mathematics, Starke in physics, Oken in everything (he lectures in
+winter on the philosophy of nature, natural history, and
+physiology). The clinical instruction will be good. We shall soon
+be friends with all the professors. The library contains whatever
+is best in botany and zoology, and the collections open to the
+public are very rich. It is not known whether Schelling will
+lecture, but at all events certain of the courses will be of great
+advantage. Then little vacation trips to the Salzburg and
+Carinthian Alps are easily made from there! Write soon whether you
+will go and drink Bavarian beer and Schnapski with me, and write
+also when we are to see you in Heidelberg and Carlsruhe. Remind me
+then to tell you about the theory of the root and poles in plants.
+As soon as I have your answer we will bespeak our lodgings from
+Dollinger, who will attend to that for us. Shall we again house
+together in one room, or shall we have separate cells in one comb,
+namely, under the same roof? The latter has its advantages for
+grass-gatherers and stone-cutters like ourselves. . .Hammer away
+industriously at all sorts of rocks. I have collected at Auerbach,
+Weinheim, Wiesloch, etc. But before all else, observe carefully and
+often the wonderful structure of plants, those lovely children of
+the earth and sky. Ponder them with child-like mind, for children
+marvel at the phenomena of nature, while grown people often think
+themselves too wise to wonder, and yet they know little more than
+the children. But the thoughtful student recognizes the truth of
+the child's feeling, and with his knowledge of nature his wonder
+does but grow more and more. . .
+
+
+CHAPTER 2.
+
+1827-1828: AGE 20-21.
+
+Arrival in Munich.
+Lectures.
+Relations with the Professors.
+Schelling, Martius, Oken, Dollinger.
+Relations with Fellow-Students.
+The Little Academy.
+Plans for Traveling.
+Advice from his Parents.
+Vacation Journey.
+Tri-Centennial Durer Festival at Nuremberg.
+
+Agssiz accepted with delight his friend's proposition, and toward
+the end of October, 1827, he and Braun left Carlsruhe together for
+the University of Munich. His first letter to his brother is given
+in full, for though it contains crudities at which the writer
+himself would have smiled in after life, it is interesting as
+showing what was the knowledge possessed in those days by a clever,
+well-informed student of natural history.
+
+TO HIS BROTHER AUGUSTE.
+
+MUNICH, November 5, 1827.
+
+. . .At last I am in Munich. I have so much to tell you that I
+hardly know where to begin. To be sure that I forget nothing,
+however, I will give things in their regular sequence. First, then,
+the story of my journey; after that, I will tell you what I am
+doing here. As papa has, of course, shown you my last letter, I
+will continue where I left off. . .
+
+From Carlsruhe we traveled post to Stuttgart, where we passed the
+greater part of the day in the Museum, in which I saw many things
+quite new to me; a llama, for instance, almost as large as an ass.
+You know that this animal, which is of the genus Camelus, lives in
+South America, where it is to the natives what the camel is to the
+Arab; that is to say, it provides them with milk, wool, and meat,
+and is used by them, moreover, for driving and riding. There was a
+North American buffalo of immense size; also an elephant from
+Africa, and one from Asia; beside these, a prodigious number of
+gazelles, deer, cats, and dogs; skeletons of a hippopotamus and an
+elephant; and lastly the fossil bones of a mammoth. You know that
+the mammoth is no longer found living, and that the remains
+hitherto discovered lead to the belief that it was a species of
+carnivorous elephant. It is a singular fact that some fishermen,
+digging recently on the borders of the Obi, in Siberia, found one
+of these animals frozen in a mass of ice, at a depth of sixty feet,
+so well preserved that it was still covered with hair, as in life.
+They melted the ice to remove the animal, but the skeleton alone
+remained complete; the hide was spoiled by contact with the air,
+and only a few pieces have been kept, one of which is in the Museum
+at Stuttgart. The hairs upon it are as coarse as fine twine, and
+nearly a foot long. The entire skeleton is at St. Petersburg in the
+Museum, and is larger than the largest elephant. One may judge by
+that what havoc such an animal must have made, if it was, as its
+teeth show it to have been, carnivorous. But what I would like to
+know is how this animal could wander so far north, and then in what
+manner it died, to be frozen thus, and remain intact, without
+decomposing, perhaps for countless ages. For it must have belonged
+to a former creation, since it is nowhere to be found living, and
+we have no instance of the disappearance of any kind of animal
+within the historic period. There were, besides, many other kinds
+of fossil animals. The collection of birds is very beautiful, but
+it is a pity that many of them are wrongly named. I corrected a
+number myself. . .From Stuttgart we went to Esslingen, where we
+were to visit two famous botanists. One was Herr Steudel; a sombre
+face, with long overhanging black hair, almost hiding the eyes,--a
+very Jewish face. He knows every book on botany that appears, has
+read them all, but cares little to see the plants themselves; in
+short, he is a true closet student. He has a large herbarium,
+composed in great part of plants purchased or received as gifts.
+The other, Professor Hochstetter, is an odd little man, stepping
+briskly about in his high boots, and having always a half
+suppressed smile on his hips whenever he takes the pipe from
+between his teeth. A very good man, however, and extremely
+obliging; he offered us every civility. As we desired not only to
+make their acquaintance, but to win from these botanists at least a
+few grasses, we presented ourselves like true commis voyageurs,
+with dried herbs to sell, each of us having a package of plants
+under his arm,--mine being Swiss, gathered last summer, Braun's
+from the Palatinate. We gave specimens to each, and received in
+exchange from Steudel some American plants; from Hochstetter some
+from Bohemia, and others from Moravia, his native country. From
+Esslingen we were driven to Goeppingen, in the most frightful
+weather possible; it rained, snowed, froze, blew, all at once. It
+was a pity, since our road lay through one of the prettiest valleys
+I have ever seen, watered by the Neckar, and bordered on both sides
+by mountains of singular form and of considerable height. They are
+what the Wurtembergers call the Suabian Alps, but I think that
+Chaumont is higher than the loftiest peak of their Alps. Here we
+found an old Heidelberg acquaintance, whose father owns a superb
+collection of fossils, especially of shells and zoophytes. He has
+also quite a large collection of shells from the Adriatic Sea, but
+among these last not one was named. As we knew them, we made it our
+duty to arrange them, and in three hours his whole collection was
+labeled. Since he has duplicates of almost everything, he promised,
+as soon as he should have time, to make a selection from these and
+send them to us. Could we have stayed longer we might have picked
+out what we pleased, for he placed his collection at our disposal.
+But we were in haste to arrive here, so we begged him to send us,
+at his leisure, whatever he could give us.
+
+Thence we continued our journey by post, because it still rained,
+and the roads were so detestable that with the best will in the
+world we could not have made our way on foot. In the evening we
+reached Ulm, where, owing to the late hour, we saw almost nothing
+except the famous belfry of the cathedral, which was distinctly
+visible as we entered the city. After supper we continued our
+journey, still by post, wishing to be in Munich the next day. I
+have never seen anything more beautiful than the view as we left
+Ulm. The moon had risen and shone upon the belfry like broad
+daylight. On all sides extended a wide plain, unbroken by a single
+inequality, so far as the eye could distinguish, and cut by the
+Danube, glittering in the moonbeams. We crossed the plain during
+the night, and reached Augsburg at dawn. It is a beautiful city,
+but we merely stopped there for breakfast, and saw the streets only
+as we passed through them. On leaving Augsburg, the Tyrolean Alps,
+though nearly forty leagues away, were in sight. About eighteen
+leagues off was also discernible an immense forest; of this we had
+a nearer view as we advanced, for it encircles Munich at some
+distance from the town. We arrived here on Sunday, the 4th, in the
+afternoon. . .My address is opposite the Sendlinger Thor Number 37.
+I have a very pretty chamber on the lower floor with an alcove for
+my bed. The house is situated outside the town, on a promenade,
+which makes it very pleasant. Moreover, by walking less than a
+hundred yards, I reach the Hospital and the Anatomical School, a
+great convenience for me when the winter weather begins. One thing
+gives me great pleasure: from one of my windows the whole chain of
+the Tyrolean Alps is visible as far as Appenzell; and as the
+country is flat to their very base, I see them better than we see
+our Alps from the plain. It is a great pleasure to have at least a
+part of our Swiss mountains always in sight. To enjoy it the more,
+I have placed my table opposite the window, so that every time I
+lift my head my eyes rest on our dear country. This does not
+prevent me from feeling dull sometimes, especially when I am alone,
+but I hope this will pass off when my occupations become more
+regular. . .
+
+A far more stimulating intellectual life than that of Heidelberg
+awaited our students at Munich. Among their professors were some of
+the most original men of the day,--men whose influence was felt all
+over Europe. Dollinger lectured on comparative anatomy and kindred
+subjects; Martius and Zuccarini on botany. Martius gave, besides,
+his so-called "Reise-Colleg," in which he instructed the students
+how to observe while on their travels. Schelling taught philosophy,
+the titles of his courses in the first term being, "Introduction to
+Philosophy" and "The Ages of the World"; in the second, "The
+Philosophy of Mythology" and "The Philosophy of Revelation."
+Schelling made a strong impression upon the friends. His manner was
+as persuasive as his style was clear, and his mode of developing
+his subject led his hearers along with a subtle power which did not
+permit fatigue. Oken lectured on general natural history,
+physiology, and zoology, including his famous views on the
+philosophy of nature (Natur-philosophie). His lectures gave
+occasion for much scientific discussion, the more so as he brought
+very startling hypotheses into his physiology, and drew from them
+conclusions which even upon his own showing were not always in
+accordance with experience. "On philosophical grounds," he was wont
+to say, when facts and theory thus confronted each other, "we must
+so accept it." Oken was extremely friendly with the students, and
+Agassiz, Braun, and Schimper (who joined them at Munich) passed an
+evening once a week at his house, where they listened to scientific
+papers or discussed scientific matters, over a pipe and a glass of
+beer. They also met once a week to drink tea at the house of
+Professor von Martius, where, in like manner, the conversation
+turned upon scientific subjects, unless something interesting in
+general events gave it a different turn. Still more beloved was
+Dollinger, whose character they greatly esteemed and admired while
+they delighted in his instruction. Not only did they go to him
+daily, but he also came often to see them, bringing botanical
+specimens to Braun, or looking in upon Agassiz's breeding
+experiments, in which he took the liveliest interest, being always
+ready with advice or practical aid. The fact that Agassiz and Braun
+had their room in his house made intercourse with him especially
+easy. This room became the rendezvous of all the aspiring, active
+spirits among the young naturalists at Munich, and was known by the
+name of "The Little Academy." Schimper, no less than the other two,
+contributed to the vivid, enthusiastic intellectual life, which
+characterized their meetings. Not so happy as Agassiz and Braun in
+his later experience, the promise of his youth was equally
+brilliant; and those who knew him in those early days remember his
+charm of mind and manner with delight. The friends gave lectures in
+turn on various subjects, especially on modes of development in
+plants and animals. These lectures were attended not only by
+students, but often by the professors.
+
+Among Agassiz's intimate friends in Munich, beside those already
+mentioned, was Michahelles, the distinguished young zoologist and
+physician, whose early death in Greece, where he went to practice
+medicine, was so much regretted. Like Agassiz, he was wont to turn
+his room into a menagerie, where he kept turtles and other animals,
+brought home, for the most part, from his journeys in Italy and
+elsewhere. Mahir, whose name occurs often in the letters of this
+period, was another college friend and fellow-student, though
+seemingly Agassiz's senior in standing, if not in years, for he
+gave him private instruction in mathematics, and also assisted him
+in his medical studies.
+
+TO HIS SISTER CECILE,
+
+MUNICH, November 20, 1827.
+
+. . .I will tell you in detail how my time is spent, so that when
+you think of me you may know where I am and what I am doing. In the
+morning from seven to nine I am at the Hospital. From nine to
+eleven I go to the Library, where I usually work at that time
+instead of going home. From eleven till one o'clock I have
+lectures, after which I dine, sometimes at one place, sometimes at
+another, for here every one, that is, every foreigner, takes his
+meals in the cafes, paying for the dinner on the spot, so that he
+is not obliged to go always to the same place. In the afternoon I
+have other lectures on various subjects, according to the days,
+from two or three till five o'clock. These ended, I take a walk
+although it is then dark. The environs of Munich are covered with
+snow, and the people have been going about in sleighs these three
+weeks. When I am frozen through I come home, and set to work to
+review my lectures of the day, or I write and read till eight or
+nine o'clock. Then I go to my cafe for supper. After supper I am
+glad to return to the house and go to bed.
+
+This is the course of my daily life, with the single exception that
+sometimes Braun and I pass an evening with some professor,
+discussing with all our might and main subjects of which we often
+know nothing; this does not, however, lessen the animation of the
+talk. More often, these gentlemen tell us of their travels, etc. I
+enjoy especially our visits to M. Martius, because he talks to us
+of his journey to Brazil, from which he returned some years ago,
+bringing magnificent collections, which he shows us whenever we
+call upon him. Friday is market day here, and I never miss going to
+see the fishes to increase my collection. I have already obtained
+several not to be found in Switzerland; and even in my short stay
+here I have had the good fortune to discover a new species, of
+which I have made a very exact description, to be printed in some
+journal of natural history. Were my dear Cecile here, I should have
+begged her to draw it nicely for me. That would have been pleasant
+indeed. Now I must ask a stranger to do it, and it will have by no
+means the same value in my eyes. . .
+
+TO HIS BROTHER AUGUSTE.
+
+MUNICH, December 26, 1827.
+
+. . .After my long fast from news of you, your letter made me very
+happy. I was dull besides, and needed something to cheer me. . .
+Since my talk about natural history does not bore you, I want to
+tell you various other things about it, and also to ask you to do
+me a favor. I have stuffed a superb otter lately; next week I shall
+receive a beaver, and I have exchanged all my little toads from
+Neuchatel for reptiles from Brazil and Java. One of our professors
+here, who is publishing a natural history of reptiles, will
+introduce in his work my description of that species, and my
+observations upon it. He has already had lithographed those
+drawings of eggs that Cecile made for me, as well as the colored
+drawings made for me by Braun's sister when I was at Carlsruhe. My
+collection of fishes is also much increased, but I have no
+duplicates left of the species I brought with me. I have exchanged
+them all. I should therefore be greatly obliged if you would get me
+some more of the same. I will tell you what kinds I want, and how
+you are to forward them. I have still at Cudrefin several jars of
+thick green glass. When you go there take them away with you, fill
+them with alcohol, and put into them as many of these fishes as you
+can find for me. Put something between every two specimens, to
+prevent them from rubbing against each other; pack them in a little
+box wrapped in hay, and send them either by a good opportunity or
+in the least expensive way. The kinds I want are [here follows the
+list]. . .It will interest you to know that I am working with a
+young Dr. Born upon an anatomy and natural history of the
+fresh-water fishes of Europe. We have already gathered a great deal
+of material, and I think by the spring, or in the course of the
+summer, we shall be able to publish the first number. This will
+bring in a little ready money for a short journey in the vacation.
+
+I earnestly advise you to while away your leisure hours with study.
+Read much, but only good and useful books. I promised to send you
+something; do not think, because I have not done so yet, that I
+have forgotten it. On the contrary, the difficulty of choosing is
+the cause of the delay; but I will make farther inquiry as to what
+will suit you best and you shall have my list. Meantime remember to
+read Say, and if you have not already begun it, do not put it off.
+Remember that statistical and political knowledge alone
+distinguishes the true merchant from the mere tradesman, and guides
+him in his undertakings. . .A merchant familiar with the products
+of a country, its resources, its commercial and political relations
+with other countries, is much less likely to enter into
+speculations based on false ideas, and therefore of doubtful issue.
+Write me about what you are reading and about your plans and
+projects, for I can hardly believe that any one could exist without
+forming them: I, at least, could not.
+
+The last line of this letter betrays the restless spirit of
+adventure growing out of the desire for larger fields of activity
+and research. Tranquilized for a while in the new and more
+satisfying intellectual life of Munich, it stirred afresh from time
+to time, not without arousing anxiety in friends at home, as we
+shall see. The letter to which the following is an answer has not
+been found.
+
+FROM HIS MOTHER.
+
+ORBE, January 8, 1828.
+
+. . .Your letter reached me at Cudrefin, where I have been passing
+ten days. With what pleasure I received it,--and yet I read it with
+a certain sadness too, for there was something of ennui, I might
+say of discontent, in the tone. . .Believe me, my dear Louis, your
+attitude is a wrong one; you see everything in shadow. Consider
+that you are exactly in the position you have chosen for yourself;
+we have in no way opposed your plans. We have, on the contrary,
+entered into them with readiness, saying amen to your proposals,
+only insisting upon a profession that would make us easy about your
+future, persuaded as we are that you have too much energy and
+uprightness not to wish to fill honorably your place in society.
+You left us a few months ago with the assurance that two years
+would more than suffice to complete your medical studies. You chose
+the university which offered, as you thought, the most ample means
+to reach your end; and now, how is it that you look forward only
+with distaste to the practice of medicine? Have you reflected
+seriously before setting aside this profession? Indeed, we cannot
+consent to such a step. You would lose ground in our opinion, in
+that of your family, and in that of the public. You would pass for
+an inconsiderate, fickle young fellow, and the slightest stain on
+your reputation would be a mortal blow to us. There is one way of
+reconciling all difficulties,--the only one in my opinion. Complete
+your studies with all the zeal of which you are capable, and then,
+if you have still the same inclination, go on with your natural
+history; give yourself wholly up to it should that be your wish.
+Having two strings to your bow, you will have the greater facility
+for establishing yourself. Such is your father's way of thinking as
+well as mine. . .Nor are you made to live alone, my child. In a
+home only is true happiness to be found; there you can settle
+yourself to your liking. The sooner you have finished your studies,
+the sooner you can put up your tent, catch your blue butterfly, and
+metamorphose her into a loving housewife. Of course you will not
+gather roses without thorns; life consists of pains and pleasures
+everywhere. To do all the good you can to your fellow-beings, to
+have a pure conscience, to gain an honorable livelihood, to procure
+for yourself by work a little ease, to make those around you happy,
+--that is true happiness; all the rest but mere accessories and
+chimeras. . .
+
+TO HIS MOTHER.
+
+MUNICH, February 3, 1828.
+
+. . .You know well to whom you speak, dear mother, and how you must
+bait your hook in order that the fish may rise. When you paint it,
+I see nothing above domestic happiness, and am convinced that the
+height of felicity is to be found in the bosom of your family,
+surrounded by little marmots to love and caress you. I hope, too,
+to enjoy this happiness in time. . .But the man of letters should
+seek repose only when he has deserved it by his toil, for if once
+he anchor himself, farewell to energy and liberty, by which alone
+great minds are fostered. Therefore I have said to myself, that I
+would remain unmarried till my work should assure me a peaceful and
+happy future. A young man has too much vigor to bear confinement so
+soon; he gives up many pleasures which he might have had, and does
+not appreciate at their just value those which he has. As it is
+said that the vaurien must precede the bon sujet, so I believe that
+for the full enjoyment of sedentary life one must have played the
+vagabond for a while.
+
+This brings me to the subject of my last letter. It seems that you
+have misunderstood me, for your answer grants me after all just
+what I ask. You think that I wish to renounce entirely the study of
+medicine? On the contrary, the idea has never occurred to me, and,
+according to my promise, you shall have one of these days a doctor
+of medicine as a son. What repels me is the thought of practicing
+medicine for a livelihood, and here you give me free rein just
+where I wanted it. That is, you consent that I should devote myself
+wholly to the natural sciences should this career offer me, as I
+hope it may, a more favorable prospect. It requires, for instance,
+but two or three years to go around the world at government
+expense. I will levy contributions on all my senses that not a
+single chance may escape me for making interesting observations and
+fine collections, so that I also may be ranked among those who have
+enlarged the boundaries of science. With that my future is secured,
+and I shall return content and disposed to do all that you wish.
+Even then, if medicine had gained greater attraction for me, there
+would still be time to begin the practice of it. It seems to me
+there is nothing impracticable in this plan. I beg you to think of
+it, and to talk it over with papa and with my uncle at Lausanne
+. . .I am perfectly well and as happy as possible, for I feed in
+clover here on my favorite studies, with every facility at my
+command. If you thought my New Year's letter depressed, it was only
+a momentary gloom due to the memories awakened by the day. . .
+
+FROM HIS FATHER.
+
+ORBE, February 21, 1828.
+
+Your mother's last letter, my dear Louis, was in answer to one from
+you which crossed it on the way, and gave us, so far as your health
+and contentment are concerned, great satisfaction. Yet our
+gratification lacks something; it would be more complete had you
+not a mania for rushing full gallop into the future. I have often
+reproved you for this, and you would fare better did you pay more
+attention to my reproof. If it be an incurable malady with you, at
+all events do not force your parents to share it. If it be
+absolutely essential to your happiness that you should break the
+ice of the two poles in order to find the hairs of a mammoth, or
+that you should dry your shirt in the sun of the tropics, at least
+wait till your trunk is packed and your passports are signed before
+you talk with us about it. Begin by reaching your first aim, a
+physician's and surgeon's diploma. I will not for the present hear
+of anything else, and that is more than enough. Talk to us, then in
+your letters, of your friends, of your personal life, of your wants
+(which I am always ready to satisfy), of your pleasures, of your
+feeling for us, but do not put yourself out of our reach with your
+philosophical syllogisms. My own philosophy is to fulfill my duties
+in my sphere, and even that gives me more than I can do. . .
+
+The Vaudois "Society of Public Utility" has just announced an
+altogether new project, that of establishing popular libraries. A
+committee consisting of eight members, of whom I have the honor to
+be one, is nominated under the presidency of M. Delessert for the
+execution of this scheme. What do you think of the idea? To me it
+seems a delicate matter. I should say that before we insist upon
+making people read we must begin by preparing them to read
+usefully?. . .
+
+TO HIS FATHER.
+
+MUNICH, March 3, 1828.
+
+. . .What you tell me of the "Society of Public Utility" has
+aroused in me a throng of ideas, about which I will write you when
+they are a little more mature. Meanwhile, please tell me: 1. What
+is this Society? 2. Of what persons is it composed? 3. What is its
+principal aim? 4. What are the popular libraries to contain, and
+for what class are they intended? I believe this project may be of
+the greatest service to our people, and it is on this account that
+I desire farther details that I may think it over carefully. Tell
+me, also, in what way you propose to distribute your libraries at
+small expense, and how large they are to be. . .
+
+I could not be more satisfied than I am with my stay here. I lead a
+monotonous but an exceedingly pleasant life, withdrawn from the
+crowd of students and seeing them but little. When our lectures are
+over we meet in the evening at Braun's room or mine, with three or
+four intimate acquaintances, and talk of scientific matters, each
+one in his turn presenting a subject which is first developed by
+him, and then discussed by all. These exercises are very
+instructive. As my share, I have begun to give a course of natural
+history, or rather of pure zoology. Braun talks to us of botany,
+and another of our company, Mahir, who is an excellent fellow,
+teaches us mathematics and physics in his turn. In two months our
+friend Schimper, whom we left at Heidelberg, will join us, and he
+will then be our professor of philosophy. Thus we shall form a
+little university, instructing each other and at the same time
+learning what we teach more thoroughly, because we shall be obliged
+to demonstrate it. Each session lasts two or three hours, during
+which the professor in charge retails his merchandise without aid
+of notes or book. You can imagine how useful this must be in
+preparing us to speak in public and with coherence; the experience
+is the more important, since we all desire nothing so much as
+sooner or later to become professors in very truth, after having
+played at professor in the university.
+
+This brings me naturally to my projects again. Your letter made me
+feel so keenly the anxiety I had caused you by my passion for
+travel, that I will not recur to it; but as my object was to make
+in that way a name that would win for me a professorship, I venture
+upon another proposition. If during the course of my studies I
+succeed in making myself known by a work of distinction, will you
+not then consent that I shall study, at least during one year, the
+natural sciences alone, and then accept a professorship of natural
+history, with the understanding that in the first place, and in the
+time agreed upon, I shall take my Doctor's degree? This is, indeed,
+essential to my obtaining what I wish, at least in Germany. You
+will object that, before thinking of anything beyond, I ought first
+to fulfill the condition. But let me say that the more clearly a
+man sees the road before him, the less likely he is to lose his way
+or take the wrong turn,--the better he can divide his stages and
+his resting-places. . .
+
+FROM HIS FATHER.
+
+ORBE, March 25, 1828.
+
+. . .I have had a long talk about you with your uncle. He does not
+at all disapprove of your letters, of which I told him the
+contents. He only insists, as we do, on the necessity of a settled
+profession as absolutely essential to your financial position.
+Indeed, the natural sciences, however sublime and attractive, offer
+nothing certain in the future. They may, no doubt, be your golden
+bridge, or you may, thanks to them, soar very high, but--modern
+Icarus--may not also some adverse fortune, an unexpected loss of
+popularity, or, perhaps, some revolution fatal to your philosophy,
+bring you down with a somersault, and then you would not be sorry
+to find in your quiver the means of gaining your bread. Agreed that
+you have now an invincible repugnance to the practice of medicine,
+it is evident from your last two letters that you would have no
+less objection to any other profession by which money is to be
+made, and, besides, it is too late to make another selection. This
+being so, we will come to an understanding in one word: Let the
+sciences be the balloon in which you prepare to travel through
+higher regions, but let medicine and surgery be your parachutes. I
+think, my dear Louis, you cannot object to this way of looking at
+the question and deciding it. In making my respects to the
+professor of zoology, I have the pleasure to tell him that his
+uncle was delighted with his way of passing his evenings, and
+congratulates him with all his heart on his choice of a recreation.
+Enough of this chapter. I close it here, wishing you most heartily
+courage, health, success, and, above all, contentment. . .
+
+Upon this follows the answer to Louis's request for details about
+the "Society of Public Utility." It shows the intimate exchange of
+thought between father and son on educational subjects, but it is
+of too local an interest for reproduction here.
+
+The Easter vacation was devoted to a short journey, some account of
+which will be found in the next letter. The traveling party
+consisted of Agassiz, Braun, and Schimper, with two other students,
+who did not, however, remain with them during the whole trip.
+
+TO HIS FATHER.
+
+MUNICH, May 15, 1828.
+
+. . .Pleasant as my Easter journey was, I will give you but a brief
+account of it, for my enjoyment was so connected with my special
+studies that the details would only be tiresome to you. You know
+who were my traveling companions, so I have only to tell you of our
+adventures, assuredly not those of knights errant or troubadours.
+Could these gentry have been resuscitated, and have seen us
+starting forth in blouses, with bags or botanical boxes at our
+backs and butterfly-nets in our hands, instead of lance and
+buckler, they could hardly have failed to look down upon us with
+pity from the height of their grandeur.
+
+The first day brought us to Landshut, where was formerly the
+university till it was transferred, ten years ago, to Munich. We
+had the pleasure of finding along our road most of the early spring
+plants. The weather was magnificent, and nature seemed to smile
+upon her votaries. . .We stopped on the way but one day, at
+Ratisbon, to visit some relations of Braun's, with whom we promised
+to spend several days on our return. Learning on our arrival at
+Nuremberg that the Durer festival, which had been our chief
+inducement for this journey, would not take place under eight or
+ten days, we decided to pass the intervening time at Erlangen, the
+seat, as you know, of a university. I do not know if I have already
+told you that among German students the exercise of hospitality
+toward those who exchange visits from one university to another is
+a sacred custom. It gives offense, or is at least looked upon as a
+mark of pride and disdain, if you do not avail yourself of this. We
+therefore went to one of the cafe's de reunion, and received at
+once our tickets for lodgings. We passed six days at Erlangen most
+agreeably, making a botanical excursion every day. We also called
+upon the professors of botany and zoology, whom we had already seen
+at Munich, and by whom we were most cordially received. The
+professor of botany, M. Koch, invited us to a very excellent
+dinner, and gave us many rare plants not in our possession before,
+while M. Wagner was kind enough to show us in detail the Museum and
+the Library.
+
+At last came the day appointed for the third centennial festival of
+Durer. Everything was so arranged as to make it very brilliant, and
+the weather was most favorable. I doubt if ever before were
+collected so many painters in the same place. They gathered; as if
+to vie with each other, from all nations, Russians, Italians,
+French, Germans, etc. Beside the pupils of the Academy of Fine Arts
+at Munich, I think that every soul who could paint, were it only
+the smallest sketch, was there to pay homage to the great master.
+All went in procession to the place where the monument is to be
+raised, and the magistrates of the city laid the first stones of
+the pedestal. To my amusement they cemented these first stones with
+a mortar which was served in great silver platters, and made of
+fine pounded porcelain mixed with champagne. In the evening all the
+streets were illuminated; there were balls, concerts, and plays, so
+that we must have been doubled or quadrupled to see everything. We
+stayed some days longer at Nuremberg to visit the other curiosities
+of the city, especially its beautiful churches, its manufactories,
+etc., and then started on our return to Ratisbon. . .
+
+CHAPTER 3.
+
+1828-1829: AGE 21-22.
+
+First Important Work in Natural History.
+Spix's Brazilian Fishes.
+Second Vacation Trip.
+Sketch of Work during University Year.
+Extracts from the Journal of Mr. Dinkel.
+Home Letters.
+Hope of joining Humboldt's Asiatic Expedition.
+Diploma of Philosophy.
+Completion of First Part of the Spix Fishes.
+Letter concerning it from Cuvier.
+
+It was not without a definite purpose that Agassiz had written to
+his father some weeks before, "Should I during the course of my
+studies succeed in making myself known by a distinguished work,
+would you not then consent that I should study for one year the
+natural sciences alone?" Unknown to his parents, for whom he hoped
+to prepare a delightful surprise, Agassiz had actually been engaged
+for months on the first work which gave him distinction in the
+scientific world; namely, a description of the Brazilian fishes
+brought home by Martius and Spix from their celebrated journey in
+Brazil. This was the secret to which allusion is made in the next
+letter. To his disappointment an accident brought his undertaking
+to the knowledge of his father and mother before it was completed.
+He always had a boyish regret that his little plot had been
+betrayed before the moment for the denouement arrived. The book was
+written in Latin and dedicated to Cuvier.* (* "Selecta genera et
+species piscium quos collegit et pingendos curavit Dr. J.W. de
+Spix". Digessit, descripsit et observationibus illustravit Dr. L.
+Agassiz.)
+
+TO HIS BROTHER.
+
+MUNICH, July 27, 1828.
+
+. . .Various things which I have begun keep me a prisoner here.
+Probably I shall not stir during the vacation, and shall even give
+up the little trip in the Tyrol, which I had thought of making as a
+rest from occupations that bind me very closely at present, but
+from which I hope to free myself in the course of the holidays.
+Don't be angry with me for not telling you at once what they are.
+When you know, I hope to be forgiven for keeping you so long in the
+dark. I have kept it a secret from papa too, though in his last
+letter he asks me what is my especial work just now. A few months
+more of patience, and I will give you a strict account of my time
+since I came here, and then I am sure you will be satisfied with
+me. I only wish to guard against one thing: do not take it into
+your head that I am about to don the fool's cap suddenly and
+surprise you with a Doctor's degree; that would be going a little
+too fast, nor do I think of it yet. . .I want to remind you not to
+let the summer pass without getting me fishes according to the list
+in my last letter, which I hope you have not mislaid. You would
+give me great pleasure by sending them as soon as possible. Let me
+tell you why. M. Cuvier has announced the publication of a complete
+work on all the known fishes, and in the prospectus he calls on
+such naturalists as occupy themselves with ichthyology to send him
+the fishes of the country where they live; he mentions those who
+have already sent him collections, and promises duplicates from the
+Paris Museum to those who will send him more. He names the
+countries also from which he has received contributions, and
+regrets that he has nothing from Bavaria. Now I possess several
+specimens of all the native species, and have even discovered some
+ten not hitherto known to occur here, beside one completely new to
+science, which I have named Cyprinus uranoscopus on account of the
+position of the eyes, placed on the top instead of the sides of the
+head,--otherwise very like the gudgeon. I have therefore thought I
+could not better launch myself in the scientific world than by
+sending Cuvier my fishes with the observations I have made on their
+natural history. To these I should like to add such rare Swiss
+species as you can procure for me. So do not fail.
+
+FROM HIS BROTHER.
+
+NEUCHATEL, August 25, 1828.
+
+. . .I received in good time, and with infinite delight, your
+pleasant letter of July 27th. Its mysteries have however been
+unveiled by Dr. Schinz, who came to the meeting of the Natural
+History Society in Lausanne, where he met papa and my uncle, to
+whom he pronounced the most solemn eulogiums on their son and
+nephew, telling them at the same time what was chiefly occupying
+you now. I congratulate you, my dear brother, but I confess that
+among us all I am the least surprised, for my presentiments about
+you outrun all this, and I hope soon to see them realized. In all
+frankness I can assure you that the stoutest antagonists of your
+natural history schemes begin to come over to your side. Among them
+is my uncle here, who never speaks of you now but with enthusiasm.
+What more can be said? I gave him your letter to read, and since
+then he has asked me a dozen times at least if I had not forgotten
+to forward the remittance you asked for, saying that I must not
+delay it. The truth is, I have deferred writing till the last
+moment, because I have not succeeded in getting your fishes, and
+have always been hoping that I might be able to fulfill your
+commission. I busied myself on your behalf with all the zeal and
+industry of which I was capable, but quite in vain. The devil
+seemed to be in it. The season of Bondelles was over two months
+ago, and there are none to be seen; as to trout, I don't believe
+one has been eaten in the whole town for six weeks. I am forever at
+the heels of the fishermen, promising them double and treble the
+value of the fish I want, but they all tell me they catch nothing
+except pike. I have been to Cudrefin for lampreys, but found
+nothing. Rodolphe* (* An experienced old boatman.) has been
+paddling in the brook every day without success. I went to Sauge,
+--no eels, no anything but perch and a few little cat-fish. Two
+mortal Sundays did I spend, rod in hand, trying to catch bream,
+chubs, etc. I did get a few, but they were not worth sending. Now
+it is all over for this year, and we may as well put on mourning
+for them; but I promise you that as soon as the spring opens I will
+go to work, and you shall have all you want. If, in spite of
+everything, your hopes are not realized, I shall be very sorry, but
+rest assured that it is not my fault. . .
+
+TO HIS SISTER CECILE.
+
+MUNICH, October 29, 1828.
+
+. . .I have never written you about what has engrossed me so
+deeply; but since my secret is out, I ought not to keep silence
+longer. That you may understand why I have entered upon such a work
+I will go back to its origin. In 1817 the King of Bavaria sent two
+naturalists, M. Martius and M. Spix, on an exploring expedition to
+Brazil. Of M. Martius, with whom I always spend my Wednesday
+evenings, I have often spoken to you. In 1821 these gentlemen
+returned to their country laden with new discoveries, which they
+published in succession. M. Martius issued colored illustrations of
+all the unknown plants he had collected on his journey, while M.
+Spix brought out several folio volumes on the monkeys, birds, and
+reptiles of Brazil, the animals being drawn and colored, chiefly
+life-size, by able artists. It had been his intention to give a
+complete natural history of Brazil, but to the sorrow of all
+naturalists he died in 1826. M. Martius, desirous to see the
+completion of the work which his traveling companion had begun,
+engaged a professor from Erlangen to publish the shells, and these
+appeared last year. When I came to Munich there remained only the
+fishes and insects, and M. Martius, who had learned something about
+me from the professors to whom I was known, found me worthy to
+continue the work of Spix, and asked me to carry on the natural
+history of the fishes. I hesitated for a long time to accept this
+honorable offer, fearing that the occupation might withdraw me too
+much from my studies; but, on the other hand, the opportunity for
+laying the foundation of a reputation by a large undertaking seemed
+too favorable to be refused. The first volume is already finished,
+and the printing was begun some weeks ago. You can imagine the
+pleasure I should have had in sending it to our dear father and
+mother before they had heard one word about it, or knew even of the
+proposition. But I hope the premature disclosure of my secret
+(indeed, to tell the truth, I had not imposed silence on M. Schinz,
+not dreaming that he would see any one of the family) will not
+diminish your pleasure in receiving the first work of your brother
+Louis, which I hope to send you at Easter. Already forty colored
+folio plates are completed. Will it not seem strange when the
+largest and finest book in papa's library is one written by his
+Louis? Will it not be as good as to see his prescription at the
+apothecary's? It is true that this first effort will bring me in
+but little; nothing at all, in fact, because M. de Martius has
+assumed all the expenses, and will, of course, receive the profits.
+My share will be a few copies of the book, and these I shall give
+to the friends who have the first claim.
+
+To his father Agassiz only writes of his work at this time: "I have
+been very busy this summer, and I can tell you from a good source
+(I have it from one of the professors himself) that the professors
+whose lectures I have attended have mentioned me more than once, as
+one of the most assiduous and best informed students of the
+university; saying also that I deserved distinction. I do not tell
+you this from ostentation, but only that you may not think I lose
+my time, even though I occupy myself chiefly with the natural
+sciences. I hope yet to prove to you that with a brevet of Doctor
+as a guarantee, Natural History may be a man's bread-winner as well
+as the delight of his life. . ."
+
+In September Agassiz allowed himself a short interruption of his
+work. The next letter gives some account of this second vacation
+trip.
+
+TO HIS PARENTS.
+
+MUNICH, September 26, 1828.
+
+. . .The instruction for the academic year closed at the end of
+August, and our professors had hardly completed their lectures when
+I began my Alpine excursion. Braun, impatient to leave Munich, had
+already started the preceding day, promising to wait for me on the
+Salzburg road at the first spot which pleased him enough for a
+halt. That I might not keep him waiting, I begged a friend to drive
+me a good day's journey, thinking to overtake Braun the first day
+on the pleasant banks of the Lake of Chiem. My traveling companions
+were the younger Schimper [Wilhelm], of whom I have spoken to you
+(and who made a botanical journey in the south of France and the
+Pyrenees two years ago), and Mahir, who drove us, with whom I am
+very intimate; he is a medical student, and also a very
+enthusiastic physicist. He gave me private lessons in mathematics
+all winter, and was a member of our philomathic meetings. Braun had
+not set out alone either, and his two traveling companions were
+also friends of ours. One was Trettenbacher, a medical student
+greatly given to sophisms and logic, but allowing himself to be
+beaten in argument with the utmost good nature, though always
+believing himself in the right; a thoroughly good fellow with all
+that, and a great connoisseur of antiquities. The other was a young
+student, More, from the ci-devant department of Mt. Tonnerre, who
+devotes himself entirely to the natural sciences, and has chosen
+the career of traveling naturalist. You can easily imagine that
+this attracts me to him, but as he is only a beginner I am, as it
+were, his mentor.
+
+On the morning of our departure the weather was magnificent.
+Driving briskly along we had various surmises as to where we should
+probably meet our traveling companions, not doubting that, as we
+hoped to reach the Lake of Chiem the same day, We should come
+across them the day following on one of its pretty islands. But in
+the afternoon the weather changed, and we were forced to seek
+shelter from torrents of rain at Rosenheim, a charming town on the
+banks of the Inn, where I saw for the first time this river of
+Helvetic origin. I saluted it as a countryman of mine, and wished I
+could change its course and send it back laden with my greetings.
+The next day Mahir drove us as far as the shore of the lake. There
+we parted from him, and took a boat to the islands, where we were
+much disappointed not to find Braun and his companions. We thought
+the bad weather of the day before (for here it had rained all day)
+might have obliged them to make the circuit of the lake. However,
+in order to overtake them before reaching Salzburg, we kept our
+boatmen, and were rowed across to the opposite shore near
+Grabenstadt, where we arrived at ten o'clock in the evening. In the
+afternoon the weather had cleared a little, and the view was
+beautiful as we pulled away from the islands and watched them fade
+in the twilight. I also gathered much interesting information about
+the inhabitants of the waters of this lake. Among others, I was
+much pleased to find a cat-fish, taken in the lake by one of the
+island fishermen, and also a kind of chub, not found in
+Switzerland, and called by the fishermen here "Our Lady's Fish,"
+because it occurs only on the shore of an island where there is a
+convent, the nuns of which esteem it a great delicacy.
+
+The third day we reached Traunstein, where, although it was Sunday,
+there was a great horse fair. We looked with interest at the gay
+Tyroleans, with the cock-feathers in their pointed hats, singing
+and yodeling in the streets with their sweethearts on their arms.
+Every now and then they let fall some sarcastic comment on our
+accoutrements, which were indeed laughable enough to these people,
+who had never seen anything beyond their own chalets, and for whom
+an excursion from their mountains to a fair in the nearest town is
+a journey. It was noon when we stopped at Traunstein, and from
+there to Salzburg is but five leagues. Before reaching the
+fortress, however, you must pass the great custom-house on the
+Bavarian frontier, and fearing we might be delayed there too long
+by the stupid Austrian officials, and thus be prevented from
+entering the city before the gates were closed, we resolved to wait
+till the next morning and spend the night at Adelstaetten, a pretty
+village about a league from Salzburg, and the last Bavarian post.
+Night was falling as we approached a little wood which hid the
+village from us. There we asked a peasant how far we had still to
+go, and when he had answered our question he told us, evidently
+with kind intention, that we should find good company in the
+village, for a few hours earlier three journeymen laborers had
+arrived there; and then he added that we should no doubt be glad to
+meet comrades and have a gay evening with them. We were not
+astonished to be taken for workmen, since every one who travels
+here on foot, with a knapsack on his back, is understood to belong
+to the laboring class. . .Arrived at the village, we were delighted
+to find that the three journeymen were our traveling companions.
+They had come, like ourselves, from Traunstein, where we had missed
+each other in the crowd, and they were going likewise to sleep at
+Adelstaetten, to avoid the custom-house. Finally, on Monday, at ten
+o'clock, we crossed the long bridge over the Saala, between the
+white coats with yellow trimmings on guard there. On the Bavarian
+frontier we had hardly remembered that there was a custom-house,
+and the name of student sufficed to pass us without our showing any
+passports; here, on the contrary, it was another reason for the
+strictest examination. "Have you no forbidden books?" was the first
+question. By good fortune, before crossing the bridge, I had
+advised Trettenbach to hide his song-book in the lining of his
+boot. I am assured that had it been taken upon him he would not
+have been allowed to pass. In ransacking Braun's bag, one of the
+officials found a shell such as are gathered by the basketful on
+the shores of the Lake of Neuchatel. His first impulse was to go to
+the office and inquire whether we should not pay duty on this,
+saying that it was no doubt for the fabrication of false pearls,
+and we probably had plenty more. We had all the difficulty in the
+world to make him understand that not fifty steps from the
+custom-house the shores of the river were strewn with them. . .
+After all this we had to empty our purses to show that we had money
+enough for our journey, and that we should not be forced to beg in
+order to get through. While we underwent this inquisition, another
+officer made a tour of inspection around us, to observe our general
+bearing, etc. . .After having kept us thus on coals for two hours
+they gave us back our passports, and we went our way. At one
+o'clock we arrived at Salzburg as hungry as wolves, but at the gate
+we had still to wait and give up our passports again in exchange
+for receipts, in virtue of which we could obtain permits from the
+police to remain in the city. From our inn, we sent a waiter to get
+these permits, but he presently returned with the news that we must
+go in person to take them; there was, however, no hurry; it would
+do in three or four hours! We had no farther difficulty except that
+it was made a condition of our stay that we should not appear in
+student's dress. This dress, they said, was forbidden in Austria.
+They begged More to have his hair cut, otherwise it would be
+shortened gratis, and also informed us that at our age it was not
+becoming to dispense with cravats. Happily, I had two with me, and
+Braun tied his handkerchief around his neck. It astonished me,
+also, to see that we were not entered on the list of strangers
+published every evening. So it was also, as we found, with other
+students, though the persons who came with them by the same
+conveyance, even the children, were duly inscribed. It seems this
+is a precaution against any gathering of students. . .
+
+The letter concludes in haste for the mail, and if the story of the
+journey was finished the final chapter has not been preserved. Some
+extracts from the home letters of Agassiz's friend Braun, which are
+in place here, throw light on their university life for the coming
+year.* (* See "Life of Alexander Braun", by his daughter, Madame
+Cecile Mettenius.)
+
+ALEXANDER BRAUN TO HIS FATHER.
+
+MUNICH, November 18, 1828.
+
+. . .I will tell you how we have laid out our time for this term.
+Our human consciousness may be said to begin at half-past five
+o'clock in the morning. The hour from six to seven is appointed for
+mathematics, namely, geometry and trigonometry. To this appointment
+we are faithful, unless the professor oversleeps himself, or
+Agassiz happens to have grown to his bed, an event which sometimes
+occurs at the opening of the term. From seven to eight we do as we
+like, including breakfast. Under Agassiz's new style of
+housekeeping the coffee is made in a machine which is devoted
+during the day to the soaking of all sorts of creatures for
+skeletons, and in the evening again to the brewing of our tea. At
+eight o'clock comes the clinical lecture of Ringseis. As Ringseis
+is introducing an entirely new medical system this is not wholly
+without general physiological and philosophical interest. At ten
+o'clock Stahl lectures, five times a week, on mechanics as
+preliminary to physics. These and also the succeeding lectures,
+given only twice a week on the special natural history of
+amphibians by Wagler, we all attend together. From twelve to one
+o'clock we have nothing settled as yet, but we mean to take the
+lectures of Dollinger, in single chapters, as, for instance, when
+he comes to the organs of the senses. At one o'clock we go to
+dinner, for which we have at last found a comfortable and regular
+place, at a private house, after having dined everywhere and
+anywhere, at prices from nine to twenty kreutzers. Here, for
+thirteen kreutzers* (* About nine cents of our money.) each, in
+company with a few others, mostly known to us, we are provided with
+a good and neatly served meal. After dinner we go to Dr. Waltl,
+with whom we study chemistry, using Gmelin's text-book, and are
+shown the most important experiments. Next week we are to begin
+entomology with Dr. Perty, from three to four, three times a week.
+From one to two o'clock on Saturday we have a lesson in
+experimental physiology, plainly speaking, in animal dissection,
+from Dr. Oesterreicher, a young Docent, who has written on the
+circulation of the blood. As Agassiz dissects a great many animals,
+especially fishes, at the house, we are making rapid progress in
+comparative anatomy. At four o'clock we go usually once a week to
+hear Oken on "Natur-philosophie" (a course we attended last term
+also), but by that means we secure a good seat for Schelling's
+lecture immediately after. A man can hardly hear twice in his life
+a course of lectures so powerful as those Schelling is now giving
+on the philosophy of revelation. This will sound strangely to you,
+because, till now, men have not believed that revelation could be a
+subject for philosophical treatment; to some it has seemed too
+sacred; to others too irrational. . .This lecture brings us to six
+o'clock, when the public courses are at an end: we go home, and now
+begin the private lectures. Sometimes Agassiz tries to beat French
+rules and constructions into our brains, or we have a lesson in
+anatomy, or I read general natural history aloud to William
+Schimper. By and by I shall review the natural history of grasses
+and ferns, two families of which I made a special study last
+summer. Twice a week Karl Schimper lectures to us on the morphology
+of plants; a very interesting course on a subject but little known.
+He has twelve listeners. Agassiz is also to give us lectures
+occasionally on Sundays upon the natural history of fishes. You see
+there is enough to do. . .
+
+Somewhat before this, early in 1828, Agassiz had made the
+acquaintance of Mr. Joseph Dinkel, an artist. A day spent together
+in the country, in order that Mr. Dinkel might draw a brilliantly
+colored trout from life, under the immediate direction of the young
+naturalist, led to a relation which continued uninterruptedly for
+many years. Mr. Dinkel afterward accompanied Agassiz, as his
+artist, on repeated journeys, being constantly employed in making
+illustrations for the "Poissons Fossiles" and the "Poissons d'Eau
+Douce," as well as for his monographs and smaller papers. The two
+larger works, the latter of which remained unfinished, were even
+now in embryo. Not only was Mr. Dinkel at work upon the plates for
+the Fresh-Water Fishes, but Mr. J.C. Weber, who was then engaged in
+making, under Agassiz's direction, the illustrations for the Spix
+Fishes, was also giving his spare hours to the same objects. Mr.
+Dinkel says of Agassiz's student life at this time:--* (* Extract
+from notes written out in English by Mr. Dinkel after the death of
+Agassiz and sent to me. The English, though a little foreign, is so
+expressive that it would lose by any attempt to change it, and the
+writer will excuse me for inserting his vivid sketch just as it
+stands.--E.C.A.)
+
+"I soon found myself engaged four or five hours almost daily in
+painting for him fresh-water fishes from the life, while he was at
+my side, sometimes writing out his descriptions, sometimes
+directing me. . .He never lost his temper, though often under great
+trial; he remained self-possessed and did everything calmly, having
+a friendly smile for every one and a helping hand for those who
+were in need. He was at that time scarcely twenty years old, and
+was already the most prominent among the students at Munich. They
+loved him, and had a high consideration for him. I had seen him at
+the Swiss students' club several times, and had observed him among
+the JOLLY students; he liked merry society, but he himself was in
+general reserved and never noisy. He picked out the gifted and
+highly-learned students, and would not waste his time in ordinary
+conversation. Often, when he saw a number of students going off on
+some empty pleasure-trip, he said to me, 'There they go with the
+other fellows; their motto is, "Ich gehe mit den andern." I will go
+my own way, Mr. Dinkel,--and not alone: I will be a leader of
+others.' In all his doings there was an ease and calm which was
+remarkable. His studio was a perfect German student's room. It was
+large, with several wide windows; the furniture consisted of a
+couch and about half a dozen chairs, beside some tables for the use
+of his artists and himself. Dr. Alex Braun and Dr. Schimper lodged
+in the same house, and seemed to me to share his studio. Being
+botanists, they, too, brought home what they collected in their
+excursions, and all this found a place in the atelier, on the
+couch, on the seats, on the floors. Books filled the chairs, one
+alone being left for the other artist, while I occupied a standing
+desk with my drawing. No visitor could sit down, and sometimes
+there was little room to stand or move about. The walls were white,
+and diagrams were drawn on them, to which, by and by, we artists
+added skeletons and caricatures. In short, it was quite original. I
+was some time there before I could discover the real names of his
+friends: each had a nickname,--Molluscus, Cyprinus, Rhubarb, etc."
+
+From this glimpse into "The Little Academy" we return to the thread
+of the home letters, learning from the next one that Agassiz's
+private collections were assuming rather formidable proportions
+when considered as part of the household furniture. Brought
+together in various ways, partly by himself, partly in exchange for
+duplicates, partly as pay for arranging specimens in the Munich
+Museum, they had already acquired, when compared with his small
+means, a considerable pecuniary value, and a far higher scientific
+importance. They included fishes, some rare mammalia, reptiles,
+shells, birds, an herbarium of some three thousand species of
+plants collected by himself, and a small cabinet of minerals. After
+enumerating them in a letter to his parents he continues: "You can
+imagine that all these things are in my way now that I cannot
+attend to them, and that for want of room and care they are piled
+up and in danger of spoiling. You see by my list that the whole
+collection is valued at two hundred louis; and this is so low an
+estimate that even those who sell objects of natural history would
+not hesitate to take them at that price. You will therefore easily
+understand how anxious I am to keep them intact. Can you not find
+me a place where they might be spread out? I have thought that
+perhaps my uncle in Neuchatel would have the kindness to let some
+large shelves be put up in the little upper room of his house in
+Cudrefin, where, far from being an annoyance or causing any smell,
+my collection, if placed in a case under glass, or disposed in some
+other suitable manner, would be an ornament. Be so kind as to
+propose it to him, and if he consents I will then tell you what I
+shall need for its arrangement. Remember that on this depends, in
+great part, the preservation of my specimens, and answer as soon as
+possible."
+
+Agassiz was now hurrying forward both his preparation for his
+degree and the completion of his Brazilian Fishes, in the hope of
+at last fulfilling his longing for a journey of exploration. This
+hope is revealed in his next home letter. The letter is a long one,
+and the first half is omitted since it concerns only the
+arrangements for his collections, the care to be taken of them,
+etc.
+
+TO HIS FATHER.
+
+MUNICH, February 14, 1829.
+
+. . .But now I must talk to you of more important things, not of
+what I possess, but of what I am to be. Let me first recall one or
+two points touched upon before in our correspondence, which should
+now be fully discussed.
+
+1st. You remember that when I first left Switzerland I promised you
+to win the title of Doctor in two years, and to be prepared (after
+having completed my studies in Paris) to pass my examination before
+the "Conseil de Sante," and begin practice.
+
+2nd. You will not have forgotten either that you exacted this only
+that I might have a profession, and that you promised, should I be
+able to make my way in the career of letters and natural history,
+you would not oppose my wishes. I am indeed aware that in the
+latter case you see but one obstacle, that of absence from my
+country and separation from all who are dear to me. But you know me
+too well to think that I would voluntarily impose upon myself such
+an exile. Let us see whether we cannot resolve these difficulties
+to our mutual satisfaction, and consider what is the surest road to
+the end I have proposed to myself ever since I began my medical
+studies. Weigh all my reasons, for in this my peace of mind and my
+future happiness are concerned. Examine my conduct with reference
+to what I propose in every light, that of son and Vaudois citizen
+included, and I feel sure you will concur in my views.
+
+Here is my aim and the means by which I propose to carry it out. I
+wish it may be said of Louis Agassiz that he was the first
+naturalist of his time, a good citizen, and a good son, beloved of
+those who knew him. I feel within myself the strength of a whole
+generation to work toward this end, and I will reach it if the
+means are not wanting. Let us see in what these means consist.
+[Here follows the summing up of his reasons for preferring a
+professorship of natural history to the practice of medicine, and
+his intention of trying for a diploma as Doctor of Philosophy in
+Germany.] But how obtain a professorship, you will say,--that is
+the important point? I answer, the first step is to make myself a
+European name, and for that I am on the right road. In the first
+place my work on the fishes of Brazil, just about to appear, will
+make me favorably known. I am sure it will be kindly received; for
+at the General Assembly of German naturalists and medical men last
+September, in Berlin, the part already finished and presented
+before the Assembly was praised in a manner for which I was quite
+unprepared. The professors also, to whom I was known, spoke of me
+there in very favorable terms.
+
+In the second place there are now preparing two expeditions of
+natural history, one by M. de Humboldt, with whose reputation you
+are surely familiar,--the same who spent several years in exploring
+the equatorial regions of South America, in company with M.
+Bonpland. He has been for some years at Berlin, and is now about to
+start on a journey to the Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, and the
+confines of the Caspian Sea. Braun, Schimper, and I have been
+proposed to him as traveling companions by several of our
+professors; but the application may come too late, for M. de
+Humboldt decided upon this journey long ago, and has probably
+already chosen the naturalists who are to accompany him. How happy
+I should be to join this expedition to a country the climate of
+which is by no means unhealthy, under the direction of a man so
+generally esteemed, to whom the Emperor of Russia has promised help
+and an escort at all times and under all circumstances. The second
+expedition is to a country quite as salubrious, and which presents
+no dangers whatever for travelers,--South America. It will be under
+the direction of M. Ackermann, known as a distinguished
+agriculturist and as Councilor of State to the Grand Duke of Baden.
+I should prefer to go with Humboldt; but if I am too late, I feel
+very sure of being able to join the second expedition. So it
+depends, you see, only on your consent. This journey is to last two
+years, at the end of which time, happily at home once more, I can
+follow with all desirable facilities the career I have chosen. If
+there should be a place for me at Lausanne, which I should prefer
+to any other locality, I could devote my life to teaching my young
+countrymen, awaken in them the taste for science and observation so
+much neglected among us, and thus be more useful to my canton than
+I could be as a practitioner. These projects may not succeed; but
+in the present state of things all the probabilities are favorable.
+Therefore, I beg you to consider it seriously, to consult my uncle
+in Lausanne, and to write me at once what you think. . .
+
+In spite of the earnest desire for travel shown in this letter it
+will be seen later how the restless aspirations of childhood,
+boyhood, and youth, which were, after all, only a latent love of
+research, crystallize into the concentrated purpose of the man who
+could remain for months shut up in his study, leaving his
+microscope only to eat and sleep,--a life as sedentary as ever was
+lived by a closet student.
+
+FROM HIS FATHER.
+
+ORBE, February 23, 1829.
+
+. . .It was not without deep emotion that we read your letter of
+the 14th, and I easily understand that, anticipating its effect
+upon us all, you have deferred writing as long as possible. Yet you
+were wrong in so doing; had we known your projects earlier we might
+have forestalled for you the choice of M. de Humboldt, whose
+expedition seems to us preferable, in every respect, to that of M.
+Ackermann. The first embraces a wider field, and concerns the
+history of man rather than that of animals; the latter is confined
+to an excursion along the sea-board, where there would be, no
+doubt, a rich harvest for science, but much less for philosophy.
+However that may be, your father and mother, while they grieve for
+the day that will separate them from their oldest son, will offer
+no obstacles to his projects, but pray God to bless them. . .
+
+The subjoined letter of about the same date from Alexander Braun to
+his father tells us how the projects so ardently urged upon his
+parents by Agassiz, and so affectionately accepted by them, first
+took form in the minds of the friends.
+
+BRAUN TO HIS FATHER.
+
+MUNICH, February 15, 1829.
+
+. . .Last Thursday we were at Oken's. There was interesting talk on
+all sorts of subjects, bringing us gradually to the Ural and then
+to Humboldt's journey, and finally Oken asked if we would not like
+to go with Humboldt. To this we gave warm assent, and told him that
+if he could bring it about we would be ready to start at a day's
+notice, and Agassiz added, eagerly, "Yes,--and if there were any
+hope that he would take us, a word from you would have more weight
+than anything." Oken's answer gave us but cold comfort;
+nevertheless, he promised to write at once to Humboldt in our
+behalf. With this, we went home in great glee; it was very late and
+a bright moonlight night. Agassiz rolled himself in the snow for
+joy, and we agreed that however little hope there might be of our
+joining the expedition, still the fact that Humboldt would hear of
+us in this way was worth something, even if it were only that we
+might be able to say to him one of these days, "We are the fellows
+whose company you rejected."
+
+With this hope the friends were obliged to content themselves, for
+after a few weeks of alternate encouragement and despondency their
+bright vision faded. Oken fulfilled his promise and wrote to
+Humboldt, recommending them most warmly. Humboldt answered that his
+plans were conclusively settled, and that he had chosen the only
+assistants who were to accompany him,--Ehrenberg and Rose.
+
+In connection with this frustrated plan is here given the rough
+draft of a letter from Agassiz to Cuvier, written evidently at a
+somewhat earlier date. Although a mere fragment, it is the
+outpouring of the same passionate desire for a purely scientific
+life, and shows that the opportunity suggested by Humboldt's
+journey had only given a definite aim to projects already full
+grown. From the contents it must have been written in 1828. After
+some account of his early studies, which would be mere repetition
+here, he goes on: "Before finishing my letter, allow me to ask some
+advice from you, whom I revere as a father, and whose works have
+been till now my only guide. Five years ago I was sent to the
+medical school at Zurich. After the first few lectures there in
+anatomy and zoology I could think of nothing but skeletons. In a
+short time I had learned to dissect, and had made for myself a
+small collection of skulls of animals from different classes. I
+passed two years in Zurich, studying whatever I could find in the
+Museum, and dissecting all the animals I could procure. I even sent
+to Berlin at this time for a monkey in spirits of wine, that I
+might compare the nervous system with that of man. I spent all the
+little means I had in order to see and learn as much as possible.
+Then I persuaded my father to let me go to Heidelberg, where for a
+year I followed Tiedemann's courses in human anatomy. I passed
+almost the whole winter in the anatomical laboratory. The following
+summer I attended the lectures of Leuckart on zoology, and those of
+Bronn on fossils. When at Zurich, the longing to travel some day as
+a naturalist had taken possession of me, and at Heidelberg this
+desire only increased. My frequent visits to the Museum at
+Frankfort, and what I heard there concerning M. Ruppell himself,
+strengthened my purpose even more than all I had previously read. I
+was, as it were, Ruppell's traveling companion: the activity, the
+difficulties to be overcome, all were present to me as I looked
+upon the treasures he had brought together from the deserts of
+Africa. The vision of difficulty thus vanquished, and of the inward
+satisfaction arising from it, tended to give all my studies a
+direction in keeping with my projects."
+
+"I felt that to reach my aim more surely it was important to
+complete my medical studies, and for this I came to Munich eighteen
+months ago. Still I could not make up my mind to renounce the
+natural sciences. I attended some of the pathological lectures, but
+I soon found that I was neglecting them; and yielding once more to
+my inclination, I followed consecutively the lectures of Dollinger
+on comparative anatomy, those of Oken on natural history, those of
+Fuchs on mineralogy, as well as the courses of astronomy, physics,
+chemistry, and mathematics. I was confirmed in this withdrawal from
+medical studies by the proposition of M. de Martius that I should
+describe the fishes brought back by Spix from Brazil, and to this I
+consented the more gladly because ichthyology has always been a
+favorite study with me. I have not, however, been able to give them
+all the care I could have wished, for M. de Martius, anxious to
+complete the publication of these works, has urged upon me a rapid
+execution. I hope, nevertheless, that I have made no gross errors,
+and I am the less likely to have done so, because I had as my guide
+the observations you had kindly made for him on the plates of Spix.
+Several of these plates were not very exact; they have been set
+aside and new drawings made. I beg that you will judge this work
+when it reaches you with indulgence, as the first literary essay of
+a young man. I hope to complete it in the course of the next
+summer. I would beg you, in advance, to give me a paternal word of
+advice as to the direction my studies should then take. Ought I to
+devote myself to the study of medicine? I have no fortune, it is
+true; but I would gladly sacrifice my life if, by so doing, I could
+serve the cause of science. Though I have not even a presentiment
+of any means with which I may one day travel in distant countries,
+I have, nevertheless, prepared myself during the last three years
+as if I might be off at any minute. I have learned to skin all
+sorts of animals, even very large ones. I have made more than a
+hundred skeletons of quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and fishes; I
+have tested all the various liquors for preserving such animals as
+should not be skinned, and have thought of the means of supplying
+the want in countries where the like preparations are not to be
+had, in case of need. Finally, I have trained as traveling
+companion a young friend,* (* William Schimper, brother of Karl.)
+and awakened in him the same love of the natural sciences. He is an
+excellent hunter, and at my instigation has been taking lessons in
+drawing, so that he is now able to sketch from nature such objects
+as may be desirable. We often pass delightful moments in our
+imaginary travels through unknown countries, building thus our
+castles in Spain. Pardon me if I talk to you of projects which at
+first sight seem puerile; only a fixed aim is needed to give them
+reality, and to you I come for counsel. My longing is so great that
+I feel the need of expressing it to some one who will understand
+me, and your sympathy would make me the happiest of mortals. I am
+so pursued by this thought of a scientific journey that it presents
+itself under a thousand forms, and all that I undertake looks
+toward one end. I have for six months frequented a blacksmith's and
+carpenter's shop, learning to handle hammer and axe, and I also
+practice arms, the bayonet and sabre exercise. I am strong and
+robust, know how to swim, and do not fear forced marches. I have,
+when botanizing and geologizing, walked my twelve or fifteen
+leagues a day for eight days in succession, carrying on my back a
+heavy bag loaded with plants or minerals. In one word, I seem to
+myself made to be a traveling naturalist. I only need to regulate
+the impetuosity which carries me away. I beg you, then, to be my
+guide."
+
+The unfinished letter closes abruptly, having neither signature nor
+address. Perhaps the writer's courage failed him and it never was
+sent. An old letter (date 1827) from Cuvier to Martius, found among
+Agassiz's papers of this time, and containing the very notes on the
+Spix Fishes to which allusion is here made, leaves no doubt,
+however, that this appeal was intended for the great master who
+exercised so powerful an influence upon Agassiz throughout his
+whole life.
+
+In the spring of 1829 Agassiz took his diploma in the faculty of
+philosophy. He did this with no idea of making it a substitute for
+his medical degree, but partly in deference to Martius, who wished
+the name of his young colleague to appear on the title-page of the
+Brazilian Fishes with the dignity of Doctor, and partly because he
+believed it would strengthen his chance of a future professorship.
+Of his experience on this occasion he gives some account in the
+following letter:--
+
+TO HIS BROTHER.
+
+MUNICH, May 22, 1829.
+
+As it was necessary for me to go through with my examination at
+once, and as the days for promotion here were already engaged two
+months in advance, I decided to pass it at Erlangen. That I might
+not go alone, and also for the pleasure of their company, I
+persuaded Schimper and Michahelles to do the same. Braun wanted to
+be of the party, but afterward decided to wait awhile. We made our
+request to the Faculty in a long Latin letter (because, you know,
+among savants it is the thing to speak and write the language you
+know least), requesting permission to pass our examination in
+writing, and to go to Erlangen only for the colloquium and
+promotion. They granted our request on condition of our promise
+(jurisjurandi loco polliciti sumus) to answer the questions
+propounded without help from any one and without consulting books.
+Among other things I had to develop a natural system of zoology, to
+show the relation between human history and natural history, to
+determine the true basis and limits of the philosophy of nature,
+etc. As an inaugural dissertation, I presented some general and
+novel considerations on the formation of the skeleton throughout
+the animal kingdom, from the infusoria, mollusks, and insects to
+the vertebrates, properly so called. The examiners were
+sufficiently satisfied with my answers to give me my degree the
+23rd or 24th of April, without waiting for the colloquium and
+promotion, writing to me that they were satisfied with my
+examination, and therefore forwarded my diploma without regard to
+the oral examination. . .The Dean of the Faculty, in inclosing it
+to me, added that he hoped before long to see me professor, and no
+less the ornament of my university in that position than I had
+hitherto been as student. I must try not to disappoint him. . .
+
+A letter from his brother contains a few lines in reference to
+this. "Last evening, dear Louis, your two diplomas reached me. I
+congratulate you with all my heart on your success. I am going to
+send to grandpapa the one destined for him, and I see in advance
+all his pleasure, though it would be greater if the word medicine
+stood for that of philosophy."
+
+The first part of the work on the Brazilian Fishes was now
+completed, and he had the pleasure of sending it to his parents as
+his own forerunner. After joining a scientific meeting to be held
+at Heidelberg, in September, he was to pass a month at home before
+returning to Munich for the completion of his medical studies.
+
+TO HIS PARENTS.
+
+MUNICH, July 4, 1829.
+
+. . .I hope when you read this letter you will have received the
+first part of my Brazilian Fishes from M.--, of Geneva, to whom
+Martius had to send a package of plants, with which my book was
+inclosed. I venture to think that this work will give me a name,
+and I await with impatience the criticism that I suppose it will
+receive from Cuvier. . .I think the best way of reaching the
+various aims I have in view is to continue the career on which I
+have started, and to publish as soon as possible my natural history
+of the fresh-water fishes of Germany and Switzerland. I propose to
+issue it in numbers, each containing twelve colored plates
+accompanied by six sheets of letter-press. . .In the middle of
+September there is to be a meeting of all the naturalists and
+medical men of Germany, to which foreign savants are invited. A
+similar meeting has been held for the last two or three years in
+one or another of the brilliant centres of Germany. This year it
+will take place at Heidelberg. Could one desire a better occasion
+to make known a projected work? I could even show the original
+drawings already made of species only found in the environs of
+Munich, and, so to speak, unknown to naturalists. At Heidelberg
+will be assembled Englishmen, Danes, Swedes, Russians, and even
+Italians. If I could before then arrange everything and distribute
+the printed circulars of my work I should be sure of success. . .
+
+In those days of costly postage one sheet of writing paper was
+sometimes made to serve for several members of the family. The next
+crowded letter contains chiefly domestic details, but closes with a
+postscript from Mme. Agassiz, filling, as she says, the only
+remaining corner, and expressing her delight in his diploma and in
+the completion of his book.
+
+FROM HIS MOTHER.
+
+August 16, 1829.
+
+. . .The place your brother has left me seems very insufficient for
+all that I have to say, dear Louis, but I will begin by thanking
+you for the happiness, as sweet as it is deeply felt, which your
+success has given us. Already our satisfaction becomes the reward
+of your efforts. We wait with impatience for the moment when we
+shall see you and talk with you. Your correspondence leaves many
+blanks, and we are sometimes quite ashamed that we have so few
+details to give about your book. You will be surprised that it has
+not yet reached us. Does the gentleman in Geneva intend to read it
+before sending it to us, or has he perhaps not received the
+package? Not hearing we are uneasy. . .Good-by, my dear son; I have
+no room for more, except to add my tender love for you. An
+honorable mention of your name in the Lausanne Gazette has brought
+us many pleasant congratulations. . .
+
+TO HIS FATHER.
+
+August, 1829.
+
+. . .I hope by this time you have my book. I can the less explain
+the delay since M. Cuvier, to whom I sent it in the same way, has
+acknowledged its arrival. I inclose his letter, hoping it will give
+you pleasure to read what one of the greatest naturalists of the
+age writes me about it.
+
+CUVIER TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+PARIS, AU JARDIN DU ROI, August 3, 1829.
+
+. . .You and M. de Martius have done me honor in placing my name at
+the head of a work so admirable as the one you have just published.
+The importance and the rarity of the species therein described, as
+well as the beauty of the figures, will make the work an important
+one in ichthyology, and nothing could heighten its value more than
+the accuracy of your descriptions. It will be of the greatest use
+to me in my History of Fishes. I had already referred to the plates
+in the second edition of my "Regne Animal." I shall do all in my
+power to accelerate the sale among amateurs, either by showing it
+to such as meet at my house or by calling attention to it in
+scientific journals.
+
+I look with great interest for your history of the fishes of the
+Alps. It cannot but fill a wide gap in that portion of natural
+history,--above all, in the different divisions of the genus Salmo.
+The figures of Bloch, those of Meidinger, and those of Marsigli,
+are quite insufficient. We have the greater part of the species
+here, so that it will be easy for me to verify the characters; but
+only an artist, working on the spot, with specimens fresh from the
+water, can secure the colors. You will, no doubt, have much to add
+also respecting the development, habits, and use of all these
+fishes. Perhaps you would do well to limit yourself at first to a
+monograph of the Salmones.
+
+With my thanks for the promised documents, accept the assurance of
+my warm regard and very sincere attachment.
+
+B.G. CUVIER.
+
+At last comes the moment, so long anticipated, when the young
+naturalist's first book is in the hands of his parents. The news of
+its reception is given in a short and hurried note.
+
+FROM HIS FATHER.
+
+ORBE, August 31, 1829.
+
+I hasten, my dear son, to announce the arrival of your beautiful
+work, which reached us on Thursday, from Geneva. I have no terms in
+which to express the pleasure it has given me. In two words, for I
+have only a moment to myself, I repeat my urgent entreaty that you
+would hasten your return as much as possible. . .The old father,
+who waits for you with open heart and arms, sends you the most
+tender greeting. . .
+
+CHAPTER 4.
+
+1829-1830: AGE 22-23.
+
+Scientific Meeting at Heidelberg.
+Visit at Home.
+Illness and Death of his Grandfather.
+Return to Munich.
+Plans for Future Scientific Publications.
+Takes his Degree of Medicine.
+Visit to Vienna.
+Return to Munich.
+Home Letters.
+Last Days at Munich.
+Autobiographical Review of School and University Life.
+
+TO HIS PARENTS.
+
+HEIDELBERG, September 25, 1829.
+
+. . .THE time of our meeting is almost at hand. Relieved from all
+anxiety about the subjects I had wished to present here, I can now
+be quietly with you and enjoy the rest and freedom I have so long
+needed. The tension of mind, forced upon me by the effort to reach
+my goal in time, has crowded out the thoughts which are most
+present when I am at peace. I will not talk to you of what I have
+been doing lately, (a short letter from Frankfort will have put you
+on my track), nor of the relations I have formed at the Heidelberg
+meeting, nor of the manner in which I have been received, etc.
+These are matters better told than written. . .I intend to leave
+here to-morrow or the day after, according to circumstances. I
+shall stay some days at Carlsruhe to put my affairs in order, and
+from there make the journey home as quickly as possible. . .
+
+The following month we find him once more at home in the parsonage
+of Orbe. After the first pleasure and excitement of return, his
+time was chiefly spent in arranging his collections at Cudrefin,
+where his grandfather had given him house-room for them. In this
+work he had the help of the family in general, who made a sort of
+scientific fete of the occasion. But it ended sadly with the
+illness and death of the kind old grandfather, under whose roof
+children and grandchildren had been wont to assemble.
+
+AGASSIZ TO BRAUN.
+
+ORBE, December 3, 1829.
+
+. . .I will devote an hour of this last evening I am to pass in
+Orbe, to talking with you. You will wonder that I am still here,
+and that I have not written. You already know that I have been
+arranging my collections at Cudrefin, and spending very happy days
+with my grandfather. But he is now very ill, and even should we
+have better news of him to-day, the thought weighs heavily on my
+heart, that I must take leave of him when he is perhaps on his
+death-bed. . .I have just tied up my last package of plants, and
+there lies my whole herbarium in order,--thirty packages in all.
+For this I have to thank you, dear Alex, and it gives me pleasure
+to tell you so and to be reminded of it. What a succession of
+glorious memories came up to me as I turned them over. Free from
+all disturbing incidents, I enjoyed anew our life together, and
+even more, if possible, than in actual experience. Every talk,
+every walk, was present to me again, and in reviewing it all I saw
+how our minds had been drawn to each other in an ever-strengthening
+union. In you I see my own intellectual development reflected as in
+a mirror, for to you, and to my intercourse with you, I owe my
+entrance upon this path of the noblest and most lasting enjoyment.
+It is delightful to look back on such a past with the future so
+bright before us. . .
+
+Agassiz now returned to Munich to add the title of Doctor of
+Medicine to that of Doctor of Philosophy. A case of somnambulism,
+which fell under his observation and showed him disease, or, at
+least, abnormal action of the brain, under an aspect which was new
+to him, seems to have given a fresh impulse to his medical studies,
+and, for a time, he was inclined to believe that the vocation which
+had thus far been to him one of necessity, might become one of
+preference. But the naturalist was stronger than the physician.
+During this very winter, when he was preparing himself with new
+earnestness for his profession, a collection of fossil fishes was
+put into his hands by the Director of the Museum of Munich. It will
+be seen with what ardor he threw himself into this new
+investigation. His work on the "Poissons Fossiles," which placed
+him in a few years in the front rank of European scientific men,
+took form at once in his fertile brain.
+
+TO HIS BROTHER.
+
+MUNICH, January 18, 1830.
+
+. . .My resolve to study medicine is now confirmed. I feel all that
+may be done to render this study worthy the name of science, which
+it has so long usurped. Its intimate alliance with the natural
+sciences and the enlightenment it promises me regarding them are
+indeed my chief incitements to persevere in my resolution. In order
+to gain time, and to strike while the iron is hot (don't be afraid
+it will grow cold; the wood which feeds the fire is good), I have
+proposed to Euler, with whom I am very intimate, to review the
+medical course with me. Since then, we pass all our evenings
+together, and rarely separate before midnight,--reading alternately
+French and German medical books. In this way, although I devote my
+whole day to my own work about fishes, I hope to finish my
+professional studies before summer. I shall then pass my
+examination for the Doctorate in Germany, and afterward do the same
+in Lausanne. I hope that this decision will please mama. My
+character and conduct are the pledge of its accomplishment.
+
+This, then, is my night-work. I have still to tell you what I do by
+day, and this is more important. My first duty is to complete my
+Brazilian Fishes. To be sure, it is only an honorary work, but it
+must be finished, and is an additional means of making subsequent
+works profitable. This is my morning occupation, and I am sure of
+bringing it to a close about Easter. After much reflection, I have
+decided that the best way to turn my Fresh-Water Fishes to account,
+is to finish them completely before offering them to a publisher.
+All the expenses being then paid, I could afford, if the first
+publisher should not feel able to take them on my own terms, to
+keep them as a safe investment. The publisher himself seeing the
+material finished, and being sure of bringing it out as a complete
+work, the value of which he can on that account better estimate,
+will be more disposed to accept my proposals, while I, on my side,
+can be more exacting. The text for this I write in the afternoon.
+My greatest difficulty at first was the execution of the plates.
+But here, also, my good star has served me wonderfully. I told you
+that beside the complete drawings of the fishes I wanted to
+represent their skeletons and the anatomy of the soft parts, which
+has never been done for this class. I shall thereby give a new
+value to the work, and make it desirable for all who study
+comparative anatomy. The puzzle was to find some one who was
+prepared to draw things of this kind; but I have made the luckiest
+hit, and am more than satisfied. My former artist continues to draw
+the fishes, a second draws the skeletons (one who had already been
+engaged for several years in the same way, for a work upon
+reptiles), while a young physician, who is an admirable
+draughtsman, makes my anatomical figures. For my share, I direct
+their work while writing the text, and thus the whole advances with
+great strides. I do not, however, stop here. Having by permission
+of the Director of the Museum one of the finest collections of
+fossils in Germany at my disposition, and being also allowed to
+take the specimens home as I need them, I have undertaken to
+publish the ichthyological part of the collection. Since it only
+makes the difference of one or two people more to direct, I have
+these specimens also drawn at the same time. Nowhere so well as
+here, where the Academy of Fine Arts brings together so many
+draughtsmen, could I have the same facility for completing a
+similar work; and as it is an entirely new branch, in which no one
+has as yet done anything of importance, I feel sure of success; the
+more so because Cuvier, who alone could do it (for the simple
+reason that every one else has till now neglected the fishes), is
+not engaged upon it. Add to this that just now there is a real need
+of this work for the determination of the different geological
+formations. Once before, at the Heidelberg meeting, it had been
+proposed to me; the Director of the Mines at Strasbourg, M. Voltz,
+even offered to send me at Munich the whole collection of fossil
+fishes from their Museum. I did not speak to you of this at the
+time because it would have been of no use. But now that I have it
+in my power to carry out the project, I should be a fool to let a
+chance escape me which certainly will not present itself a second
+time so favorably. It is therefore my intention to prepare a
+general work on fossil ichthyology. I hope, if I can command
+another hundred louis, to complete everything of which I have
+spoken before the end of the summer, that is to say, in July. I
+shall then have on hand two works which should surely be worth a
+thousand louis to me. This is a low estimate, for even ephemeral
+pieces and literary ventures are paid at this price. You can easily
+make the calculation. They allow three louis for each plate with
+the accompanying text; my fossils will have about two hundred
+plates, and my fresh-water fishes about one hundred and fifty. This
+seems to me plausible. . .
+
+This letter evidently made a favorable impression on the business
+heads of the family at Neuchatel, for it is forwarded to his
+parents, with these words from his brother on the last sheet: "I
+hasten, dear father, to send you this excellent letter from my
+brother, which has just reached me. They have read it here with
+interest, and Uncle Francois Mayor, especially, sees both stability
+and a sound basis in his projects and enterprises."
+
+There is something touching and almost amusing in Agassiz's efforts
+to give a prudential aspect to his large scientific schemes. He was
+perfectly sincere in this, but to the end of his life he skirted
+the edge of the precipice, daring all, and finding in himself the
+power to justify his risks by his successes. He was of frugal
+personal habits; at this very time, when he was keeping two or
+three artists on his slender means, he made his own breakfast in
+his room, and dined for a few cents a day at the cheapest eating
+houses. But where science was concerned the only economy he
+recognized, either in youth or old age, was that of an expenditure
+as bold as it was carefully considered.
+
+In the above letter to his brother we have the story of his work
+during the whole winter of 1830. That his medical studies did not
+suffer from the fact that, in conjunction with them, he was
+carrying on his two great works on the living and the dead world of
+fishes may be inferred from the following account of his medical
+theses. It was written after his death, to his son Alexander
+Agassiz, by Professor von Siebold, now Director of the Museum in
+the University of Munich. "How earnestly Agassiz devoted himself to
+the study of medicine is shown by the theses (seventy-four in
+number), a list of which was printed, according to the prescribed
+rule and custom, with his 'Einladung.' I am astonished at the great
+number of these. The subjects are anatomical, pathological,
+surgical, obstetrical; they are inquiries into materia medica,
+medicina forensis, and the relation of botany to these topics. One
+of them interested me especially. It read as follows. 'Foemina
+humana superior mare.' I would gladly have known how your father
+interpreted that sentence. Last fall (1873) I wrote him a letter,
+the last I ever addressed to him, questioning him about this very
+subject. That letter, alas! remained unanswered."
+
+In a letter to his brother just before taking his degree, Agassiz
+says: "I am now determined to pursue medicine and natural history
+side by side. Thank you, with all my heart, for your disinterested
+offer, but I shall not need it, for I am going on well with my
+publisher, M. Cotta, of Stuttgart. I have great hope that he will
+accept my works, since he has desired that they should be forwarded
+to him for examination. I have sent him the whole, and I feel very
+sure he will swallow the pill. My conditions would be the only
+cause of delay, but I hope he will agree to them. For the
+fresh-water fishes and the fossils together I have asked twenty
+thousand Swiss francs. Should he not consent to this, I shall apply
+to another publisher."
+
+On the 3rd of April he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. A
+day or two later he writes to his mother that her great desire for
+him is accomplished.
+
+TO HIS MOTHER.
+
+MUNICH, April, 1830.
+
+. . .My letter to-day must be to you, for to you I owe it that I
+have undertaken the work just completed, and I write to thank you
+for having encouraged my zeal. I am very sure that no letter from
+me has ever given you greater pleasure than this one will bring;
+and I can truly say, on my own part, that I have never written one
+with greater satisfaction. Yesterday I finished my medical
+examination, after having satisfied every requirement of the
+Faculty. . .The whole ceremony lasted nine days. At the close,
+while they considered my case, I was sent out of the room. On my
+return, the Dean said to me, "The Faculty have been VERY MUCH"
+(emphasized) "pleased with your answers; they congratulate
+themselves on being able to give the diploma to a young man who has
+already acquired so honorable a reputation. On Saturday, after
+having argued your thesis, you will receive your degree, in the
+Academic Hall, from the Rector of the University." The Rector then
+added that he should look upon it as the brightest moment of his
+Rectorship when he conferred upon me the title I had so well
+merited. Next Saturday, then, at the very time you receive this
+letter, at ten o'clock in the morning, the discussion will have
+begun, and at twelve I shall have my degree. Dear Mother, dismiss
+all anxiety about me. You see I am as good as my word. . .Write
+soon; in a few days I go to Vienna for some months. . .
+
+FROM HIS MOTHER.
+
+ORBE, April 7, 1830.
+
+I cannot thank you enough, my dear Louis, for the happiness you
+have given me in completing your medical examinations, and thus
+securing to yourself a career as safe as it is honorable. It is a
+laurel added to those you have already won; in my eyes the most
+precious of all. You have for my sake gone through a long and
+arduous task; were it in my power I would gladly reward you, but I
+cannot even say that I love you the more for it, because that is
+impossible. My anxious solicitude for your future is a proof of my
+ardent affection for you; only one thing was wanting to make me the
+happiest of mothers, and this, my Louis, you have just given me.
+May God reward you by giving you all possible success in the care
+of your fellow-beings. May the benedictions which honor the memory
+of a good physician be your portion, as they have been in the
+highest degree that of your grandfather. Why can he not be here to
+share my happiness to-day in seeing my Louis a medical graduate!. . .
+
+Agassiz was recalled from Vienna in less than two months by the
+arrival in Munich of his publisher, M. Cotta, a personal interview
+with whom seemed to him important. The only letter preserved from
+the Vienna visit shows that his short stay there was full of
+interest and instruction.
+
+TO HIS FATHER.
+
+VIENNA, May 11, 1830.
+
+. . .Since my arrival I have seen so much that I hardly know where
+to begin my narrative, and what I have seen has suggested
+reflections on many grave subjects, of a kind I had hardly expected
+to make here. Nowhere have I seen establishments on broader or more
+stately foundations, nor do I believe that anywhere are foreigners
+allowed more liberal use of like institutions. I speak of the
+university, the hospitals, libraries, and collections of all sorts.
+Neither have I seen anywhere else such fine churches, and I have
+more than once felt the difference between worshiping within bare
+walls, and in buildings more worthy of devotional purposes. In one
+word, I should be enchanted with my stay in Vienna if I could be
+free from the idea that I am always surrounded by an imperceptible
+net, ready to close upon me at the slightest signal. With this
+exception, the only discomfort to a foreigner here, if he is
+unaccustomed to it, is that of being obliged to abstain from all
+criticism of affairs in public places; still more must he avoid
+commenting upon persons. I am especially satisfied with my visit
+from a scientific point of view. I have learned, and am still
+learning, the care of the eyes and how to operate upon them; as to
+medicine, the physicians, however good, do not surpass those I have
+already known; and as I do not believe it important that a young
+physician should familiarize himself with a great variety of
+curative methods, I try to observe carefully the patient and his
+disease rather than to remember the medicaments applied in special
+cases. Surgery and midwifery are poorly provided, but one has a
+chance to see many interesting cases.
+
+During the last fortnight I have visited the collection of natural
+history often, generally in the afternoon. To tell you how I have
+been expected there from the moment I was known to be here, and how
+I was received on my first visit, and have been feted since (as
+Ichthyologus primus seculi,--so they say), would, perhaps, tire you
+and might seem egotistical in me, neither of which do I desire. But
+it will not be indifferent to you to know that Cotta is disposed to
+accept my Fishes. He has been at Munich for some days, and Schimper
+has been talking with him, and has advanced matters more by a few
+words than I had been able to do by much writing. For this reason I
+intend returning soon to Munich to complete the business, since
+Cotta is to be there several weeks longer. Thus I shall have
+reached my aim, and be provided from this autumn onward with an
+independent maintenance. I was often very anxious this past winter,
+in my uncertainty about the means of finally making good such large
+outlays. If, however, Cotta makes no other condition than that of a
+certain number of subscribers, I shall be sure of them in six months.
+You may thus regard what I have done as a speculation happily
+concluded, and one which places me at the summit of my desires, for
+it leaves me free, at last, to work upon my projects. . .
+
+A letter to his brother, of the 29th of May, just after his return
+to Munich, gives a retrospect of the Viennese visit, including the
+personal details which he had hesitated to write to his father.
+They are important as showing the position he already, at
+twenty-three years of age, held among scientific men. "Everything,"
+he says, "was open to me as a foreigner, and to my great surprise I
+was received as an associate already known. Was it not gratifying
+to go to Vienna with no recommendation whatever, and to be welcomed
+and sought by all the scientific men, and afterwards presented and
+introduced everywhere? In the Museum, not only were the rooms
+opened for me when I pleased, but also the cases, and even the
+jars, so that I could take out whatever I needed for examination.
+At the hospital several professors carried their kindness so far,
+as to invite me to accompany them in their private visits. You may
+fancy whether I profited by all this, and how many things I saw."
+After some account of his business arrangements with Cotta, he adds
+"Meantime, be at ease about me. I have strings enough to my bow,
+and need not feel anxious about the future. What troubles me is
+that the thing I most desire seems to me, at least for the present,
+farthest from my reach,--namely, the direction of a great Museum.
+When I have finished with Cotta I shall begin to pack my effects,
+and shall hope to turn my face homeward somewhere about the end of
+August. I can hardly leave earlier, because, for the sake of
+practice, I have begun to deliver zoological lectures, open to all
+who like to attend, and I want to complete the course before my
+departure. I lecture without even an outline or headings before me,
+but this requires preparation. You see I do not lose my time."
+
+The next home letter announces an important change in the family
+affairs. His father had been called from his parish at Orbe to that
+of Concise, a small town situated on the south-western shore of the
+Lake of Neuchatel.
+
+FROM HIS MOTHER.
+
+ORBE, July, 1830.
+
+. . .Since your father wrote you on the 4th of June, dear Louis, we
+have had no news from you, and therefore infer that you are working
+with especial zeal to wind up your affairs in Germany and come home
+as soon as possible. Whatever haste you make, however, you will not
+find us here. Four days ago your father became pastor of Concise,
+and yesterday we went to visit our new home. Nothing can be
+prettier, and by all who know the place it is considered the most
+desirable position in the canton. There is a vineyard, a fine
+orchard filled with fruit-trees in full bearing, and an excellent
+kitchen garden. A never-failing spring gushes from a grotto, and
+within fifty steps of the house is a pretty winding stream with a
+walk along the bank, bordered by shrubbery, and furnished here and
+there with benches, the whole disposed with much care and taste.
+The house also is very well arranged. All the rooms look out upon
+the lake, lying hardly a gunshot from the windows. There are a
+parlor and a dining-room on the first floor, beside two smaller
+rooms; and on the same floor two doors lead out into the flower
+garden. The kitchen is small, and on one side is a pretty ground
+where we can dine in the open air in summer. The distribution of
+rooms in the upper story is the same, with a large additional room
+for the accommodation of your father's catechumens. A jasmine vine
+drapes the front of the house and climbs to the very roof. . .
+
+To this quiet pretty parsonage Madame Agassiz became much attached.
+Her tranquil life is well described in a letter written many years
+afterward by one of her daughters. "Here mama returned to her
+spinning-wheel with new ardor. It was a work she much liked, and in
+which she was very skillful. In former times at grandpapa's every
+woman in the house, whether mistress or maid, had her wheel, and
+the young ladies were accustomed to spin and make up their own
+trousseaus. Later, mama continued her spinning for her children,
+and even for her grandchildren. We all preserve as a precious
+souvenir, table linen of her making. We delighted to see her at her
+wheel, she was so graceful, and the thread of her thought seemed to
+follow, so to speak, the fine and delicate thread of her work as it
+unwound itself under her touch from the distaff."
+
+Agassiz was detained by his publishing arrangements and his work
+longer than he had expected, and November was already advanced
+before his preparations for leaving Munich were completed.
+
+TO HIS PARENTS.
+
+MUNICH, November 9, 1830.
+
+. . .According to your wish [this refers to a suggestion about a
+fellow-student in a previous letter] I shall not bring any friend
+with me. I long to enjoy the pleasure of family life. I shall,
+however, be accompanied by one person, for whom I should like to
+make suitable arrangements. He is the artist who makes all my
+drawings. If there is no room for him in the house he can be lodged
+elsewhere; but I wish you could give me the use of a well-lighted
+room, where I could work and he could draw at my side through the
+day. Do not be frightened; he is not at my charge; but it would be
+a great advantage to me if I could have him in the house. As I do
+not want to lose time in the mechanical part of my work, I would
+beg papa to engage for me some handy boy, fifteen years old or so,
+whom I could employ in cleaning skeletons and the like. Finally,
+you will receive several boxes for me; leave them unopened till I
+come, without even paying the freight upon them,--the most
+unsatisfactory of all expenses;--and I do not wish you to have an
+unpleasant association with my collections.
+
+My affairs are all in order with Cotta, and I have even concluded
+the arrangement more advantageously than I had dared to hope,--a
+thousand louis, six hundred payable on the publication of the first
+number, and four hundred in installments, as the publication
+goeson. If I had not been in haste to close the matter in order to
+secure myself against all doubt, I might have done even better. But
+I hope I have reconciled you thereby to Natural History. What
+remains to be done will be the work of less than half a year,
+during which I wish also to get together the materials for my
+second work, on the fossils. Of that I have already spoken with my
+publisher, and he will take it on more favorable conditions than I
+could have dictated. Do your best to find me subscribers, that we
+may soon make our typographical arrangements. . .
+
+His father's answer, full of fun as it is, shows, nevertheless,
+that the prospect of domesticating not only the naturalist and his
+collections, but artist and assistant also, was rather startling.
+
+FROM HIS FATHER.
+
+CONCISE, November 16, 1830.
+
+. . .You speak of Christmas as the moment of your arrival; let us
+call it the New Year. You will naturally pass some days at
+Neuchatel to be with your brother, to see the Messrs. Coulon, etc.;
+from there to Cudrefin for a look at your collection; then to
+Concise, then to Montagny, Orbe, Lausanne, Geneva, etc. M. le
+Docteur will be claimed and feted by all in turn. And during all
+these indispensable excursions, for which, to be within bounds, I
+allow a month at least, it is as clear as daylight that regular
+work must be set aside, if, indeed, the time be not wholly lost.
+Now, for Heaven's sake, what will you do, or rather what shall WE
+do, with your painter, in this interval employed by you elsewhere.
+Neither is this all. Though the date of Cecile's marriage is not
+fixed, it is more than likely to take place in January, so that you
+will be here for the wedding. If you will recollect the overturning
+of the paternal mansion when your outfit was preparing for Bienne,
+Zurich, and other places, you can form an idea of the state of our
+rooms above and below, large and small, when the work of the
+trousseau begins. Where, in Heaven's name, will you stow away a
+painter and an assistant in the midst of half a brigade of
+dress-makers, seamstresses, lace-makers, and milliners, without
+counting the accompanying train of friends? Where would you, or
+where could you, put under shelter your possessions (I dare not
+undertake to enumerate them), among all the taffetas and brocades,
+linens, muslin, tulles, laces, etc.? But what am I saying? I doubt
+if these names are still in existence, for quite other appellations
+are sounding in my ears, each one of which, to the number of some
+hundred, signifies at least twenty yards in width, to say nothing
+of the length. For my part, I have already, notwithstanding the
+approach of winter, put up a big nail in the garret, on which to
+hang my bands and surplice. Listen, then, to the conclusion of your
+father. Give all possible care to your affairs in Munich, put them
+in perfect order, leave nothing to be done, and leave nothing
+behind EXCEPT THE PAINTER. You can call him in from here, whenever
+you think you can make use of him.
+
+TO HIS PARENTS.
+
+MUNICH, November 26, 1830.
+
+. . .When you receive this I shall be no longer in Munich; by means
+of a last draft on M. Eichthal I have settled with every one, and I
+hope to leave the day after to-morrow. I fully recognize the
+justice of your observations, my dear father, but as you start from
+a mistaken point of view, they do not coincide altogether with
+existing circumstances. I intend to stay with you until the
+approach of summer, not only with the aim of working upon the text
+of my book, but chiefly in order to take advantage of all the
+fossil collections in Switzerland. For that purpose I positively
+need a draughtsman, who, thanks to my publisher, is not in my pay,
+and who must accompany me in future wherever I go. Since there is
+no room at home, please see how he can be lodged in the
+neighborhood. I have, at the utmost, to glance each day at what he
+has done. I can even give him work for several weeks in which my
+presence would be unnecessary. If there is a considerable
+collection of fossils at Zurich, I shall leave him there till he
+has finished his work, and then he will rejoin me; all that depends
+upon circumstances. In any case he must not be a charge to you,
+still less interfere with our family privacy. That I may spend all
+my time with you, I shall at present bring with me nothing that is
+not absolutely necessary. We shall see later where I shall place my
+museum. As to visits, they are not to be thought of until the
+spring. I could not bear the idea of interruption before the first
+number of my "Fishes" is finished.
+
+The artist in question was Mr. Dinkel. His relations with the
+family became of a truly friendly character. The connection between
+him and Agassiz, most honorable to both parties, lasted for sixteen
+years, and was then only interrupted by the departure of Agassiz
+for America. During this whole period Mr. Dinkel was occupied as
+his draughtsman, living sometimes in Paris, sometimes in England,
+sometimes in Switzerland, wherever, in short, there were specimens
+to be drawn. In a private letter, written long afterward, he says,
+in speaking of the break in their intercourse caused by Agassiz's
+removal to America: "For a long time I felt unhappy at that
+separation. . .He was a kind, noble-hearted friend; he was very
+benevolent, and if he had possessed millions of money he would have
+spent them for his researches in science, and have done good to his
+fellow-creatures as much as possible."
+
+Some passages from Braun's letters complete the chapter of these
+years in Munich, so rich in purpose and in experience, the prelude,
+as it were, to the intellectual life of the two friends who had
+entered upon them together. These extracts show how seriously, not
+without a certain sadness, they near the end.
+
+BRAUN TO HIS FATHER.
+
+MUNICH, November 7, 1830.
+
+Were I to leave Munich now, I must separate myself from Agassiz and
+Schimper, which would be neither agreeable nor advantageous for me,
+nor would it be friendly toward them. We will not shorten the time,
+already too scantly measured, which we may still spend so quietly,
+so wholly by ourselves, but rather, as long as it lasts, make the
+best use of it in a mutual exchange of what we have learned, trying
+to encourage each other in the right path, and drawing more closely
+together for our whole life to come. Agassiz is to stay till the
+end of the month; during this time he will give us lectures in
+anatomy, and I shall learn a good deal of zoology. Beside all this
+one thing is certain; namely, that we can review our medical work
+much more quietly and uninterruptedly here than in Carlsruhe. Add
+to this, the advantage we enjoy here of visiting the hospitals. . .
+The time passes delightfully with us of late, for Agassiz has
+received several baskets of books from Cotta, among others,
+Schiller's and Goethe's complete works, the Conversations-Lexicon,
+medical works, and works on natural history. How many books a man
+may receive in return for writing only one! They are, of course,
+deducted from his share of the profits. Yesterday we did nothing
+but read Goethe the whole day.
+
+A brief account of Agassiz's university life, dictated by himself,
+may fitly close the record of this period. He was often urged to
+put together a few reminiscences of his life, but he lived so
+intensely in the present, every day bringing its full task, that he
+had little time for retrospect, and this sketch remained a
+fragment. It includes some facts already told, but is given almost
+verbatim, because it forms a sort of summary of his intellectual
+development up to this date.
+
+"I am conscious that at successive periods of my life I have
+employed very different means and followed very different systems
+of study. I may, therefore, be allowed to offer the result of my
+experience as a contribution toward the building up of a sound
+method for the promotion of the study of nature.
+
+"At first, when a mere boy, twelve years of age, I did what most
+beginners do. I picked up whatever I could lay my hands on, and
+tried, by such books and authorities as I had at my command, to
+find the names of these objects. My highest ambition, at that time,
+was to be able to designate the plants and animals of my native
+country correctly by a Latin name, and to extend gradually a
+similar knowledge in its application to the productions of other
+countries. This seemed to me, in those days, the legitimate aim and
+proper work of a naturalist. I still possess manuscript volumes in
+which I entered the names of all the animals and plants with which
+I became acquainted, and I well remember that I then ardently hoped
+to acquire the same superficial familiarity with the whole
+creation. I did not then know how much more important it is to the
+naturalist to understand the structure of a few animals, than to
+command the whole field of scientific nomenclature. Since I have
+become a teacher, and have watched the progress of students, I have
+seen that they all begin in the same way; but how many have grown
+old in the pursuit, without ever rising to any higher conception of
+the study of nature, spending their life in the determination of
+species, and in extending scientific terminology! Long before I
+went to the university, and before I began to study natural history
+under the guidance of men who were masters in the science during
+the early part of this century, I perceived that while nomenclature
+and classification, as then understood, formed an important part of
+the study, being, in fact, its technical language, the study of
+living beings in their natural element was of infinitely greater
+value. At that age, namely, about fifteen, I spent most of the time
+I could spare from classical and mathematical studies in hunting
+the neighboring woods and meadows for birds, insects, and land and
+fresh-water shells. My room became a little menagerie, while the
+stone basin under the fountain in our yard was my reservoir for all
+the fishes I could catch. Indeed, collecting, fishing, and raising
+caterpillars, from which I reared fresh, beautiful butterflies,
+were then my chief pastimes. What I know of the habits of the
+fresh-water fishes of Central Europe I mostly learned at that time;
+and I may add, that when afterward I obtained access to a large
+library and could consult the works of Bloch and Lacepede, the only
+extensive works on fishes then in existence, I wondered that they
+contained so little about their habits, natural attitudes, and mode
+of action with which I was so familiar.
+
+"The first course of lectures on zoology I attended was given in
+Lausanne in 1823. It consisted chiefly of extracts from Cuvier's
+'Regne Animal,' and from Lamarck's 'Animaux sans Vertebres.' I now
+became aware, for the first time, that the learned differ in their
+classifications. With this discovery, an immense field of study
+opened before me, and I longed for some knowledge of anatomy, that
+I might see for myself where the truth was. During two years spent
+in the Medical School of Zurich, I applied myself exclusively to
+the study of anatomy, physiology, and zoology, under the guidance
+of Professors Schinz and Hirzel. My inability to buy books was,
+perhaps, not so great a misfortune as it seemed to me; at least, it
+saved me from too great dependence on written authority. I spent
+all my time in dissecting animals and in studying human anatomy,
+not forgetting my favorite amusements of fishing and collecting. I
+was always surrounded with pets, and had at this time some forty
+birds flying about my study, with no other home than a large
+pine-tree in the corner. I still remember my grief when a visitor,
+entering suddenly, caught one of my little favorites between the
+floor and the door, and he was killed before I could extricate him.
+Professor Schinz's private collection of birds was my daily resort,
+and I then described every bird it contained, as I could not afford
+to buy even a text-book of ornithology. I also copied with my own
+hand, having no means of purchasing the work, two volumes of
+Lamarck's 'Animaux sans Vertebres,' and my dear brother copied
+another half volume for me. I finally learned that the study of the
+things themselves was far more attractive than the books I so much
+coveted; and when, at last, large libraries became accessible to
+me, I usually contented myself with turning over the leaves of the
+volumes on natural history, looking at the illustrations, and
+recording the titles of the works, that I might readily consult
+them for identification of such objects as I should have an
+opportunity of examining in nature.
+
+"After spending in this way two years in Zurich, I was attracted to
+Heidelberg by the great reputation of its celebrated teachers,
+Tiedemann, Leuckart, Bronn, and others. It is true that I was still
+obliged to give up a part of my time to the study of medicine, but
+while advancing in my professional course by a steady application
+to anatomy and physiology, I attended the lectures of Leuckart in
+zoology, and those of Bronn in paleontology. The publication of
+Goldfuss's great work on the fossils of Germany was just then
+beginning, and it opened a new world to me. Familiar as I was with
+Cuvier's 'Regne Animal,' I had not then seen his 'Researches on
+Fossil Remains,' and the study of fossils seemed to me only an
+extension of the field of zoology. I had no idea of its direct
+connection with geology, or of its bearing on the problem of the
+successive introduction of animals on the earth. I had never
+thought of the larger and more philosophical view of nature as one
+great world, but considered the study of animals only as it was
+taught by descriptive zoology in those days. At about this time,
+however, I made the acquaintance of two young botanists, Braun and
+Schimper, both of whom have since become distinguished in the
+annals of science. Botany had in those days received a new impulse
+from the great conceptions of Goethe. The metamorphosis of plants
+was the chief study of my friends, and I could not but feel that
+descriptive zoology had not spoken the last word in our science,
+and that grand generalizations, such as were opening upon
+botanists, must be preparing for zoologists also. Intimate contact
+with German students made me feel that I had neglected my
+philosophical education; and when, in the year 1827, the new
+University of Munich opened, with Schelling as professor of
+philosophy, Oken, Schubert, and Wagler as professors of zoology,
+Dollinger as professor of anatomy and physiology, Martius and
+Zuccarini as professors of botany, Fuchs and Kobell as professors
+of mineralogy, I determined to go there with my two friends and
+drink new draughts of knowledge. During the years I passed at
+Munich I devoted myself almost exclusively to the different
+branches of natural science, neglecting more and more my medical
+studies, because I began to feel an increasing confidence that I
+could fight my way in the world as a naturalist, and that I was
+therefore justified in following my strong bent in that direction.
+My experience in Munich was very varied. With Dollinger I learned
+to value accuracy of observation. As I was living in his house, he
+gave me personal instruction in the use of the microscope, and
+showed me his own methods of embryological investigation. He had
+already been the teacher of Karl Ernst von Baer; and though the
+pupil outran the master, and has become the pride of the scientific
+world, it is but just to remember that he owed to him his first
+initiation into the processes of embryological research. Dollinger
+was a careful, minute, persevering observer, as well as a deep
+thinker; but he was as indolent with his pen as he was industrious
+with his brain. He gave his intellectual capital to his pupils
+without stint or reserve, and nothing delighted him more than to
+sit down for a quiet talk on scientific matters with a few
+students, or to take a ramble with them into the fields outside the
+city, and explain to them as he walked the result of any recent
+investigation he had made. If he found himself understood by his
+listeners he was satisfied, and cared for no farther publication of
+his researches. I could enumerate many works of masters in our
+science, which had no other foundation at the outset than these
+inspiriting conversations. No one has borne warmer testimony to the
+influence Dollinger has had in this indirect way on the progress of
+our science than the investigator I have already mentioned as his
+greatest pupil,--von Baer. In the introduction to his work on
+embryology he gratefully acknowledges his debt to his old teacher.
+
+"Among the most fascinating of our professors was Oken. A master in
+the art of teaching, he exercised an almost irresistible influence
+over his students. Constructing the universe out of his own brain,
+deducing from a priori conceptions all the relations of the three
+kingdoms into which he divided all living beings, classifying the
+animals as if by magic, in accordance with an analogy based on the
+dismembered body of man, it seemed to us who listened that the slow
+laborious process of accumulating precise detailed knowledge could
+only be the work of drones, while a generous, commanding spirit
+might build the world out of its own powerful imagination. The
+temptation to impose one's own ideas upon nature, to explain her
+mysteries by brilliant theories rather than by patient study of the
+facts as we find them, still leads us away. With the school of the
+physio-philosophers began (at least in our day and generation) that
+overbearing confidence in the abstract conceptions of the human
+mind as applied to the study of nature, which still impairs the
+fairness of our classifications and prevents them from interpreting
+truly the natural relations binding together all living beings. And
+yet, the young naturalist of that day who did not share, in some
+degree, the intellectual stimulus given to scientific pursuits by
+physio-philosophy would have missed a part of his training. There
+is a great distance between the man who, like Oken, attempts to
+construct the whole system of nature from general premises and the
+one who, while subordinating his conceptions to the facts, is yet
+capable of generalizing the facts, of recognizing their most
+comprehensive relations. No thoughtful naturalist can silence the
+suggestions, continually arising in the course of his
+investigations, respecting the origin and deeper connection of all
+living beings; but he is the truest student of nature who, while
+seeking the solution of these great problems, admits that the only
+true scientific system must be one in which the thought, the
+intellectual structure, rises out of and is based upon facts. The
+great merit of the physio-philosophers consisted in their
+suggestiveness. They did much in freeing our age from the low
+estimation of natural history as a science which prevailed in the
+last century. They stimulated a spirit of independence among
+observers; but they also instilled a spirit of daring, which, from
+its extravagance, has been fatal to the whole school. He is lost,
+as an observer, who believes that he can, with impunity, affirm
+that for which he can adduce no evidence. It was a curious
+intellectual experience to listen day after day to the lectures of
+Oken, while following at the same time Schelling's courses, where
+he was shifting the whole ground of his philosophy from its
+negative foundation as an a priori doctrine to a positive basis, as
+an historical science. He unfolded his views in a succession of
+exquisite lectures, delivered during four consecutive years.
+
+"Among my fellow-students were many young men who now rank among
+the highest lights in the various departments of science, and
+others, of equal promise, whose early death cut short their work in
+this world. Some of us had already learned at this time to work for
+ourselves; not merely to attend lectures and study from books. The
+best spirit of emulation existed among us; we met often to discuss
+our observations, undertook frequent excursions in the
+neighborhood, delivered lectures to our fellow-students, and had,
+not infrequently, the gratification of seeing our university
+professors among the listeners. These exercises were of the highest
+value to me as a preparation for speaking, in later years, before
+larger audiences. My study was usually the lecture-room. It would
+hold conveniently from fifteen to twenty persons, and both students
+and professors used to call our quarters "The Little Academy." In
+that room I made all the skeletons represented on the plates of
+Wagler's "Natural System of Reptiles;" there I once received the
+great anatomist, Meckel, sent to me by Dollinger, to examine my
+anatomical preparations and especially the many fish-skeletons I
+had made from fresh-water fishes. By my side were constantly at
+work two artists; one engaged in drawing various objects of natural
+history, the other in drawing fossil fishes. I kept always one and
+sometimes two artists in my pay; it was not easy, with an allowance
+of 250 dollars a year, but they were even poorer than I, and so we
+managed to get along together. My microscope I had earned by
+writing.
+
+"I had hardly finished the publication of the Brazilian Fishes,
+when I began to study the works of the older naturalists. Professor
+Dollinger had presented me with a copy of Rondelet, which was my
+delight for a long time. I was especially struck by the naivete of
+his narrative and the minuteness of his descriptions as well as by
+the fidelity of his woodcuts, some of which are to this day the
+best figures we have of the species they represent. His learning
+overwhelmed me; I would gladly have read, as he did, everything
+that had been written before my time; but there were authors who
+wearied me, and I confess that at that age Linnaeus was among the
+number. I found him dry, pedantic, dogmatic, conceited; while I was
+charmed with Aristotle, whose zoology I have read and re-read ever
+since at intervals of two or three years. I must, however, do
+myself the justice to add, that after I knew more of the history of
+our science I learned also duly to reverence Linnaeus. But a
+student, already familiar with the works of Cuvier, and but
+indifferently acquainted with the earlier progress of zoology,
+could hardly appreciate the merit of the great reformer of natural
+history. His defects were easily perceived, and it required more
+familiarity than mine then was with the gradual growth of the
+science, from Aristotle onward, to understand how great and
+beneficial an influence Linnaeus had exerted upon modern natural
+history.
+
+"I cannot review my Munich life without deep gratitude. The city
+teemed with resources for the student in arts, letters, philosophy,
+and science. It was distinguished at that time for activity in
+public as well as in academic life. The king seemed liberal; he was
+the friend of poets and artists, and aimed at concentrating all the
+glories of Germany in his new university. I thus enjoyed for a few
+years the example of the most brilliant intellects, and that
+stimulus which is given by competition between men equally eminent
+in different spheres of human knowledge. Under such circumstances a
+man either subsides into the position of a follower in the ranks
+that gather around a master, or he aspires to be a master himself.
+
+"The time had come when even the small allowance I received from
+borrowed capital must cease. I was now twenty-four years of age. I
+was Doctor of Philosophy and Medicine, and author of a quarto
+volume on the fishes of Brazil. I had traveled on foot all over
+Southern Germany, visited Vienna, and explored extensive tracts of
+the Alps. I knew every animal, living and fossil, in the Museums of
+Munich, Stuttgart, Tubingen, Erlangen, Wurzburg, Carlsruhe, and
+Frankfort; but my prospects were as dark as ever, and I saw no hope
+of making my way in the world, except by the practical pursuit of
+my profession as physician. So, at the close of 1830, I left the
+university and went home, with the intention of applying myself to
+the practice of medicine, confident that my theoretical information
+and my training in the art of observing would carry me through the
+new ordeal I was about to meet."
+
+CHAPTER 5.
+
+1830-1832: AGE 23-25.
+
+Year at Home.
+Leaves Home for Paris.
+Delays on the Road.
+Cholera.
+Arrival in Paris.
+First Visit to Cuvier.
+Cuvier's Kindness.
+His Death.
+Poverty in Paris.
+Home Letters concerning Embarrassments and about his Work.
+Singular Dream.
+
+On the 4th of December, 1830, Agassiz left Munich, in company with
+Mr. Dinkel, and after a short stay at St. Gallen and Zurich, spent
+in looking up fossil fishes and making drawings of them, they
+reached Concise on the 30th of the same month. Anxiously as his
+return was awaited at home, we have seen that his father was not
+without apprehension lest the presence of the naturalist, with
+artist, specimens, and apparatus, should be an inconvenience in the
+quiet parsonage. But every obstacle yielded to the joy of reunion,
+and Agassiz was soon established with his "painter," his fossils,
+and all his scientific outfit, under the paternal roof.
+
+Thus quietly engaged in his ichthyological studies, carrying on his
+work on the fossil fishes, together with that on the fresh-water
+fishes of Central Europe, he passed nearly a year at home. He was
+not without patients also in the village and its environs, but had,
+as yet, no prospect of permanent professional employment. In the
+mean time it seemed daily more and more necessary that he should
+carry his work to Paris, to the great centre of scientific life,
+where he could have the widest field for comparison and research.
+There, also, he could continue and complete to the best advantage
+his medical studies. His poverty was the greatest hindrance to any
+such move. He was not, however, without some slight independent
+means, especially since his publishing arrangements provided in
+part for the carrying on of his work. His generous uncle added
+something to this, and an old friend of his father's, M.
+Christinat, a Swiss clergyman with whom he had been from boyhood a
+great favorite, urged upon him his own contribution toward a work
+in which he felt the liveliest interest. Still the prospect with
+which he left for Paris in September, 1831, was dark enough,
+financially speaking, though full of hope in another sense. On the
+road he made several halts for purposes of study, combining, as
+usual, professional with scientific objects, hospitals with
+museums. He was, perhaps, a little inclined to believe that the
+most favorable conditions for his medical studies were to be found
+in conjunction with the best collections. He had, however, a
+special medical purpose, being earnest to learn everything
+regarding the treatment and the limitation of cholera, then for the
+first time making its appearance in Western Europe with frightful
+virulence. Believing himself likely to continue the practice of
+medicine for some years at least, he thought his observations upon
+this scourge would be of great importance to him. His letters of
+this date to his father are full of the subject, and of his own
+efforts to ascertain the best means of prevention and defense. The
+following answer to an appeal from his mother shows, however, that
+his delays caused anxiety at home, lest the small means he could
+devote to his studies in Paris should be consumed on the road.
+
+TO HIS MOTHER.
+
+CARLSRUHE, November, 1831.
+
+. . .I returned day before yesterday from my trip in Wurtemberg,
+and though I already knew what precautions had been taken
+everywhere in anticipation of cholera, I do not think my journey
+was a useless one, and am convinced that my observations will not
+be without interest,--chiefly for myself, of course, but of utility
+to others also I hope. Your letter being so urgent, I will not,
+however, delay my departure an instant. Between to-day and
+to-morrow I shall put in order the specimens lent me by the Museum,
+and then start at once. . .In proportion to my previous anxiety is
+my pleasure in the prospect of going to Paris, now that I am better
+fitted to present myself there as I could wish. I have collected
+for my fossil fishes all the materials I still desired to obtain
+from the museums of Carlsruhe, Heidelberg, and Strasbourg, and have
+extended my knowledge of geology sufficiently to join, without
+embarrassment at least, in conversation upon the more recent
+researches in that department. Moreover, Braun has been kind enough
+to give me a superb collection, selected by himself, to serve as
+basis and guide in my researches. I leave it at Carlsruhe, since I
+no longer need it. . .I have also been able to avail myself of the
+Museum of Carlsruhe, and of the mineralogical collection of Braun's
+father. Beside the drawings made by Dinkel, I have added to my work
+one hundred and seventy-one pages of manuscript in French (I have
+just counted them), written between my excursions and in the midst
+of other occupations. . .I could not have foreseen so rich a
+harvest.
+
+Thus prepared, he arrived in Paris with his artist on the 16th of
+December, 1831. On the 18th he writes to his father. . ."Dinkel and
+I had a very pleasant journey, though the day after our arrival I
+was so fatigued that I could hardly move hand or foot,--that was
+yesterday. Nevertheless, I passed the evening very agreeably at the
+house of M. Cuvier, who sent to invite me, having heard of my
+arrival. To my surprise, I found myself not quite a stranger,
+--rather, as it were, among old acquaintances. I have already given
+you my address, Rue Copeau (Hotel du Jardin du Roi, Numero 4). As
+it happens, M. Perrotet, a traveling naturalist, lives here also,
+and has at once put me on the right track about whatever I most
+need to know. There are in the house other well-known persons
+besides. I am accommodated very cheaply, and am at the same time
+within easy reach of many things, the neighborhood of which I can
+turn to good account. The medical school, for instance, is within
+ten minutes' walk; the Jardin des Plantes not two hundred steps
+away; while the Hospital (de la Pitie), where Messieurs Andral and
+Lisfranc teach, is opposite, and nearer still. To-day or to-morrow
+I shall deliver my letters, and then set to work in good earnest."
+
+Pleased as he was from the beginning with all that concerned his
+scientific life in Paris, the next letter shows that the young
+Swiss did not at once find himself at home in the great French
+capital.
+
+TO HIS SISTER OLYMPE.
+
+PARIS, January 15, 1832.
+
+. . .My expectations in coming here have been more than fulfilled.
+In scientific matters I have found all that I knew must exist in
+Paris (indeed, my anticipations were rather below than above the
+mark), and beside that I have been met everywhere with courtesy,
+and have received attentions of all sorts. M. Cuvier and von
+Humboldt especially treat me on all occasions as an equal, and
+facilitate for me the use of the scientific collections so that I
+can work here as if I were at home. And yet it is not the same
+thing; this extreme, but formal politeness chills you instead of
+putting you at your ease; it lacks cordiality, and, to tell the
+truth, I would gladly go away were I not held fast by the wealth of
+material of which I can avail myself for instruction. In the
+morning I follow the clinical courses at the Pitie. . .At ten
+o'clock, or perhaps at eleven, I breakfast, and then go to the
+Museum of Natural History, where I stay till dark. Between five and
+six I dine, and after that turn to such medical studies as do not
+require daylight. So pass my days, one like another, with great
+regularity. I have made it a rule not to go out after dinner,--I
+should lose too much time. . .On Saturday only I spend the evening
+at M. Cuvier's. . .
+
+The homesickness which is easily to be read between the lines of
+this letter, due, perhaps, to the writer's want of familiarity with
+society in its conventional aspect, yielded to the influence of an
+intellectual life, which became daily more engrossing. Cuvier's
+kind reception was but an earnest of the affectionate interest he
+seems from the first to have felt in him. After a few days he gave
+Agassiz and his artist a corner in one of his own laboratories, and
+often came to encourage them by a glance at their work as it went
+on.
+
+This relation continued until Cuvier's death, and Agassiz enjoyed
+for several months the scientific sympathy and personal friendship
+of the great master whom he had honored from childhood, and whose
+name was ever on his lips till his own work in this world was
+closed. The following letter, written two months later, to his
+uncle in Lausanne tells the story in detail.
+
+TO DR. MAYOR.
+
+PARIS, February 16, 1832.
+
+. . .I have also a piece of good news to communicate, which will, I
+hope, lead to very favorable results for me. I think I told you
+when I left for Paris that my chief anxiety was lest I might not be
+allowed to examine, and still less to describe, the fossil fishes
+and their skeletons in the Museum. Knowing that Cuvier intended to
+write a work on this subject, I supposed that he would reserve
+these specimens for himself. I half thought he might, on seeing my
+work so far advanced, propose to me to finish it jointly with him,
+--but even this I hardly dared to hope. It was on this account,
+with the view of increasing my materials and having thereby a
+better chance of success with M. Cuvier, that I desired so
+earnestly to stop at Strasbourg and Carlsruhe, where I knew
+specimens were to be seen which would have a direct bearing on my
+aim. The result has far surpassed my expectation. I hastened to
+show my material to M. Cuvier the very day after my arrival. He
+received me with great politeness, though with a certain reserve,
+and immediately gave me permission to see everything in the
+galleries of the Museum. But as I knew that he had put together in
+private collections all that could be of use to himself in writing
+his book, and as he had never said a word to me of his plan of
+publication, I remained in a painful state of doubt, since the
+completion of his work would have destroyed all chance for the sale
+of mine. Last Saturday I was passing the evening there, and we were
+talking of science, when he desired his secretary to bring him a
+certain portfolio of drawings. He showed me the contents; they were
+drawings of fossil fishes and notes which he had taken in the
+British Museum and elsewhere. After looking it through with me, he
+said he had seen with satisfaction the manner in which I had
+treated this subject; that I had indeed anticipated him, since he
+had intended at some future time to do the same thing; but that as
+I had given it so much attention, and had done my work so well, he
+had decided to renounce his project, and to place at my disposition
+all the materials he had collected and all the preliminary notes he
+had taken.
+
+You can imagine what new ardor this has given me for my work, the
+more so because M. Cuvier, M. Humboldt, and several other persons
+of mark who are interested in it have promised to speak in my
+behalf to a publisher (to Levrault, who seems disposed to undertake
+the publication should peace be continued), and to recommend me
+strongly. To accomplish my end without neglecting other
+occupations, I work regularly at least fifteen hours a day,
+sometimes even an hour or two more; but I hope to reach my goal in
+good time.
+
+This trust from Cuvier proved to be a legacy. Less than three
+months after the date of this letter Agassiz went, as often
+happened, to work one morning with him in his study. It was Sunday,
+and he was employed upon something which Cuvier had asked him to
+do, saying, "You are young; you have time enough for it, and I have
+none to spare." They worked together till eleven o'clock, when
+Cuvier invited Agassiz to join him at breakfast. After a little
+time spent over the breakfast table in talk with the ladies of the
+family, while Cuvier opened his letters, papers, etc., they
+returned to the working room, and were busily engaged in their
+separate occupations when Agassiz was surprised to hear the clock
+strike five, the hour for his dinner. He expressed his regret that
+he had not quite finished his work, but said that as he belonged to
+a student's table his dinner would not wait for him, and he would
+return soon to complete his task. Cuvier answered that he was quite
+right not to neglect his regular hours for meals, and commended his
+devotion to study, but added, "Be careful, and remember that WORK
+KILLS." They were the last words he heard from his beloved teacher.
+The next day, as Cuvier was going up to the tribune in the Chamber
+of Deputies, he fell, was taken up paralyzed, and carried home.
+Agassiz never saw him again.* (* This warning of Cuvier, "Work
+kills," strangely recalls Johannes Muller's "Blood clings to work;"
+the one seems the echo of the other. See "Memoir of Johannes
+Muller", by Rudolf Virchow, page 38.)
+
+In order to keep intact these few data respecting his personal
+relations with Cuvier, as told in later years by Agassiz himself,
+the course of the narrative has been anticipated by a month or two.
+Let us now return to the natural order. The letter to his uncle of
+course gave great pleasure at home. Just after reading it his
+father writes (February, 1832), "Now that you are intrusted with
+the portfolio of M. Cuvier, I suppose your plan is considerably
+enlarged, and that your work will be of double volume; tell me,
+then, as much about it as you think I can understand, which will
+not be a great deal after all." His mother's letter on the same
+occasion is full of tender sympathy and gratitude.
+
+Meanwhile one daily anxiety embittered his scientific happiness.
+The small means at his command could hardly be made, even with the
+strictest economy, to cover the necessary expenses of himself and
+his artist, in which were included books, drawing materials, fees,
+etc. He was in constant terror lest he should be obliged to leave
+Paris, to give up his investigations on the fossil fishes, and to
+stop work on the costly plates he had begun. The truth about his
+affairs, which he would gladly have concealed from those at home as
+long as possible, was drawn from him by an accidental occurrence.
+His brother had written to him for a certain book, and, failing to
+receive it, inquired with some surprise why his commission was
+neglected. Agassiz's next letter, about a month later than the one
+to his uncle, gives the explanation.
+
+TO HIS BROTHER.
+
+PARIS, March, 1832.
+
+. . .Here is the book for which you asked me,--price, 18 francs. I
+shall be very sorry if it comes too late, but I could not help it
+. . .In the first place I had not money enough to pay for it
+without being left actually penniless. You can imagine that after
+the fuel bill for the winter is paid, little remains for other
+expenses out of my 200 francs a month, five louis of which are
+always due to my companion. Far from having anything in advance, my
+month's supply is thus taken up at once. . .Beside this cause of
+delay, you can have no idea what it is to hunt for anything in Paris
+when you are a stranger there. As I go out only in two or three
+directions leading to my work, and might not otherwise leave my own
+street for a month at a time, I naturally find myself astray when
+I am off this beaten track. . .You have asked me several times how
+I have been received by those to whom I had introductions. Frankly,
+after having delivered a few of my letters, I have never been
+again, because I cannot, in my position, spare time for visits. . .
+Another excellent reason for staying away now is that I have
+no presentable coat. At M. Cuvier's only am I sufficiently at ease
+to go in a frock coat. . .Saturday, a week ago, M. de Ferussac
+offered me the editorship of the zoological section of the
+"Bulletin;" it would be worth to me an additional thousand francs,
+but would require two or three hours' work daily. Write me soon
+what you think about it. In the midst of all the encouragements
+which sustain me and renew my ardor, I am depressed by the reverse
+side of my position.
+
+This letter drew forth the following one.
+
+FROM HIS MOTHER.
+
+CONCISE, March, 1832.
+
+. . .Much as your letter to your uncle delighted us, that to your
+brother has saddened us. It seems, my dear child, that you are
+painfully straitened in means. I understand it by personal
+experience, and in your case I have foreseen it; it is the cloud
+which has always darkened your prospects to me. I want to talk to
+you, my dear Louis, of your future, which has often made me
+anxious. You know your mother's heart too well to misunderstand her
+thought, even should its expression be unacceptable to you. With
+much knowledge, acquired by assiduous industry, you are still at
+twenty-five years of age living on brilliant hopes, in relation, it
+is true, with great people, and known as having distinguished
+talent. Now, all this would seem to me delightful if you had an
+income of fifty thousand francs; but, in your position, you must
+absolutely have an occupation which will enable you to live, and
+free you from the insupportable weight of dependence on others.
+From this day forward, my dear child, you must look to this end
+alone if you would find it possible to pursue honorably the career
+you have chosen. Otherwise constant embarrassments will so limit
+your genius, that you will fall below your own capacity. If you
+follow our advice you will perhaps reach the result of your work in
+the natural sciences a little later, but all the more surely. Let
+us see how you can combine the work to which you have already
+consecrated so much time, with the possibility of self-support. It
+appears from your letter to your brother that you see no one in
+Paris; the reason seems to me a sad one, but it is unanswerable,
+and since you cannot change it, you must change your place of abode
+and return to your own country. You have already seen in Paris all
+those persons whom you thought it essential to see; unless you are
+strangely mistaken in their good-will, you will be no less sure of
+it in Switzerland than in Paris, and since you cannot take part in
+their society, your relations with them will be the same at the
+distance of a hundred leagues as they are now. You must therefore
+leave Paris for Geneva, Lausanne, or Neuchatel, or any city where
+you can support yourself by teaching. . .This seems to me the most
+advantageous course for you. If before fixing yourself permanently
+you like to take your place at the parsonage again, you will always
+find us ready to facilitate, as far as we can, any arrangements for
+your convenience. Here you can live in perfect tranquillity and
+without expense.
+
+There are two other subjects which I want to discuss with you,
+though perhaps I shall not make myself so easily understood. You
+have seen the handsome public building in process of construction
+at Neuchatel. It will be finished this year, and I am told that the
+Museum will be placed there. I believe the collections are very
+incomplete, and the city of Neuchatel is rich enough to expend
+something in filling the blanks. It has occurred to me, my dear,
+that this would be an excellent opportunity for disposing of your
+alcoholic specimens. They form, at present, a capital yielding no
+interest, requiring care, and to be enjoyed only at the cost of
+endless outlay in glass jars, alcohol, and transportation, to say
+nothing of the rent of a room in which to keep them. All this,
+beside attracting many visitors, is too heavy a burden for you,
+from which you may free yourself by taking advantage of this rare
+chance. To this end you must have an immediate understanding with
+M. Coulon, lest he should make a choice elsewhere. Your brother,
+being on the spot, might negotiate for you. . .Finally, my last
+topic is Mr. Dinkel. You are very fortunate to have found in your
+artist such a thoroughly nice fellow; nevertheless, in view of the
+expense, you must make it possible to do without him. I see you
+look at me aghast; but where a sacrifice is to be made we must not
+do it by halves; we must pull up the tree by the roots. It is a
+great evil to be spending more than one earns. . .
+
+TO HIS MOTHER.
+
+PARIS, March 25, 1832.
+
+. . .It is true, dear mother, that I am greatly straitened; that I
+have much less money to spend than I could wish, or even than I
+need; on the other hand, this makes me work the harder, and keeps
+me away from distractions which might otherwise tempt me. . .With
+reference to my work, however, things are not quite as you suppose,
+as regards either my stay here or my relations with M. Cuvier.
+Certainly, I hope that I should lose neither his good-will nor his
+protection on leaving here; on the contrary, I am sure that he
+would be the first to advise me to accept any professorship, or any
+place which might be advantageous for me, however removed from my
+present occupations, and that his counsels would follow me there.
+But what cannot follow me, and what I owe quite as much to him, is
+the privilege of examining all the collections. These I can have
+nowhere but in Paris, since even if he would consent to it I could
+not carry away with me a hundred quintals of fossil fish, which,
+for the sake of comparison, I must have before my eyes, nor
+thousands of fish-skeletons, which would alone fill some fifty
+great cases. It is this which compels me to stay here till I have
+finished my work. I should add that M. Elie de Beaumont has also
+been kind enough to place at my disposition the fossil fishes from
+the collection at the Mining School, and that M. Brongniart has
+made me the same offer regarding his collection, which is one of
+the finest among those owned by individuals in Paris. . .
+
+As to my collections, I had already thought of asking either the
+Vaudois government or the city of Neuchatel to receive them into
+the Museum, merely on condition that they should provide for the
+expenses of exhibition and preservation, making use of them,
+meanwhile, for the instruction of the public. I should be sorry to
+lose all right to them, because I hope they may have another final
+destination. I do not despair of seeing the different parts of
+Switzerland united at some future day by a closer tie, and in case
+of such a union a truly Helvetic university would become a
+necessity; then, my aim would be to make my collection the basis of
+that which they would be obliged to found for their courses of
+lectures. It is really a shame that Switzerland, richer and more
+extensive than many a small kingdom, should have no university,
+when some states of not half its size have even two; for instance,
+the grand duchy of Baden, one of whose universities, that of
+Heidelberg, ranks among the first in all Germany. If ever I attain
+a position allowing me so to do, I shall make every effort in my
+power to procure for my country the greatest of benefits: namely,
+that of an intellectual unity, which can arise only from a high
+degree of civilization, and from the radiation of knowledge from
+one central point.
+
+I, too, have considered the question about Dinkel, and if, when I
+have finished my work here, my position is not changed, and I have
+no definite prospect, such as would justify me in keeping him with
+me,--well! then we must part! I have long been preparing myself for
+this, by employing him only upon what is indispensable to the
+publication of my first numbers, hoping that these may procure me
+the means of paying for such illustrations as I shall further need.
+As my justification for having engaged him in the first instance,
+and continued this expense till now, I can truly say that it is in
+a great degree through his drawings that M. Cuvier has been able to
+judge of my work, and so has been led to make a surrender of all
+his materials in my favor. I foresaw clearly that this was my only
+chance of competing with him, and it was not without reason that I
+insisted so strongly on having Dinkel with me in passing through
+Strasbourg and subsequently at Carlsruhe. Had I not done so, M.
+Cuvier might still be in advance of me. Now my mind is at rest on
+this score; I have already written you all about his kindness in
+offering me the work. Could I only be equally fortunate in its
+publication!
+
+M. Cuvier urges me strongly to present my book to the Academy, in
+order to obtain a report upon its contents. I must first finish it,
+however, and the task is not a light one. For this reason, above
+all, I regret my want of means; but for that I could have the
+drawings made at once, and the Academy report, considered as a
+recommendation, would certainly help on the publication greatly.
+But in this respect I have long been straitened; Auguste knows that
+I had at Munich an artist who was to complete what I had left there
+for execution, and that I stopped his work on leaving Concise. If
+the stagnation of the book-trade continues I shall, perhaps, be
+forced to give up Dinkel also; for if I cannot begin the
+publication, which will, I hope, bring me some return, I must cease
+to accumulate material in advance. Should business revive soon,
+however, I may yet have the pleasure of seeing all completed before
+I leave Paris.
+
+I think I forgot to mention the arrival of Braun six weeks after
+me. I had a double pleasure in his coming, for he brought with him
+his younger brother, a charming fellow, and a distinguished pupil
+of the polytechnic school of Carlsruhe. He means to be a mining
+engineer, and comes to study such collections at Paris as are
+connected with this branch. You cannot imagine what happiness and
+comfort I have in my relations with Alexander; he is so good, so
+cultivated and high-minded, that his friendship is a real blessing
+to me. We both feel very much our separation from the elder
+Schimper, who, spite of his great desire to join us at Carlsruhe
+and accompany us to Paris, was not able to leave Munich. . .
+
+P.S. My love to Auguste. To-day (Sunday) I went again to see M.
+Humboldt about Auguste's* (* Concerning a business undertaking in
+Mexico.) plan, but did not find him.
+
+Then follow several pages, addressed to his father, in answer to
+the request contained in one of his last letters that Louis would
+tell him as much as he thinks he can understand of his work. There
+is something touching in this little lesson given by the son to the
+father, as showing with what delight Louis responded to the least
+touch of parental affection respecting his favorite studies, so
+long looked upon at home with a certain doubt and suspicion. The
+whole letter is not given here, as it is simply an elementary
+treatise on geology; but the close is not without interest as
+relating to the special investigations on which he was now
+employed.
+
+"The aim of our researches upon fossil animals is to ascertain what
+beings have lived at each one of these (geological) epochs of
+creation, and to trace their characters and their relations with
+those now living; in one word, to make them live again in our
+thought. It is especially the fishes that I try to restore for the
+eyes of the curious, by showing them which ones have lived in each
+epoch, what were their forms, and, if possible, by drawing some
+conclusions as to their probable modes of life. You will better
+understand the difficulty of my work when I tell you that in many
+species I have only a single tooth, a scale, a spine, as my guide
+in the reconstruction of all these characters, although sometimes
+we are fortunate enough to find species with the fins and the
+skeletons complete. . .
+
+"I ask pardon if I have tired you with my long talk, but you know
+how pleasant it is to ramble on about what interests us, and the
+pleasure of being questioned by you upon subjects of this kind has
+been such a rare one for me, that I have wished to present the
+matter in its full light, that you may understand the zeal and the
+enthusiasm which such researches can excite."
+
+To this period belongs a curious dream mentioned by Agassiz in his
+work on the fossil fishes.* (* "Recherches sur les Poissons
+Fossiles". Cyclopoma spinosum Agassiz. Volume 4 tab 1, pages 20,
+21.) It is interesting both as a psychological fact and as showing
+how, sleeping and waking, his work was ever present with him. He
+had been for two weeks striving to decipher the somewhat obscure
+impression of a fossil fish on the stone slab in which it was
+preserved. Weary and perplexed he put his work aside at last, and
+tried to dismiss it from his mind. Shortly after, he waked one
+night persuaded that while asleep he had seen his fish with all the
+missing features perfectly restored. But when he tried to hold and
+make fast the image, it escaped him. Nevertheless, he went early to
+the Jardin des Plantes, thinking that on looking anew at the
+impression he should see something which would put him on the track
+of his vision. In vain,--the blurred record was as blank as ever.
+The next night he saw the fish again, but with no more satisfactory
+result. When he awoke it disappeared from his memory as before.
+Hoping that the same experience might be repeated, on the third
+night he placed a pencil and paper beside his bed before going to
+sleep. Accordingly toward morning the fish reappeared in his dream,
+confusedly at first, but at last with such distinctness that he had
+no longer any doubt as to its zoological characters. Still half
+dreaming, in perfect darkness, he traced these characters on the
+sheet of paper at the bedside. In the morning he was surprised to
+see in his nocturnal sketch features which he thought it impossible
+the fossil itself should reveal. He hastened to the Jardin des
+Plantes, and, with his drawing as a guide, succeeded in chiseling
+away the surface of the stone under which portions of the fish
+proved to be hidden. When wholly exposed it corresponded with his
+dream and his drawing, and he succeeded in classifying it with
+ease. He often spoke of this as a good illustration of the
+well-known fact, that when the body is at rest the tired brain will
+do the work it refused before.
+
+CHAPTER 6.
+
+1832: AGE 25.
+
+Unexpected Relief from Difficulties.
+Correspondence with Humboldt.
+Excursion to the Coast of Normandy.
+First Sight of the Sea.
+Correspondence concerning Professorship at Neuchatel.
+Birthday Fete.
+Invitation to Chair of Natural History at Neuchatel.
+Acceptance.
+Letter to Humboldt.
+
+AGASSIZ was not called upon to make the sacrifice of giving up his
+artist and leaving Paris, although he was, or at least thought
+himself, prepared for it. The darkest hour is before the dawn, and
+the letter next given announces an unexpected relief from pressing
+distress and anxiety.
+
+TO HIS FATHER AND MOTHER.
+
+PARIS, March, 1832.
+
+. . .I am still so agitated and so surprised at what has just
+happened that I scarcely believe what my eyes tell me.
+
+I mentioned in a postscript to my last letter that I had called
+yesterday on M. de Humboldt, whom I had not seen for a long time,
+in order to speak to him concerning Auguste's affair, but that I
+did not find him. In former visits I had spoken to him about my
+position, and told him that I did not well know what course to take
+with my publisher. He offered to write to him, and did so more than
+two months ago. Thus far, neither he nor I have had any answer.
+This morning, just as I was going out, a letter came from M. de
+Humboldt, who writes me that he is very uneasy at receiving no
+reply from Cotta, that he fears lest the uncertainty and anxiety of
+mind resulting from this may be injurious to my work, and begs me
+to accept the inclosed credit of a thousand francs. . .--Oh! if my
+mother would forget for one moment that this is the celebrated M.
+de Humboldt, and find courage to write him only a few lines, how
+grateful I should be to her. I think it would come better from her
+than from papa, who would do it more correctly, no doubt, but
+perhaps not quite as I should like. Humboldt is so good, so
+indulgent, that you should not hesitate, dear mother, to write him
+a few lines. He lives Rue du Colombier, Number 22; address, quite
+simply, M. de Humboldt. . .
+
+In the agitation of the moment the letter was not even signed.
+
+The following note from Humboldt to Mme. Agassiz, kept by her as a
+precious possession, shows that in answer to her son's appeal his
+mother took her courage, as the French saying is, "with both
+hands," and wrote as she was desired.
+
+FROM HUMBOLDT TO MME. AGASSIZ.
+
+PARIS, April 11, 1832.
+
+I should scold your son, Madame, for having spoken to you of the
+slight mark of interest I have been able to show him; and yet, how
+can I complain of a letter so touching, so noble in sentiment, as
+the one I have just received from your hand. Accept my warmest
+thanks for it. How happy you are to have a son so distinguished by
+his talents, by the variety and solidity of his acquirements, and,
+withal, as modest as if he knew nothing,--in these days, too, when
+youth is generally characterized by a cold and scornful
+amour-propre. One might well despair of the world if a person like
+your son, with information so substantial and manners so sweet and
+prepossessing, should fail to make his way. I approve highly the
+Neuchatel plan, and hope, in case of need, to contribute to its
+success. One must aim at a settled position in life.
+
+Pray excuse, Madame, the brevity of these lines, and accept the
+assurance of my respectful regard.
+
+HUMBOLDT.
+
+The letter which lifted such a load of care from Louis and his
+parents was as follows:--
+
+HUMBOLDT TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+PARIS, March 27, 1832.
+
+I am very uneasy, my dearest M. Agassiz, at being still without any
+letter from Cotta. Has he been prevented from writing by business,
+or illness perhaps? You know how tardy he always is about writing.
+Yesterday (Monday) I wrote him earnestly again concerning your
+affair (an undertaking of such moment for science), and urged upon
+him the issuing of the fossil and fresh-water fishes in alternate
+numbers. In the mean time, I fear that the protracted delay may
+weigh heavily on you and your friends. A man so laborious, so
+gifted, and so deserving of affection as you are should not be left
+in a position where lack of serenity disturbs his power of work.
+You will then surely pardon my friendly goodwill toward you, my
+dear M. Agassiz, if I entreat you to make use of the accompanying
+small credit. You would do more for me I am sure. Consider it an
+advance which need not be paid for years, and which I will gladly
+increase when I go away or even earlier. It would pain me deeply
+should the urgency of my request made in the closest confidence,
+--in short, a transaction as between two friends of unequal age,
+--be disagreeable to you. I should wish to be pleasantly remembered
+by a young man of your character.
+
+Yours, with the most affectionate respect,
+
+ALEXANDER HUMBOLDT.
+
+With this letter was found the following note of acknowledgment,
+scrawled in almost illegible pencil marks. Whether sent exactly as
+it stands or not, it is evidently the first outburst of Agassiz's
+gratitude.
+
+My benefactor and friend,--it is too much; I cannot find words to
+tell you how deeply your letter of to-day has moved me. I have just
+been at your house that I might thank you in person with all my
+heart; but now I must wait to do so until I have the good fortune
+to meet you. At what a moment does your help come to me! I inclose
+a letter from my dear mother that you may understand my whole
+position. My parents will now readily consent that I should devote
+myself entirely to science, and I am freed from the distressing
+thought that I may be acting contrary to their wishes and their
+will. But they have not the means to help me, and had proposed that
+I should return to Switzerland and give lessons either in Geneva or
+Lausanne. I had already resolved to follow this suggestion in the
+course of next summer, and had also decided to part with Mr.
+Dinkel, my faithful companion, as soon as he should have finished
+the most indispensable drawings of the fossils on which he is now
+engaged here. I meant to tell you of this on Sunday, and now to-day
+comes your letter. Imagine what must have been my feeling, after
+having resolved on renouncing what till now had seemed to me
+noblest and most desirable in life, to find myself unexpectedly
+rescued by a kind, helpful hand, and to have again the hope of
+devoting my whole powers to science,--you can judge of the state
+into which your letter has thrown me. . .
+
+Soon after this event Agassiz made a short excursion with Braun and
+Dinkel to the coast of Normandy; worth noting, because he now saw
+the sea for the first time. He wrote home: "For five days we
+skirted the coast from Havre to Dieppe; at last I have looked upon
+the sea and its riches. From this excursion of a few days, which I
+had almost despaired of making, I bring back new ideas, more
+comprehensive views, and a more accurate knowledge of the great
+phenomena presented by the ocean in its vast expanse."
+
+Meanwhile the hope he had always entertained of finding a
+professorship of natural history in his own country was ripening
+into a definite project. His first letter on this subject to M.
+Louis Coulon, himself a well-known naturalist, and afterward one of
+his warmest friends in Neuchatel, must have been written just
+before he received from Humboldt the note of the same date, which
+extricated him from his pecuniary embarrassment.
+
+AGASSIZ TO LOUIS COULON.
+
+PARIS, March 27, 1832.
+
+. . .When I had the pleasure of seeing you last summer I several
+times expressed my strong desire to establish myself near you, and
+my intention of taking some steps toward obtaining the
+professorship of natural history to be founded in your Lyceum. The
+matter must be more advanced now than it was last year, and you
+would oblige me greatly by giving me some information concerning
+it. I have spoken of my project to M. de Humboldt, whom I often
+see, and who kindly interests himself about my prospects and helps
+me with his advice. He thinks that under the circumstances, and
+especially in my position, measures should be taken in advance.
+There is another point of great importance for me about which I
+wished also to speak to you. Though you have seen but a small part
+of it, you nevertheless know that in my different journeys, partly
+through my relations with other naturalists, partly by exchange, I
+have made a very fair collection of natural history, especially
+rich in just those classes which are less fully represented in your
+museum. My collection might, therefore, fill the gaps in that of
+the city of Neuchatel, and make the latter more than adequate for
+the illustration of a full course of natural history. Should an
+increase of your zoological collection make part of your plans for
+the Lyceum, I venture to believe that mine would fully answer your
+purpose. In that case I would offer it to you, since the expense of
+arranging it, the rent of a room in which to keep it, and, in
+short, its support in general, is beyond my means. I must find some
+way of relieving myself from this burden, although it will be hard
+to part with these companions of my study, upon which I have based
+almost all my investigations. I have spoken of this also to M. de
+Humboldt, who is good enough to show an interest in the matter, and
+will even take all necessary steps with the government to
+facilitate this purchase. You would render me the greatest service
+by giving me your directions about all this, and especially by
+telling me: 1. On whom the nomination to the professorship depends?
+2. With whom the purchase of the collection would rest? 3. What you
+think I should do with reference to both? Of course you will easily
+understand that I cannot give up my collections except under the
+condition that I should be allowed the free use of them. . .
+
+The answer was not only courteous, but kind, although some time
+elapsed before the final arrangements were made. Meanwhile the
+following letter shows us the doubts and temptations which for a
+moment embarrassed Agassiz in his decision. The death of Cuvier had
+intervened.
+
+AGASSIZ TO HUMBOLDT.
+
+PARIS, May, 1832.
+
+. . .I would not write you until I had definite news from
+Neuchatel. Two days ago I received a very delightful letter from M.
+Coulon, which I hasten to share with you. I will not copy the
+whole, but extract the essential part. He tells me that he has
+proposed to the Board of Education the establishment of a
+professorship of natural history, to be offered to me. The
+proposition met with a cordial hearing. The need of such a
+professorship was unanimously recognized, but the President
+explained that neither would the condition of the treasury allow
+its establishment in the present year, nor could the proposition be
+brought before the Council of State until the opening of the new
+Lyceum.
+
+Monsieur Coulon was commissioned to thank me, and to request me in
+the name of the board to keep the place in mind; should I prefer
+it, however, he doubts not that whatever the city could not do
+might be made good by subscription before next autumn, in which
+case I could enter upon office at once. He requests a prompt answer
+in order that he may make all needful preparations. Only too gladly
+would I have consulted you about various propositions made to me
+here in the last few days, and have submitted my course to your
+approval, had it not been that here, as in Neuchatel, a prompt
+answer was urged. Although guided rather by instinct than by
+anything else, I think, nevertheless, that I have chosen rightly.
+In such moments, when one cannot see far enough in advance to form
+an accurate judgment upon deliberation, feeling is, after all, the
+best adviser; that inner impulse, which is a safe guide if other
+considerations do not confuse the judgment. This says to me, "Go to
+Neuchatel; do not stay in Paris." But I speak in riddles; I must
+explain myself more clearly. Last Monday Levrault sent for me in
+order to propose that Valenciennes and I should jointly undertake
+the publication of the Cuvierian fishes. . .I was to give a
+positive answer this week. I have carefully considered it, and have
+decided that an unconditional engagement would lead me away from my
+nearest aim, and from what I look upon as the task of my life. The
+already published volumes of the System of Ichthyology lie too far
+from the road on which I intend to pursue my researches. Finally,
+it seems to me that in a quiet retired place like Neuchatel,
+whatever may be growing up within me will have a more independent
+and individual development than in this restless Paris, where
+obstacles or difficulties may not perhaps divert me from a given
+purpose, but may disturb or delay its accomplishment. I will
+therefore so shape my answer to Levrault as to undertake only
+single portions of the work, the choice of these, on account of my
+interest in the fossil and the fresh-water fishes, being allowed
+me, with the understanding, also, that I should be permitted to
+have these collections in Switzerland and work them up there. From
+Paris, also, it would not be so easy to transfer myself to Germany,
+whereas I could consider Neuchatel as a provisional position from
+which I might be called to a German university. . .
+
+In the mean time, while waiting hopefully the result of his
+negotiations with Neuchatel, Agassiz had organized with his
+friends, the two Brauns, a bachelor life very like the one he and
+Alexander had led with their classmates in Munich. The little hotel
+where they lodged had filled up with young German doctors, who had
+come to visit the hospitals in Paris and study the cholera. Some of
+these young men had been their fellow-students at the university,
+and at their request Agassiz and Braun resumed the practice of
+giving private lectures on zoology and botany, the whole being
+conducted in the most informal manner, admitting absolute freedom
+of discussion, as among intimate companions of the same age. Such
+an interchange naturally led to very genial relations between the
+amateur professors and their class, and on the eve of Agassiz's
+birthday (28th of May) his usual audience prepared for him a very
+pleasant surprise. Returning from a walk after dusk he found Braun
+in his room. Continuing his stroll within four walls, he and his
+friend paced the floor together in earnest talk, when, at a signal,
+Braun suddenly drew him to the window, threw it open, and on the
+pavement below stood their companions, singing a part song,
+composed in honor of Agassiz. Deeply moved, he withdrew from the
+window in time to receive them as they trooped up the stairway to
+offer their good wishes. They presently led the way to another room
+which they had dressed with flowers, Agassiz's name, among other
+decorations, being braided in roses beneath two federal flags
+crossed on the wall. Here supper was laid, and the rest of the
+evening passed gayly with songs and toasts, not only for the hero
+of the feast and for friends far and near, but for the progress of
+science, the liberty of the people, and the independence of
+nations. There could be no meeting of ardent young Germans and
+Swiss in those days without some mingling of patriotic aspirations
+with the sentiment of the hour.
+
+The friendly correspondence between Agassiz and M. Coulon regarding
+the professorship at Neuchatel was now rapidly bringing the matter
+to a happy conclusion.
+
+AGASSIZ TO LOUIS COULON.
+
+PARIS, June 4, 1832.
+
+I have received your kind letter with great pleasure and hasten to
+reply. What you write gives me the more satisfaction because it
+opens to me in the near future the hope of establishing myself in
+your neighborhood and devoting to my country the fruits of my
+labor. It is true, as you suppose, that the death of M. Cuvier has
+sensibly changed my position; indeed, I have already been asked to
+continue his work on fishes in connection with M. Valenciennes, who
+made me this proposition the day after your letter reached me. The
+conditions offered me are, indeed, very tempting, but I am too
+little French by character, and too anxious to live in Switzerland,
+not to prefer the place you can offer me, however small the
+appointments, if they do but keep me above actual embarrassment. I
+say thus much only in order to answer that clause in your letter
+where you touch upon this question. I would add that I leave the
+field quite free in this respect, and that I am yours without
+reserve, if, indeed, within the fortnight, the urgency of the
+Parisians does not carry the day, or, rather, as soon as I write
+you that I have been able finally to withdraw. You easily
+understand that I cannot bluntly decline offers which seem to those
+who make them so brilliant. But I shall hold out against them to
+the utmost. My course with reference to my own publications will
+have shown you that I do not care for a lucrative position from
+personal interest; that, on the contrary, I should always be ready
+to use such means as I may have at my disposition for the
+advancement of the institution confided to my care.
+
+My work will still detain me for four or five months at Paris,--my
+time being after that completely at my disposal. The period at
+which I should like to begin my lectures is therefore very near,
+and I think if your people are favorably disposed toward the
+creation of a new professorship we must not let them grow cold. But
+you have shown me so much kindness that I may well leave to your
+care, in concert with your friends, the decision of this point; the
+more so since you are willing to take charge of my interests, until
+you see the success of what you are pleased to look upon as an
+advantage to your institution, while for me it is the realization
+of a sincere desire to do what I can for the advancement of
+science, and the instruction of our youth. . .
+
+The next letter from M. Coulon (June 18, 1832) announces that the
+sum of eighty louis having been guaranteed for three years, chiefly
+by private individuals, but partly also by the city, they were now
+able to offer a chair of natural history at once to their young
+countryman. In conclusion, he adds:--
+
+"I can easily understand that the brilliant offers made you in
+Paris strongly counterbalance a poor little professorship of
+natural history at Neuchatel, and may well cause you to hesitate;
+especially since your scientific career there is so well begun. On
+the other hand, you cannot doubt our pleasure in the prospect of
+having you at Neuchatel, not only because of the friendship felt
+for you by many persons here, but also on account of the lustre
+which a chair of natural history so filled would shed upon our
+institution. Of this our subscribers are well aware, and it
+accounts for the rapid filling of the list. I am very anxious, as
+are all these gentlemen, to know your decision, and beg you
+therefore to let us hear from you as soon as possible."
+
+A letter from Humboldt to M. Coulon, about this time, is an earnest
+of his watchful care over the interests of Agassiz.
+
+HUMBOLDT TO LOUIS COULON.
+
+POTSDAM, July 25, 1832.
+
+. . .I do not write to ask a favor, but only to express my warm
+gratitude for your noble and generous dealings with the young
+savant, M. Agassiz, who is well worthy your encouragement and the
+protection of your government. He is distinguished by his talents,
+by the variety and substantial character of his attainments, and by
+that which has a special value in these troubled times, his natural
+sweetness of disposition.
+
+Through our common friend, M. von Buch, I have known for many years
+that you study natural history with a success equal to your zeal,
+and that you have brought together fine collections, which you
+place at the disposal of others with a noble liberality. It
+gratifies me to see your kindness toward a young man to whom I am
+so warmly attached; whom the illustrious Cuvier, also, whose loss
+we must ever deplore, would have recommended with the same
+heartiness, for his faith, like mine, was based on those admirable
+works of Agassiz which are now nearly completed. . .
+
+I have strongly advised M. Agassiz not to accept the offers made to
+him at Paris since M. Cuvier's death, and his decision has
+anticipated my advice. How happy it would be for him, and for the
+completion of the excellent works on which he is engaged, could he
+this very year be established on the shores of your lake! I have no
+doubt that he will receive the powerful protection of your worthy
+governor, to whom I shall repeat my requests, and who honors me, as
+well as my brother, with a friendship I warmly appreciate. M. von
+Buch also has promised me, before leaving Berlin for Bonn and
+Vienna, to add his entreaty to mine. . .He is almost as much
+interested as myself in M. Agassiz and his work on fossil fishes,
+the most important ever undertaken, and equally exact in its
+relation to zoological characters and to geological deposits. . .
+
+The next letter from Agassiz to his influential friend is written
+after his final acceptance of the Neuchatel professorship.
+
+AGASSIZ TO HUMBOLDT.
+
+PARIS, July, 1832.
+
+. . .I would most gladly have answered your delightful letter at
+once, and have told you how smoothly all has gone at Neuchatel.
+Your letters to M. de Coulon and to General von Pfuel have wrought
+marvels; but they are now inclined to look upon me there as a
+wonder from the deep,* (* Ein blaues Meerwunder.) and I must exert
+myself to the utmost lest my actual presence should give the lie to
+fame. It is all right. I shall be the less likely to relax in
+devotion to my work.
+
+The real reason of my silence has been that I was unwilling to
+acknowledge so many evidences of efficient sympathy and friendly
+encouragement by an empty letter. I wished especially to share with
+you the final result of my investigations on the fossil fishes, and
+for that purpose it was necessary to revise my manuscripts and take
+an account of my tables in order to condense the whole in a few
+phrases. I have already told you that the investigation of the
+living fishes had suggested to me a new classification, in which
+families as at present circumscribed respectively received new, and
+to my thinking more natural positions, based upon other
+considerations than those hitherto brought forward. I did not at
+first lay any special stress on my classification. . .My object was
+only to utilize certain structural characters which frequently
+recur among fossil forms, and which might therefore enable me to
+determine remains hitherto considered of little value. . .Absorbed
+in the special investigation, I paid no heed to the edifice which
+was meanwhile unconsciously building itself up. Having however
+completed the comparison of the fossil species in Paris, I wanted,
+for the sake of an easy revision of the same, to make a list
+according to their succession in geological formations, with a view
+of determining the characteristics more exactly and bringing them
+by their enumeration into bolder relief. What was my joy and
+surprise to find that the simplest enumeration of the fossil fishes
+according to their geological succession was also a complete
+statement of the natural relations of the families among
+themselves; that one might therefore read the genetic development
+of the whole class in the history of creation, the representation
+of the genera and species in the several families being therein
+determined; in one word, that the genetic succession of the fishes
+corresponds perfectly with their zoological classification, and
+with just that classification proposed by me. The question
+therefore in characterizing formations is no longer that of the
+numerical preponderance of certain genera and species, but of
+distinct structural relations, carried through all these formations
+according to a definite direction, following each other in an
+appointed order, and recognizable in the organisms as they are
+brought forth. . .If my conclusions are not overturned or modified
+through some later discovery, they will form a new basis for the
+study of fossils. Should you communicate my discovery to others I
+shall be especially pleased, because it may be long before I can
+begin to publish it myself, and many may be interested in it. This
+seems to me the most important of my results, though I have also,
+partly from perfect specimens, partly from fragments, identified
+some five hundred extinct species, and more than fifty extinct
+genera, beside reestablishing three families no longer represented.
+
+Cotta has written me in very polite terms that he could not
+undertake anything new at present; he would rather pay, without regard
+to profit, for what has been done thus far, and lets me have fifteen
+hundred francs. This makes it possible for me to leave Dinkel in Paris
+to complete the drawings. Although it often seems to me hard, I must
+reconcile myself to the thought of leaving investigations which are
+actually completed, locked up in my desk. . .
+
+CHAPTER 7.
+
+1832-1834: AGE 25-27.
+
+Enters upon his Professorship at Neuchatel.
+First Lecture.
+Success as a Teacher.
+Love of Teaching.
+Influence upon the Scientific Life of Neuchatel.
+Proposal from University of Heidelberg.
+Proposal declined.
+Threatened Blindness.
+Correspondence with Humboldt.
+Marriage.
+Invitation from Charpentier.
+Invitation to visit England.
+Wollaston Prize.
+First Number of "Poissons Fossiles."
+Review of the Work.
+
+THE following autumn Agassiz assumed the duties of his
+professorship at Neuchatel. His opening lecture "Upon the Relations
+between the different branches of Natural History and the then
+prevailing tendencies of all the Sciences" was given on the 12th of
+November, 1832, at the Hotel de Ville. Judged by the impression
+made upon the listeners as recorded at the time, this introductory
+discourse must have been characterized by the same broad spirit of
+generalization which marked Agassiz's later teaching. Facts in his
+hands fell into their orderly relation as parts of a connected
+whole, and were never presented merely as special or isolated
+phenomena. From the beginning his success as an instructor was
+undoubted. He had, indeed, now entered upon the occupation which
+was to be from youth to old age the delight of his life. Teaching
+was a passion with him, and his power over his pupils might be
+measured by his own enthusiasm. He was intellectually, as well as
+socially, a democrat, in the best sense. He delighted to scatter
+broadcast the highest results of thought and research, and to adapt
+them even to the youngest and most uninformed minds. In his later
+American travels he would talk of glacial phenomena to the driver
+of a country stage-coach among the mountains, or to some workman,
+splitting rock at the road-side, with as much earnestness as if he
+had been discussing problems with a brother geologist; he would
+take the common fisherman into his scientific confidence, telling
+him the intimate secrets of fish structure or fish-embryology, till
+the man in his turn grew enthusiastic, and began to pour out
+information from the stores of his own rough and untaught habits of
+observation. Agassiz's general faith in the susceptibility of the
+popular intelligence, however untrained, to the highest truths of
+nature, was contagious, and he created or developed that in which
+he believed.
+
+In Neuchatel the presence of the young professor was felt at once
+as a new and stimulating influence. The little town suddenly became
+a centre of scientific activity. A society for the pursuit of the
+natural sciences, of which he was the first secretary, sprang into
+life. The scientific collections, which had already attained, under
+the care of M. Louis Coulon, considerable value, presently assumed
+the character and proportions of a well-ordered museum. In M.
+Coulon Agassiz found a generous friend and a scientific colleague
+who sympathized with his noblest aspirations, and was ever ready to
+sustain all his efforts in behalf of scientific progress. Together
+they worked in arranging, enlarging, and building up a museum of
+natural history which soon became known as one of the best local
+institutions of the kind in Europe.
+
+Beside his classes at the gymnasium, Agassiz collected about him,
+by invitation, a small audience of friends and neighbors, to whom
+he lectured during the winter on botany, on zoology, on the
+philosophy of nature. The instruction was of the most familiar and
+informal character, and was continued in later years for his own
+children and the children of his friends. In the latter case the
+subjects were chiefly geology and geography in connection with
+botany, and in favorable weather the lessons were usually given in
+the open air. One can easily imagine what joy it must have been for
+a party of little playmates, boys and girls, to be taken out for
+long walks in the country over the hills about Neuchatel, and
+especially to Chaumont, the mountain which rises behind it, and
+thus to have their lessons, for which the facts and scenes about
+them furnished subject and illustration, combined with pleasant
+rambles. From some high ground affording a wide panoramic view
+Agassiz would explain to them the formation of lakes, islands,
+rivers, springs, water-sheds, hills, and valleys. He always
+insisted that physical geography could be better taught to children
+in the vicinity of their own homes than by books or maps, or even
+globes. Nor did he think a varied landscape essential to such
+instruction. Undulations of the ground, some contrast of hill and
+plain, some sheet of water with the streams that feed it, some
+ridge of rocky soil acting as a water-shed, may be found
+everywhere, and the relation of facts shown perhaps as well on a
+small as on a large scale.
+
+When it was impossible to give the lessons out of doors, the
+children were gathered around a large table, where each one had
+before him or her the specimens of the day, sometimes stones and
+fossils, sometimes flowers, fruits, or dried plants. To each child
+in succession was explained separately what had first been told to
+all collectively. When the talk was of tropical or distant
+countries pains were taken to procure characteristic specimens, and
+the children were introduced to dates, bananas, cocoa-nuts, and
+other fruits, not easily to be obtained in those days in a small
+inland town. They, of course, concluded the lesson by eating the
+specimens, a practical illustration which they greatly enjoyed. A
+very large wooden globe, on the surface of which the various
+features of the earth as they came up for discussion could be
+shown, served to make them more clear and vivid. The children took
+their own share in the instruction, and were themselves made to
+point out and describe that which had just been explained to them.
+They took home their collections, and as a preparation for the next
+lesson were often called upon to classify and describe some unusual
+specimen by their own unaided efforts. There was no tedium in the
+class. Agassiz's lively, clear, and attractive method of teaching
+awakened their own powers of observation in his little pupils, and
+to some at least opened permanent sources of enjoyment.
+
+His instructions to his older pupils were based on the same
+methods, and were no less acceptable to them than to the children.
+In winter his professional courses to the students were chiefly
+upon zoology and kindred topics; in the summer he taught them
+botany and geology, availing himself of the fine days for
+excursions and practical instruction in the field. Professor Louis
+Favre, speaking of these excursions, which led them sometimes into
+the gorges of the Seyon, sometimes into the forests of Chaumont,
+says: "They were fete days for the young people, who found in their
+professor an active companion, full of spirits, vigor, and gayety,
+whose enthusiasm kindled in them the sacred fire of science."
+
+It was not long before his growing reputation brought him
+invitations from elsewhere. One of the first of these was from
+Heidelberg.
+
+PROFESSOR TIEDEMANN TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+HEIDELBERG, December 4, 1832.
+
+. . .Last autumn, when I had the pleasure of meeting you in
+Carlsruhe, I proposed to you to give some lectures on Natural
+History at this university. Professor Leuckart, who till now
+represented zoology here, is called to Freiburg, and you would
+therefore be the only teacher in that department. The university
+being so frequented, a numerous audience may be counted upon. The
+zoological collection, by no means an insignificant one, is open to
+your use. Professor Leuckart received a salary of five hundred
+florins. This is now unappropriated, and I do not doubt that the
+government, conformably to the proposition of the medical faculty,
+would give you the appointment on the same terms. By your knowledge
+you are prepared for the work of an able academical teacher. My
+advice is, therefore, that you should not bind yourself to any
+lyceum or gymnasium, as a permanent position; such a place would
+not suit a cultivated scientific man, nor does it offer a field for
+an accomplished scholar. Consider carefully, therefore, a question
+which concerns the efficiency of your life, and give me the result
+of your deliberation as soon as possible. Should it be favorable to
+the acceptance of my proposition, I hope you will find yourself
+here at Easter as full professor, with a salary of five hundred
+florins, and a fitting field of activity for your knowledge. The
+fees for lectures and literary work might bring you in an
+additional fifteen hundred gulden yearly. If you accede to this
+offer send me your inaugural dissertation, and make me acquainted
+with your literary work, that I may take the necessary steps with
+the Curatorio. Consider this proposition as a proof of my high
+appreciation of your literary efforts and of my regard for you
+personally.
+
+Agassiz's next letter to Humboldt is to consult him with respect to
+the call from Heidelberg, while it is also full of pleasure at the
+warm welcome extended to him in Neuchatel.
+
+AGASSIZ TO HUMBOLDT.
+
+December, 1832.
+
+. . .At last I am in Neuchatel, having, indeed, begun my lectures
+some weeks ago. I have been received in a way I could never have
+anticipated, and which can only be due to your good-will on my
+behalf and your friendly recommendation. You have my warmest thanks
+for the trouble you have taken about me, and for your continued
+sympathy. Let me show you by my work in the years to come, rather
+than by words, that I am in earnest about science, and that my
+spirit is not irresponsive to a noble encouragement such as you
+have given me.
+
+You will have received my letter from Carlsruhe. Could I only tell
+you all that I have since thought and observed about the history of
+our earth's development, the succession of the animal populations,
+and their genetic classification! It cannot easily be compressed
+within letter limits; I will, nevertheless, attempt it when my
+lectures make less urgent claim upon me, and my eyes are less
+fatigued. I should defer writing till then were it not that to-day
+I have something of at least outside interest to announce. It
+concerns the inclosed letter received to-day. (The offer of a
+professorship at Heidelberg.) Should you think that I need not take
+it into consideration, and you have no time to answer me, let me
+know your opinion by your silence. I will tell you the reasons
+which would induce me to remain for the present in Neuchatel, and I
+think you will approve them. First, as my lectures do not claim a
+great part of my time I shall have the more to bestow on other
+work; add to this the position of Neuchatel, so favorable for
+observations such as I propose making on the history of development
+in several classes of animals; then the hope of freeing myself from
+the burden of my collections; and next, the quiet of my life here
+with reference to my somewhat overstrained health. Beside my wish
+to remain, these favorable circumstances furnish a powerful motive,
+and then I am satisfied that people here would assist me with the
+greatest readiness should my publications not succeed otherwise. As
+to the publication of my fishes, I can, after all, better direct
+the lithographing of the plates here. I have just written to Cotta
+concerning this, proposing also that he should advance the cost of
+the lithographs. I shall attend to it all carefully, and be content
+for the present with my small means. From the gradual sale he can,
+little by little, repay my expenses, and I shall ask no profit
+until the success of the work warrants it. I await his answer. This
+proposal seems to me the best and the most likely to advance the
+publication of this work.
+
+Since I arrived here some scientific efforts have been made with
+the help of M. Coulon. We have already founded a society of Natural
+History,* (* Societe des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchatel.) and I
+hope, should you make your promised visit next year, you will find
+this germ between foliage and flower at least, though perhaps not
+yet ripened into seed. . .
+
+M. Coulon told me the day before yesterday that he had spoken with
+M. de Montmollin, the Treasurer, who would write to M. Ancillon
+concerning the purchase of my collection. . .Will you have the
+kindness, when occasion offers, to say a word to M. Ancillon about
+it?. . .Not only would this collection be of the greatest value to
+the museum here, but its sale would also advance my farther
+investigations. With the sum of eighty louis, which is all that is
+subscribed for my professorship, I cannot continue them on any
+large scale.
+
+I await now with anxiety Cotta's answer to my last proposition; but
+whatever it be, I shall begin the lithographing of the plates
+immediately after the New Year, as they must be carried on under my
+own eye and direction. This I can well do since my uncle, Dr. Mayor
+in Lausanne, gives me fifty louis toward it, the amount of one
+year's pay to Weber, my former lithographer in Munich. I have
+therefore written him to come, and expect him after New Year. With
+my salary I can also henceforth keep Dinkel, who is now in Paris,
+drawing the last fossils which I described. . .
+
+No answer to this letter has been found beyond such as is implied
+in the following to M. Coulon.
+
+HUMBOLDT TO M. COULON, FILS.
+
+BERLIN, January 21, 1833.
+
+. . .It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the flattering
+welcome offered by you and your fellow-citizens to M. Agassiz, who
+stands so high in science, and whose intellectual qualities are
+enhanced by his amiable character. They write me from Heidelberg
+that they intend the place of M. Leuckart in zoology for my young
+friend. The choice is proposed by M. Tiedemann, and certainly
+nothing could be more honorable to M. Agassiz. Nevertheless, I hope
+that he will refuse it. He should remain for some years in your
+country, where a generous encouragement facilitates the publication
+of his work, which is of equal importance to zoology and geology.
+
+I have spoken with M. Ancillon, and have left with him an official
+notice respecting the purchase of the Agassiz collection. The
+difficulty will be found, as in all human affairs, in the prose of
+life, in money. M. Ancillon writes me this morning: "Your paper in
+favor of M. Agassiz is a scientific letter of credit which we shall
+try to honor. The acquisition of a superior man and a superior
+collection at the same time would be a double conquest for the
+principality of Neuchatel. I have requested a report from the
+Council of State on the means of accomplishing this, and I hope
+that private individuals may do something toward it." Thus you see
+the affair is at least on the right road. I do not think, however,
+that the royal treasury will give at present more than a thousand
+Prussian crowns toward it. . .
+
+Regarding the invitation to Heidelberg, Agassiz's decision was
+already made. A letter to his brother toward the close of December
+mentions that he is offered a professorship at the University of
+Heidelberg, but that, although his answer has not actually gone, he
+has resolved to decline it; adding that the larger salary is
+counterbalanced in his mind by the hope of selling his collection
+at Neuchatel, and thus freeing himself from a heavy burden.
+
+Agassiz was now threatened with a great misfortune. Already, in
+Paris, his eyes had begun to suffer from the strain of microscopic
+work. They now became seriously impaired; and for some months he
+was obliged to abate his activity, and to refrain even from writing
+a letter. During this time, while he was shut up in a darkened
+room, he practiced the study of fossils by touch alone, using even
+the tip of the tongue to feel out the impression, when the fingers
+were not sufficiently sensitive. He said he was sure at the time
+that he could bring himself in this way to such delicacy of touch
+that the loss of sight would not oblige him to abandon his work.
+After some months his eyes improved, and though at times threatened
+with a return of the same malady, he was able, throughout life, to
+use his eyes more uninterruptedly than most persons. His lectures,
+always delivered extemporaneously, do not seem to have been
+suspended for any length of time.
+
+The following letter from Agassiz to Humboldt is taken from a rough
+and incomplete draught, which was evidently put aside (perhaps on
+account of the trouble in his eyes), and only completed in the
+following May. Although imperfect, it explains Humboldt's answer,
+which is not only interesting in itself, but throws light on
+Agassiz's work at this period.
+
+AGASSIZ TO HUMBOLDT.
+
+NEUCHATEL, January 27, 1833.
+
+. . .A thousand thanks for your last most welcome letter. I can
+hardly tell you what pleasure it gave me, or how I am cheered and
+stimulated to new activity by intercourse with you on so intimate a
+footing. Since I wrote you, some things have become more clear to
+me, as, for instance, my purpose of publishing the "Fossil Fishes"
+here. Certain doubts remain in my mind, however, about which, as
+well as about other matters, I would ask your advice. Now that
+Cotta is dead, I cannot wait till I have made an arrangement with
+his successor. I therefore allow the "Fresh-Water Fishes" to lie by
+and drive on the others. Upon careful examination I have found, to
+my astonishment, that all necessary means for the publication of
+such a work are to be had here: two good lithographers and two
+printing establishments, both of which have excellent type. I have
+sent for Weber to engrave the plates, or draw them on stone; he
+will be here at the end of the month. Then I shall begin at once,
+and hope in May to send out the first number. The great difficulty
+remains now in the distribution of the numbers, and in finding a
+sufficient sale so that they may follow each other with regularity.
+I think it better to begin the publication as a whole than to send
+out an abridgment in advance. The species can be characterized only
+by good illustrations. A summary always requires farther
+demonstration, whereas, if I give the plates at once I can shorten
+the text and present the general results as an introduction to the
+first number. With twelve numbers, of twenty plates each, followed
+by about ten pages of text, I can tell all that I have to say. The
+cost of one hundred and fifty copies printed here would, according
+to careful inquiry, be covered by seventy subscriptions if the
+price were put at one louis-d'or the number.
+
+Now comes the question whether I should print more than one hundred
+and fifty copies. On account of the expense I shall not preserve
+the stones. For the distribution of the copies and the collecting
+of the money could you, perhaps, recommend me to some house in
+Berlin or Leipzig, who would take the work for sale in Germany on
+commission under reasonable conditions? For England, I wrote
+yesterday to Lyell, and to-morrow I shall write to Levrault and
+Bossange.
+
+Both the magistrates and private individuals here are now much
+interested in public instruction, and I am satisfied that sooner or
+later my collection will be purchased, though nothing has been said
+about it lately.* (* His collection was finally purchased by the
+city of Neuchatel in the spring of 1833.)
+
+For a closer description of my family of Lepidostei, to which
+belong all the ante-chalk bony fishes, I am anxious to have for
+dissection a Polypterus Bichir and a Lepidosteus osseus, or any
+other species belonging exclusively to the present creation.
+Hitherto, I have only been able to examine and describe the
+skeleton and external parts. If you could obtain a specimen of both
+for me you would do me the greatest service. If necessary, I will
+engage to return the preparations. I beg for this most earnestly.
+Forgive the many requests contained in this letter, and see in it
+only my ardent desire to reach my aim, in which you have already
+helped me so often and so kindly.
+
+HUMBOLDT TO AGASSIZ.
+
+SANS SOUCI, July 4, 1833.
+
+. . .I am happy in your success, my dear Agassiz, happy in your
+charming letter of May 22nd, happy in the hope of having been able
+to do something that may be useful to you for the subscription. The
+Prince Royal's name seemed to me rather important for you. I have
+delayed writing, not because I am one of the most persecuted men in
+Europe (the persecution goes on crescendo; there is not a scholar
+in Prussia or Germany having anything to ask of the King, or of M.
+d'Altenstein, who does not think it necessary to make me his agent,
+with power of attorney), but because it was necessary to await the
+Prince Royal's return from his military circuit, and the
+opportunity of speaking to him alone, which does not occur when I
+am with the King.
+
+Your prospectus is full of interest, and does ample justice to
+those who have provided you with materials. To name me among them
+was an affectionate deceit, the ruse of a noble soul like yours; I
+am a little vexed with you about it.* (* The few words which called
+forth this protest from Humboldt were as follows. After naming all
+those from whom he had received help in specimens or otherwise,
+Agassiz concludes:--"Finally, I owe to M. de Humboldt not only
+important notes on fossil fishes, but so many kindnesses in
+connection with my work that in enumerating them I should fear to
+wound the delicacy of the giver." This will hardly seem an
+exaggeration to those who know the facts of the case.)
+
+Here is the beginning of a list. I think the Department of the
+Mines de Province will take three or four more copies. We have not
+their answer yet. Do not be frightened at the brevity of the list
+. . .I am, however, the least apt of all men in collecting
+subscriptions, seeing no one but the court, and forced to be out of
+town three or four days in the week. On account of this same
+inaptitude, I beg you to send me, through the publisher, only my
+own three copies, and to address the others, through the publisher
+also, to the individuals named on the list, merely writing on each
+copy that the person has subscribed on the list of M. de Humboldt.
+
+With all my affection for you, my dear friend, it would be
+impossible for me to take charge of the distribution of your
+numbers or the returns. The publishing houses of Dummler or of
+Humblot and Dunker would be useful to you at Berlin. I find it
+difficult to believe that you will navigate successfully among
+these literary corsairs! I have had a short eulogium of your work
+inserted in the Berliner Staats-Zeitung. You see that I do not
+neglect your interests, and that, for love of you, I even turn
+journalist. You have omitted to state in your prospectus whether
+your plates are lithographed, as I fear they are, and also whether
+they are colored, which seems to me unnecessary. Have your superb
+original drawings remained in your possession, or are they included
+in the sale of your collection?. . .
+
+I could not make use of your letter to the King, and I have
+suppressed it. You have been ill-advised as to the forms.
+"Erhabener Konig" has too poetical a turn; we have here the most
+prosaic and the most degrading official expressions. M. de Pfuel
+must have some Arch-Prussian with him, who would arrange the
+formula of a letter for you. At the head there must be "Most
+enlightened, most powerful King,--all gracious sovereign and lord."
+Then you begin, "Your Royal Majesty, deeply moved, I venture to lay
+at your feet most humbly my warmest thanks for the support so
+graciously granted to the purchase of my collection for the
+Gymnasium in Neuchatel. Did I know how to write," etc. The rest of
+your letter was very good; put only "so much grace as to answer"
+instead of "so much kindness." You should end with the words, "I
+remain till death, in deepest reverence, the most humble and
+faithful servant of your Royal Majesty." The whole on small folio,
+sealed, addressed outside, "To the King's Majesty, Berlin." Send
+the letter, not through me, but officially, through M. de Pfuel.*
+(* At the head there must be "Allerdurchlauchtigster,
+grossmachtigster Konig,--allergnadigster Konig und Herr." Then you
+begin, "Euer koniglichen Majestat, wage ich meinen lebhaftesten
+Dank fur die allergnadigst bewilligte Unterstutzung zum Ankauf
+meiner Sammlung fur das Gymnasium in Neuchatel tief geruhrt
+allerunterthanigst zu Fussen zu legen. Wusste ich zu schreiben,"
+etc. The rest of your letter was very good,--put only, "so vieler
+Gnade zu entsprechen" instead of "so vieler Gute." You should end
+with the words, "Ich ersterbe in tiefster Ehrfurcht Euer
+koniglicher Majestat aller onter thanigsten getreuester." The whole
+in small folio, sealed, addressed outside, "An des Konig's
+Majestat, Berlin." These forms are no longer in use. They belong to
+a past generation.)
+
+The letter to the King is not absolutely necessary, but it will
+give pleasure, for the King likes any affectionate demonstration
+from the country that has now become yours.* (* It may not be known
+to all readers that Neuchatel was then under Prussian sovereignty.)
+It will be useful, also, with reference to our request for the
+purchase of some copies, which we will make to the King as soon as
+the first number has appeared. Had I obtained the King's name for
+you to-day (which would have been difficult, since the King detests
+subscriptions), we should have spoiled the sequence. It seems to me
+that a letter of acknowledgment from you to M. Ancillon would be
+very suitable also. Do not think it is too late. One addresses him
+as "Monsieur et plus votre Excellence." I am writing the most
+pedantic letter in the world in answer to yours, so full of charm.
+It must seem to you absurd that I write you in French, when you,
+French by origin, or rather by language, prefer to write me in
+German. Pray tell me, did you learn German, which you write with
+such purity, as a child?
+
+I am happy to see that you publish the whole together. The
+parceling out of such a work would have led to endless delays; but,
+for mercy's sake, take care of your eyes; they are OURS. I have not
+neglected the subscriptions in Russia, but I have, as yet, no
+answer. At a venture, I have placed the name of M. von Buch on my
+list. He is absent; it is said that he will go to Greece this
+summer. Pray make it a rule not to give away copies of your work.
+If you follow that inclination you will be pecuniarily ruined.
+
+I wish I could have been present at your course of lectures. What
+you tell me of them delights me, though I am ready to do battle
+with you about those metamorphoses of our globe which have even
+slipped into your title. I see by your letter that you cling to the
+idea of internal vital processes of the earth, that you regard the
+successive formations as different phases of life, the rocks as
+products of metamorphosis. I think this symbolical language should
+be employed with great reserve, I know that point of view of the
+old "Naturphilosophie;" I have examined it without prejudice, but
+nothing seems to me more dissimilar than the vital action of the
+metamorphosis of a plant in order to form the calyx or the flower,
+and the successive formation of beds of conglomerate. There is
+order, it is true, in the superposed beds, sometimes an alternation
+of the same substance, an interior cause,--sometimes even a
+successive development, starting from a central heat; but can the
+term "life" be applied to this kind of movement? Limestone does not
+generate sandstone. I do not know that there exists what
+physiologists call a vital force, different from, or opposed to,
+the physical forces which we recognize in all matter; I think the
+vital process is only a particular mode of action, of limitation of
+those physical forces; action, the nature of which we have not yet
+fully sounded. I believe there are nervous storms (electric) like
+those which set fire to the atmosphere, but that special action
+which we call organic, in which every part becomes cause or effect,
+seems to me distinct from the changes which our planet has
+undergone. I pause here, for I feel that I must annoy you, and I
+care for you too much to run that risk. Moreover, a superior man
+like yourself, my dear friend, floats above material things and
+leaves a margin for philosophic doubt.
+
+Farewell; count on the little of life that remains to me, and on my
+affectionate devotion. At twenty-six years of age, and possessed of
+so much knowledge, you are only entering upon life, while I am
+preparing to depart; leaving this world far different from what I
+hoped it would be in my youth. I will not forget the Bichir and the
+Lepidosteus. Remember always that your letters give me the greatest
+pleasure. . .
+
+[P.S.] Look carefully at the new number of Poggendorf, in which you
+will find beautiful discoveries of Ehrenberg (microscopical) on the
+difference of structure between the brain and the nerves of motion,
+also upon the crystals forming the silvered portion of the
+peritoneum of Esox lucius.
+
+In October, 1833, Agassiz's marriage to Cecile Braun, the sister of
+his life-long friend, Alexander Braun, took place. He brought his
+wife home to a small apartment in Neuchatel, where they began their
+housekeeping after the simplest fashion, with such economy as their
+very limited means enforced. Her rare artistic talent, hitherto
+devoted to her brother's botanical pursuits, now found a new field.
+Trained to accuracy in drawing objects of Natural History, she had
+an artist's eye for form and color. Some of the best drawings in
+the Fossil Fishes and the Fresh-Water Fishes are from her hand.
+Throughout the summer, notwithstanding the trouble in his eyes,
+Agassiz had been still pressing on these works. His two artists,
+Mr. Dinkel and Mr. Weber, the former in Paris, the latter in
+Neuchatel, were constantly busy on his plates.
+
+Although Agassiz was at this time only twenty-six years of age, his
+correspondence already shows that the interest of scientific men,
+all over Europe, was attracted to him and to his work. From
+investigators of note in his own country, from those of France,
+Italy, and Germany, from England, and even from America, the
+distant El Dorado of naturalists in those days, came offers of
+cooperation, accompanied by fossil fishes or by the drawings of
+rare or unique specimens. He was known in all the museums of Europe
+as an indefatigable worker and collector, seeking everywhere
+materials for comparison.
+
+Among the letters of this date is one from Charpentier, one of the
+pioneers of glacial investigation, under whose auspices, two years
+later, Agassiz began his inquiries into glacial phenomena. He
+writes him from the neighborhood of Bex, his home in the valley of
+the Rhone, the classic land of glacial work; but he writes of
+Agassiz's special subjects, inviting him to come and see such
+fossils as were to be found in his neighborhood, and to investigate
+certain phenomena of upheaval and of plutonic action in the same
+region, little dreaming that the young zoologist was presently to
+join him in his own chosen field of research.
+
+Agassiz now began also to receive pressing invitations from the
+English naturalists, from Buckland, Lyell, Murchison, and others,
+to visit England, and examine their wonderful collections of fossil
+remains.
+
+FROM PROFESSOR BUCKLAND TO AGASSIZ.
+
+OXFORD, December 25, 1833.
+
+. . .I should very much like to put into your hands what few
+materials I possess in the Oxford Museum relating to fossil fishes,
+and am also desirous that you should see the fossil fish in the
+various provincial museums of England, as well as in London. Sir
+Philip Egerton has a very large collection of fishes from Engi and
+Oeningen, which he wishes to place at your disposition. Like
+myself, he would willingly send you drawings, but drawings made
+without knowledge of the anatomical details which you require,
+cannot well represent what the artist himself does not perceive. I
+would willingly lend you my specimens, if I could secure them
+against the barbarous hands of the custom-house officials. What I
+would propose to you as a means of seeing all the collections of
+England, and gaining at the same time additional subscriptions for
+your work, is, that you should come to England and attend the
+British Association for the Advancement of Science in September
+next. There you will meet all the naturalists of England, and I do
+not doubt that among them you will find a good many subscribers.
+You will likewise see a new mine of fossil fishes in the clayey
+schist of the coal formation at Newhaven, on the banks of the
+Forth, near Edinburgh. You can also make arrangements to visit the
+museums of York, Whitby, Scarborough, and Leeds, as well as the
+museum of Sir Philip Egerton, on your way to and from Edinburgh.
+You may, likewise, visit the museums of London, Cambridge, and
+Oxford; everywhere there are fossil fishes; and traveling by coach
+in England is so rapid, easy, and cheap, that in six weeks or less
+you can accomplish all that I have proposed. As I seriously hope
+that you will come to England for the months of August and
+September, I say nothing at present of any other means of putting
+into your hands the drawings or specimens of our English fossil
+fishes. I forgot to mention the very rich collection of fossil
+fishes in the Museum of Mr. Mantell, at Brighton, where, I think,
+you could take the weekly steam-packet for Rotterdam as easily as
+in London, and thus arrive in Neuchatel from London in a very few
+days. . .
+
+AGASSIZ TO PROFESSOR BUCKLAND.
+
+. . .I thank you most warmly for the very important information you
+have so kindly given me respecting the rich collections of England;
+I will, if possible, make arrangements to visit them this year, and
+in that case I will beg you to let me have a few letters of
+recommendation to facilitate my examination of them in detail. Not
+that I question for a moment the liberality of the English
+naturalists. All the continental savants who have visited your
+museums have praised the kindness shown in intrusting to them the
+rarest objects, and I well know that the English rival other
+nations in this respect, and even leave them far behind. But one
+must have merited such favors by scientific labors; to a beginner
+they are always a free gift, wholly undeserved. . .
+
+A few months later Agassiz received a very gratifying and
+substantial mark of the interest felt by English naturalists in his
+work.
+
+CHARLES LYELL TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+SOMERSET HOUSE, LONDON, February 4, 1834.
+
+. . .It is with the greatest pleasure that I announce to you good
+news. The Geological Society of London desires me to inform you
+that it has this year conferred upon you the prize bequeathed by
+Dr. Wollaston. He has given us the sum of one thousand pounds
+sterling, begging us to expend the interest, or about seven hundred
+and fifty francs every year, for the encouragement of the science
+of geology. Your work on fishes has been considered by the Council
+and the officers of the Geological Society worthy of this prize,
+Dr. Wollaston having said that it could be given for unfinished
+works. The sum of thirty guineas, or 31 pounds 10 shillings
+sterling, has been placed in my hands, but I would not send you the
+money before knowing exactly where you were and learning from you
+where you wish it to be paid. You will probably like an order on
+some Swiss banker.
+
+I cannot yet give you the extract from the address of the President
+in which your work is mentioned, but I shall have it soon. In the
+mean time I am desired to tell you that the Society declines to
+receive your magnificent work as a gift, but wishes to subscribe
+for it, and has already ordered a copy from the publishers. . .
+
+AGASSIZ TO LYELL.
+
+NEUCHATEL, March 25, 1834.
+
+. . .You cannot imagine the joy your letter has given me. The prize
+awarded to me is at once so unexpected an honor and so welcome an
+aid that I could hardly believe my eyes when, with tears of relief
+and gratitude, I read your letter. In the presence of a savant, I
+need not be ashamed of my penury, since I have spent the little I
+had, wholly in scientific researches. I do not, therefore, hesitate
+to confess to you that at no time could your gift have given me
+greater pleasure. Generous friends have helped me to bring out the
+first number of my "Fossil Fishes;" the plates of the second are
+finished, but I was greatly embarrassed to know how to print a
+sufficient number of copies before the returns from the first
+should be paid in. The text is ready also, so that now, in a
+fortnight, I can begin the distribution, and, the rotation once
+established, I hope that preceding numbers will always enable me to
+publish the next in succession without interruption. I even count
+upon this resource as affording me the means of making a journey to
+England before long. If no obstacle arises I hope to accomplish
+this during the coming summer, and to be present at the next
+meeting of the English naturalists.
+
+I do not live the less happily on account of my anxieties, but I am
+sometimes obliged to work more than I well can, or ought in reason
+to do. . .The second number of my "Fossil Fishes" contains the
+beginning of the anatomy of the fishes, but only such portions as
+are to be found in the fossil state. I have begun with the scales;
+later, I treat of the bones and the teeth. Then comes the
+continuation of the description of the Ganoids and the Scomberoids,
+and an additional sheet contains a sketch of my ichthyological
+classification. The plates are even more successful than those of
+the first number. If all goes well the third number will appear
+next July. I long to visit your rich collections; I hope that
+whenever it becomes possible for me to do so, I shall have the good
+fortune to find you in London. . .
+
+I have thought a letter addressed to the President of the Society
+in particular, and to the members in general, would be fitting.
+Will you have the kindness to deliver it for me to Mr. Murchison?
+
+The first number of the "Fossil Fishes" had already appeared, and
+had been greeted with enthusiasm by scientific men. Elie de
+Beaumont writes Agassiz in June, 1834: "I have read with great
+pleasure your first number; it promises us a work as important for
+science as it is remarkable in execution. Do not let yourself be
+discouraged by obstacles of any kind; they will give way before the
+concert of approbation which so excellent a work will awaken. I
+shall always be glad to aid in overcoming any one of them."
+
+Perhaps it is as well to give here a slight sketch of this work,
+the execution of which was carried on during the next ten years
+(1833-1843). The inscription tells, in few words, the author's
+reverence for Humboldt and his personal gratitude to him. "These
+pages owe to you their existence; accept their dedication." The
+title gives in a broad outline the comprehensive purpose of the
+work:
+
+"Researches on the Fossil Fishes: comprising an Introduction to the
+Study of these Animals; the Comparative Anatomy of Organic Systems
+which may contribute to facilitate the Determination of Fossil
+Species; a New Classification of Fishes expressing their Relations
+to the Series of Formations; the Explanation of the Laws of their
+Succession and Development during all the Changes of the
+Terrestrial Globe, accompanied by General Geological
+Considerations; finally, the Description of about a thousand
+Species which no longer exist, and whose Characters have been
+restored from Remains contained in the Strata of the Earth."
+
+The most novel results comprised in this work were: first, the
+remodeling of the classification of the whole type of fishes,
+fossil and living, and especially the separation of the Ganoids
+from all other fishes, under the rank of a distinct order; second,
+the recognition of those combinations of reptilian and bird-like
+characters in the earlier geological fishes, which led the author
+to call them prophetic types; and third, his discovery of an
+analogy between the embryological phases of the higher present
+fishes and the gradual introduction of the whole type on earth, the
+series in growth and the series in time revealing a certain mutual
+correspondence. As these comprehensive laws have thrown light upon
+other types of the animal kingdom beside that of fishes, their
+discovery may be said to have advanced general zoology as well as
+ichthyology.
+
+The Introduction presents, as it were, the prelude to this vast
+chapter of natural history in the simultaneous appearance of the
+four great types of the animal kingdom: Radiates, Mollusks,
+Articulates, and Vertebrates. Then comes the orderly development of
+the class by which the vertebrate plan was first expressed, namely,
+the fishes. Underlying all its divisions and subdivisions, is the
+average expression of the type in the past and present; the
+Placoids and Ganoids, with their combination of reptilian and
+fishlike features, characterizing the earlier geological epochs,
+while in the later the simple bony fishes, the Cycloids and
+Ctenoids, take the ascendancy. Here, for the first time, Agassiz
+presents his "synthetic or prophetic types," namely, early types
+embracing, as it were, in one large outline, features afterward
+individualized in special groups, and never again reunited. No less
+striking than these general views of structural relations are the
+clearness and simplicity with which the distribution of the whole
+class of fishes in relation to the geological formations, or, in
+other words, to the physical history of the earth, is shown. In
+reading this introductory chapter, one familiar with Agassiz as a
+public teacher will almost hear his voice marshaling the long
+procession of living beings, as he was wont to do, in their gradual
+introduction upon the earth. Indeed, his whole future work in
+ichthyology, and one might almost say in general zoology, was here
+sketched.
+
+The technicalities of this work, at once so comprehensive in its
+combinations and so minute in its details, could interest only the
+professional reader, but its generalizations may well have a
+certain attraction for every thoughtful mind. It treats of the
+relations, anatomical, zoological, and geological, between the
+whole class of fishes, fossil and living, illustrated by numerous
+plates, while additional light is thrown on the whole by the
+revelations of embryology.
+
+"Notwithstanding these striking differences," says the author in
+the opening of the fifth chapter on the relations of fishes in
+general, "it is none the less evident to the attentive observer
+that one single idea has presided over the development of the whole
+class, and that all the deviations lead back to a primary plan, so
+that even if the thread seem broken in the present creation, one
+can reunite it on reaching the domain of fossil ichthyology."* (*
+Volume 1 chapter 5 pages 92, 93.)
+
+Having shown how the present creation has given him the key to past
+creations, how the complete skeleton of the living fishes has
+explained the scattered fragments of the ancient ones, especially
+those of which the soft cartilaginous structure was liable to
+decay, he presents two modes of studying the type as a whole;
+either in its comparative anatomy, including in the comparison the
+whole history of the type, fossil and living, or in its comparative
+embryology. "The results," he adds, "of these two methods of study
+complete and control each other." In all his subsequent researches
+indeed, the history of the individual in its successive phases went
+hand in hand with the history of the type. He constantly tested his
+zoological results by his embryological investigations.
+
+After a careful description of the dorsal chord in its
+embryological development, he shows that a certain parallelism
+exists between the comparative degrees of development of the
+vertebral column in the different groups of fishes, and the phases
+of its embryonic development in the higher fishes. Farther on he
+shows a like coincidence between the development of the system of
+fins in the different groups of fishes, and the gradual growth and
+differentiation of the fins in the embryo of the higher living
+fishes.* (* "Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles", volume 1
+chapter 5 page 102.) "There is, then," he concludes, "as we have
+said above, a certain analogy, or rather a certain parallelism, to
+be established between the embryological development of the
+Cycloids and Ctenoids, and the genetic or paleontological
+development of the whole class. Considered from this point of view,
+no one will dispute that the form of the caudal fin is of high
+importance for zoological and paleontological considerations, since
+it shows that the same thought, the same plan, which presides
+to-day over the formation of the embryo, is also manifested in the
+successive development of the numerous creation which have formerly
+peopled the earth." Agassiz says himself in his Preface: "I have
+succeeded in expressing the laws of succession and of the organic
+development of fishes during all geological epochs; and science may
+henceforth, in seeing the changes of this class from formation to
+formation, follow the progress of organization in one great
+division of the animal kingdom, through a complete series of the
+ages of the earth." This is not inconsistent with his position as
+the leading opponent of the development or Darwinian theories. To
+him, development meant development of plan as expressed in
+structure, not the change of one structure into another. To his
+apprehension the change was based upon intellectual, not upon
+material causes. He sums up his own conviction with reference to
+this question as follows:* (* "Recherches sur les Poissons
+Fossiles" volume 1 chapter 6 pages 171, 172. "Essay on the
+Classification of Fishes.") "Such facts proclaim aloud principles
+not yet discussed in science, but which paleontological researches
+place before the eyes of the observer with an ever-increasing
+persistency. I speak of the relations of the creation with the
+creator. Phenomena closely allied in the order of their succession,
+and yet without sufficient cause in themselves for their
+appearance; an infinite diversity of species without any common
+material bond, so grouping themselves as to present the most
+admirable progressive development to which our own species is
+linked,--are these not incontestable proofs of the existence of a
+superior intelligence whose power alone could have established such
+an order of things?. . ."
+
+"More than fifteen hundred species of fossil fishes, which I have
+learned to know, tell me that species do not pass insensibly one
+into another, but that they appear and disappear unexpectedly,
+without direct relations with their precursors; for I think no one
+will seriously pretend that the numerous types of Cycloids and
+Ctenoids, almost all of which are contemporaneous with one an
+other, have descended from the Placoids and Ganoids. As well might
+one affirm that the Mammalia, and man with them, have descended
+directly from fishes. All these species have a fixed epoch of
+appearance and disappearance; their existence is even limited to an
+appointed time. And yet they present, as a whole, numerous
+affinities more or less close, a definite coordination in a given
+system of organization which has intimate relations with the mode
+of existence of each type, and even of each species. An invisible
+thread unwinds itself throughout all time, across this immense
+diversity, and presents to us as a definite result, a continual
+progress in the development of which man is the term, of which the
+four classes of vertebrates are intermediate forms, and the
+totality of invertebrate animals the constant accessory
+accompaniment."
+
+The difficulty of carrying out comparisons so rigorous and
+extensive as were needed in order to reconstruct the organic
+relations between the fossil fishes of all geological formations
+and those of the present world, is best told by the author.* (*
+"Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles" volume 1. Addition a la
+Preface.) "Possessing no fossil fishes myself, and renouncing
+forever the acquisition of collections so precious, I have been
+forced to seek the materials for my work in all the collections of
+Europe containing such remains; I have, therefore, made frequent
+journeys in Germany, in France, and in England, in order to
+examine, describe, and illustrate the objects of my researches. But
+notwithstanding the cordiality with which even the most precious
+specimens have been placed at my disposition, a serious
+inconvenience has resulted from this mode of working, namely, that
+I have rarely been able to compare directly the various specimens
+of the same species from different collections, and that I have
+often been obliged to make my identification from memory, or from
+simple notes, or, in the more fortunate cases, from my drawings
+only. It is impossible to imagine the fatigue, the exhaustion of
+all the faculties, involved in such a method. The hurry of
+traveling, joined to the lack of the most ordinary facilities for
+observation, has not rendered my task more easy. I therefore claim
+indulgence for such of my identifications as a later examination,
+made at leisure, may modify, and for descriptions which sometimes
+bear the stamp of the precipitation with which they have been
+prepared."
+
+It was, perhaps, this experience of Agassiz's earlier life which
+made him so anxious to establish a museum of comparative zoology in
+this country,--a museum so abundant and comprehensive in material,
+that the student should not only find all classes of the animal
+kingdom represented within its walls, but preserved also in such
+numbers as to allow the sacrifice of many specimens for purposes of
+comparison and study. He was resolved that no student should stand
+there baffled at the door of knowledge, as he had often done
+himself, when shown the one precious specimen, which could not be
+removed, or even examined on the spot, because unique.
+
+CHAPTER 8.
+
+1834-1837: AGE 27-30.
+
+First Visit to England.
+Reception by Scientific Men.
+Work on Fossil Fishes there.
+Liberality of English Naturalists.
+First Relations with American Science.
+Farther Correspondence with Humboldt.
+Second Visit to England.
+Continuation of "Fossil Fishes."
+Other Scientific Publications.
+Attention drawn to Glacial Phenomena.
+Summer at Bex with Charpentier.
+Sale of Original Drawings for "Fossil Fishes."
+Meeting of Helvetic Society.
+Address on Ice-Period.
+Letters from Humboldt and Von Buch.
+
+In August, 1834, according to his cherished hope, Agassiz went to
+England, and was received by the scientific men with a cordial
+sympathy which left not a day or an hour of his short sojourn there
+unoccupied. The following letter from Buckland is one of many
+proffering hospitality and friendly advice on his arrival.
+
+DR. BUCKLAND TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+OXFORD, August 26, 1834.
+
+. . .I am rejoiced to hear of your safe arrival in London, and
+write to say that I am in Oxford, and that I shall be most happy to
+receive you and give you a bed in my house if you can come here
+immediately. I expect M. Arago and Mr. Pentland from Paris tomorrow
+(Wednesday) afternoon. I shall be most happy to show you our Oxford
+Museum on Thursday or Friday, and to proceed with you toward
+Edinburgh. Sir Philip Egerton has a fine collection of fossil
+fishes near Chester, which you should visit on your road. I have
+partly engaged myself to be with him on Monday, September 1st, but
+I think it would be desirable for you to go to him Saturday, that
+you may have time to take drawings of his fossil fishes.
+
+I cannot tell certainly what day I shall leave Oxford until I see
+M. Arago, whom I hope you will meet at my house, on your arrival in
+Oxford. I shall hope to see you Wednesday evening or Thursday
+morning. Pray come to my house in Christ Church, with your baggage,
+the moment you reach Oxford. . .
+
+Agassiz always looked back with delight on this first visit to
+Great Britain. It was the beginning of his life-long friendship
+with Buckland, Sedgwick, Murchison, Lyell, and others of like
+pursuits and interests. Made welcome in many homes, he could
+scarcely respond to all the numerous invitations, social and
+scientific, which followed the Edinburgh meeting.
+
+Guided by Dr. Buckland, to whom not only every public and private
+collection, but every rare specimen in the United Kingdom, seems to
+have been known, he wandered from treasure to treasure. Every day
+brought its revelation, until, under the accumulation of new facts,
+he almost felt himself forced to begin afresh the work he had
+believed well advanced. He might have been discouraged by a wealth
+of resources which seemed to open countless paths, leading he knew
+not whither, but for the generosity of the English naturalists who
+allowed him to cull, out of sixty or more collections, two thousand
+specimens of fossil fishes, and to send them to London, where, by
+the kindness of the Geological Society, he was permitted to deposit
+them in a room in Somerset House. The mass of materials once sifted
+and arranged, the work of comparison and identification became
+comparatively easy. He sent at once for his faithful artist, Mr.
+Dinkel, who began, without delay, to copy all such specimens as
+threw new light on the history of fossil fishes, a work which
+detained him in England for several years.
+
+Agassiz made at this time two friends, whose sympathy and
+cooperation in his scientific work were invaluable to him for the
+rest of his life. Sir Philip Egerton and Lord Cole (Earl of
+Enniskillen) owned two of the most valuable collections of fossil
+fishes in Great Britain.* (* Now the property of the British
+Museum.) To aid him in his researches, their most precious
+specimens were placed at Agassiz's disposition; his artist was
+allowed to work for months on their collections, and even after
+Agassiz came to America, they never failed to share with him, as
+far as possible, the advantages arising from the increase of their
+museums. From this time his correspondence with them, and
+especially with Sir Philip Egerton, is closely connected with the
+ever-growing interest as well as with the difficulties of his
+scientific career. Reluctantly, and with many a backward look, he
+left England in October, and returned to his lectures in Neuchatel,
+taking with him such specimens as were indispensable to the
+progress of his work. Every hour of the following winter which
+could be spared from his lectures was devoted to his fossil fishes.
+
+A letter of this date from Professor Silliman, of New Haven,
+Connecticut, marks the beginning of his relations with his future
+New England home, and announces his first New England subscribers.
+
+YALE COLLEGE NEW HAVEN, UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA, April 22,
+1835.
+
+. . .From Boston, March 6th, I had the honor to thank you for your
+letter of January 5th, and for your splendid present of your great
+work on fossil fishes--livraison 1-22--received, with the plates. I
+also gave a notice of the work in the April number of the Journal*
+(* "The American Journal of Science and Arts".) (this present
+month), and republished Mr. Bakewell's account of your visit to Mr.
+Mantell's museum.
+
+In Boston I made some little efforts in behalf of your work, and
+have the pleasure of naming as follows:--
+
+Harvard University, Cambridge (Cambridge is only four miles from
+Boston), by Hon. Josiah Quincy, President.
+
+Boston Athenaeum, by its Librarian.
+
+Benjamin Green, Esquire, President of the Boston Natural History
+Society.
+
+I shall make application to some other institutions or individuals,
+but do not venture to promise anything more than my best exertions
+. . .
+
+Agassiz little dreamed, as he read this letter, how familiar these
+far-off localities would become to him, or how often, in after
+years, he would traverse by day and by night the four miles which
+lay between Boston and his home in Cambridge.
+
+Agassiz still sought and received, as we see by the following
+letter, Humboldt's sympathy in every step of his work.
+
+HUMBOLDT TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+BERLIN, May, 1835.
+
+I am to blame for my neglect of you, my dear friend, but when you
+consider the grief which depresses me,* (* Owing to the death of
+his brother, William von Humboldt.) and renders me unfit to keep up
+my scientific connections, you will not be so unkind as to bear me
+any ill-will for my long silence. You are too well aware of my high
+esteem for your talents and your character--you know too well the
+affectionate friendship I bear you--to fear for a moment that you
+could be forgotten.
+
+I have seen the being I loved most, and who alone gave me some
+interest in this arid land, slowly decline. For four long years my
+brother had suffered from a weakness of all the muscles, which made
+me always fear that the seat of the trouble was the medulla
+oblongata. Yet his step was firm; his head was entirely clear. The
+higher intellectual faculties retained all their energy. He was
+engaged from twelve to thirteen hours a day on his works, reading
+or rather dictating, for a nervous trembling of the hand prevented
+him from using a pen. Surrounded by a numerous family; living on a
+spot created, so to speak, by himself, and in a house which he had
+adorned with antique statues; withdrawn also from affairs, he was
+still attached to life. The illness which carried him off in ten
+days--an inflammation of the chest--was but a secondary symptom of
+his disease. He died without pain, with a strength of character and
+a serenity of mind worthy of the greatest admiration. It is cruel
+to see so noble an intelligence struggle during ten long days
+against physical destruction. We are told that in great grief we
+should turn with redoubled energy to the study of nature. The
+advice is easy to give; but for a long time even the wish for
+distraction is wanting.
+
+My brother leaves two works which we intend to publish: one upon
+the languages and ancient Indian civilization of the Asiatic
+archipelago, and the other upon the structure of languages in
+general, and the influence of that structure upon the intellectual
+development of nations. This last work has great beauty of style.
+We shall soon begin the publication of it. My brother's extensive
+correspondence with all those countries over which his philological
+studies extended brings upon me just at present, such a
+multiplicity of occupations and duties that I can only write you
+these few lines, my dear friend, as a pledge of my constant
+affection, and, I may also add, my admiration of your eminent
+works. It is a pleasure to watch the growing renown of those who
+are dear to us; and who should merit success more than you, whose
+elevation of character is proof against the temptations of literary
+self-love? I thank you for the little you have told me of your home
+life. It is not enough to be praised and recognized as a great and
+profound naturalist; to this one must add domestic happiness as
+well. . .
+
+I am about finishing my long and wearisome work of (illegible); a
+critical examinationinto the geography of the Middle Ages, of which
+fifty sheets are already printed. I will send you the volumes as
+soon as they appear, in octavo. I devoured your fourth number; the
+plates are almost finer than the previous ones; and the text,
+though I have only looked it through hastily, interested me deeply,
+especially the analytical catalogue of Bolca, and the more general
+and very philosophical views of fishes in general, pages 57-64. The
+latter is also remarkable in point of style. . .
+
+M. von Buch, who has just left me, sends you a warm greeting. None
+the less does he consider the method of issuing your text in
+fragments from different volumes, altogether diabolical. I also
+complain a little, though in all humility; but I suppose it to be
+connected with the difficulty of concluding any one family, when
+new materials are daily accumulating on your hands. Continue then
+as before. In my judgment, M. Agassiz never does wrong. . .
+
+The above letter, though written in May, did not reach Agassiz
+until the end of July, when he was again on his way to England,
+where his answer is dated.
+
+AGASSIZ TO HUMBOLDT.
+
+(LONDON), October--, 1835.
+
+. . .I cannot express to you my pleasure in reading your letter of
+May 10th (which was, unhappily, only delivered to me on my passage
+through Carlsruhe, at the end of July). . .To know that I have
+occupied your thoughts a moment, especially in days of trial and
+sorrow such as you have had to bear, raises me in my own eyes, and
+redoubles my hope for the future. And just now such encouragement
+is particularly cheering under the difficulties which I meet in
+completing my task in England. I have now been here nearly two
+months, and I hope before leaving to finish the description of all
+that I brought together at the Geological Society last year.
+Knowing that you are in Paris, however, I cannot resist the
+temptation of going to see you; indeed, should your stay be
+prolonged for some weeks, it would be my most direct path for home.
+I should like to tell you a little of what I have done, and how the
+world has gone with me since we last met. . .I have certainly
+committed an imprudence in throwing myself into an enterprise so
+vast in proportion to my means as my "Fossil Fishes." But, having
+begun it, I have no alternative; my only safety is in success. I
+have a firm conviction that I shall bring my work to a happy issue,
+though often in the evening I hardly know how the mill is to be
+turned to-morrow. . .
+
+By a great good fortune for me, the British Association, at the
+suggestion of Buckland, Sedgwick, and Murchison, has renewed, for
+the present year, its vote of one hundred guineas toward the
+facilitating of researches upon the fossil fishes of England, and I
+hope that a considerable part of this sum may be awarded to me, in
+which case I may be able to complete the greater number of the
+drawings I need. If I had obtained in France only half the
+subscriptions I have had in England, I should be afloat; but thus
+far M. Bailliere has only disposed of some fifteen copies. . .My
+work advances fairly; I shall soon have described all the species I
+know, numbering now about nine hundred. I need some weeks in Paris
+for the comparison of several tertiary species with living ones in
+order to satisfy myself of their specific identity, and then my
+task will be accomplished. Next comes the putting in order of all
+my notes. My long vacations will give me time to do this with the
+greatest care. . .
+
+His second visit to England, during which the above letter was
+written, was chiefly spent in reviewing the work of his artist,
+whom he now reinforced with a second draughtsman, M. Weber, the
+same who had formerly worked with him in Munich. He also attended
+the meeting of the British Association in Dublin, stayed a few days
+at Oulton Park for another look at the collections of Sir Philip
+Egerton, made a second grand tour among the other fossil fishes of
+England and Ireland, and returned to Neuchatel, leaving his two
+artists in London with their hands more than full.
+
+While Agassiz thus pursued his work on fossil fishes with ardor and
+an almost perilous audacity, in view of his small means, he found
+also time for various other investigations. During the year 1836,
+though pushing forward constantly the publication of the "Poissons
+Fossiles," his "Prodromus of the Class of Echinodermata" appeared
+in the Memoirs of the Natural History Society of Neuchatel, as well
+as his paper on the fossil Echini belonging to the Neocomian group
+of the Neuchatel Jura, accompanied by figures. Not long after, he
+published in the Memoirs of the Helvetic Society his descriptions
+of fossil Echini peculiar to Switzerland, and issued also the first
+number of a more extensive work, "Monographie d'Echinodermes."
+During this year he received a new evidence of the sympathy of the
+English naturalists, in the Wollaston medal awarded to him by the
+London Geological Society.
+
+The summer of 1836 was an eventful one for Agassiz,--the opening,
+indeed, of a new and brilliant chapter in his life. The attention
+of the ignorant and the learned had alike been called to the
+singular glacial phenomena of movement and transportation in the
+Alpine valleys. The peasant had told his strange story of boulders
+carried on the back of the ice, of the alternate retreat and
+advance of glaciers, now shrinking to narrower limits, now plunging
+forward into adjoining fields, by some unexplained power of
+expansion and contraction. Scientific men were awake to the
+interest of these facts, but had considered them only as local
+phenomena. Venetz and Charpentier were the first to detect their
+wider significance. The former traced the ancient limits of the
+Alpine glaciers as defined by the frame-work of debris or loose
+material they had left behind them; and Charpentier went farther,
+and affirmed that all the erratic boulders scattered over the plain
+of Switzerland and on the sides of the Jura had been thus
+distributed by ice and not by water, as had been supposed.
+
+Agassiz was among those who received this hypothesis as improbable
+and untenable. Still, he was anxious to see the facts in place, and
+Charpentier was glad to be his guide. He therefore passed his
+vacation, during this summer of 1836, at the pretty town of Bex, in
+the valley of the Rhone. Here he spent a number of weeks in
+explorations, which served at the same time as a relaxation from
+his more sedentary work. He went expecting to confirm his own
+doubts, and to disabuse his friend Charpentier of his errors. But
+after visiting with him the glaciers of the Diablerets, those of
+the valley of Chamounix, and the moraines of the great valley of
+the Rhone and its principal lateral valleys, he came away satisfied
+that a too narrow interpretation of the phenomena was Charpentier's
+only mistake.
+
+During this otherwise delightful summer, he was not without renewed
+anxiety lest he should be obliged to suspend the publication of the
+Fossil Fishes for want of means to carry it on. On this account he
+writes from Bex to Sir Philip Egerton in relation to the sale of
+his original drawings, the only property he possessed. "It is
+absolutely impossible," he says, "for me to issue even another
+number until this sale is effected. . .I shall consider myself more
+than repaid if I receive, in exchange for the whole collection of
+drawings, simply what I have expended upon them, provided I may
+keep those which have yet to be lithographed until that be done."
+
+Sir Philip made every effort to effect a sale to the British
+Museum. He failed at the moment, but the collection was finally
+purchased and presented to the British Museum by a generous
+relative of his own, Lord Francis Egerton. In the mean time, Sir
+Philip and Lord Cole, in order to make it possible for Agassiz to
+retain the services of Mr. Dinkel, proposed to pay his expenses
+while he was drawing such specimens from their own collections as
+were needed for the work. These drawings were, of course, finally
+to remain their own property.
+
+During his sojourn at Bex, Agassiz's intellect and imagination had
+been deeply stirred by the glacial phenomena. In the winter of
+1837, on his return to Neuchatel, he investigated anew the slopes
+of the Jura, and found that the facts there told the same story.
+Although he resumed with unabated ardor his various works on
+fishes, radiates, and mollusks, a new chapter of nature was all the
+while unfolding itself in his fertile brain. When the Helvetic
+Association assembled at Neuchatel in the following summer, the
+young president, from whom the members had expected to hear new
+tidings of fossil fishes, startled them by the presentation of a
+glacial theory, in which the local erratic phenomena of the Swiss
+valleys assumed a cosmic significance. It is worthy of remark here
+that the first large outlines in which Agassiz, when a young man,
+planned his intellectual work gave the key-note to all that
+followed. As the generalizations on which all his future zoological
+researches were based, are sketched in the Preface to his "Poissons
+Fossiles," so his opening address to the Helvetic Society in 1837
+unfolds the glacial period as a whole, much as he saw it at the
+close of his life, after he had studied the phenomena on three
+continents. In this address he announced his conviction that a
+great ice-period, due to a temporary oscillation of the temperature
+of the globe, had covered the surface of the earth with a sheet of
+ice, extending at least from the north pole to Central Europe and
+Asia. "Siberian winter," he says, "established itself for a time
+over a world previously covered with a rich vegetation and peopled
+with large mammalia, similar to those now inhabiting the warm
+regions of India and Africa. Death enveloped all nature in a
+shroud, and the cold, having reached its highest degree, gave to
+this mass of ice, at the maximum of tension, the greatest possible
+hardness." In this novel presentation the distribution of erratic
+boulders, instead of being classed among local phenomena, was
+considered "as one of the accidents accompanying the vast change
+occasioned by the fall of the temperature of our globe before the
+commencement of our epoch."
+
+This was, indeed, throwing the gauntlet down to the old expounders
+of erratic phenomena upon the principle of floods, freshets, and
+floating ice. Many well-known geologists were present at the
+meeting, among them Leopold von Buch, who could hardly contain his
+indignation, mingled with contempt, for what seemed to him the view
+of a youthful and inexperienced observer. One would have liked to
+hear the discussion which followed, in special section, between Von
+Buch, Charpentier, and Agassiz. Elie de Beaumont, who should have
+made the fourth, did not arrive till later. Difference of opinion,
+however, never disturbed the cordial relation which existed between
+Von Buch and his young opponent. Indeed, Agassiz's reverence and
+admiration for Von Buch was then, and continued throughout his
+life, deep and loyal.
+
+Not alone from the men who had made these subjects their special
+study, did Agassiz meet with discouragements. The letters of his
+beloved mentor, Humboldt, in 1837, show how much he regretted that
+any part of his young friend's energy should be diverted from
+zoology, to a field of investigation which he then believed to be
+one of theory rather than of precise demonstration. He was,
+perhaps, partly influenced by the fact that he saw through the
+prejudiced eyes of his friend Von Buch. "Over your and
+Charpentier's moraines," he says, in one of his letters, "Leopold
+von Buch rages, as you may already know, considering the subject,
+as he does, his exclusive property. But I too, though by no means
+so bitterly opposed to new views, and ready to believe that the
+boulders have not all been moved by the same means, am yet inclined
+to think the moraines due to more local causes."
+
+The next letter shows that Humboldt was seriously anxious lest this
+new field of activity, with its fascinating speculations, should
+draw Agassiz away from his ichthyological researches.
+
+HUMBOLDT TO AGASSIZ.
+
+BERLIN, December 2, 1837.
+
+I have this moment received, my dear friend, by the hand of M. de
+Werther, the cabinet minister, your eighth and ninth numbers, with
+a fine pamphlet of text. I hasten to express my warm thanks, and I
+congratulate the public on your somewhat tardy resolution to give a
+larger proportion of text. One should flatter neither the king, nor
+the people, nor one's dearest friend. I maintain, therefore, that
+no one has told you forcibly enough how the very persons who justly
+admire your work, constantly complain of this fragmentary style of
+publication, which is the despair of those who have not the leisure
+to place your scattered sheets where they belong and disentangle
+the skein.* (* Owing to the irregularity with which he received and
+was forced to work up his material, Agassiz was often either in
+advance or in arrears with certain parts of his subject, so that
+his plates and his text did not keep pace with each other, thus
+causing his readers much annoyance.)
+
+I think you would do well to publish for a while more text than
+plates. You could do this the better because your text is
+excellent, full of new and important ideas, expressed with
+admirable clearness. The charming letter (again without a date)
+which preceded your package impressed me painfully. I see you are
+ill again; you complain of congestion of the head and eyes. For
+mercy's sake take care of your health which is so dear to us. I am
+afraid you work too much, and (shall I say it frankly?) that you
+spread your intellect over too many subjects at once. I think that
+you should concentrate your moral and also your pecuniary strength
+upon this beautiful work on fossil fishes. In so doing you will
+render a greater service to positive geology, than by these general
+considerations (a little icy withal) on the revolutions of the
+primitive world; considerations which, as you well know, convince
+only those who give them birth. In accepting considerable sums from
+England, you have, so to speak, contracted obligations to be met
+only by completing a work which will be at once a monument to your
+own glory and a landmark in the history of science. Admirable and
+exact as your researches on other fossils are, your contemporaries
+claim from you the fishes above all. You will say that this is
+making you the slave of others; perfectly true, but such is the
+pleasing position of affairs here below. Have I not been driven for
+thirty-three years to busy myself with that tiresome America, and
+am I not, even yet, daily insulted because, after publishing
+thirty-two volumes of the great edition in folio and in quarto, and
+twelve hundred plates, one volume of the historical section is
+wanting? We men of letters are the servants of an arbitrary master,
+whom we have imprudently chosen, who flatters and pets us first,
+and then tyrannizes over us if we do not work to his liking. You
+see, my dear friend, I play the grumbling old man, and, at the risk
+of deeply displeasing you, place myself on the side of the despotic
+public. . .
+
+With reference to the general or periodical lowering of the
+temperature of the globe, I have never thought it necessary, on
+account of the elephant of the Lena, to admit that sudden frost of
+which Cuvier used to speak. What I have seen in Siberia, and what
+has been observed in Captain Beechey's expedition on the northwest
+coast of America, simply proves that there exists a layer of frozen
+drift, in the fissures of which (even now) the muscular flesh of
+any animal which should accidentally fall into them would be
+preserved intact. It is a slight local phenomenon. To me, the
+ensemble of geological phenomena seems to prove, not the prevalence
+of this glacial surface on which you would carry along your
+boulders, but a very high temperature spreading almost to the
+poles, a temperature favorable to organizations resembling those
+now living in the tropics. Your ice frightens me, and gladly as I
+would welcome you here, my dear friend, I think, perhaps, for the
+sake of your health, and also that you may not see this country,
+always so hideous, under a sheet of snow and ice (in February), you
+would do better to come two months later, with the first verdure.
+This is suggested by a letter received yesterday by M. d'O--, which
+alarmed me a little, because the state of your eyes obliged you to
+write by another hand. Pray do not think of traveling before you
+are quite well. I close this letter, feeling sure that it does not
+contain a line which is not an expression of friendship and of the
+high esteem I bear you. The magnificence of your last numbers,
+eight and nine, cannot be told. How admirably executed are your
+Macropoma, the Ophiopris procerus, Mantell's great beast, the
+minute details of the Dercetis, Psammodus,. . .the skeletons. . .
+There is nothing like it in all that we possess upon vertebrates. I
+have also begun to study your text, so rich in well arranged facts;
+the monograph of the Lepidostei, the passage upon the bony rays,
+and, dear Agassiz, I could hardly believe my eyes, sixty-five
+continuous pages of the third volume, without interruption! You
+will spoil the public. But, my good friend, you have already
+information upon a thousand species; "claudite jam rivos!" You say
+your work can go on if you have two hundred subscribers; but if you
+continue to support two traveling draughtsmen, I predict, as a
+practical man, that it cannot go on. You cannot even publish what
+you have gathered in the last five years. Consider that in
+attempting to give a review of all the fossil fishes which now
+exist in collections, you pursue a phantom which ever flies before
+you. Such a work would not be finished in less than fifteen years,
+and besides, this NOW is an uncertain element. Cannot you conquer
+yourself so far as to finish what you have in your possession at
+present? Recall your artists. With the reputation you enjoy in
+Europe, whatever might essentially change your opinion on certain
+organisms would willingly be sent to you. If you continue to keep
+two ambassadors in foreign lands, the means you destine for the
+engraving and printing will soon be absorbed. You will struggle
+with domestic difficulties, and at sixty years of age (tremble at
+the sight of this number!) you will be as uncertain as you are
+to-day, whether you possess, even in your collection of drawings,
+all that is to be found among amateurs. How exhaust an ocean in
+which the species are indefinitely increasing? Finish, first, what
+you have this December, 1837, and then, if the subject does not
+weary you, publish the supplements in 1847. You must not forget
+that these supplements will be of two kinds: 1st. Ideas which
+modify some of your old views. 2nd. New species. Only the first
+kind of supplement would be really desirable. Furthermore, you must
+regain your intellectual independence and not let yourself be
+scolded any more by M. de Humboldt. Little will it avail you should
+I vanish from the scene of this world with your fourteenth number!
+When I am a fossil in my turn I shall still appear to you as a
+ghost, having under my arm the pages you have failed to interpolate
+and the volume of that eternal America which I owe to the public. I
+close with a touch of fun, in order that my letter may seem a
+little less like preaching. A thousand affectionate remembrances.
+No more ice, not much of echinoderms, plenty of fish, recall of
+ambassadors in partibus, and great severity toward the
+book-sellers, an infernal race, two or three of whom have been
+killed under me.
+
+A. DE HUMBOLDT.
+
+I sigh to think of the trouble my horrible writing will give you.
+
+A letter of about the same date from Von Buch shows that, however
+he might storm at Agassiz's heterodox geology, he was in full
+sympathy with his work in general.
+
+LEOPOLD VON BUCH TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+December 22, 1837.
+
+. . .Pray reinstate me in the good graces of my unknown benefactor
+among you. By a great mistake the reports of the Society forwarded
+to me from Neuchatel have been sent back. As it is well known at
+the post-office that I do not keep the piles of educational
+journals sent to me from France, the postage on them being much too
+heavy for my means, they took it for granted that this journal, the
+charges on which amounted to several crowns, was of the number. I
+am very sorry. I do not even know the contents of the journal, but
+I suppose it contained papers of yours, full of genius and ardor. I
+like your way of looking at nature, and I think you render great
+service to science by your observations. A right spirit will
+readily lead you to see that this is the true road to glory, far
+preferable to the one which leads to vain analogies and
+speculations, the time for which is long past. I am grieved to hear
+that you are not well, and that your eyes refuse their service. M.
+de Humboldt tells me that you are seeking a better climate here, in
+the month of February. You may find it, perhaps, thanks to our
+stoves. But as we shall still have plenty of ice in the streets,
+your glacial opinions will not find a market at that season. I
+should like to present you with a memoir or monograph of mine, just
+published, on Spirifer and Orthis, but I will take good care to let
+no one pay postage on a work which, by its nature, can have but a
+very limited interest. . .I will await your arrival to give you
+these descriptions. I am expecting the numbers of your Fossil
+Fishes, which have not yet come. Humboldt often speaks of them to
+me. Ah! how much I prefer you in a field which is wholly your own
+than in one where you break in upon the measured and cautious
+tread, introduced by Saussure in geology. You, too, will reconsider
+all this, and will yet treat the views of Saussure and Escher with
+more respect. Everything here turns to infusoria. Ehrenberg has
+just discovered that an apparently sandy deposit, twenty feet in
+thickness, under the "Luneburgerheyde," is composed entirely of
+infusoria of a kind still living in the neighborhood of Berlin.
+This layer rests upon a brown deposit known to be ten feet in
+thickness. The latter consists, for one fifth of the depth, of pine
+pollen, which burns. The rest is of infusoria. Thus these animals,
+which the naked eye has not power to discern, have themselves the
+power to build up mountain chains. . .
+
+CHAPTER 9.
+
+1837-1839: AGE 30-32.
+
+Invitation to Professorships at Geneva and Lausanne.
+Death of his Father.
+Establishment of Lithographic Press at Neuchatel.
+Researches upon Structure of Mollusks.
+Internal Casts of Shells.
+Glacial Explorations.
+Views of Buckland.
+Relations with Arnold Guyot.
+Their Work together in the Alps.
+Letter to Sir Philip Egerton concerning Glacial Work.
+Summer of 1839.
+Publication of "Etudes sur les Glaciers."
+
+Although Agassiz's daring treatment of the glacial phenomena had
+excited much opposition and angry comment, it had also made a
+powerful impression by its eloquence and originality. To this may
+be partly due the fact that about this time he was strongly urged
+from various quarters to leave Neuchatel for some larger field. One
+of the most seductive of these invitations, owing to the
+affectionate spirit in which it was offered, came through Monsieur
+de la Rive, in Geneva.
+
+M. AUGUSTE DE LA RIVE TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+GENEVA, May 12, 1836.
+
+. . .I have not yet received your address. I hope you will send it
+to me without delay, for I am anxious to bring it before our
+readers. I hope also that you will not forget what you have
+promised me for the "Bibliotheque Universelle." I am exceedingly
+anxious to have your cooperation; the more so that it will
+reinforce that of several distinguished savants whose assistance I
+have recently secured.
+
+If I weary you with a second letter, however, it is not only to
+remind you of your promise about the "Bibliotheque Universelle,"
+but for another object still more important and urgent. The matter
+stands thus. Our academic courses have just opened under favorable
+auspices. The number of students is much increased, and,
+especially, we have a good many from Germany and England. This
+circumstance makes us feel more strongly the importance of
+completing our organization, and of doing this wisely and quickly.
+I will not play the diplomat with you, but will frankly say,
+without circumlocution, that you seem to me the one essential, the
+one indispensable man. After having talked with some influential
+persons here, I feel sure that if you say to me, "I will come," I
+can obtain for you the following conditions: 1st. A regular salary
+of three thousand francs, beside the student fees, which, in view
+of the character of your instruction, your reputation, and the
+novelty of your course, I place too low at a thousand francs; of
+this I am convinced. 2nd. The vacant professorship is one of
+geology and mineralogy, but should you wish it De la Planche will
+continue to teach the mineralogy, and you will replace it by
+paleontology, or any other subject which may suit you. . .Add to
+this resource that of a popular course for the world outside,
+ladies and others, which you might give in the winter, as at
+Neuchatel. The custom here is to pay fifty francs for the course of
+from twenty-five to thirty lectures. You will easily see that for
+such a course you would have at least as large an audience here as
+at Neuchatel. This is the more likely because there is a demand for
+these courses, Pictet being dead, and M. Rossi and M. de Castella
+having ceased to give them. No one has come forward as their heir,
+fine as the inheritance is; some are too busy, others have not the
+kind of talent needed, and none have attempted to replace these
+gentlemen in this especial line, one in which you excel, both by
+your gifts and your fortunate choice of a subject more in vogue
+just now than any other. Come then, to work in this rich vein
+before others present themselves for the same purpose. Finally,
+since I must make up your budget, the "Bibliotheque Universelle,"
+which pays fifty francs a sheet, would be always open to you; there
+you could bring the fruits of your productive leisure. Certainly it
+would be easy for you to make in this way an additional thousand
+francs.
+
+Here, then, is a statement, precise and full, of the condition of
+things, and of what you may hope to find here. The moment is
+propitious; there is a movement among us just now in favor of the
+sciences, and this winter the plan of a large building for our
+museum and library will be presented to our common council. The
+work should begin next summer; you well know how much we should
+value your ideas and your advice on this subject. There may also be
+question of a director for the museum, and of an apartment for him
+in the new edifice; you will not doubt to whom such a place would
+be offered. But let us not draw upon the future; let us limit
+ourselves to the present, and see whether what I propose suits you
+. . .Come! let yourself be persuaded. Sacrifice the capital to a
+provincial town. At Berlin, no doubt, you would be happy and
+honored; at Geneva, you would be the happiest, the most honored.
+Look at--, who shone as a star of the first magnitude at Geneva,
+and who is but a star of second or third rank in Paris. This, to be
+sure, would not be your case; nevertheless, I am satisfied that at
+Geneva, where you would be a second de Saussure, your position
+would be still more brilliant. I know that these motives of
+scientific self-love have little weight with you; nevertheless,
+wishing to omit nothing, I give them for what they are worth. But
+my hope rests far more on the arguments I have first presented;
+they come from the heart, and with you the heart responds as
+readily as the genius. But enough! I will not fatigue you with
+farther considerations. I think I have given you all the points
+necessary for your decision. Be so kind as to let me know as soon
+as possible what you intend to do. Have the kindness also not to
+speak of the contents of this letter, and remember that it is not
+the Rector of the Academy of Geneva, but the Professor Auguste de
+la Rive, who writes in his own private person. Promptitude and
+silence, then, are the two recommendations which I make to you
+while we await the Yes we so greatly desire. . .
+
+More tempting still must have been the official invitation received
+a few months later to a professorship at Lausanne, strengthened as
+it was by the affectionate entreaties of relations and friends,
+urging him for the sake of family ties and patriotism to return to
+the canton where he had passed his earlier years. But he had cast
+in his lot with the Neuchatelois and was proof against all
+arguments. He remained faithful to the post he had chosen until he
+left it, temporarily as he then believed, to come to America. The
+citizens of his adopted town expressed their appreciation of his
+loyalty to them in a warm letter of thanks, begging, at the same
+time, his acceptance of the sum of six thousand francs, payable by
+installments during three years.
+
+The summer of 1837 was a sad one to Agassiz and to his whole
+family; his father died at Concise, carried off by a fever while
+still a comparatively young man. The pretty parsonage, to which
+they were so much attached, passed into other hands, and
+thenceforward the home of Madame Agassiz was with her children,
+among whom she divided her time.
+
+In 1838 Agassiz founded a lithographic printing establishment in
+Neuchatel, which was carried on for many years under his direction.
+Thus far his plates had been lithographed in Munich. Their
+execution at such a distance involved constant annoyance, and
+sometimes great waste of time and money, in sending the proofs to
+and fro for correction. The scheme of establishing a lithographic
+press, to be in a great degree at his charge, was certainly an
+imprudent one for a poor man; but Agassiz hoped not only to
+facilitate his own publications by this means, but also to raise
+the standard of execution in works of a purely scientific
+character. Supported partly by his own exertions, partly by the
+generosity of others, the establishment was almost exclusively
+dependent upon him for its unceasing activity. He was fortunate in
+securing for its head M. Hercule Nicolet, a very able lithographic
+artist, who had had much experience in engraving objects of natural
+history, and was specially versed in the recently invented art of
+chromatic lithography.
+
+Agassiz was now driving all his steeds abreast. Beside his duties
+as professor, he was printing at the same time his "Fossil Fishes,"
+his "Fresh-Water Fishes," and his investigations on fossil
+Echinoderms and Mollusks,--the illustrations for all these various
+works being under his daily supervision. The execution of these
+plates, under M. Nicolet's care, was admirable for the period.
+Professor Arnold Guyot, in his memoir of Agassiz, says of the
+plates for the "Fresh-Water Fishes": "We wonder at their beauty,
+and at their perfection of color and outline, when we remember that
+they were almost the first essays of the newly-invented art of
+lithochromy, produced at a time when France and Belgium were
+showering rewards on very inferior work of the kind, as the
+foremost specimens of progress in the art."
+
+All this work could hardly be carried on single handed. In 1837 M.
+Edouard Desor joined Agassiz in Neuchatel, and became for many
+years his intimate associate in scientific labors. A year or two
+later M. Charles Vogt also united himself to the band of
+investigators and artists who had clustered about Agassiz as their
+central force. M. Ernest Favre says of this period of his life: "He
+displayed during these years an incredible energy, of which the
+history of science offers, perhaps, no other example."
+
+Among his most important zoological researches at this time were
+those upon mollusks. His method of studying this class was too
+original and too characteristic to be passed by without notice. The
+science of conchology had heretofore been based almost wholly upon
+the study of the empty shells. To Agassiz this seemed superficial.
+Longing to know more of the relation between the animal and its
+outer covering, he bethought himself that the inner moulding of the
+shell would give at least the form of its old inhabitant. For the
+practical work he engaged an admirable moulder, M. Stahl, who
+continued to be one of his staff at the lithographic establishment
+until he became permanently employed at the Jardin des Plantes.
+With his help and that of M. Henri Ladame, professor of physics and
+chemistry at Neuchatel, who prepared the delicate metal alloys in
+which the first mould was taken, Agassiz obtained casts in which
+the form of the animals belonging to the shells was perfectly
+reproduced. This method has since passed into universal use. By its
+aid he obtained a new means of ascertaining the relations between
+fossil and living mollusks. It was of vast service to him in
+preparing his "Etudes critiques sur les Mollusques fossiles,"--a
+quarto volume with nearly one hundred plates.
+
+The following letter to Sir Philip Egerton gives some account of
+his undertakings at this time, and of the difficulties entailed
+upon him by their number and variety.
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ TO SIR PHILIP EGERTON.
+
+NEUCHATEL, August 10, 1838.
+
+. . .These last months have been a time of trial to me, and I have
+been forced to give up my correspondence completely in order to
+meet the ever-increasing demands of my work. You know how difficult
+it is to find a quiet moment and an easy mind for writing, when one
+is pursued by printing or lithographic proofs, and forced besides
+to prepare unceasing occupation for numerous employees. Add to this
+the close research required by the work of editing, and you surely
+will find an excuse for my delay. I think I have already written
+you that in order to have everything under my own eye, I had
+founded a lithographic establishment at Neuchatel in the hope of
+avoiding in future the procrastinations to which my proofs were
+liable when the work was done at Munich. . .I hope that my new
+publications will be sufficiently well received to justify me in
+supporting an establishment unique of its kind, which I have
+founded solely in the interest of science and at the risk of my
+peace and my health. If I give you all these details, it is simply
+to explain my silence, which was caused not by pure negligence, but
+by the demands of an undertaking in the success of which my very
+existence is involved. . .This week I shall forward to the
+Secretary of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
+all that I have been able to do thus far, being unable to bring it
+myself, as I had hoped. You would oblige me greatly if you would
+give a look at these different works, which may, I hope, have
+various claims on your interest. First, there is the tenth number
+of the "Fossil Fishes," though the whole supply of publisher's
+copies will only be sent a few weeks later. Then there are the
+seven first plates of my sea-urchins, engraved with much care and
+with many details. A third series of plates relates to critical
+studies on fossil mollusks, little or erroneously known, and on
+their internal casts. This is a quite novel side of the study of
+shells, and will throw light on the organization of animals known
+hitherto only by the shell. I have made a plaster collection of
+them for the Geological Society. They have been packed some time,
+but my late journey to Paris has prevented me from forwarding them
+till now. As soon as I have a moment, I shall make out the
+catalogue and send it on. When you go to London, do not fail to
+examine them; the result is curious enough. Finally, the plates for
+the first number of my "Fresh-Water Fishes" are in great part
+finished, and also included in my package for Newcastle. . .The
+plates are executed by a new process, and printed in various tints
+on different stones, resulting in a remarkable uniformity of
+coloring in all the impressions. . .
+
+Such are the new credentials with which I present myself, as I
+bring my thanks for the honor paid to me by my nomination for the
+vacancy in the Royal Society of London. If unbounded devotion to
+the interests of science constituted a sufficient title to such a
+distinction, I should be the less surprised at the announcement
+contained in your last letter. The action of the Royal Society, so
+flattering to the candidate of your choice, has satisfied a desire
+which I should hardly have dared to form for many a year,--that of
+becoming a member of a body so illustrious as the Royal Society of
+London. . .
+
+Each time I write I wish I could close with the hope of seeing you
+soon; but I must work incessantly; that is my lot, and the
+happiness I find in it gives a charm to my occupations however
+numerous they may be. . .
+
+While Agassiz's various zoological works were thus pressed with
+unceasing activity, the glaciers and their attendant phenomena,
+which had so captivated his imagination, were ever present to his
+thought. In August of the year 1838, a year after he had announced
+at the meeting of the Helvetic Society his comprehensive theory
+respecting the action of ice over the whole northern hemisphere, he
+made two important excursions in the Alps. The first was to the
+valley of Hassli, the second to the glaciers of Mont Blanc. In both
+he was accompanied by his scientific collaborator, M. Desor, whose
+intrepidity and ardor hardly fell short of his own; by Mr. Dinkel
+as artist, and by one or two students and friends. These excursions
+were a kind of prelude to his more prolonged sojourns on the Alps,
+and to the series of observations carried on by him and his
+companions, which attracted so much attention in later years. But
+though Agassiz carried with him, on these first explorations, only
+the simplest means of investigation and experiment, they were no
+amateur excursions. On these first Alpine journeys he had in his
+mind the sketch he meant to fill out. The significance of the
+phenomena was already clear to him. What he sought was the
+connection. Following the same comparative method, he intended to
+track the footsteps of the ice as he had gathered and put together
+the fragments of his fossil fishes, till the scattered facts should
+fall into their natural order once more and tell their story from
+beginning to end.
+
+In his explorations of 1838 he found everywhere the same phenomena;
+the grooved and polished and graven surfaces and the rounded and
+modeled rocks, often lying far above and beyond the present limits
+of the glaciers; the old moraines, long deserted by the ice, but
+defining its ancient frontiers; the erratic blocks, transported far
+from their place of origin and disposed in an order and position
+unexplained by the agency of water.
+
+These excursions, though not without their dangers and fatigues,
+were full of charm for men who, however serious their aims, were
+still young enough to enter like boys into the spirit of adventure.
+Agassiz himself was but thirty-one; an ardent pedestrian, he
+delighted in feats of walking and climbing. His friend Dinkel
+relates that one day, while pausing at Grindelwald for refreshment,
+they met an elderly traveler who asked him, after listening awhile
+to their gay talk, in which appeals were constantly made to
+"Agassiz," if that was perhaps the son of the celebrated professor
+of Neuchatel. The answer amazed him; he could hardly believe that
+the young man before him was the naturalist of European reputation.
+In connection with this journey occurs the first attempt at an
+English letter found among Agassiz's papers. It is addressed to
+Buckland, and contains this passage: "Since I saw the glaciers I am
+quite of a snowy humor, and will have the whole surface of the
+earth covered with ice, and the whole prior creation dead by cold.
+In fact, I am quite satisfied that ice must be taken [included] in
+every complete explanation of the last changes which occurred at
+the surface of Europe." Considered in connection with their
+subsequent work together in the ancient ice-beds and moraines of
+England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, it is curious to find
+Buckland answering: "I am sorry that I cannot entirely adopt the
+new theory you advocate to explain transported blocks by moraines;
+for supposing it adequate to explain the phenomena of Switzerland,
+it would not apply to the granite blocks and transported gravel of
+England, which I can only explain by referring to currents of
+water." During the same summer Mrs. Buckland writes from
+Interlaken, in the course of a journey in Switzerland with her
+husband. . ."We have made a good tour of the Oberland and have seen
+glaciers, etc., but Dr. Buckland is as far as ever from agreeing
+with you." We shall see hereafter how completely he became a
+convert to Agassiz's glacial theory in its widest acceptation.
+
+One friend, scarcely mentioned thus far in this biography, was yet,
+from the beginning, the close associate of Agassiz's glacier work.
+Arnold Guyot and he had been friends from boyhood. Their university
+life separated them for a time, Guyot being at Berlin while Agassiz
+was at Munich, and they became colleagues at Neuchatel only after
+Agassiz had been for some years established there. From that time
+forward there was hardly any break in their intercourse; they came
+to America at about the same time, and finally settled as
+professors, the one at Harvard College, in Cambridge,
+Massachusetts, and the other at the College of New Jersey, in
+Princeton. They shared all their scientific interests; and when
+they were both old men, Guyot brought to Agassiz's final
+undertaking, the establishment of a summer school at Penikese, a
+cooperation as active and affectionate as that he had given in his
+youth to his friend's scheme for establishing a permanent
+scientific summer station in the high Alps.
+
+In a short visit made by Agassiz to Paris in the spring of 1838 he
+unfolded his whole plan to Guyot, then residing there, and
+persuaded him to undertake a certain part of the investigation.
+During this very summer of 1838, therefore, while Agassiz was
+tracing the ancient limits of the ice in the Bernese Oberland and
+the Haut Valais, and later, in the valley of Chamounix, Guyot was
+studying the structure and movement of the ice during a six weeks'
+tour in the central Alps. At the conclusion of their respective
+journeys they met to compare notes, at the session of the
+Geological Society of France, at Porrentruy, where Agassiz made a
+report upon the general results of his summer's work; while Guyot
+read a paper, the contents of which have never been fully
+published, upon the movement of glaciers and upon their internal
+features, including the laminated structure of the ice, the
+so-called blue bands, deep down in the mass of the glacier.* (* See
+"Memoir of Louis Agassiz" by Arnold Guyot, written for the United
+States National Academy of Sciences, page 38.) In the succeeding
+years of their glacial researches together, Guyot took for his
+share the more special geological problems, the distribution of
+erratic boulders and of the glacial drift, as connected with the
+ancient extension of the glaciers. This led him away from the
+central station of observation to remoter valleys on the northern
+and southern slopes of the Alps, where he followed the descent of
+the glacial phenomena to the plains of central Europe on the one
+side and to those of northern Italy on the other. We therefore
+seldom hear of him with the band of workers who finally settled on
+the glacier of the Aar, because his share of the undertaking became
+a more isolated one. It was nevertheless an integral part of the
+original scheme, which was carried on connectedly to the end, the
+results of the work in the different departments being constantly
+reported and compared. So much was this the case, that the
+intention of Agassiz had been to embody the whole in a publication,
+the first part of which should contain the glacial system of
+Agassiz; the second the Alpine erratics, by Guyot; while the third
+and final portion, by E. Desor, should treat of the erratic
+phenomena outside of Switzerland. The first volume alone was
+completed. Unlooked for circumstances made the continuation of the
+work impossible, and the five thousand specimens of the erratic
+rocks of Switzerland collected by Professor Guyot, in preparation
+for his part of the publication, are now deposited in the College
+of New Jersey, at Princeton.
+
+In the following summer of 1839 Agassiz took the chain of Monte
+Rosa and Matterhorn as the field of a larger and more systematic
+observation. On this occasion, the usual party consisting of
+Agassiz, Desor, M. Bettanier, an artist, and two or three other
+friends, was joined by the geologist Studer. Up to this time he had
+been a powerful opponent of Agassiz's views, and his conversion to
+the glacial theory during this excursion was looked upon by them
+all as a victory greater than any gained over the regions of ice
+and snow. Some account of this journey occurs in the following
+letter.
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ TO SIR PHILIP EGERTON.
+
+NEUCHATEL, September 10, 1839.
+
+. . .Under these circumstances, I thought I could not do better
+than to pass some weeks in the solitude of the high Alps; I lived
+about a fortnight in the region of the glaciers, ascending some new
+field of ice every day, and trying to scale the sides of our
+highest peaks. I thus examined in succession all the glaciers
+descending from the majestic summits of Monte Rosa and the
+Matterhorn, whose numerous crests form a most gigantic
+amphitheatre, which lifts itself above the everlasting snow.
+Afterward I visited the sea of ice which, under the name of the
+glacier of Aletsch, flows from the Jungfrau, the Monch, and the
+Eiger toward Brieg; thence I went to the glacier of the Rhone, and
+from there, establishing my headquarters at the Hospice of the
+Grimsel, I followed the glacier of the Aar to the foot of the
+Finsteraarhorn. There I ascertained the most important fact that I
+now know concerning the advance of glaciers, namely, that the cabin
+constructed by Hugi in 1827, at the foot of the Abschwung, is now
+four thousand feet lower down. Slight as is the inclination of the
+glacier, this cabin has been carried on by the ice with astonishing
+rapidity, and still more important is it that this rapidity has
+been on the increase; for in 1830 the cabin was only some hundred
+feet from the rock, in 1836 it had already passed over a distance
+from [word torn away] of two thousand feet, and in the last three
+years it has again doubled that distance. Not only have I confirmed
+my views upon glaciers and their attendant phenomena, on this new
+ground, but I have completed my examination of a number of details,
+and have had besides the satisfaction of convincing one of my most
+severe opponents of the exactness of my observations, namely, M.
+Studer, who accompanied me on a part of these excursions. . .
+
+The winter of 1840 was fully occupied by the preparation for the
+publication of the "Etudes sur les Glaciers," which appeared before
+the year was out, accompanied by an atlas of thirty-two plates. The
+volume of text consisted of an historical resume of all that had
+previously been done in the study of glaciers, followed by an
+account of the observations of Agassiz and his companions during
+the last three or four years upon the glaciers of the Alps. Their
+structure, external aspect, needles, tables, perched blocks, gravel
+cones, rifts, and crevasses, as well as their movements, mode of
+formation, and internal temperature, were treated in succession.
+But the most interesting chapters, from the author's own point of
+view, and those which were most novel for his readers, were the
+concluding ones upon the ancient extension of the Swiss glaciers,
+and upon the former existence of an immense, unbroken sheet of ice,
+which had once covered the whole northern hemisphere. No one before
+had drawn such vast conclusions from the local phenomena of the
+Alpine valleys. "The surface of Europe," says Agassiz, "adorned
+before by a tropical vegetation and inhabited by troops of large
+elephants, enormous hippopotami, and gigantic carnivora, was
+suddenly buried under a vast mantle of ice, covering alike plains,
+lakes, seas and plateaus. Upon the life and movement of a powerful
+creation fell the silence of death. Springs paused, rivers ceased
+to flow, the rays of the sun, rising upon this frozen shore (if,
+indeed, it was reached by them), were met only by the breath of the
+winter from the north and the thunders of the crevasses as they
+opened across the surface of this icy sea."* (* "Etudes sur les
+Glaciers" Chapter 8 page 35.) The author goes on to state that on
+the breaking up of this universal shroud the ice must have lingered
+longest in mountainous strongholds, and that all these fastnesses
+of retreat became, as the Alps are now, centres of distribution for
+the broken debris and rocky fragments which are found scattered
+with a kind of regularity along certain lines, and over given areas
+in northern and central Europe. How he followed out this idea in
+his subsequent investigations will be seen hereafter.
+
+CHAPTER 10.
+
+1840-1842: AGE 33-35.
+
+Summer Station on the Glacier of the Aar.
+Hotel des Neuchatelois.
+Members of the Party.
+Work on the Glacier.
+Ascent of the Strahleck and the Siedelhorn.
+Visit to England.
+Search for Glacial Remains in Great Britain.
+Roads of Glen Roy.
+Views of English Naturalists concerning Agassiz's Glacial Theory.
+Letter from Humboldt.
+Winter Visit to Glacier.
+Summer of 1841 on the Glacier.
+Descent into the Glacier.
+Ascent of the Jungfrau.
+
+In the summer of 1840 Agassiz made his first permanent station on
+the Alps. Hitherto the external phenomena, the relation of the ice
+to its surroundings, and its influence upon them, had been the
+chief study. Now the glacier itself was to be the main subject of
+investigation, and he took with him a variety of instruments for
+testing temperatures: barometers, thermometers, hygrometers, and
+psychometers; beside a boring apparatus, by means of which
+self-registering thermometers might be lowered into the heart of
+the glacier. To these were added microscopes for the study of such
+insects and plants as might be found in these ice-bound regions.
+The Hospice of the Grimsel was selected as his base of supplies,
+and as guides Jacob Leuthold and Johann Wahren were chosen. Both of
+these had accompanied Hugi in his ascension of the Finsteraarhorn
+in 1828, and both were therefore thoroughly familiar with all the
+dangers of Alpine climbing. The lower Aar glacier was to be the
+scene of their continuous work, and the centre from which their
+ascents of the neighboring summits would be made. Here, on the
+great median moraine, stood a huge boulder of micaceous schist. Its
+upper surface projected so as to form a roof, and by closing it in
+on one side with a stone wall, leveling the floor by a judicious
+arrangement of flat slabs, and rigging a blanket in front to serve
+as a curtain across the entrance, the whole was presently
+transformed into a rude hut, where six persons could find
+sleeping-room. A recess, sheltered by the rock outside, served as
+kitchen and dining-room; while an empty space under another large
+boulder was utilized as a cellar for the keeping of provisions.
+This was the abode so well known afterward as the Hotel des
+Neuchatelois. Its first occupants were Louis Agassiz, Edouard
+Desor, Charles Vogt, Francois de Pourtales, Celestin Nicolet, and
+Henri Coulon. It afforded, perhaps, as good a shelter as they could
+have found in the old cabin of Hugi, where they had hoped to make
+their temporary home. In this they were disappointed, for the cabin
+had crumbled on its last glacial journey. The wreck was lying two
+hundred feet below the spot where they had seen the walls still
+standing the year before.
+
+The work was at once distributed among the different members of the
+party,--Agassiz himself, assisted by his young friend and favorite
+pupil, Francois de Pourtales, retaining for his own share the
+meteorological observations, and especially those upon the internal
+temperature of the glaciers.* (* See "Tables of Temperature,
+Measurements" etc., in Agassiz's "Systeme Glaciaire". These results
+are also recorded in a volume entitled "Sejours dans les Glaciers",
+by Edouard Desor, a collection of very bright and entertaining
+articles upon the excursions and sojourns made in the Alps, during
+successive summers, by Agassiz and his scientific staff.) To M.
+Vogt fell the microscopic study of the red snow and the organic
+life contained in it; to M. Nicolet, the flora of the glaciers and
+the surrounding rocks; to M. Desor, the glacial phenomena proper,
+including those of the moraines. He had the companionship and
+assistance of M. Henri Coulon in the long and laborious excursions
+required for this part of the work.
+
+This is not the place for scientific details. For the results of
+Agassiz's researches on the Alpine glaciers, to which he devoted
+much of his time and energy during ten years, from 1836 to 1846,
+the reader is referred to his two larger works on this subject, the
+"Etudes sur les Glaciers," and the "Systeme Glaciaire." Of the work
+accomplished by him and his companions during these years this
+slight summary is given by his friend Guyot.* (* See Biographical
+Sketch, published by Professor A. Guyot, under the auspices of the
+United States National Academy.) "The position of eighteen of the
+most prominent rocks on the glacier was determined by careful
+triangulation by a skillful engineer, and measured year after year
+to establish the rate of motion of every part. The differences in
+the rate of motion in the upper and lower part of the glacier, as
+well as in different seasons of the year, was ascertained; the
+amount of the annual melting was computed, and all the phenomena
+connected with it studied. All the surrounding peaks,--the
+Jungfrau, the Schreckhorn, the Finsteraarhorn, most of them until
+then reputed unscalable,--were ascended, and the limit of glacial
+action discovered; in short all the physical laws of the glacier
+were brought to light."
+
+We now return to the personal narrative. After a number of days
+spent in the study of the local phenomena, the band of workers
+turned their attention to the second part of their programme,
+namely, the ascent of the Strahleck, by crossing which and
+descending on the other side, they intended to reach Grindelwald.
+One morning, then, toward the end of August, their guides,
+according to agreement, aroused them at three o'clock,--an hour
+earlier than their usual roll-call. The first glance outside spread
+a general chill of disappointment over the party, for they found
+themselves beleaguered by a wall of fog on every side. But
+Leuthold, as he lighted the fire and prepared breakfast, bade them
+not despair,--the sun might make all right. In a few moments, one
+by one, the summits of the Schreckhorn, the Finsteraarhorn, the
+Oberaarhorn, the Altmaner, the Scheuchzerhorn, lighted by the first
+rays of the sun, came out like islands above the ocean of mist,
+which softly broke away and vanished with the advancing light. In
+about three hours they reached the base of the Strahleck. Their two
+guides, Leuthold and Wahren, had engaged three additional men for
+this excursion, so that they now had five guides, none of whom were
+superfluous, since they carried with them various barometric
+instruments which required careful handling. They began the ascent
+in single file, but the slopes soon became so steep and the light
+snow (in which they floundered to the knees at every step) so deep,
+that the guides resorted to the usual method in such cases of tying
+them all together. The two head guides alone, Leuthold and Wahren,
+remained detached, clearing the snow in front of them, cutting
+steps in the ice, and giving warning, by cry and gesture, of any
+hidden danger in the path. At nine o'clock, after an hour's
+climbing, they stepped upon the small plateau, evenly covered with
+unbroken snow, formed by the summit of the Strahleck.
+
+The day had proved magnificent. With a clear sky above them, they
+looked down upon the valley of Grindelwald at their feet, while
+around and below them gathered the Scheideck and the Faulhorn, the
+pyramidal outline of the Niesen, and the chain of the Stockhorn. In
+front lay the great masses of the Eiger and the Monch, while to the
+southwest the Jungfrau rose above the long chain of the
+Viescherhorner. The first pause of silent wonder and delight, while
+they released themselves from their cords and arranged their
+instruments, seems to have been succeeded by an outburst of
+spirits; for in the journal of the youngest of the party, Francois
+de Pourtales, then a lad of seventeen, we read: "The guides began
+to wrestle and we to dance, when suddenly we saw a female chamois,
+followed by her young, ascending a neighboring slope, and presently
+four or five more stretched their necks over a rock, as if to see
+what was going on. Breathless the wrestlers and the dancers paused,
+fearing to disturb by the slightest movement creatures so shy of
+human approach. They drew nearer until within easy gunshot
+distance, and then galloping along the opposite ridge disappeared
+over the summit."
+
+The party passed more than an hour on the top of the Strahleck,
+making observations and taking measurements. Then having rested and
+broken their fast with such provisions as they had brought, they
+prepared for a descent, which proved the more rapid, since much of
+it was a long slide. Tied together once more, they slid, wherever
+they found it possible to exchange the painful and difficult
+walking for this simpler process. "Once below these slopes of
+snow," says the journal of young de Pourtales again, "rocks almost
+vertical, or narrow ledges covered with grass, served us as a road
+and brought us to the glacier of the Grindelwald. To reach the
+glacier itself we traversed a crevasse of great depth, and some
+twenty feet wide; on a bridge of ice, one or two feet in width, and
+broken toward the end, where we were obliged to spring across. Once
+on the glacier the rest was nothing. The race was to the fastest,
+and we were soon on the path of the tourists." Reaching the village
+of Grindelwald at three o'clock in the afternoon, they found it
+difficult to persuade the people at the inn that they had left the
+glacier of the Aar that morning. From Grindelwald they returned by
+the Scheideck to the Grimsel, visiting on their way the upper
+glacier of Grindelwald, the glacier of Schwartzwald, and that of
+Rosenlaui, in order to see how far these had advanced since their
+last visit to them. After a short rest at the Hospice of the
+Grimsel, Agassiz returned with two or three of his companions to
+their hut on the Aar glacier for the purpose of driving stakes into
+the holes previously bored in the ice. He hoped by means of these
+stakes to learn the following year what had been the rate of
+movement of the glacier. The summer's work closed with the ascent
+of the Siedelhorn. In all these ascents, the utmost pains was taken
+to ascertain how far the action of the ice might be traced upon
+these mountain peaks and the limits determined at which the
+polished surfaces ceased, giving place to the rough, angular rock
+which had never been modeled by the ice.
+
+Agassiz had hardly returned from the Alps when he started for
+England. He had long believed that the Highlands of Scotland, the
+hilly Lake Country of England, and the mountains of Wales and
+Ireland, would present the same phenomena as the valleys of the
+Alps. Dr. Buckland had offered to be his guide in this search after
+glacier tracks, as he had formerly been in the hunt after fossil
+fishes in Great Britain. When, therefore, the meeting of the
+British Association at Glasgow, at which they were both present,
+was over, they started together for the Highlands. In a lecture
+delivered by Agassiz, at his summer school at Penikese, a few
+months before his death, he recurred to this journey with the
+enthusiasm of a young man. Recalling the scientific isolation in
+which he then stood, opposed as he was to all the prominent
+geologists of the day, he said: "Among the older naturalists, only
+one stood by me. Dr. Buckland, Dean of Westminster, who had come to
+Switzerland at my urgent request for the express purpose of seeing
+my evidence, and who had been fully convinced of the ancient
+extension of ice there, consented to accompany me on my glacier
+hunt in Great Britain. We went first to the Highlands of Scotland,
+and it is one of the delightful recollections of my life that as we
+approached the castle of the Duke of Argyll, standing in a valley
+not unlike some of the Swiss valleys, I said to Buckland: 'Here we
+shall find our first traces of glaciers;' and, as the stage entered
+the valley, we actually drove over an ancient terminal moraine,
+which spanned the opening of the valley." In short, Agassiz found,
+as he had anticipated, that in the mountains of Scotland, Wales,
+and the north of England, the valleys were in many instances
+traversed by terminal moraines and bordered by lateral ones, as in
+Switzerland. Nor were any of the accompanying phenomena wanting.
+The characteristic traces left by the ice, as well known to him now
+as the track of the game to the hunter; the peculiar lines,
+furrows, and grooves; the polished surfaces, the roches moutonnees;
+the rocks, whether hard or soft, cut to one level, as by a rigid
+instrument; the unstratified drift and the distribution of loose
+material in relation to the ancient glacier beds,--all agreed with
+what he already knew of glacial action. He visited the famous
+"roads of Glen Roy" in the Grampian Hills, where so many geologists
+had broken a lance in defense of their theories of subsidence and
+upheaval, of ancient ocean-levels and sea-beaches, formed at a time
+when they believed Glen Roy and the adjoining valleys to have been
+so many fiords and estuaries. To Agassiz, these parallel terraces
+explained themselves as the shores of a glacial lake, held back in
+its bed for a time by neighboring glaciers descending from more
+sheltered valleys. The terraces marked the successively lower
+levels at which the water stood, as these barriers yielded, and
+allowed its gradual escape.* (* For details, see a paper by Agassiz
+on "The Glacial Theory and its Recent Progress" in the "Edinburgh
+New Philosophical Journal" October 1842, accompanied by a map of
+the Glen Roy region, and also an article entitled "Parallel Roads
+of Glen Roy, in Scotland," in the second volume of Agassiz's
+"Geological Sketches".) The glacial action in the whole
+neighborhood was such as to leave no doubt in the mind of Agassiz
+that Glen Roy and the adjoining glens, or valleys, had been the
+drainage-bed for the many glaciers formerly occupying the western
+ranges of the Grampian Hills. He returned from his tour satisfied
+that the mountainous districts of Great Britain had all been
+centres of glacial distribution, and that the drift material and
+the erratic boulders, scattered over the whole country, were due to
+exactly the same causes as the like phenomena in Switzerland. On
+the 4th of November, 1840, he read a paper before the Geological
+Society of London, giving a summary of the scientific results of
+their excursion, followed by one from Dr. Buckland, who had become
+an ardent convert to his views. Apropos of this meeting, Dr.
+Buckland writes in advance as follows:--
+
+TAYMOUTH CASTLE, October 15, 1840.
+
+. . .Lyell has adopted your theory in toto!!! On my showing him a
+beautiful cluster of moraines, within two miles of his father's
+house, he instantly accepted it, as solving a host of difficulties
+that have all his life embarrassed him. And not these only, but
+similar moraines and detritus of moraines, that cover half of the
+adjoining counties are explicable on your theory, and he has
+consented to my proposal that he should immediately lay them all
+down on a map of the county and describe them in a paper to be read
+the day after yours at the Geological Society. I propose to give in
+my adhesion by reading, the same day with yours, as a sequel to
+your paper, a list of localities where I have observed similar
+glacial detritus in Scotland, since I left you, and in various
+parts of England.
+
+There are great reefs of gravel in the limestone valleys of the
+central bog district of Ireland. They have a distinct name, which I
+forget. No doubt they are moraines; if you have not, ere you get
+this, seen one of them, pray do so.* (* Agassiz was then staying at
+Florence Court, the seat of the Earl of Enniskillen, in County
+Fermanagh, Ireland. While there he had an opportunity of studying
+most interesting glacial phenomena. ) But it will not be worth
+while to go out of your way to see more than one; all the rest must
+follow as a corollary. I trust you will not fail to be at Edinboro'
+on the 20th, and at Sir W. Trevelyan's on the 24th. . .
+
+A letter of later date in the same month shows that Agassiz felt
+his views to be slowly gaining ground among his English friends.
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ TO SIR PHILIP EGERTON.
+
+LONDON, November 24, 1840.
+
+. . .Our meeting on Wednesday passed off very well; none of my
+facts were disturbed, though Whewell and Murchison attempted an
+opposition; but as their objections were far-fetched, they did not
+produce much effect. I was, however, delighted to have some
+appearance of serious opposition, because it gave me a chance to
+insist upon the exactness of my observations, and upon the want of
+solidity in the objections brought against them. Dr. Buckland was
+truly eloquent. He has now full possession of this subject; is,
+indeed, completely master of it.
+
+I am happy to tell you that everything is definitely arranged with
+Lord Francis,* (* Apropos of the sale of his original drawings of
+fossil fishes to Lord Francis Egerton.) and that I now feel within
+myself a courage which doubles my strength. I have just written to
+thank him. To-morrow I shall devote to the fossils sent me by Lord
+Enniskillen, a list of which I will forward to you. . .
+
+We append here, a little out of the regular course, a letter from
+Humboldt, which shows that he too was beginning to look more
+leniently upon Agassiz's glacial conclusions.
+
+HUMBOLDT TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+BERLIN, August 15, 1840.
+
+I am the most guilty of mortals, my dear friend. There are not
+three persons in the world whose remembrance and affection I value
+more than yours, or for whom I have a warmer love and admiration,
+and yet I allow half the year to pass without giving you a sign of
+life, without any expression of my warm gratitude for the
+magnificent gifts I owe to you.* (* Probably the plates of the
+"Fresh-Water Fishes" and other illustrated publications.)
+
+I am a little like my republican friend who no longer answers any
+letters because he does not know where to begin. I receive on an
+average fifteen hundred letters a year. I never dictate. I hold
+that resort in horror. How dictate a letter to a scholar for whom
+one has a real regard? I allow myself to be drawn into answering
+the persons I know least, whose wrath is the most menacing. My
+nearer friends (and none are more dear to me than yourself) suffer
+from my silence. I count with reason upon their indulgence. The
+tone of your excellent letters shows that I am right. You spoil me.
+Your letters continue to be always warm and affectionate. I receive
+few like them. Since two thirds of the letters addressed to me
+(partly copies of letters written to the king or the ministers)
+remain unanswered, I am blamed, charged with being a parvenu
+courtier, an apostate from science. This bitterness of individual
+claims does not diminish my ardent desire to be useful. I act
+oftener than I answer. I know that I like to do good, and this
+consciousness gives me tranquillity in spite of my over burdened
+life. You are happy, my dear Agassiz, in the more simple and yet
+truly proud position which you have created for yourself. You ought
+to take satisfaction in it as the father of a family, as an
+illustrious savant, as the originator and source of so many new
+ideas, of so many great and noble conceptions.
+
+Your admirable work on the fossil fishes draws to a close. The last
+number, so rich in discoveries, and the prospectus, explaining the
+true state of this vast publication, have soothed all irritation
+regarding it. It is because I am so attached to you that I rejoice
+in the calmer atmosphere you have thus established about you. The
+approaching completion of the fossil fishes delivers me also from
+the fear that a too great ardor might cause you irreparable losses.
+You have shown not only what a talent like yours can accomplish,
+but also how a noble courage can triumph over seemingly
+insurmountable obstacles.
+
+In what words shall I tell you how greatly our admiration is
+increased by this new work of yours on the Fresh-Water Fishes?
+Nothing has appeared more admirable, more perfect in drawing and
+color. This chromatic lithography resembles nothing we have had
+thus far. What taste has directed the publication! Then the short
+descriptions accompanying each plate add singularly to the charm
+and the enjoyment of this kind of study. Accept my warm thanks, my
+dear friend. I not only delivered your letter and the copy with it
+to the king, but I added a short note on the merit of such an
+undertaking. The counselor of the Royal Cabinet writes me
+officially that the king has ordered the same number of copies of
+the Fresh-Water Fishes as of the Fossil Fishes; that is to say, ten
+copies. M. de Werther has already received the order. This is, to
+be sure, but a slight help; still, it is all that I have been able
+to obtain, and these few copies, with the king's name as
+subscriber, will always be useful to you.
+
+I cannot close this letter without asking your pardon for some
+expressions, too sharp, perhaps, in my former letters, about your
+vast geological conceptions. The very exaggeration of my
+expressions must have shown you how little weight I attached to my
+objections. . .My desire is always to listen and to learn. Taught
+from my youth to believe that the organization of past times was
+somewhat tropical in character, and startled therefore at these
+glacial interruptions, I cried "Heresy!" at first. But should we
+not always listen to a friendly voice like yours? I am interested
+in whatever is printed on these topics; so, if you have published
+anything at all complete lately on the ensemble of your geological
+ideas, have the great kindness to send it to me through a
+book-seller. . .
+
+Shall I tell you anything of my own poor and superannuated works?
+The sixth volume is wanting to my "Geography of the Fifteenth
+Century" (Examen Critique). It will appear this summer. I am also
+printing the second volume of a new work to be entitled "Central
+Asia." It is not a second edition of "Asiatic Fragments," but a new
+and wholly different work. The thirty-five sheets of the last
+volume are printed, but the two volumes will only be issued
+together. You can judge of the difficulty of printing at Paris and
+correcting proofs here,--at Poretz or at Toplitz. I am just now
+beginning to print the first number of my physics of the world,
+under the title of "Cosmos:" in German, "Ideen zur erner physischen
+Weltbeschreibung." It is in no sense a reproduction of the lectures
+I gave here. The subject is the same, but the presentation does not
+at all recall the form of a popular course. As a book, it has a
+somewhat graver and more elevated style. A "spoken book" is always
+a poor book, just as lectures read are poor however well prepared.
+Published courses of lectures are my detestation. Cotta is also
+printing a volume of mine in German, "Physikalische geographische
+Erinnerungen." Many unpublished things concerning the volcanoes of
+the Andes, about currents, etc. And all this at the age when one
+begins to petrify! It is very rash! May this letter prove to you
+and to Madame Agassiz that I am petrifying only at the extremities,
+--the heart is still warm. Retain for me the affection which I hold
+so dear.
+
+A. DE HUMBOLDT.
+
+In the following winter, or, rather, in the early days of March,
+1841, Agassiz visited, in company with M. Desor, the glacier of the
+Aar and that of Rosenlaui. He wished to examine the stakes planted
+the summer before on the glacier of the Aar, and to compare the
+winter and summer temperature within as well as without the mass of
+ice. But his chief object was to ascertain whether water still
+flowed from beneath the glaciers during the frosts of winter. This
+fact would have a direct bearing upon the theory which referred the
+melting and movement of the glaciers chiefly to their lower
+surface, explaining them by the central heat of the earth as their
+main cause. Satisfied as he was of the fallacy of this notion,
+Agassiz still wished to have the evidence of the glacier itself.
+The journey was, of course, a difficult one at such a season, but
+the weather was beautiful, and they accomplished it in safety,
+though not without much suffering. They found no water except the
+pure and limpid water from springs that never freeze. The glacier
+lay dead in the grasp of winter. The results of this journey,
+tables of temperature, etc., are recorded in the "Systeme
+Glaciaire."
+
+In E. Desor's "Sejours dans les Glaciers" is found an interesting
+description of the incidents of this excursion and the appearance
+of the glaciers in winter. In ascending the course of the Aar they
+frequently crossed the shrunken river on natural snow bridges, and
+approaching the Handeck over fearfully steep slopes of snow they
+had some difficulty in finding the thread of water which was all
+that remained of the beautiful summer cascade. On the glacier of
+the Aar they found the Hotel des Neuchatelois buried in snow, while
+the whole surface of the glacier as well as the surrounding peaks,
+from base to summit, wore the same spotless mantle. The
+Finsteraarhorn alone stood out in bold relief, black against a
+white world, its abrupt slopes affording no foothold for the snow.
+The scene was far more monotonous than in summer. Crevasses, with
+their blue depths of ice, were closed; the many-voiced streams were
+still; the moraines and boulders were only here and there visible
+through the universal shroud. The sky was without a cloud, the air
+transparent, but the glitter of the uniform white surface was
+exquisitely painful to the eyes and skin, and the travelers were
+obliged to wrap their heads in double veils. They found the glacier
+of Rosenlaui less enveloped in snow than that of the Aar; and
+though the magnificent ice-cave, so well known to travelers for its
+azure tints, was inaccessible, they could look into the vault and
+see that the habitual bed of the torrent was dry. The journey was
+accomplished in a week without any untoward accident.
+
+In the summer of 1841 Agassiz made a longer Alpine sojourn than
+ever before. The special objects of the season's work were the
+internal structure of these vast moving fields of ice, the
+essential conditions of their origin and continued existence, the
+action of water within them as influencing their movement, and
+their own agency in direct contact with the beds and walls of the
+valleys they occupied. The fact of their former extension and their
+present oscillations might be considered as established. It
+remained to explain these facts with reference to the conditions
+prevailing within the mass itself. In short, the investigation was
+passing from the domain of geology to that of physics. Agassiz, who
+was as he often said of himself no physicist, was the more anxious
+to have the cooperation of the ablest men in that department, and
+to share with them such facilities for observation and such results
+as he had thus far accumulated. In addition to his usual
+collaborators, M. Desor and M. Vogt, he had, therefore, invited as
+his guest, during part of the season, the distinguished physicist,
+Professor James D. Forbes, of Edinburgh, who brought with him his
+friend, Mr. Heath, of Cambridge.* (* As the impressions of Mr.
+Forbes were only made known in connection with his own later and
+independent researches it is unnecessary to refer to them here.) M.
+Escher de la Linth took also an active part in the work of the
+later summer. To his working corps Agassiz had added the foreman of
+M. Kahli, an engineer at Bienne, to whom he had confided his plans
+for the summer, and who furnished him with a skilled workman to
+direct the boring operations, assist in measurements, etc. The
+artist of this year was M. Jacques Burkhardt, a personal friend of
+Agassiz, and his fellow-student at Munich, where he had spent some
+time at the school of art. As a draughtsman he was subsequently
+associated with Agassiz in his work at various times, and when they
+both settled in America Mr. Burkhardt became a permanent member of
+Agassiz's household, accompanied him on his journeys, and remained
+with him in relations of uninterrupted and affectionate regard till
+his own death in 1867. He was a loyal friend and a warm-hearted
+man, with a thread of humor running through his dry good sense,
+which made him a very amusing and attractive companion.
+
+As it was necessary, in view of his special programme of work, to
+penetrate below the surface of the glacier, and reach, if possible,
+its point of contact with the valley bottom, Agassiz had caused a
+larger boring apparatus than had been used before, to be
+transported to the old site on the Aar glacier. The results of
+these experiments are incorporated in the "Systeme Glaciaire,"
+published in 1846, with twenty-four folio plates and two maps. They
+were of the highest interest with reference to the internal
+structure and temperature of the ice and the penetrability of its
+mass, pervious throughout, as it proved, to air and water. On one
+occasion the boring-rod, having been driven to a depth of one
+hundred and ten feet, dropped suddenly two feet lower, showing that
+it had passed through an open space hidden in the depth of the ice.
+The release of air-bubbles at the same time gave evidence that this
+glacial cave, so suddenly broken in upon, was not hermetically
+sealed to atmospheric influences from without.
+
+Agassiz was not satisfied with the report of his instruments from
+these unknown regions. He determined to be lowered into one of the
+so-called wells in the glacier, and thus to visit its interior in
+person. For this purpose he was obliged to turn aside the stream
+which flowed into the well into a new bed which he caused to be dug
+for it. This done, he had a strong tripod erected over the opening,
+and, seated upon a board firmly attached by ropes, he was then let
+down into the well, his friend Escher lying flat on the edge of the
+precipice, to direct the descent and listen for any warning cry.
+Agassiz especially desired to ascertain how far the laminated or
+ribboned structure of the ice (the so-called blue bands) penetrated
+the mass of the glacier. This feature of the glacier had been
+observed and described by M. Guyot (see page 292), but Mr. Forbes
+had called especial attention to it, as in his belief connected
+with the internal conditions of the glacier. It was agreed, as
+Agassiz bade farewell to his friends on this curious voyage of
+discovery, that he should be allowed to descend until he called out
+that they were to lift him. He was lowered successfully and without
+accident to a depth of eighty feet. There he encountered an
+unforeseen difficulty in a wall of ice which divided the well into
+two compartments. He tried first the larger one, but finding it
+split again into several narrow tunnels, he caused himself to be
+raised sufficiently to enter the smaller, and again proceeded on
+his downward course without meeting any obstacle. Wholly engrossed
+in watching the blue bands, still visible in the glittering walls
+of ice, he was only aroused to the presence of approaching danger
+by the sudden plunge of his feet into water. His first shout of
+distress was misunderstood, and his friends lowered him into the
+ice-cold gulf instead of raising him. The second cry was effectual,
+and he was drawn up, though not without great difficulty, from a
+depth of one hundred and twenty-five feet. The most serious peril
+of the ascent was caused by the huge stalactites of ice, between
+the points of which he had to steer his way. Any one of them, if
+detached by the friction of the rope, might have caused his death.
+He afterward said: "Had I known all its dangers, perhaps I should
+not have started on such an adventure. Certainly, unless induced by
+some powerful scientific motive, I should not advise any one to
+follow my example." On this perilous journey he traced the
+laminated structure to a depth of eighty feet, and even beyond,
+though with less distinctness.
+
+The summer closed with their famous ascent of the Jungfrau. The
+party consisted of twelve persons Agassiz, Desor, Forbes, Heath,
+and two travelers who had begged to join them,--M. de Chatelier, of
+Nantes, and M. de Pury, of Neuchatel, a former pupil of Agassiz.
+The other six were guides; four beside their old and tried friends,
+Jacob Leuthold and Johann Wahren. They left the hospice of the
+Grimsel on the 27th of August, at four o'clock in the morning.
+Crossing the Col of the Oberaar they descended to the snowy plateau
+which feeds the Viescher glacier. In this grand amphitheatre,
+walled in by the peaks of the Viescherhorner, they rested for their
+midday meal. In crossing these fields of snow, while walking with
+perfect security upon what seemed a solid mass, they observed
+certain window-like openings in the snow. Stooping to examine one
+of them, they looked into an immense open space, filled with soft
+blue light. They were, in fact, walking on a hollow crust, and the
+small window was, as they afterward found, opposite a large
+crevasse on the other side of this ice-cavern, through which the
+light entered, flooding the whole vault and receiving from its icy
+walls its exquisite reflected color.* (* The effect is admirably
+described by M. Desor in his account of this excursion, "Sejours
+dans les Glaciers" page 367.)
+
+Once across the fields of snow and neve, a fatiguing walk of five
+hours brought them to the chalets of Meril,* (* Sometimes Moril,
+but I have retained the spelling of M. Desor.--E.C.A.) where they
+expected to sleep. The night which should have prepared them for
+the fatigue of the next day was, however, disturbed by an untoward
+accident. The ladder left by Jacob Leuthold when last here with
+Hugi in 1832, nine years before, and upon which he depended, had
+been taken away by a peasant of Viesch. Two messengers were sent in
+the course of the night to the village to demand its restoration.
+The first returned unsuccessful; the second was the bearer of such
+threats of summary punishment from the whole party that he carried
+his point, and appeared at last with the recovered treasure on his
+back. They had, in the mean while, lost two hours. They should have
+been on their road at three o'clock; it was now five. Jacob warned
+them therefore that they must make all speed, and that any one who
+felt himself unequal to a forced march should stay behind. No one
+responded to his suggestion, and they were presently on the road.
+
+Passing Lake Meril, with its miniature icebergs, they reached the
+glacier of the Aletsch and its snow-fields, where the real
+difficulties and dangers of the ascent were to begin. In this great
+semicircular space, inclosed by the Jungfrau, the Monch, and the
+lesser peaks of this mountain group, lies the Aletsch reservoir of
+snow or neve. As this spot presented a natural pause between the
+laborious ascent already accomplished and the immense declivities
+which lay before them yet to be climbed, they named it Le Repos,
+and halted there for a short rest. Here they left also every
+needless incumbrance, taking only a little bread and wine, in case
+of exhaustion, some meteorological instruments, and the inevitable
+ladder, axe, and ropes of the Alpine climber. On their left, to the
+west of the amphitheatre, a vast passage opened between the
+Jungfrau and the Kranzberg, and in this could be distinguished a
+series of terraces, one above the other. The story is the usual
+one, of more or less steep slopes, where they sank in the softer
+snow or cut their steps in the icy surfaces; of open crevasses,
+crossed by the ladder, or the more dangerous ones, masked by snow,
+over which they trod cautiously, tied together by the rope. But
+there was nothing to appall the experienced mountaineer with firm
+foot and a steady head, until they reached a height where the
+summit of the Jungfrau detached itself in apparently inaccessible
+isolation from all beneath or around it. To all but the guides
+their farther advance seemed blocked by a chaos of precipices,
+either of snow and ice or of rock. Leuthold remained however
+quietly confident, telling them he clearly saw the course he meant
+to follow. It began by an open gulf of unknown depth, though not
+too wide to be spanned by their ladder twenty-three feet in length.
+On the other side of this crevasse, and immediately above it, rose
+an abrupt wall of icy snow. Up this wall Leuthold and another guide
+led the way, cutting steps as they went. When half way up they
+lowered the rope, holding one end, while their companions fastened
+the other to the ladder, so that it served them as a kind of
+hand-rail, by which to follow. At the top they found themselves on
+a terrace, beyond which a far more moderate slope led to the Col of
+Roththal, overlooking the Aletsch valley on one side, the Roththal
+on the other. From this point the ascent was more and more steep
+and very slow, as every step had to be cut. Their difficulties were
+increased, also, by a mist which gathered around them, and by the
+intense cold. Leuthold kept the party near the border of the ridge,
+because there the ice yielded more readily to the stroke of the
+axe; but it put their steadiness of nerve to the greatest test, by
+keeping the precipice constantly in view, except when hidden by the
+fog. Indeed, they could drive their alpenstocks through the
+overhanging rim of frozen snow, and look sheer down through the
+hole thus made to the amphitheatre below. One of the guides left
+them, unable longer to endure the sight of these precipices so
+close at hand. As they neared their goal they feared lest the mist
+might, at the last, deprive them of the culminating moment for
+which they had braved such dangers. But suddenly, as if touched by
+their perseverance, says M. Desor, the veil of fog lifted, and the
+summit of the Jungfrau, in its final solitude, rose before them.
+There was still a certain distance to be passed before they
+actually reached the base of the extreme peak. Here they paused,
+not without a certain hesitation, for though the summit lay but a
+few feet above them, they were separated from it by a sharp and
+seemingly inaccessible ridge. Even Agassiz, who was not easily
+discouraged, said, as he looked up at this highest point of the
+fortress they had scaled "We can never reach it." For all answer,
+Jacob Leuthold, their intrepid guide, flinging down everything
+which could embarrass his movements, stretched his alpenstock over
+the ridge as a grappling pole, and, trampling the snow as he went,
+so as to flatten his giddy path for those who were to follow, was
+in a moment on the top. To so steep an apex does this famous peak
+narrow, that but one person can stand on the summit at a time, nor
+was even this possible till the snow was beaten down. Returning on
+his steps, Leuthold, whose quiet, unflinching audacity of success
+was contagious, assisted each one to stand for a few moments where
+he had stood. The fog, the effect of which they had so much feared,
+now lent something to the beauty of the view from this sublime
+foothold. Masses of vapor rolled up from the Roththal on the
+southwest, but, instead of advancing to envelop them, paused at a
+little distance arrested by some current from the plain. The
+temperature being below freezing point, the drops of moisture in
+this wall of vapor were congealed into ice-crystals, which
+glittered like gold in the sunlight and gave back all the colors of
+the rainbow.
+
+When all the party were once more assembled at the base of the
+peak, Jacob, whose resources never failed, served to each one a
+little wine, and they rested on the snow before beginning their
+perilous descent. Of living things they saw only a hawk, poised in
+the air above their heads; of plants, a few lichens, where the
+surface of the rock was exposed. It was four o'clock in the
+afternoon before they started on their downward path, turning their
+faces to the icy slope, and feeling for the steps behind them, some
+seven hundred in all, which had been cut in ascending. In about an
+hour they reached the Col of the Roththal, where the greatest
+difficulties of the ascent had begun and the greatest dangers of
+the descent were over. So elated were they by the success of the
+day, and so regardless of lesser perils after those they had passed
+through, that they were now inclined to hurry forward incautiously.
+Jacob, prudent when others were rash, as he was bold when others
+were intimidated, constantly called them to order with his:
+"Hubschle! nur immer hubschle!" ("Gently! always gently!")
+
+At six o'clock they were once more at Le Repos, having retraced
+their steps in two hours over a distance which had cost them six in
+going. Evening was now falling, but daylight was replaced by
+moonlight, and when they reached the glacier its whole surface
+shone with a soft silvery lustre, broken here and there by the
+gigantic shadow of some neighboring mountain thrown black across
+it. At about nine o'clock, just as they had passed that part of the
+glacier which was, on account of the frequent crevasses, the most
+dangerous, they were cheered by the sound of a distant yodel. It
+was the call of a peasant who had been charged to meet them with
+provisions, at a certain distance above Lake Meril, in case they
+should be overcome by hunger and fatigue. The most acceptable thing
+he brought was his great wooden bucket, filled with fresh milk. The
+picture of the party, as they stood around him in the moonlight,
+dipping eagerly into his bucket, and drinking in turn until they
+had exhausted the supply, is so vivid, that one shares their good
+spirits and their enjoyment. Thus refreshed, they started on the
+last stage of their journey, three leagues of which yet lay before
+them, and at half-past eleven arrived at the chalets of Meril,
+which they had left at dawn.
+
+On the morrow the party broke up, and Agassiz and Desor,
+accompanied by their friend, M. Escher de la Linth, returned to the
+Grimsel, and after a day's rest there repaired once more to the
+Hotel des Neuchatelois. They remained on the glacier until the 5th
+of September, spending these few last days in completing their
+measurements, and in planting the lines of stakes across the
+glacier, to serve as a means of determining its rate of movement
+during the year, and the comparative rapidity of that movement at
+certain fixed points. Thus concluded one of the most eventful
+seasons Agassiz and his companions had yet passed upon the Alps.*
+(* Though quoting his exact language only in certain instances, the
+account of this and other Alpine ascensions described above has
+been based upon M. E. Desor's "Sejours dans les Glaciers". His very
+spirited narratives, added to my own recollections of what I had
+heard from Mr. Agassiz himself on the same subject, have given me
+my material.--E.C.A.)
+
+CHAPTER 11.
+
+1842-1843: AGE 35-36.
+
+Zoological Work uninterrupted by Glacial Researches.
+Various Publications.
+"Nomenclator Zoologicus."
+"Bibliographia Zoologiae et Geologiae."
+Correspondence with English Naturalists.
+Correspondence with Humboldt.
+Glacial Campaign of 1842.
+Correspondence with Prince de Canino concerning Journey to United States.
+Fossil Fishes from the Old Red Sandstone.
+Glacial Campaign of 1843.
+Death of Leuthold, the Guide.
+
+Although his glacier work was now so prominent a feature of
+Agassiz's scientific life, his zoological studies, especially his
+ichthyological researches, and more especially his work on fossil
+fishes, went on with little interruption. His publications upon
+Fossil Mollusks,* (* "Etudes Critiques sur les Mollusques Fossiles"
+4 numbers quarto with 100 plates.) upon Tertiary Shells,* (*
+"Iconographie des Coquilles Tertiaires reputees identiques sur les
+vivans" 1 number quarto 14 plates.) upon Living and Fossil
+Echinoderms,* (* "Monographie d'Echinodermes vivans et fossiles" 4
+numbers quarto with 37 plates.) with many smaller monographs on
+special subjects, were undertaken and completed during the most
+active period of his glacial investigations. More surprising is it
+to find him, while pursuing new lines of investigation with
+passionate enthusiasm, engaged at the same time upon works
+seemingly so dry and tedious as his "Nomenclator Zoologicus," and
+his "Bibliographia Zoologiae et Geologiae."
+
+The former work, a large quarto volume with an Index,* (* The Index
+was also published separately as an octavo.) comprised an
+enumeration of all the genera of the animal kingdom, with the
+etymology of their names, the names of those who had first proposed
+them, and the date of their publication. He obtained the
+cooperation of other naturalists, submitting each class as far as
+possible for revision to the leaders in their respective
+departments.
+
+In his letter of presentation to the library of the Neuchatel
+Academy, addressed to M. le Baron de Chambrier, President of the
+Academic Council, Agassiz thus describes the Nomenclator.
+
+. . ."Have the kindness to accept for the library of the Academy
+the fifth number of a work upon the sources of zoological
+criticism, the publication of which I have just begun. It is a work
+of patience, demanding long and laborious researches. I had
+conceived the plan in the first years of my studies, and since then
+have never lost sight of it. I venture to believe it will be a
+barrier against the Babel of confusion which tends to overwhelm the
+domain of zoological synonymy. My book will be called 'Nomenclator
+Zoologicus.'". . .
+
+The Bibliographia (4 volumes, octavo) was in some measure a
+complement of the Nomenclator, and contained a list of all the
+authors named in the latter, with notices of their works. It
+appeared somewhat later, and was published by the Ray Society in
+England, in 1848, after Agassiz had left Europe for the United
+States. The material for this work also had been growing upon his
+hands for years. Feeling more and more the importance of such a
+register as a guide for students, he appealed to naturalists in all
+parts of Europe for information upon the scientific bibliography of
+their respective countries, and at last succeeded in cataloguing,
+with such completeness as was possible, all known works and all
+scattered memoirs on zoology and geology. Unable to publish this
+costly but unremunerative material, he was delighted to give it up
+to the Ray Society. The first three volumes were edited with
+corrections and additions by Mr. H.E. Strickland, who died before
+the appearance of the fourth volume, which was finally completed
+under the care of his father-in-law, Sir William Jardine.
+
+The ability, so eminently possessed by Agassiz of dealing with a
+number of subjects at once, was due to no superficial versatility.
+To him his work had but one meaning. It was never disconnected in
+his thought, and therefore he turned from his glaciers to his
+fossils, and from the fossil to the living world, with the feeling
+that he was always dealing with kindred problems, bound together by
+the same laws. Nowhere is this better seen than in the records of
+the scientific society of Neuchatel, the society he helped to found
+in the first months of his professorship, and to which he always
+remained strongly attached, being a constant attendant at its
+sessions from 1833 to 1846. Here we find him from month to month,
+with philosophic breadth of thought, treating of animals in their
+widest relations, or describing minute structural details with the
+skill of a specialist. He presents organized beings in their
+geological succession, in their geographical distribution, in their
+embryonic development. He reviews and remodels laws of
+classification. Sometimes he illustrates the fossil by the living
+world, sometimes he finds the key to present phenomena in the
+remote past. He reconstructs the history of the glacial period, and
+points to its final chapter in the nearest Alpine valleys,
+connecting these facts again with like phenomena in distant parts
+of the globe. But however wide his range and however various his
+topics, under his touch they are all akin, all coordinate parts of
+a whole which he strives to understand in its entirety. A few
+extracts from his correspondence will show him in his different
+lines of research at this time.
+
+The following letter is from Edward Forbes, one of the earliest
+explorers of the deep-sea fauna. Agassiz had asked him for some
+help in his work upon echinoderms.
+
+EDWARD FORBES TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+21 LOTHIAN ST., EDINBURGH, February 13, 1841.
+
+. . .A letter from you was to me one of the greatest of pleasures,
+and with great delight (though, I fear, imperfectly) I have
+executed the commission you gave me. It should have been done much
+sooner had not the storms been so bad in the sea near this that,
+until three days ago, I was not able to procure a living sea-urchin
+from which to make the drawings required. . .You have made all the
+geologists glacier-mad here, and they are turning Great Britain
+into an ice-house. Some amusing and very absurd attempts at
+opposition to your views have been made by one or two
+pseudo-geologists; among others, poor--, who has read a paper at
+the Royal Society here, maintaining that all the appearances you
+refer to glaciers were caused by blocks of ice which floated this
+way in the Deluge! and that the fossils of the pleistocene strata
+were mollusks, etc., which, climbing upon the ice-blocks, were
+carried to warmer seas against their will!! To my mind, one of the
+best proofs of the truth of your views lies in the decidedly arctic
+character of the pleistocene fauna, which must be referred to the
+glacier time, and by such reference is easily understood. I mean
+during the summer to collect data on that point, in order to
+present a mass of geological proofs of your theory.
+
+Dr. Traill tells me you are proposing to visit England again during
+the coming summer. If you do, I hope we shall meet, when I shall
+have many things to show you, which time did not permit when you
+were here. I look anxiously for the forth-coming number of your
+history of the Echinodermata. . .
+
+FROM SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.
+
+June 13, 1842.
+
+. . .Your letters have given me great pleasure: first, in assuring
+me that your zeal in ichthyology is undiminished, and that you are
+about to give such striking proofs of it to the British
+Association; and next that you still pursue with enthusiasm your
+admirable researches upon the glaciers. I should be charmed to put
+myself under your guidance for a walk on the glaciers of the Aar,
+but I hardly dare promise it yet. . .Even were I to make every
+haste, I doubt if it be possible to reach your Swiss meeting in
+time. It is just possible that I may find you in your glacial
+cantonment after your return, but even this will depend upon
+circumstances over which I have no control.
+
+I send this letter to you by my friend, Admiral Sir Charles
+Malcolm, who passes through Neuchatel on his way to Geneva.
+Accompanying it is a copy of my last discourse, which I request you
+to accept and to read all parts of it. You will see that I have
+grappled honestly and according to my own faith with your ice, but
+have never lost sight of your great merit. My concluding paragraph
+will convince you and all your friends that if I am wrong it is not
+from any preconceived notions, but only because I judge from what
+you will call incomplete evidence. Your "Venez voir!" still sounds
+in my ears. . .
+
+Murchison remained for many years an opponent of the glacial theory
+in its larger application. In the discourse to which the above
+letter makes allusion (Address at the Anniversary Meeting of the
+Geological Society of London, 1842.* (* Extract from Report in
+volume 33 of the "Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal".)) is this
+passage: "Once grant to Agassiz that his deepest valleys of
+Switzerland, such as the enormous Lake of Geneva, were formerly
+filled with snow and ice, and I see no stopping place. From that
+hypothesis you may proceed to fill the Baltic and the northern
+seas, cover southern England and half of Germany and Russia with
+similar icy sheets, on the surfaces of which all the northern
+boulders might have been shot off. So long as the greater number of
+the practical geologists of Europe are opposed to the wide
+extension of a terrestrial glacial theory, there can be little risk
+that such a doctrine should take too deep a hold of the mind. . .
+The existence of glaciers in Scotland and England (I mean in the
+Alpine sense) is not, at all events, established to the
+satisfaction of what I believe to be by far the greater number of
+British geologists."
+
+Twenty years later, with rare candor, Murchison wrote to Agassiz as
+follows; by its connection, though not by its date, the extract is
+in place here: "I send you my last anniversary address, which I
+wrote entirely myself; and I beg you to believe that in the part of
+it that refers to the glacial period, and to Europe as it was
+geographically, I have had the sincerest pleasure in avowing that I
+was wrong in opposing as I did your grand and original idea of my
+native mountains. Yes! I am now convinced that glaciers did descend
+from the mountains to the plains as they do now in Greenland."
+
+During the summer of 1842, at about the same date with Murchison's
+letter disclaiming the glacial theory, Agassiz received, on the
+other hand, a new evidence, and one which must have given him
+especial pleasure, of the favorable impression his views were
+making in some quarters in England.
+
+FROM DR. BUCKLAND.
+
+OXFORD, July 22, 1842.
+
+You will, I am sure, rejoice with me at the adhesion of C. Darwin
+to the doctrine of ancient glaciers in North Wales, of which I send
+you a copy, and which was communicated to me by Dr. Tritten, during
+the late meeting at Manchester, in time to be quoted by me versus
+Murchison, when he was proclaiming the exclusive agency of floating
+icebergs in drifting erratic blocks and making scratched and
+polished surfaces. It has raised the glacial theory fifty per cent,
+as far as relates to glaciers descending inclined valleys; but
+Hopkins and the Cantabrigians are still as obstinate as ever
+against allowing the power of expansion to move ice along great
+distances on horizontal surfaces. . .
+
+The following is the letter referred to above.
+
+C. DARWIN TO DR. TRITTEN.
+
+Yesterday (and the previous days) I had some most interesting work
+in examining the marks left by EXTINCT glaciers. I assure you, an
+extinct volcano could hardly leave more evident traces of its
+activity and vast powers. I found one with the lateral moraine
+quite perfect, which Dr. Buckland did not see. Pray if you have any
+communication with Dr. Buckland give him my warmest thanks for
+having guided me, through the published abstract of his memoir, to
+scenes, and made me understand them, which have given me more
+delight than I almost remember to have experienced since I first
+saw an extinct crater. The valley about here and the site of the
+inn at which I am now writing must once have been covered by at
+least 800 or 1,000 feet in thickness of solid ice! Eleven years ago
+I spent a whole day in the valley where yesterday everything but
+the ice of the glaciers was palpably clear to me, and I then saw
+nothing but plain water and bare rock. These glaciers have been
+grand agencies. I am the more pleased with what I have seen in
+North Wales, as it convinces me that my view of the distribution of
+the boulders on the South American plains, as effected by floating
+ice, is correct. I am also more convinced that the valleys of Glen
+Roy and the neighboring parts of Scotland have been occupied by
+arms of the sea, and very likely (for in that point I cannot, of
+course, doubt Agassiz and Buckland) by glaciers also.
+
+It continued to be a grief to Agassiz that Humboldt, the oldest of
+all his scientific friends, and the one whose opinion he most
+reverenced, still remained incredulous. Humboldt's letters show
+that Agassiz did not willingly renounce the hope of making him a
+convert. Agassiz's own letters to Humboldt are missing from this
+time onward. Overwhelmed with occupation, and more at his ease in
+his relations with the older scientific men, he had ceased to make
+the rough drafts in which his earlier correspondence is recorded.
+
+HUMBOLDT TO AGASSIZ.
+
+BERLIN, March 2, 1842.
+
+. . .When one has been so long separated, even accidentally, from a
+friend as I have been from you, my dear Agassiz, it is difficult to
+find beginning or end to a letter. The kindly remembrance which you
+send me is evidence that my long silence has not seemed strange to
+you. . .It would be wasting words to tell you how I have been
+prevented, by the distractions of my life, always increasing with
+old age, from acknowledging the admirable things received from you,
+--upon living and fossil fishes, echinoderms, and glaciers. My
+admiration of your boundless activity, of your beautiful
+intellectual life, increases with every year. This admiration for
+your work and your bold excursions is based upon the most careful
+reading of all the views and investigations, for which I have to
+thank you. This very week I have read with great satisfaction your
+truly philosophical address, and your long treatise in Cotta's
+fourth "Jahresschrift." Even L. von Buch confessed that the first
+half of your treatise, the living presentation of the succession of
+organized beings, was full of truth, sagacity, and novelty.
+
+I in no way reproach you, my dear friend, for the urgent desire
+expressed in all your letters, that your oldest friends should
+accept your comprehensive geological view of your ice-period. It is
+very noble and natural to wish that what has impressed us as true
+should also be recognized by those we love. . .I believe I have
+read and compared all that has been written for and against the
+ice-period, and also upon the transportation of boulders, whether
+pushed along or carried by floods or gliding over slopes. My own
+opinion, as you know, can have no weight or authority, since I have
+not myself seen the most decisive points. Indeed I am, perhaps
+wrongly, inclined to look upon all geological theories as having
+their being in a mythical region, in which, with the progress of
+physics, the phantasms are modified century by century. But the
+"elephants caught in the ice," and Cuvier's "instantaneous change
+of climate," seem to me no more intelligible today than when I
+wrote my Asiatic fragments. According to all that we know of the
+decrease of heat in the earth, I cannot understand such a change of
+temperature in a space of time which does not also allow for the
+decaying of flesh. I understand much better how wolves, hares, and
+dogs, should they fall to-day into clefts of the frozen regions of
+Northern Siberia (and the so-called "elephant-ice" is in plain
+prose only porphyritic drift mixed with ice-crystals, true drift
+material), might retain their flesh and muscles. . .But I am only a
+grumbling rebellious subject in your kingdom. . .Do not be vexed
+with a friend who is more than ever impressed with your services to
+geology, your philosophical views of nature, your profound
+knowledge of organized beings. . .
+
+With old attachment and the warmest friendship, your
+
+A. DE HUMBOLDT.
+
+In the same strain is this extract from another letter of
+Humboldt's, written two or three months later.
+
+. . ."'Grace from on high,' says Madame de Sevigne, 'comes slowly.'
+I especially desire it for the glacial period and for that fatal
+cap of ice which frightens me, child of the equator that I am. My
+heresy, of little importance, since I have seen nothing, does not,
+I assure you, my dear Agassiz, diminish my ardent desire that all
+your observations should be published. . .I rejoice in the good
+news you give me of the fishes. I should pain you did I add that
+this work of yours, by the light it has shed on the organic
+development of animals, makes the true foundation of your glory.".
+. .
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ TO SIR PHILIP EGERTON.
+
+NEUCHATEL, June, 1842.
+
+. . .I am hard at work on the fishes of the "Old Red," and will
+send you at Manchester a part at least of the plates, with a
+general summary of the species of that formation. I aim to finish
+the work with such care that it shall mark a sensible advance in
+ichthyology. I hope it will satisfy you. . .You ask me how I intend
+to finish my Fossil Fishes? As follows: As soon as the number on
+the species of the "Old Red" is finished, I shall complete the
+general outline of the work as I did with volume 4, in order that
+the arrangement and character of all the families in the four
+orders may be studied in their zoological affinities, with their
+genera and principal species. But as this outline can no longer
+contain the innumerable species now known to me, I take up
+monographically the species from the different geological
+formations in the order of the deposits, and publish as many
+supplements as there are great formations rich in fossil fishes. I
+shall limit myself to the species described in the body of the
+work, merely adding the description of the new species in each
+deposit, and such additions as I may have to make for those already
+known. In this way, those who wish to study fossil fishes from the
+zoological stand-point can turn to the work in the original form,
+while those who wish to study them in their geological relations
+can confine themselves to the supplements. By means of double
+registers at the end of each volume, these two distinct parts of
+the work will be again united as a complete whole. This is the only
+plan I have been able to devise by which I could publish in
+succession all my materials without burdening my first subscribers,
+who will thus be free to accept the supplements or not, as they
+prefer. Should you have occasion to mention this arrangement to the
+friends of fossil ichthyology, pray do so; it seems to me for the
+interest of the matter that it should be known. . .I propose to
+resume with new zeal my researches upon the fossil fishes as soon
+as I return from an excursion I wish to make in July and August to
+the glacier of the Aar, where I hope, by a last visit this year, to
+conclude my labors on this subject. You will be glad to learn that
+the beautiful barometer you gave me has been my faithful companion
+in the Alps. . .I have the pleasure to tell you that the King of
+Prussia has made me a handsome gift of nearly 200 pounds for the
+continuance of my glacial work. I feel, therefore, the greater
+certainty of completing what remains for me to do. . .
+
+The campaign of 1842 opened on the 4th of July. The boulder had
+ceased to be a safe shelter, and was replaced by a rough frame
+cabin covered with canvas. If the party had some regrets in leaving
+their picturesque hut beneath the rock, the greater comfort of the
+new abode consoled them. It had several divisions. A sleeping-place
+for the guides and workmen was partitioned off from a middle room
+occupied by Agassiz and his friends, while the front space served
+as dining-room, sitting-room, and laboratory. This outer apartment
+boasted a table and one or two benches; even a couple of chairs
+were kept as seats of honor for occasional guests. A shelf against
+the wall and a few pegs accommodated books, instruments, coats,
+etc., and a plank floor, on which to spread their blankets at
+night, was a good exchange for the frozen surface of the glacier.*
+(* In bidding farewell to the boulder which had been the first
+"Hotel des Neuchatelois" we may add a word of its farther fortunes.
+It had begun to split in 1841, and was completely rent asunder in
+1844, after which frost and rain completed its dismemberment.
+Strange to say, during the last summer (1884) certain fragments of
+the mass have been found, inscribed with the names of some of the
+party; one of the blocks bearing beside names, the mark "Number 2".
+The account says "The middle stone, the one numbered 2, was at the
+intersecting point of two lines drawn from the Pavilion Dollfuss to
+the Scheuchzerhorn on the one part, and from the Rothhorn to the
+Thierberg on the other." According to the measurements taken by
+Agassiz, the Hotel des Neuchatelois in 1840 stood at 797 metres
+from the promontory of Abschwung. We are thus enabled, by referring
+to the large glacier map of Wild and Stengel, to compare the
+present with the then position of the stone, and thereby ascertain
+the progress of the glacier since the time in question. Thus the
+boulder still contributes something toward the sequel of the work
+begun by those who once found shelter beneath it.--E.C.A.)
+
+Mr. Wild, an engineer of known ability, was now a member of their
+party, as a topographical survey was to be one of the chief objects
+of the summer's work. The results of this survey, which was
+continued during two summers, are embodied in the map accompanying
+Agassiz's "Systeme Glaciaire." Experiments upon the extent and
+connection of the net-work of capillary fissures that admitted
+water into the interior of the glaciers, occupied Agassiz's own
+attention during a great part of the summer. In order to ascertain
+this, colored liquids were introduced into the glacier by means of
+boring, and it was found that they threaded their way through the
+mass of the ice and reappeared at lower points with astonishing
+rapidity. A gallery was cut at a depth of ten metres below the
+surface, through a wall of ice intervening between two crevasses.
+The colored liquid poured into a hole above soon appeared on the
+ceiling of the gallery. The experimenters were surprised to find
+that at night the same result was obtained, and that the liquid
+penetrated from the surface to the roof of the gallery even more
+quickly than during the day. This was explained by the fact that
+the fissures were then free from any moisture arising from surface
+melting, so that the passage through them was unimpeded.* (*
+Distrust has been thrown upon these results by the failure of more
+recent attempts to repeat the same experiments. In reference to
+this, Agassiz himself says "The infiltration has been denied in
+consequence of the failure of some experiments in which an attempt
+was made to introduce colored fluids into the glacier. To this I
+can only answer that I succeeded completely myself in the self-same
+experiment which a later investigator found impracticable, and that
+I see no reason why the failure of the latter attempt should cast a
+doubt upon the success of the former. The explanation of the
+difference in the result may perhaps be found in the fact that as a
+sponge gorged with water can admit no more fluid than it already
+contains, so the glacier, under certain circumstances, and
+especially at noonday in summer, may be so soaked with water that
+all attempts to pour colored fluids into it would necessarily
+fail."--See "Geological Sketches" by L. Agassiz, page 236.)
+
+The comparative rate of advance in the different parts of the
+glacier was ascertained this summer with greater precision than
+before. The rows of stakes planted in a straight line across the
+glacier by Agassiz and Escher de la Linth, in the previous
+September, now described a crescent with the curve turned toward
+the terminus of the glacier, showing, contrary to the expectation
+of Agassiz, that the centre moved faster than the sides. The
+correspondence of the curve in the stratification with that of the
+line of stakes confirmed this result. The study of the
+stratification of the snow was a marked feature of the season's
+work, and Agassiz believed, as will be seen by a later letter, that
+he had established this fact of glacial structure beyond a doubt.
+
+The origin and mode of formation of the crevasses also especially
+occupied the observers. On the 7th of August, Agassiz had an
+opportunity of watching this phenomenon in its initiation.
+Attracted to a certain spot on the glacier by a commotion among his
+workmen, he found them alarmed at the singular noises and movements
+in the ice. "I heard," he says, "at a little distance a sound like
+the simultaneous discharge of fire-arms; hurrying in the direction
+of the noise, it was repeated under my feet with a movement like
+that of a slight earthquake; the ground seemed to shift and give
+way under me, but now the sound differed from the preceding, and
+resembled a crumbling of rocks, without, however, any perceptible
+sinking of the surface. The glacier actually trembled,
+nevertheless; for a block of granite three feet in diameter,
+perched on a pedestal two feet high, suddenly fell down. At the
+same instant a crack opened between my feet and ran rapidly across
+the glacier in a straight line."* (* Extract from a letter of Louis
+Agassiz to M. Arago dated from the Hotel des Neuchatelois, Glacier
+of the Aar, August 7, 1842.) On this occasion Agassiz saw three
+crevasses formed in an hour and a half, and heard others opening at
+a greater distance from him. He counted eight new fissures in a
+space of one hundred and twenty-five feet. The phenomenon continued
+throughout the evening, and recurred, though with less frequency,
+during the night. The cracks were narrow, the largest an inch and a
+half in width, and their great depth was proved by the rapidity
+with which they drained any standing water in their immediate
+vicinity. "A boring-hole," says Agassiz, "one hundred and thirty
+feet deep and six inches in diameter, full of water, was completely
+emptied in a few minutes, showing that these narrow cracks
+penetrated to great depths."
+
+The summer's work included observations also on the comparative
+movement of the glacier during the day and night, on the surface
+waste of the mass, its reparation, on the neve and snow of the
+upper regions, on the meridian holes, the sun-dials of the
+glaciers, as they have been called.* (* "Here and there on the
+glacier there are patches of loose material, dust, sand, or gravel,
+accumulated by diminutive water-rills and small enough to become
+heated during the day. They will, of course, be warmed first on
+their eastern side, then still more powerfully on their southern
+side, and, in the afternoon, with less force again, on their
+western side, while the northern side will remain comparatively
+cool. Thus around more than half of their circumference they melt
+the ice in a semicircle, and the glacier is covered with little
+crescent-shaped troughs of this description, with a steep wall on
+one side and a shallow one on the other, and a little heap of loose
+materials in the bottom. They are the sun-dials of the glacier,
+recording the hour by the advance of the sun's rays upon them."--"
+Geological Sketches" by L. Agassiz page 293.) On the whole, the
+most important result of the campaign was the topographical survey
+of the glacier, recorded in the map published in Agassiz's second
+work on the glacier.
+
+At about this time there begin to be occasional references in his
+correspondence to a journey of exploration in the United States.
+Especially was this plan in frequent discussion between him and
+Charles Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, a naturalist almost as ardent
+as himself, with whom he had long been in intimate scientific
+correspondence. In April, 1842, the prince writes him: "I indulge
+myself in dreaming of the journey to America in which you have
+promised to accompany me. What a relaxation! and at the same time
+what an amount of useful work!" Again, a few months later, "You
+must keep me well advised of your plans, and I, in my turn, will
+try so to arrange my affairs as to find myself free in the spring
+of 1844 for a voyage, the chief object of which will be to show my
+oldest son the country where he was born, and where man may develop
+free of shackles. The mere anticipation of this journey is
+delightful to me, since I shall have you at my side, and may thus
+feel sure that it will make an epoch in science." This letter is
+answered from the glacier; the first part refers to the
+Nomenclator, in regard to which he often consulted the prince.
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ TO THE PRINCE OF CANINO.
+
+GLACIER OF THE AAR, September 1, 1842.
+
+. . .I thank you most sincerely for the pains you have so kindly
+taken with my proof, and for pointing out the faults and omissions
+you have noticed in my register of birds. I made the corrections at
+once, and have taken the liberty of mentioning on the cover of this
+number the share you have consented to take in my Nomenclator. I
+shall try to do better and better in the successive classes, but
+you well know the impossibility of avoiding grave errors in such a
+work, and that they can be wholly weeded out only in a second and
+third edition. I should have written sooner in answer to your last,
+had not your letter reached me on the Glacier of the Aar, where I
+have been since the beginning of July, following up observations,
+the results of which become every day more important and more
+convincing. The most striking fact, one which I think I have placed
+beyond the reach of doubt, is the primitive stratification of the
+neve, or fields of snow,--stratified from the higher regions across
+the whole course of the glacier to its lower extremity. I have
+prepared a general map, with transverse sections, showing how the
+layers lift themselves on the borders of the glacier and also at
+their junction, where two glaciers meet at the outlet of adjoining
+valleys; and how, also, the waving lines formed by the layers on
+the surface change to sharper concentric curves with a marked axis,
+as the glacier descends to lower levels. For a full demonstration
+of the matter, I ought to send you my map and plans, of which I
+have, as yet, no duplicates; but the fact is incontestable, and you
+will oblige me by announcing it in the geological section at Padua.
+M. Charpentier, who is going to your meeting, will contest it, but
+you can tell him from me that it is as evident as the
+stratification of the Neptunic rocks. To see and understand it
+fully, however, one must stand well above the glacier, so as to
+command the surface as a whole in one view. I would add that I am
+not now alluding to the blue and white bands in the ice of which I
+spoke to you last year; this is a quite distinct phenomenon.
+
+I wish I could accept your kind invitation, but until I have gone
+to the bottom of the glacier question and terminated my "Fossil
+Fishes," I do not venture to move. It is no light task to finish
+all this before our long journey, to which I look forward, as it
+draws nearer, with a constantly increasing interest. I am very
+sorry not to join you at Florence. It would have been a great
+pleasure for me to visit the collections of northern Italy in your
+company. . .I write you on a snowy day, which keeps me a prisoner
+in my tent; it is so cold that I can hardly hold my pen, and the
+water froze at my bedside last night. The greatest privation is,
+however, the lack of fruit and vegetables. Hardly a potato once a
+fortnight, but always and every day, morning and night, mutton,
+everlasting mutton, and rice soup. As early as the end of July we
+were caught for three days by the snow; I fear I shall be forced to
+break up our encampment next week without having finished my work.
+What a contrast between this life and that of the plain! I am
+afraid my letter may be long on the road before reaching the mail,
+and I pause here that I may not miss the chance of forwarding it by
+a man who has just arrived with provisions and is about to return
+to the hospice of the Grimsel, where some trustworthy guide will
+undertake to deliver it at the first post-office.
+
+No sooner is Agassiz returned from the glacier than we meet him
+again in the domain of his fossil fishes.
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ TO SIR PHILIP EGERTON.
+
+NEUCHATEL, December 15, 1842.
+
+. . .In the last few months I have made an important step in the
+identification of fossil fishes. The happy idea occurred to me of
+applying the microscope to the study of fragments of their bones,
+especially those of the head, and I have found in their structure
+modifications as remarkable and as numerous as those which Mr. Owen
+discovered in the structure of teeth. Here there is a vast new
+field to explore. I have already applied it to the identification
+of the fossil fishes in the Old Red of Russia sent me for that
+purpose by Mr. Murchison. You will find more ample details about it
+in my report to him. I congratulate myself doubly on the results;
+first, because of their great importance in paleontology, and also
+because they will draw more closely my relations with Mr. Owen,
+whom I always rejoice to meet on the same path with myself, and
+whom I believe incapable of jealousy in such matters. . .The only
+point indeed, on which I think I may have a little friendly
+difference with him, is concerning the genus Labyrinthodon, which I
+am firmly resolved, on proofs that seem to me conclusive, to claim
+for the class of fishes.* (* On seeing Owen's evidence some years
+later, Agassiz at once acknowledged himself mistaken on this point.
+) As soon as I have time I will write to Mr. Owen, but this need
+not prevent you from speaking to him on the subject if you have an
+early opportunity to do so. I am now exclusively occupied with the
+fossil fishes, which at any cost I wish to finish this winter. . .
+Before even returning to my glacier work, I will finish my
+monograph of the Old Red, so that you may present it at the Cork
+meeting, which it will be impossible for me to attend. . .I am
+infinitely grateful to you and Lord Enniskillen for your
+willingness to trust your Sheppy fishes to me; I shall thus be
+prepared in advance for a strict determination of these fossils.
+Having them for some time before my eyes, I shall become familiar
+with all the details. When I know them thoroughly, and have
+compared them with the collections of skeletons in the Museums of
+Paris, of Leyden, of Berlin, and of Halle, I will then come to
+England to see what there may be in other collections which I
+cannot have at my disposal here.
+
+The winter of 1843, apart from his duties as professor, was devoted
+to the completion of the various zoological works on which he was
+engaged, and to the revision of materials he had brought back from
+the glacier. His habits with reference to physical exercise were
+very irregular. He passed at once from the life of the mountaineer
+to that of the closet student. After weeks spent on the snow and
+ice of the glacier, constantly on foot and in the open air, he
+would shut himself up for a still longer time in his laboratory,
+motionless for hours at his microscope by day, and writing far into
+the night, rarely leaving his work till long after midnight. He was
+also forced at this time to press forward his publications in the
+hope that he might have some return for the sums he had expended
+upon them. This was indeed a very anxious period of his life. He
+could never be brought to believe that purely intellectual aims
+were not also financially sound, and his lithographic
+establishment, his glacier work, and his costly researches in
+zoology had proved far beyond his means. The prophecies of his old
+friend Humboldt were coming true. He was entangled in obligations,
+and crushed under the weight of his own undertakings. He began to
+doubt the possibility of carrying out his plan of a scientific
+journey to the United States.
+
+AGASSIZ TO THE PRINCE OF CANINO.
+
+NEUCHATEL, April, 1843.
+
+. . .I have worked like a slave all winter to finish my fossil
+fishes; you will presently receive my fifteenth and sixteenth
+numbers, forwarded two days since, with more than forty pages of
+text, containing many new observations. I shall allow myself no
+interruption until this work is finished, hoping thereby to obtain
+a little freedom, for if my position here is not changed I shall be
+forced to seek the means of existence elsewhere. Meantime,
+extravagant projects present themselves, as is apt to be the case
+when one is in difficulties. That of accompanying you to the United
+States was so tempting, that I am bitterly disappointed to think
+that its execution becomes impossible in my present circumstances.
+All my projects for further publications must also be adjourned, or
+perhaps renounced. . .Possibly, when my work on the fossil fishes
+is completed, the sale of some additional copies may help me to
+rise again. And yet I have not much hope of this, since all the
+attempts of my friends to obtain subscriptions for me in France and
+Russia have failed: because the French government takes no interest
+in what is done out of Paris; and in Russia such researches, having
+little direct utility, are looked upon with indifference. Do you
+think any position would be open to me in the United States, where
+I might earn enough to enable me to continue the publication of my
+unhappy books; which never pay their way because they do not meet
+the wants of the world?. . .
+
+In the following July we find him again upon the glacier. But the
+campaign of 1843 opened sadly for the glacial party. Arriving at
+Meiringen they heard that Jacob Leuthold was ill and would probably
+be unable to accompany them. They went to his house, and found him,
+indeed, the ghost of his former self, apparently in a rapid
+decline. Nevertheless, he welcomed them gladly to his humble home,
+and would have kept them for some refreshment. Fearing to fatigue
+him, however, they stayed but a few moments. As they left, one of
+the party pointed to the mountains, adding a hope that he might
+soon join them. His eyes filled with tears; it was his only answer,
+and he died three days later. He was but thirty-seven years of age,
+and at that time the most intrepid and the most intelligent of the
+Oberland guides. His death was felt as a personal grief by the band
+of workers whose steps he had for years guided over the most
+difficult Alpine passes.
+
+The summer's work continued and completed that of the last season.
+On leaving the glacier the year before they had marked a network of
+loose boulders, such as travel with the ice, and also a number of
+fixed points in the valley walls, comparing and registering their
+distance from each other. They had also sunk a line of stakes
+across the glacier. The change in the relative position of the two
+sets of signals and the curve in their line of stakes gave them,
+self-recorded, as it were, the rate of advance of the glacier as a
+whole, and also the comparative rate of progression in its
+different parts. Great pains was also taken during the summer to
+measure the advance in every twenty-four hours, as well as to
+compare the diurnal with the nocturnal movement, and to ascertain
+the amount of surface waste. The season was an unfavorable one,
+beginning so late and continuing so cold that the period of work
+was shortened.
+
+CHAPTER 12.
+
+1843-1846: AGE 36-39.
+
+Completion of Fossil Fishes.
+Followed by Fossil Fishes of the Old Red Sandstone.
+Review of the Later Work.
+Identification of Fishes by the Skull.
+Renewed Correspondence with Prince Canino about Journey
+   to the United States.
+Change of Plan owing to the Interest of the King of Prussia
+   in the Expedition.
+Correspondence between Professor Sedgwick and Agassiz on
+   Development Theory.
+Final Scientific Work in Neuchatel and Paris.
+Publication of "Systeme Glaciaire."
+Short Stay in England.
+Farewell Letter from Humboldt.
+Sails for United States.
+
+In 1843 the "Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles" was completed,
+and fast upon its footsteps, in 1844, followed the author's
+"Monograph on the Fossil Fishes of the Old Red Sandstone, or the
+Devonian System of Great Britain and Russia," a large quarto volume
+of text, accompanied by forty-one plates. Nothing in his
+paleontological studies ever interested Agassiz more than this
+curious fauna of the Old Red, so strange in its combinations that
+even well-informed naturalists had attributed its fossil remains to
+various classes of the animal kingdom in turn, and, indeed, long
+remained in doubt as to their true nature. Agassiz says himself in
+his Preface: "I can never forget the impression produced upon me by
+the sight of these creatures, furnished with appendages resembling
+wings, yet belonging, as I had satisfied myself, to the class of
+fishes. Here was a type entirely new to us, about to reenter (for
+the first time since it had ceased to exist) the series of beings;
+nor could anything, thus far revealed from extinct creations, have
+led us to anticipate its existence. So true is it that observation
+alone is a safe guide to the laws of development of organized
+beings, and that we must be on our guard against all those systems
+of transformation of species so lightly invented by the
+imagination."
+
+The author goes on to state that the discovery of these fossils was
+mainly due to Hugh Miller, and that his own work had been confined
+to the identification of their character and the determination of
+their relations to the already known fossil fishes. This work, upon
+a type so extraordinary, implied, however, innumerable and
+reiterated comparisons, and a minute study of the least fragments
+of the remains which could be procured. The materials were chiefly
+obtained in Scotland; but Sir Roderick Murchison also contributed
+his own collection from the Old Red of Russia, and various other
+specimens from the same locality. Not only on account of their
+peculiar structure were the fishes of the Old Red interesting to
+Agassiz, but also because, with this fauna, the vertebrate type
+took its place for the first time in what were then supposed to be
+the most ancient fossiliferous beds. When Agassiz first began his
+researches on fossil fishes, no vertebrate form had been discovered
+below the coal. The occurrence of fishes in the Devonian and
+Silurian beds threw the vertebrate type back, as he believed, into
+line with all the invertebrate classes, and seemed to him to show
+that the four great types of the animal kingdom, Radiates,
+Mollusks, Articulates, and Vertebrates, had appeared together.* (*
+Introduction to the "Poissons Fossiles de Vieux Gres Rouge" page
+22.) "It is henceforth demonstrated," says Agassiz, "that the
+fishes were included in the plan of the first organic combinations
+which made the point of departure for all the living inhabitants of
+our globe in the series of time."
+
+In his opinion this simultaneity of appearance, as well as the
+richness and variety displayed by invertebrate classes from the
+beginning, made it* (* Introduction to the "Poissons Fossiles du
+Vieux Gres Rouge" page 21.) "impossible to refer the first
+inhabitants of the earth to a few stocks, subsequently
+differentiated under the influence of external conditions of
+existence.". . .He adds:* (* Introduction to the "Poissons Fossiles
+de Vieux Gres Rouge" page 24.) "I have elsewhere presented my views
+upon the development through which the successive creations have
+passed during the history of our planet. But what I wish to prove
+here, by a careful discussion of the facts reported in the
+following pages, is the truth of the law now so clearly
+demonstrated in the series of vertebrates, that the successive
+creations have undergone phases of development analogous to those
+of the embryo in its growth and similar to the gradations shown by
+the present creation in the ascending series, which it presents as
+a whole. One may consider it as henceforth proved that the embryo
+of the fish during its development, the class of fishes as it at
+present exists in its numerous families, and the type of fish in
+its planetary history, exhibit analogous phases through which one
+may follow the same creative thought like a guiding thread in the
+study of the connection between organized beings." Following this
+comparison closely, he shows how the early embryonic condition of
+the present fishes is recalled by the general disposition of the
+fins in the fishes of the Old Red Sandstone, and especially by the
+caudal fin, making the unevenly lobed tail, so characteristic of
+these ancient forms. This so called heterocercal tail is only known
+to exist, as a permanent adult feature, in the sturgeons of to-day.
+The form of the head and the position of the mouth and eyes in the
+fishes of the Old Red were also shown to be analogous with
+embryonic phases of our present fishes. From these analogies, and
+also from the ascendancy of fishes as the only known vertebrate,
+and therefore as the highest type in those ancient deposits,
+Agassiz considered this fauna as representing "the embryonic age of
+the reign of fishes;" and he sums up his results in conclusion in
+the following words: "The facts, taken as a whole, seem to me to
+show, not only that the fishes of the Old Red constitute an
+independent fauna, distinct from those of other deposits, but that
+they also represent in their organization the most remarkable
+analogy with the first phases of embryonic development in the bony
+fishes of our epoch, and a no less marked parallelism with the
+lower degrees of certain types of the class as it now exists on the
+surface of the earth."
+
+It has been said by one of the biographers of Agassiz,* (* "Louis
+Agassiz: Notice biographique" par Ernest Favre.) in reference to
+this work upon the fishes of the Old Red Sandstone: "It is
+difficult to understand why the results of these admirable
+researches, and of later ones made by him, did not in themselves
+lead him to support the theory of transformation, of which they
+seem the natural consequence." It is true that except for the
+frequent allusion to a creative thought or plan, this introduction
+to the Fishes of the Old Red might seem to be written by an
+advocate of the development theory rather than by its most
+determined opponent, so much does it deal with laws of the organic
+world, now used in support of evolution. These comprehensive laws,
+announced by Agassiz in his "Poissons Fossiles," and afterward
+constantly reiterated by him, have indeed been adopted by the
+writers on evolution, though with a wholly different
+interpretation. No one saw more clearly than Agassiz the relation
+which he first pointed out, between the succession of animals of
+the same type in time and the phases of their embryonic growth
+to-day, and he often said, in his lectures, "the history of the
+individual is the history of the type." But the coincidence between
+the geological succession, the embryonic development, the
+zoological gradation, and the geographical distribution of animals
+in the past and the present, rested, according to his belief, upon
+an intellectual coherence and not upon a material connection. So,
+also, the variability, as well as the constancy, of organized
+beings, at once so plastic and so inflexible, seemed to him
+controlled by something more than the mechanism of self-adjusting
+forces. In this conviction he remained unshaken all his life,
+although the development theory came up for discussion under so
+many various aspects during that time. His views are now in the
+descending scale; but to give them less than their real prominence
+here would be to deprive his scientific career of its true basis.
+Belief in a Creator was the keynote of his study of nature.
+
+In summing up the comprehensive results of Agassiz's
+paleontological researches, and especially of his "Fossil Fishes,"
+Arnold Guyot says:* (* See "Biographical Memoir of Louis Agassiz"
+page 28.)--"Whatever be the opinions which many may entertain as to
+the interpretation of some of these generalizations, the vast
+importance of these results of Agassiz's studies may be appreciated
+by the incontestable fact, that nearly all the questions which
+modern paleontology has treated are here raised and in great
+measure solved. They already form a code of general laws which has
+become a foundation for the geological history of the life-system,
+and which the subsequent investigations of science have only
+modified and extended, not destroyed. Nowhere did the mind of
+Agassiz show more power of generalization, more vigor, or more
+originality. The discovery of these great truths is truly his work;
+he derived them immediately from nature by his own observations.
+Hence it is that all his later zoological investigations tend to a
+common aim, namely, to give by farther studies, equally
+conscientious but more extensive, a broader and more solid basis to
+those laws which he had read in nature and which he had proclaimed
+at that early date in his immortal work, 'Poissons Fossiles.' Let
+us not be astonished that he should have remained faithful to these
+views to the end of his life. It is because he had SEEN that he
+BELIEVED, and such a faith is not easily shaken by new hypotheses."
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ TO SIR PHILIP EGERTON.
+
+NEUCHATEL, September 7, 1844.
+
+. . .I write in all haste to ask for any address to which I can
+safely forward my report on the Sheppy fishes, so that they may
+arrive without fail in time for the meeting at York. Since my last
+letter I have made progress in this kind of research. I have
+sacrificed all my duplicates of our present fishes to furnish
+skeletons. I have prepared more than a hundred since I last wrote
+you, and I can now determine the family, and even the genus, simply
+by seeing the skull. There remains nothing impossible now in the
+determination of fishes, and if I can obtain certain exotic genera,
+which I have not as yet, I can make an osteology of fishes as
+complete as that which we possess for the other classes of
+vertebrates. Every family has its special type of skull. All this
+is extremely interesting. I have already corrected a mass of
+inaccurate identifications established upon external characters;
+and as for fossils, I have recognized and characterized seventeen
+new genera among the less perfect undetermined specimens you have
+sent me. Several families appear now for the first time among the
+fossils. I have been able to determine to what family all the
+doubtful genera belong; indeed Sheppy will prove as rich in species
+as Mont Bolca. When you see your specimens again you will hardly
+recognize them, they are so changed; I have chiseled and cleaned
+them, until they are almost like anatomical preparations. Try to
+procure as many more specimens as possible and send them to me. I
+cannot stir from Neuchatel, now that I am so fully in the spirit of
+work, and besides it would be a useless expense. . .You will
+receive with my report the three numbers which complete my
+monograph of the Fishes of the Old Red. I feel sure, in advance,
+that you will be satisfied with them. . .
+
+SIR PHILIP EGERTON TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+TOLLY HOUSE, ALNESS, ROSS-SHIRE. September 15, 1844.
+
+. . .I have only this day received your letter of the 6th, and I
+fear much you will scarcely receive this in time to make it
+available. I shall not be able to reach York for the commencement
+of the meeting, but hope to be there on Saturday, September 28th. A
+parcel will reach me in the shortest possible time addressed Sir P.
+Egerton, Donnington Rectory, York. I am delighted with the bright
+results of your comparison of the Sheppy fossils with recent forms.
+You appear to have opened out an entirely new field of
+investigation, likely to be productive of most brilliant results.
+Should any accident delay the arrival of your monograph for the
+York meeting, I shall make a point of communicating to our
+scientific friends the contents of your letter, as I know they will
+rejoice to hear of the progress of fossil ichthyology in your
+masterly hands. When next you come, I wish you could spend a few
+days here. We are surrounded on all sides by the debris of the
+moraines of the ancient glaciers that descended the flank of Ben
+Wyvis, and I think you would find much to interest you in tracing
+their relations. We have also the Cromarty Fish-beds within a few
+miles, and many other objects of geological interest. . .I shall
+see Lord Enniskillen at York, and will tell him of your success. We
+shall, of course, procure all the Sheppy fish we can either by
+purchase or exchange. . .
+
+The pressure of work upon his various publications detained Agassiz
+at home during the summer of 1844. For the first time he was unable
+to make one of the glacial party this year, but the work was
+carried on uninterruptedly, and the results reported to him.
+Meantime his contemplated journey to the United States flitted
+constantly before him.
+
+AGASSIZ TO THE PRINCE OF CANINO.
+
+NEUCHATEL, November 19, 1844.
+
+. . .Your idea of an illustrated American ichthyology is admirable.
+But for that we ought to have with us an artist clever enough to
+paint fishes rapidly from the life. Work but half done is no longer
+permissible in our days. . .In this matter I think there is a
+justice due to Rafinesque. However poor his descriptions, he
+nevertheless first recognized the necessity of multiplying genera
+in ichthyology, and that at a time when the thing was far more
+difficult than now. Several of his genera have even the priority
+over those now accepted, and I think in the United States it would
+be easier than elsewhere to find again a part of the materials on
+which he worked. We must not neglect from this time forth to ask
+Americans to put us in the way of extending this work throughout
+North America. If you accept me for your collaborator, I will at
+once do all that I can on my side to bring together notes and
+specimens. I will write to several naturalists in the United
+States, and tell them that as I am to accompany you on your voyage
+I should be glad to know in advance what they have done in
+ichthyology, so that we may be the better prepared to profit by our
+short sojourn in their country. However, I will do nothing before
+having your directions, which, for the sake of the matter in hand,
+I should be glad to receive as early as possible. . .
+
+The next letter announces a new aspect of the projected journey. In
+explanation, it should be said that finding Agassiz might be
+prevented by his poverty from going, the prince had invited him to
+be his guest for a summer in the United States.
+
+AGASSIZ TO THE PRINCE OF CANINO.
+
+NEUCHATEL, January 7, 1845.
+
+. . .I have received an excellent piece of news from Humboldt,
+which I hasten to share with you. I venture to believe that it will
+please you also. . .I had written to Humboldt of our plans, and of
+your kind offer to take me with you to the United States, telling
+him at the same time how much I regretted that I should be unable
+to visit the regions which attracted me the most from a geological
+point of view, and asking him if it would be possible to interest
+the king in this journey and obtain means from his majesty for a
+longer stay on the other side of the Atlantic. I have just received
+a delightful and most unexpected reply. The king will grant me 15,
+000 francs for this object, so that I shall, in any event, be able
+to make the journey. All the more do I desire to make it in your
+society, and I think by combining our forces we shall obtain more
+important results; but I am glad that I can do it without being a
+burden to you. Before answering Humboldt, I am anxious to know
+whether your plans are definitely decided upon for this summer, and
+whether this arrangement suits you. . .
+
+The pleasant plan so long meditated was not to be fulfilled. The
+prince was obliged to defer the journey and never accomplished it.
+This was a great disappointment to Agassiz.
+
+"Am I then to go without you," he writes; "is this irrevocable? If
+I were to defer my departure till September would it then be
+possible for you to leave Rome? It would be too delightful if we
+could make this journey together. I wish also, before starting, to
+review everything that has been done of late in paleontology,
+zoology, and comparative anatomy, that I may, in behalf of all
+these sciences, take advantage of the circumstances in which I
+shall be placed. . .Whatever befalls me, I feel that I shall never
+cease to consecrate my whole energy to the study of nature; its all
+powerful charm has taken such possession of me that I shall always
+sacrifice everything to it; even the things which men usually value
+most."
+
+Agassiz had determined, before starting on his journey, to complete
+all his unfinished works, and to put in order his correspondence
+and collections, including the vast amount of specimens sent him
+for identification or for his own researches. The task of "setting
+his house in order" for a change which, perhaps, he dimly felt to
+be more momentous than it seemed, proved long and laborious. From
+all accounts, he performed prodigies of work, but the winter and
+spring passed, and the summer of 1845 found him still at his post.
+
+Humboldt writes him not without anxiety lest his determination to
+complete all the tasks he had undertaken, including the
+Nomenclator, should involve him in endless delays and perplexities.
+
+HUMBOLDT TO AGASSIZ.
+
+BERLIN, September 16, 1845.
+
+. . .Your Nomenclator frightens me with its double entries. The
+Milky Way must have crossed your path, for you seem to be dealing
+with nebulae which you are trying to resolve into stars. For pity's
+sake husband your strength. You treat this journey as if it were
+for life. As to finishing,--alas! my friend, one does not finish.
+Considering all that you have in your well-furnished brain beside
+your accumulated papers, half the contents of which you do not
+yourself know, your expression "aufraumen,"--to put in final order,
+is singularly inappropriate. There will always remain some
+burdensome residue,--last things not yet accounted for. I beg you,
+then, not to abuse your strength. Be content to finish only what
+seems to you nearest completion,--the most advanced of your work.
+
+Your letter reached me, unaccompanied, however, by the books it
+announces. They are to come, no doubt, in some other way. Spite of
+the demands made upon me by the continuation of my "Cosmos," I
+shall find time to read and profit by your introduction to the Old
+Red. I am inclined to sing hymns of praise to the Hyperboreans who
+have helped you in this admirable work. What you say of the
+specific difference in vertical line and of the increased number of
+biological epochs is full of interest and wisdom. No wonder you
+rebel against the idea that the Baltic contains microscopic animals
+identical with those of the chalk! I foresee, however, a new battle
+of Waterloo between you and my friend Ehrenberg, who accompanied me
+lately, just after the Victoria festivals, to the volcanoes of the
+Eifel with Dechen. Not an inch of ground without infusoria in those
+regions! For Heaven's sake do not meddle with the infusoria before
+you have seen the Canada Lakes and completed your journey. Defer
+them till some more tranquil period of your life. . .I must close
+my letter with the hope that you will never doubt my warm
+affection. Assuredly I shall find no fault with any course of
+lectures you may give in the new world, nor do I see the least
+objection to giving them for money. You can thus propagate your
+favorite views and spread useful knowledge, while at the same time
+you will, by most honorable and praiseworthy means, provide
+additional funds for your traveling expenses. . .
+
+The following correspondence with Professor Adam Sedgwick is of
+interest, as showing his attitude and that of Agassiz toward
+questions which have since acquired a still greater scientific
+importance.
+
+PROFESSOR ADAM SEDGWICK TO LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, April 10, 1845.
+
+MY DEAR PROFESSOR,
+
+The British Association is to meet here about the middle of June,
+and I trust that the occasion will again bring you to England and
+give me the great happiness of entertaining you in Trinity College.
+Indeed, I wish very much to see you; for many years have now
+elapsed since I last had that pleasure. May God long preserve your
+life, which has been spent in promoting the great ends of truth and
+knowledge! Your great work on fossil fishes is now before me, and I
+also possess the first number of your monograph upon the fishes of
+the Old Red Sandstone. I trust the new numbers will follow the
+first in rapid succession. I love now and then to find a
+resting-place; and your works always give me one. The opinions of
+Geoffroy St. Hilaire and his dark school seem to be gaining some
+ground in England. I detest them, because I think them untrue. They
+shut out all argument from DESIGN and all notion of a Creative
+Providence, and in so doing they appear to me to deprive physiology
+of its life and strength, and language of its beauty and meaning. I
+am as much offended in taste by the turgid mystical bombast of
+Geoffroy as I am disgusted by his cold and irrational materialism.
+When men of his school talk of the elective affinity of organic
+types, I hear a jargon I cannot comprehend, and I turn from it in
+disgust; and when they talk of spontaneous generation and
+transmutation of species, they seem to me to try nature by an
+hypothesis, and not to try their hypothesis by nature. Where are
+their facts on which to form an inductive truth? I deny their
+starting condition. "Oh! but" they reply, "we have progressive
+development in geology." Now, I allow (as all geologists must do) a
+KIND OF PROGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT. For example, the first fish are
+below the reptiles; and the first reptiles older than man. I say,
+we have successive forms of animal life adapted to successive
+conditions (so far, proving design), and not derived in natural
+succession in the ordinary way of generation. But if no single fact
+in actual nature allows us to suppose that the new species and
+orders were produced successively in the natural way, how did they
+begin? I reply, by a way out of and above common known, material
+nature, and this way I call CREATION. Generation and creation are
+two distinct ideas, and must be described by two distinct words,
+unless we wish to introduce utter confusion of thought and
+language. In this view I think you agree with me; for I spoke to
+you on the subject when we met (alas, TEN years since!) at Dublin.
+Would you have the great kindness to give me your most valuable
+opinion on one or two points?
+
+(1.) Is it possible, according to the known laws of actual nature,
+or is it probable, on any analogies of nature, that the vast series
+of fish, from those of the Ludlow rock and the Old Red Sandstone to
+those of our actual seas, lakes, and rivers, are derived from one
+common original low type, in the way of development and by
+propagation or natural breeding? I should say, NO. But my knowledge
+is feeble and at second-hand. Yours is strong and from the
+fountain-head.
+
+(2.) Is the organic type of fish higher now than it was during the
+carboniferous period, when the Sauroids so much abounded? If the
+progressive theory of Geoffroy be true, in his sense, each class of
+animals ought to be progressive in its organic type. It appears to
+me that this is not true. Pray tell me your own views on this
+point.
+
+(3.) There are "ODD FISH" (as we say in jest) in the Old Red
+Sandstone. Do these so graduate into crustaceans as to form
+anything like such an organic link that one could, by generation,
+come naturally from the other? I should say, NO, being instructed
+by your labors. Again, allowing this, for the sake of argument, are
+there not much higher types of fish which are contemporaneous with
+the lower types (if, indeed, they be lower), and do not these
+nobler fish of the Old Red Sandstone stultify the hypothesis of
+natural generative development?
+
+(4.) Will you give me, in a few general words, your views of the
+scale occupied by the fish of the Old Red, considered as a natural
+group? Are they so rudimentary as to look like abortions or
+creatures derived from some inferior class, which have not yet by
+development reached the higher type of fish? Again, I should say,
+NO; but I long for an answer from a great authority like yours. I
+am most anxious for a good general conception of the fish of the
+Old Red, with reference to some intelligible scale.
+
+(5.) Lastly, is there the shadow of ground for supposing that by
+any natural generative development the Ichthyosaurians and other
+kindred forms of reptile have come from Sauroid, or any other type
+of fish? I believe you will say, NO. At any rate, the facts of
+geology lend no support to such a view, for the nobler forms of
+Reptile appear in strata below those in which the Ichthyosaurians,
+etc., are first seen. But I must not trouble you with more
+questions. Professor Whewell is now Master of Trinity College. We
+shall all rejoice to see you.
+
+Ever, my dear Professor, your most faithful and most grateful
+friend,
+
+A. SEDGWICK.
+
+FROM LOUIS AGASSIZ TO A. SEDGWICK.
+
+NEUCHATEL, June, 1845.
+
+. . .I reproach myself for not acknowledging at once your most
+interesting letter of April 10th. But you will easily understand
+that in the midst of the rush of work consequent upon my
+preparation for a journey of several years' duration I have not
+noticed the flight of time since I received it, until to-day, when
+the sight of the date fills me with confusion. And yet, for years,
+I have not received a letter which has given me greater pleasure or
+moved me more deeply. I have felt in it and have received from it
+that vigor of conviction which gives to all you say or write a
+virile energy, captivating alike to the listener or the reader.
+Like you, I am pained by the progress of certain tendencies in the
+domain of the natural sciences; it is not only the arid character
+of this philosophy of nature (and by this I mean, not NATURAL
+PHILOSOPHY, but the "Natur-philosophie" of the Germans and French)
+which alarms me. I dread quite as much the exaggeration of
+religious fanaticism, borrowing fragments from science, imperfectly
+or not at all understood, and then making use of them to prescribe
+to scientific men what they are allowed to see or to find in
+Nature. Between these two extremes it is difficult to follow a safe
+road. The reason is, perhaps, that the domain of facts has not yet
+received a sufficiently general recognition, while traditional
+beliefs still have too much influence upon the study of the
+sciences.
+
+Wishing to review such ideas as I had formed upon these questions,
+I gave a public course this winter upon the plan of creation as
+shown in the development of the animal kingdom. I wish I could send
+it to you, for I think it might please you. Unhappily, I had no
+time to write it out, and have not even an outline of it. But I
+intend to work further upon this subject and make a book upon it
+one of these days. If I speak of it to-day it is because in this
+course I have treated all the questions upon which you ask my
+opinion. Let me answer them here after a somewhat aphoristic
+fashion.
+
+I find it impossible to attribute the biological phenomena, which
+have been and still are going on upon the surface of our globe, to
+the simple action of physical forces. I believe they are due, in
+their entirety, as well as individually, to the direct intervention
+of a creative power, acting freely and in an autonomic way. . .I
+have tried to make this intentional plan in the organization of the
+animal kingdom evident, by showing that the differences between
+animals do not constitute a material chain, analogous to a series
+of physical phenomena, bound together by the same law, but present
+themselves rather as the phases of a thought, formulated according
+to a definite aim. I think we know enough of comparative anatomy to
+abandon forever the idea of the transformation of the organs of one
+type into those of another. The metamorphoses of certain animals,
+and especially of insects, so often cited in support of this idea,
+prove, by the fixity with which they repeat themselves in
+innumerable species, exactly the contrary. In the persistency of
+these metamorphoses, distinct for each species and known to repeat
+themselves annually in a hundred thousand species, and to have done
+so ever since the present order of things was established on the
+earth, have we not the most direct proof that the diversity of
+types is not due to external natural influences? I have followed
+this idea in all the types of the animal kingdom. I have also tried
+to show the direct intervention of a creative power in the
+geographical distribution of organized beings on the surface of the
+globe when the species are definitely circumscribed. As evidence of
+the fixity of generic types and the existence of a higher and free
+causal power, I have made use of a method which appears to me new
+as a process of reasoning. The series of reptiles, for instance, in
+the family of lizards, shows apodal forms, forms with rudimentary
+feet, then with a successively larger number of fingers until we
+reach, by seemingly insensible gradations, the genera Anguis,
+Ophisaurus, and Pseudopus, the Chamosauria, Chirotes, Bipes, Sepo,
+Scincus, and at last the true lizards. It would seem to any
+reasonable man that these types are the transformations of a single
+primitive type, so closely do the modifications approach each
+other; and yet I now reject any such supposition, and after having
+studied the facts most thoroughly, I find in them a direct proof of
+the creation of all these species. It must not be forgotten that
+the genus Anguis belongs to Europe, the Ophisaurus to North
+America, the Pseudopus to Dalmatia and the Caspian steppe, the Sepo
+to Italy, etc. Now, I ask how portions of the earth so absolutely
+distinct could have combined to form a continuous zoological
+series, now so strikingly distributed, and whether the idea of this
+development could have started from any other source than a
+creative purpose manifested in space? These same purposes, this
+same constancy in the employment of means toward a final end, may
+be read still more clearly in the study of the fossils of the
+different creations. The species of all the creations are
+materially and genealogically as distinct from each other as those
+of the different points on the surface of the globe. I have
+compared hundreds of species reputed identical in various
+successive deposits,--species which are always quoted in favor of a
+transition, however indirect, from one group of species to another,
+--and I have always found marked specific differences between them.
+In a few weeks I will send you a paper which I have just printed on
+this subject, where it seems to me this view is very satisfactorily
+proved. The idea of a procreation of new species by preceding ones
+is a gratuitous supposition opposed to all sound physiological
+notions. And yet it is true that, taken as a whole, there is a
+gradation in the organized beings of successive geological
+formations, and that the end and aim of this development is the
+appearance of man. But this serial connection of all successive
+creatures is not material; taken singly these groups of species
+show no relation through intermediate forms genetically derived one
+from the other. The connection between them becomes evident only
+when they are considered as a whole emanating from a creative
+power, the author of them all. To your special questions I may now
+very briefly reply.
+
+Have fishes descended from a primitive type? So far am I from
+thinking this possible, that I do not believe there is a single
+specimen of fossil or living fish, whether marine or fresh-water,
+that has not been created with reference to a special intention and
+a definite aim, even though we may be able to detect but a portion
+of these numerous relations and of the essential purpose.
+
+Are the present fishes superior to the older ones? As a general
+proposition, I would say, NO; it seems to me even that the fishes
+which preceded the appearance of reptiles in the plan of creation
+were higher in certain characters than those which succeeded them;
+and it is a strange fact that these ancient fishes have something
+analogous with reptiles, which had not then made their appearance.
+One would say that they already existed in the creative thought,
+and that their coming, not far removed, was actually anticipated.
+
+Can the fishes of the Old Red be considered the embryos of those of
+later epochs? Of course they are the first types of the vertebrate
+series, including the most ancient of the Silurian system; but they
+each constitute an independent fauna, as numerous in the places
+where these earlier fishes are found, as the present fishes in any
+area of similar extent on our sea-shore to-day. I now know one
+hundred and four species of fossil fish from the Old Red, belonging
+to forty-four genera, comprised under seven families, between
+several of which there is but little analogy as to organization. It
+is therefore impossible to look upon them as coming from one
+primitive stock. The primitive diversity of these types is quite as
+remarkable as that of those belonging to later epochs. It is
+nevertheless true that, regarded as part of the general plan of
+creation, this fauna presents itself as an inferior type of the
+vertebrate series, connecting itself directly in the creative
+thought with the realization of later forms, the last of which (and
+this seems to me to have been the general end of creation) was to
+place man at the head of organized beings as the key-stone and term
+of the whole series, the final point in the premeditated intention
+of the primitive plan which has been carried out progressively in
+the course of time. I would even say that I believe the creation of
+man has closed creation on this earth, and I draw this conclusion
+from the fact that the human genus is the first cosmopolite type in
+Nature. One may even affirm that man is clearly announced in the
+phases of organic development of the animal kingdom as the final
+term of this series.
+
+Lastly: Is there any reason to believe that the Ichthyosaurians are
+descendants of the Sauroid fishes which preceded the appearance of
+these reptiles? Not the least. I should consider any naturalist who
+would seriously present the question in this light as incapable of
+discussing it or judging it. He would place himself outside of the
+facts and would reason from a basis of his own creating. . .
+
+In the "Revue Suisse" of April, 1845, there is a notice of the
+course of lectures to which reference is made in the above letter.
+
+"A numerous audience assembled on the 26th of March for the opening
+of a course by Professor Agassiz on the 'Plan of Creation.' It is
+with an ever new pleasure that our public come together to listen
+to this savant, still so young and already so celebrated. Not
+content with pursuing in seclusion his laborious scientific
+investigations, he makes a habit of communicating, almost annually,
+to an audience less restricted than that of the Academy the general
+result of some of his researches. All the qualities to which Mr.
+Agassiz has accustomed his listeners were found in the opening
+prelude; the fullness and freedom of expression which give to his
+lectures the character of a scientific causerie; the dignified ease
+of bearing, joined with the simplicity and candor of a savant who
+teaches neither by aphorisms nor oracles, but who frankly admits
+the public to the results of his researches; the power of
+generalization always based upon a patient study of facts, which he
+knows how to present with remarkable clearness in a language that
+all can understand. We will not follow the professor in tracing the
+outlines of his course. Suffice it to say that he intends to show
+in the general development of the animal kingdom the existence of a
+definite preconceived plan, successively carried out; in other
+words, the manifestation of a higher thought,--the thought of God.
+This creative thought may be studied under three points of view: as
+shown in the relations which, spite of their manifold diversity,
+connect all the species now living on the surface of the globe; in
+their geographical distribution; and in the succession of beings
+from primitive epochs until the present condition of things."
+
+The summer of 1845 was the last which Agassiz passed at home. It
+was broken by a short and hurried visit to the glacier of the Aar,
+respecting which no details have been preserved. He did not then
+know that he was taking a final leave of his cabin among the rocks
+and ice. Affairs connected with the welfare of the institution in
+Neuchatel, with which he had been so long connected, still detained
+him for a part of the winter, and he did not leave for Paris until
+the first week in March, 1846. His wife and daughters had already
+preceded him to Germany, where he was to join them again on his way
+to Paris, and where they were to pass the period of his absence,
+under the care of his brother-in-law, Mr. Alexander Braun, then
+living at Carlsruhe. His son was to remain at school at Neuchatel.
+
+It was two o'clock at night when he left his home of so many years.
+There had been a general sadness at the thought of his departure,
+and every testimony of affection and respect accompanied him. The
+students came in procession with torch-lights to give him a parting
+serenade, and many of his friends and colleagues were also present
+to bid him farewell. M. Louis Favre says in his Memoir, "Great was
+the emotion at Neuchatel when the report was spread abroad that
+Agassiz was about to leave for a long journey. It is true he
+promised to come back, but the New World might shower upon him such
+marvels that his return could hardly be counted upon. The young
+people, the students, regretted their beloved professor not only
+for his scientific attainments, but for his kindly disposition, the
+charm of his eloquence, the inspiration of his teaching; they
+regretted also the gay, animated, untiring companion of their
+excursions, who made them acquainted with nature, and knew so well
+how to encourage and interest them in their studies."
+
+Pausing at Carlsruhe on his journey, he proceeded thence to Paris,
+where he was welcomed with the greatest cordiality by scientific
+men. In recognition of his work on the "Fossil Fishes" the Monthyon
+Prize of Physiology was awarded him by the Academy. He felt this
+distinction the more because the bearing of such investigations
+upon experimental physiology had never before been pointed out, and
+it showed that he had succeeded in giving a new direction and a
+more comprehensive character to paleontological research. He passed
+some months in Paris, busily occupied with the publication of the
+"Systeme Glaciaire," his second work on the glacial phenomena. The
+"Etudes sur les Glaciers" had simply contained a resume of all the
+researches undertaken upon the Alpine fields of ice and the results
+obtained up to 1840, inclusive of the author's own work and his
+wider interpretation of the facts. The "Systeme Glaciaire" was, on
+the contrary, an account of a connected plan of investigation
+during a succession of years, upon a single glacier, with its
+geodetic and topographic features, its hydrography, its internal
+structure, its atmospheric conditions, its rate of annual and
+diurnal progress, and its relations to surrounding glaciers. All
+the local phenomena, so far as they could be observed, were
+subjected to a strict scrutiny, and the results corrected by
+careful comparison, during five seasons. As we have seen, and as
+Agassiz himself says in his Preface, this band of workers had
+"lived in the intimacy of the glacier, striving to draw from it the
+secret of its formation and its annual advance." The work was
+accompanied by three maps and nine plates. In such a volume of
+detail there is no room for picturesque description, and little is
+told of the wonderful scenes they witnessed by day and night,
+nothing of personal peril and adventure.
+
+This task concluded, he went to England, where he was to spend the
+few remaining days previous to his departure. Among the last words
+of farewell which reached him just as he was leaving the Old World,
+little thinking then that he was to make a permanent home in
+America, were these lines from Humboldt, written at Sans Souci: "Be
+happy in this new undertaking, and preserve for me the first place
+under the head of friendship in your heart. When you return I shall
+be here no more, but the king and queen will receive you on this
+'historic hill' with the affection which, for so many reasons, you
+merit. . ."
+
+"Your illegible but much attached friend,
+
+"A. HUMBOLDT."
+
+So closed this period of Agassiz's life. The next was to open in
+new scenes, under wholly different conditions. He sailed for
+America in September, 1846.
+
+PART 2.
+
+IN AMERICA.
+
+CHAPTER 13.
+
+1846: AGE 39.
+
+Arrival at Boston.
+Previous Correspondence with Charles Lyell and Mr. John A. Lowell
+   concerning Lectures at the Lowell Institute.
+Relations with Mr. Lowell.
+First Course of Lectures.
+Character of Audience.
+Home Letter giving an Account of his first Journey
+   in the United States.
+Impressions of Scientific Men, Scientific Institutions
+   and Collections.
+
+AGASSIZ arrived in Boston during the first week of October, 1846.
+He had not come to America without some prospect of employment
+beside that comprised in his immediate scientific aims. In 1845,
+when his plans for a journey in the United States began to take
+definite shape, he had written to ask Lyell whether,
+notwithstanding his imperfect English, he might not have some
+chance as a public lecturer, hoping to make in that way additional
+provision for his scientific expenses beyond the allowance he was
+to receive from the King of Prussia. Lyell's answer, written by his
+wife, was very encouraging.
+
+LONDON, February 28, 1845.
+
+. . .My husband thinks your plan of lecturing a very good one, and
+sure to succeed, for the Americans are fond of that kind of
+instruction. We remember your English was pleasant, and if you have
+been practicing since, you have probably gained facility in
+expression, and a little foreign accent would be no drawback. You
+might give your lectures in several cities, but he would like very
+much if you could give a course at the Lowell Institute at Boston,
+an establishment which pays very highly. . .In six weeks you might
+earn enough to pay for a twelve months' tour, besides passing an
+agreeable time at Boston, where there are several eminent
+naturalists. . .As my husband is writing to Mr. Lowell to-morrow
+upon other matters, he will ask him whether there is any course still
+open, for he feels sure in that case they would be glad to have
+you. . .Mr. Lowell is sole trustee of the Institute, and can nominate
+whom he pleases. It was very richly endowed for the purpose of
+lectures by a merchant of Boston, who died a few years ago. You
+will get nothing like the same remuneration anywhere else. . .
+
+Lyell and Mr. Lowell soon arranged all preliminaries, and it was
+understood that Agassiz should begin his tour in the United States
+by a course of lectures in Boston before the Lowell Institute. A
+month or two before sailing he writes as follows to Mr. Lowell.
+
+PARIS, July 6, 1846.
+
+. . .Time is pressing, summer is running away, and I feel it a duty
+to write to you about the contemplated lectures, that you may not
+be uncertain about them. So far as the subject is concerned, I am
+quite ready; all the necessary illustrations are also completed,
+and if I am not mistaken they must by this time be in your hands
+. . .I understand from Mr. Lyell that you wish me to lecture in
+October. For this also I am quite prepared, as I shall, immediately
+after my arrival in Boston, devote all my time to the consideration
+of my course. If a later date should suit your plans better, I have
+no objection to conform to any of your arrangements, as I shall at
+all events pass the whole winter on the shores of the Atlantic, and
+be everywhere in reach of Boston in a very short time. . .With your
+approbation, I would give to my course the title of "Lectures on
+the Plan of the Creation, especially in the Animal Kingdom."
+
+Thus was Agassiz introduced to the institution under whose auspices
+he first made acquaintance with his American audiences. There he
+became a familiar presence during more than a quarter of a century.
+The enthusiastic greeting accorded to him, as a stranger whose
+reputation had preceded him, ripened with years into an
+affectionate welcome from friends and fellow-citizens, whenever he
+appeared on the platform. In the director of the institution, Mr.
+John A. Lowell, he found a friend upon whose sympathy and wise
+counsels he relied in all his after years. The cordial reception he
+met from him and his large family circle made him at once at home
+in a strange land.
+
+Never was Agassiz's power as a teacher, or the charm of his
+personal presence more evident than in his first course of Lowell
+Lectures. He was unfamiliar with the language, to the easy use of
+which his two or three visits in England, where most of his
+associates understood and spoke French, had by no means accustomed
+him. He would often have been painfully embarrassed but for his own
+simplicity of character. Thinking only of his subject and never of
+himself, when a critical pause came, he patiently waited for the
+missing word, and rarely failed to find a phrase which was
+expressive if not technically correct. He often said afterward that
+his sole preparation for these lectures consisted in shutting
+himself up for hours and marshaling his vocabulary, passing in
+review, that is, all the English words he could recall. As the
+Lyells had prophesied, his foreign accent rather added a charm to
+his address, and the pauses in which he seemed to ask the
+forbearance of the audience, while he sought to translate his
+thought for them, enlisted their sympathy. Their courtesy never
+failed him. His skill in drawing with chalk on the blackboard was
+also a great help both to him and to them. When his English was at
+fault he could nevertheless explain his meaning by illustrations so
+graphic that the spoken word was hardly missed. He said of himself
+that he was no artist, and that his drawing was accurate simply
+because the object existed in his mind so clearly. However this may
+be, it was always pleasant to watch the effect of his drawings on
+the audience. When showing, for instance, the correspondence of the
+articulate type, as a whole, with the metamorphoses of the higher
+insects, he would lead his listeners along the successive phases of
+insect development, talking as he drew and drawing as he talked,
+till suddenly the winged creature stood declared upon the
+blackboard, almost as if it had burst then and there from the
+chrysalis, and the growing interest of his hearers culminated in a
+burst of delighted applause.
+
+After the first lecture in Boston there was no doubt of his
+success. He carried his audience captive. His treatment of the
+animal kingdom on the broad basis of the comparative method, in
+which the great types were shown in their relation to each other
+and to the physical history of the world, was new to his hearers.
+Agassiz had also the rare gift of divesting his subject of
+technicalities and superfluous details. His special facts never
+obscured the comprehensive outline, which they were intended to
+fill in and illustrate.
+
+This simplicity of form and language was especially adapted to the
+audience he had now to address, little instructed in the facts or
+the nomenclature of science, though characterized by an eager
+curiosity. A word respecting the quality of the Lowell Institute
+audience of those days, as new to the European professor as he to
+them, is in place here. The institution was intended by its founder
+to fertilize the general mind rather than to instruct the selected
+few. It was liberally endowed, the entrance was free, and the
+tickets were drawn by lot. Consequently the working men and women
+had as good an opportunity for places as their employers. As the
+remuneration, however, was generous, and the privilege of lecturing
+there was coveted by literary and scientific men of the first
+eminence, the instruction was of a high order, and the tickets, not
+to be had for money, were as much in demand with the more
+cultivated and even with the fashionable people of the community as
+with their poorer neighbors. This audience, composed of strongly
+contrasted elements and based upon purely democratic principles,
+had, from the first, a marked attraction for Agassiz. A teacher in
+the widest sense, he sought and found his pupils in every class.
+But in America for the first time did he come into contact with the
+general mass of the people on this common ground, and it influenced
+strongly his final resolve to remain in this country. Indeed, the
+secret of his greatest power was to be found in the sympathetic,
+human side of his character. Out of his broad humanity grew the
+genial personal influence, by which he awakened the enthusiasm of
+his audiences for unwonted themes, inspired his students to
+disinterested services like his own, delighted children in the
+school-room, and won the cordial interest as well as the
+cooperation in the higher aims of science, of all classes whether
+rich or poor.
+
+His first course was to be given in December. Having, therefore, a
+few weeks to spare, he made a short journey, stopping at New Haven
+to see the elder Silliman, with whom he had long been in
+correspondence. Shortly before leaving Europe he had written him,
+"I can hardly tell you with what pleasure I look forward to seeing
+you, and making the personal acquaintance of the distinguished
+savans of your country, whose works I have lately been studying
+with especial care. There is something captivating in the
+prodigious activity of the Americans, and the thought of contact
+with the superior men of your young and glorious republic renews my
+own youth." Some account of this journey, including his first
+impressions of the scientific men as well as the scientific
+societies and collections of the United States, is given in the
+following letter. It is addressed to his mother, and with her to a
+social club of intimate friends and neighbors in Neuchatel, at
+whose meetings he had been for years an honored guest.
+
+BOSTON, December, 1846.
+
+. . .Having no time to write out a complete account of my journey
+of last month, I will only transcribe for you some fugitive notes
+scribbled along the road in stages or railroad carriages. They bear
+the stamp of hurry and constant interruption.
+
+Leaving Boston the 16th of October, I went by railroad to New
+Haven, passing through Springfield. The rapidity of the locomotion
+is frightful to those who are unused to it, but you adapt yourself
+to the speed, and soon become, like all the rest of the world,
+impatient of the slightest delay. I well understand that an
+antipathy for this mode of travel is possible. There is something
+infernal in the irresistible power of steam, carrying such heavy
+masses along with the swiftness of lightning. The habits growing
+out of continued contact with railroads, and the influence they
+exert on a portion of the community, are far from agreeable until
+one is familiar with them. You would cry out in dismay did you see
+your baggage flung about pell-mell like logs of wood, trunks,
+chests, traveling-bags, hat-boxes, all in the same mill, and if
+here and there something goes to pieces no one is astonished; never
+mind! we go fast,--we gain time,--that is the essential thing.
+
+The manners of the country differ so greatly from ours that it
+seems to me impossible to form a just estimate regarding them, or,
+indeed, to pronounce judgment at all upon a population so active
+and mobile as that of the Northern States of the Union, without
+having lived among them for a long time. I do not therefore attempt
+any such estimate. I can only say that the educated Americans are
+very accessible and very pleasant. They are obliging to the utmost
+degree; indeed, their cordiality toward strangers exceeds any that
+I have met elsewhere. I might even add that if I could complain of
+anything it would be of an excess, rather than a lack, of
+attention. I have often found it difficult to make it understood
+that the hotel, where I can work at my ease, suits me better than
+the proffered hospitality. . .
+
+But what a country is this! all along the road between Boston and
+Springfield are ancient moraines and polished rocks. No one who had
+seen them upon the track of our present glaciers could hesitate as
+to the real agency by which all these erratic masses, literally
+covering the country, have been transported. I have had the
+pleasure of converting already several of the most distinguished
+American geologists to my way of thinking; among others, Professor
+Rogers, who will deliver a public lecture upon the subject next
+Tuesday before a large audience.
+
+A characteristic feature of American life is to be found in the
+frequent public meetings where addresses are delivered. Shortly
+after my arrival in Boston I was present at a meeting of some three
+thousand workmen, foremen of workshops, clerks, and the like. No
+meeting could have been more respectable and well-conducted. All
+were neatly dressed; even the simplest laborer had a clean shirt.
+It was a strange sight to see such an assemblage, brought together
+for the purpose of forming a library, and listening attentively in
+perfect quiet for two hours to an address on the advantages of
+education, of reading, and the means of employing usefully the
+leisure moments of a workman's life. The most eminent men vie with
+each other in instructing and forming the education of the
+population at large. I have not yet seen a man out of employment or
+a beggar, except in New York, which is a sink for the emptyings of
+Europe. Yet do not think that I forget the advantages of our old
+civilization. Far from it. I feel more than ever the value of a
+past which belongs to you and in which you have grown up.
+Generations must pass before America will have the collections of
+art and science which adorn our cities, or the establishments for
+public instruction, sanctuaries as it were, consecrated by the
+devotion of those who give themselves wholly to study. Here all the
+world works to gain a livelihood or to make a fortune. Few
+establishments (of learning) are old enough, or have taken
+sufficiently deep root in the habits of the people, to be safe from
+innovation; very few institutions offer a combination of studies
+such as, in its ensemble, meets the demands of modern civilization.
+All is done by the single efforts of individuals or of
+corporations, too often guided by the needs of the moment. Thus
+American science lacks the scope which is characteristic of higher
+instruction in our old Europe. Objects of art are curiosities but
+little appreciated and usually still less understood. On the other
+hand, the whole population shares in the advanced education
+provided for all. . .From Springfield the railroad follows the
+course of the Connecticut as far as Hartford, turning then directly
+toward the sea-coast. The valley strikingly resembles that of the
+Rhine between Carlsruhe and Heidelberg. The same rock, the same
+aspect of country, and gres bigarre* (* Trias.) everywhere. The
+forest reminds one of Odenwald and of Baden-Baden. Nearer the coast
+are cones of basalt like those of Brissac and the Kaiserstuhl. The
+erratic phenomena are also very marked in this region; polished
+rocks everywhere, magnificent furrows on the sandstone and on the
+basalt, and parallel moraines defining themselves like ramparts
+upon the plain.
+
+At New Haven I passed several days at the house of Professor
+Silliman, with whom I have been in correspondence for several
+years. The University (Yale) owes to the efforts of the Professor a
+fine collection of minerals and extensive physical and chemical
+apparatus. Silliman is the patriarch of science in America. For
+thirty years he has edited an important scientific journal, the
+channel through which, ever since its foundation, European
+scientific researches have reached America. . .One of his
+sons-in-law, Mr. Shepard,* (* An error: Mr. Shepard was not the
+son-in-law of Professor Silliman.--ED.) is also chemical professor
+in the University of South Carolina. Another, Mr. Dana, still a
+very young man, strikes me as likely to be the most distinguished
+naturalist of the United States. He was a member of the expedition
+around the world under the command of Captain Wilkes, and has just
+published a magnificent volume containing monographs of all the
+species of polyps and corals, with curious observations on their
+mode of growth and on the coral islands. I was surprised to find in
+the collection at New Haven a fine specimen of the great fossil
+salamander of Oeningen, the "Homo diluvii testis" of Scheuchzer.
+
+From New Haven I went to New York by steamboat. The Sound, between
+Long Island and the coast of Connecticut, presents a succession of
+cheerful towns and villages, with single houses scattered over the
+country, while magnificent trees overhang the sea; we constantly
+disturbed numbers of aquatic birds which, at our approach,
+fluttered up around the steamer, only to alight farther on. I have
+never seen such flocks of ducks and gulls.
+
+At New York I hastened to see Auguste Mayor, of whom my uncle will
+no doubt have given you news, since I wrote to him. Obliged to
+continue my road in order to join Mr. Gray at Princeton I stopped
+but one day in New York, the greater part of which I passed with
+Mr. Redfield, author of a paper on the fossil fishes of
+Connecticut. His collection, which he has placed at my disposal,
+has great interest for me; it contains a large number of fossil
+fishes of different kinds, from a formation in which but one
+species has been found in Europe. The new red sandstone of
+Connecticut will also fill a gap in the history of fossil fishes,
+and this acquisition is so much the more important, because, at the
+epoch of the gres bigarre, a marked change took place in the
+anatomical character of fishes. It presents an intermediate type
+between the primitive fishes of the ancient deposits and the more
+regular forms of the jurassic deposits.
+
+Mr. Asa Gray, professor of botany at Cambridge, near Boston, had
+offered to accompany me on my journey to Washington. We were to
+meet at the house of Professor Torrey, at Princeton, a small town
+half a day's journey from New York, and the seat of a considerable
+university, one of the oldest in the United States. The physical
+department, under the direction of Professor Henry, is remarkably
+rich in models of machinery and in electrical apparatus, to which
+the professor especially devotes himself. The museum contains a
+collection of animals and fossil remains. In the environs of the
+town, in the ditches, is found a rare kind of turtle, remarkable
+for the form of the jaws and the length of the tail. I wish very
+much to procure one, were it only to oblige Professor Johannes
+Muller, of Berlin, who especially desires one for investigation.
+But I have failed thus far; the turtles are already withdrawn into
+their winter quarters. Mr. Torrey promises me some, however, in the
+spring. It is not easy to get them because their bite is dreaded.
+
+After this I passed four days in Philadelphia. Here,
+notwithstanding my great desire to see the beautiful country along
+the shores of the rich bay of Delaware and the banks of the
+Schuylkill, between which the city lies, I was entirely occupied
+with the magnificent collections of the Academy of Science and of
+the Philosophical Society. The zoological collections of the
+Academy of Science are the oldest in the United States, the only
+ones, except those of the Wilkes Expedition, which can equal in
+interest those of Europe. There are the collections of Say, the
+earliest naturalist of distinction in the United States; there are
+also the fossil remains and the animals described by Harlan, by
+Godman, and by Hayes, and the fossils described by Conrad and
+Morton. Dr. Morton's unique collection of human skulls is also to
+be found in Philadelphia. Imagine a series of six hundred skulls,
+mostly Indian, of all the tribes who now inhabit or formerly
+inhabited America. Nothing like it exists elsewhere. This
+collection alone is worth a journey to America. Dr. Morton has had
+the kindness to give me a copy of his great illustrated work
+representing all the types of his collection. Quite recently a
+generous citizen of Philadelphia has enriched this museum with the
+fine collection of birds belonging to the Duke of Rivoli. He bought
+it for 37,000 francs, and presented it to his native city.
+
+The number of fossil remains comprised in these collections is very
+considerable; mastodons especially, and fossils of the cretaceous
+and jurassic deposits. . .Imagine that all this is at my full
+disposal for description and illustration, and you will understand
+my pleasure. The liberality of the American naturalists toward me
+is unparalleled.
+
+I must not omit to mention Mr. Lea's collection of fresh-water
+shells,--a series of the magnificent Unios of the rivers and lakes
+of America, comprising four hundred species, represented by some
+thirty specimens of each. Mr. Lea has promised me specimens of all
+the species. Had I not been bound by an engagement at Washington,
+and could I have remained three or four days longer in order to
+label and pack them, I might have taken at once these valuable
+objects, which will be of great importance in verifying and
+rectifying the synonyms of European conchologists. After having
+seen the astonishing variations undergone by these shells in their
+growth, I am satisfied that all which European naturalists have
+written on this subject must be revised. Only with the help of a
+very full series of individuals can one fully understand these
+animals, and we have only single specimens in our collections. If I
+had time and means to have drawings made of all these forms, the
+collection of Mr. Lea would be at my command for the purpose, and
+the work would be a very useful one for science.
+
+There are several other private and public collections at
+Philadelphia, which I have only seen cursorily; that of the Medical
+School, for instance, and that of the older Peale, who discovered
+the first mastodon found in the United States, now mounted in his
+museum. Beside these, there is the collection of Dr. Griffith, rich
+in skulls from the Gulf of Mexico; that of Mr. Ord, and others.
+During my stay in Philadelphia, there was also an exhibition of
+industrial products at the Franklin Institute, where I especially
+remarked the chemical department. There are no less than three
+professors of chemistry in Philadelphia,--Mr. Hare, Mr. Booth, and
+Mr. Frazer. The first is, I think, the best known in Europe.
+
+How a nearer view changes the aspect of things! I thought myself
+tolerably familiar with all that is doing in science in the United
+States, but I was far from anticipating so much that is interesting
+and important. What is wanting to all these men is neither zeal nor
+knowledge. In both, they seem to compete with us, and in ardor and
+activity they even surpass most of our savans. What they need is
+leisure. I have never felt more forcibly what I owe to the king for
+enabling me to live for science alone, undisturbed by anxieties and
+distractions. Here, I do not lose a moment, and when I receive
+invitations outside the circle of men whom I care particularly to
+know, I decline, on the ground that I am not free to dispose for my
+pleasure of time which does not belong to me. For this no one can
+quarrel with me, and so far as I myself am concerned, it is much
+better.
+
+I stopped at Baltimore only long enough to see the city. It was
+Sunday, and as I could make no visits, and was anxious to arrive in
+good time at Washington, I took advantage of the first train. The
+capital of the United States is laid out upon a gigantic scale,
+and, consequently, portions of the different quarters are often to
+be traced only by isolated houses here and there,--a condition
+which has caused it to be called the "City of Magnificent
+Distances." Some of the streets are very handsome, and the capitol
+itself is really imposing. Their profound veneration for the
+founder of their liberty and their republic is a noble trait of the
+American people. The evidences of this are to be seen everywhere.
+No less than two hundred towns, villages, and counties bear his
+name, rather to the inconvenience of the postal administration.
+
+After having visited the capitol and the presidential mansion, and
+delivered my letters for the Prussian Minister, I went to the
+Museum of the National Institute. I was impatient to satisfy myself
+as to the scientific value of the results obtained in the field of
+my own studies by the voyage of Captain Wilkes around the world,
+--this voyage having been the object of equally exaggerated praise
+and criticism. I confess that I was agreeably surprised by the
+richness of the zoological and geological collections; I do not
+think any European expedition has done more or better; and in some
+departments, in that of the Crustacea, for example, the collection
+at Washington surpasses in beauty and number of specimens all that
+I have seen. It is especially to Dr. Pickering and Mr. Dana that
+these collections are due. As the expedition did not penetrate to
+the interior of the continents in tropical regions, the collections
+of birds and mammals, which fell to the charge of Mr. Peale, are
+less considerable. Mr. Gray tells me, however, that the botanical
+collections are very large. More precious, perhaps, than all the
+collections are the magnificent drawings of mollusks, zoophytes,
+fishes, and reptiles, painted from life by Mr. Drayton. All these
+plates, to the number of about six hundred, are to be engraved, and
+indeed are already, in part, executed. I can only compare them to
+those of the Astrolabe, although they are very superior in variety
+of position and naturalness of attitude to those of the French
+Expedition. This is particularly true of the mollusks and fishes.
+The zoophytes are to be published; they are admirable in detail.
+The hydrographic portion and the account of the voyage, edited by
+Captain Wilkes (unhappily he was absent and I did not see him), has
+been published for some time, and comprises an enormous mass of
+information, its chief feature being charts to the number of two
+hundred. It is amazing; the number of soundings extraordinarily
+large.* (* Agassiz subsequently took some part in working up the
+fish collections from this expedition, but the publication was
+stopped for want of means to carry it on.)
+
+At Washington are also to be seen the headquarters of the Coast
+Survey, where the fine charts of the coasts and harbors now making
+under direction of Dr. Bache are executed. These charts are
+admirably finished. Dr. Bache, the superintendent, was in camp, so
+that I could not deliver my letters for him. I saw, however,
+Colonel Abert, the head of the topographic office, who gave me
+important information about the West for the very season when I am
+likely to be there. I am indebted to him also for a series of
+documents concerning the upper Missouri and Mississippi, California
+and Oregon, printed by order of the government, and for a
+collection of fresh-water shells from those regions. I should like
+to offer him, in return, such sheets of the Federal Map as have
+appeared. I beg Guyot to send them to me by the first occasion.
+
+As I was due in Boston on an appointed day I was obliged to defer
+my visit to Richmond, Charleston, and other places in the South. I
+had, beside, gathered so much material that I had need of a few
+quiet weeks to consider and digest it all. Returning therefore to
+Philadelphia, I made there the acquaintance of Mr. Haldeman, author
+of a monograph on the fresh-water shells of the United States. I
+had made an appointment to meet him at Philadelphia, being unable
+to make a detour of fifty leagues in order to visit him at his own
+home, which is situated beyond the lines of rapid transit. He is a
+distinguished naturalist, equally well versed in several branches
+of our science. He has made me acquainted, also, with a young
+naturalist from the interior of Pennsylvania, Mr. Baird, professor
+at Dickinson College, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, who offered me
+duplicates from his collections of birds and other animals. In
+order to avail myself more promptly of this and like acquisitions,
+I wish that M. Coulon would send me at the close of the winter all
+that he can procure of the common European birds, of our small
+mammalia, and some chamois skins, adding also the fish that Charles
+put aside for me before his departure. It would be safest to send
+them to the care of Auguste Mayor.
+
+At Philadelphia I separated from my traveling companion, Mr. Gray,
+who was obliged to return to his home. From Philadelphia, Mr.
+Haldeman and Mr. Lea accompanied me to Bristol, where Mr. Vanuxem
+possesses an important collection of fossils from ancient deposits,
+duplicates of which he promises me. Mr. Vanuxem is one of the
+official geologists of the State of New York, and author of one of
+a series of volumes upon the geology of the State, about which I
+shall presently have something to say. To gain time I took the
+night train from Bristol to New York, and arrived at Mayor's at
+midnight, having written him to expect me.
+
+The next day I visited the market, and in five days I had filled a
+great barrel with different kinds of fish and fresh-water turtles,
+beside making several skeletons and various dissections of
+mollusks. Wishing to employ my time as usefully as possible, I
+postponed my visits to the savans of the city, and the delivery of
+my letters, till I was on the eve of departure, that I might avoid
+all invitations. I had especial pleasure in making the acquaintance
+of the two Le Contes, father and son, who own the finest collection
+of insects in the United States. I can easily make some thousand
+exchanges with them when I receive those that M. Coulon has put
+aside for me, with a view to exchange. . .Every morning Auguste
+Mayor went with me to the market before going to his office and
+helped me to carry my basket when it was too heavy. One day I
+brought back no less than twenty-four turtles, taken in one draught
+of the net. I made four skeletons, and dissected several others.
+Under such conditions the day ought to have thirty-six working
+hours.
+
+Were I an artist, instead of describing my voyage from New York to
+Albany, I would draw you a panorama of the shores of the Hudson. I
+know nothing except the banks of the Rhine to compare with those of
+this magnificent river. The resemblance between them is striking;
+the sites, the nature of the rocks, the appearance of the towns and
+villages, the form of the Albany bridges, even the look of the
+inhabitants, of whom the greater number are of Dutch or German
+origin,--all are similar.
+
+I stopped at West Point to make the acquaintance of Professor
+Bailey of the Military School there. I already knew him by
+reputation. He is the author of very detailed and interesting
+researches upon the microscopic animalcules of America. I had a
+pamphlet to deliver to him from Ehrenberg, who has received from
+him a great deal of material for his large work on fossil
+Infusoria. I spent three most delightful days with him, passed
+chiefly in examining his collections, from which he gave me many
+specimens. We also made several excursions in the neighborhood, in
+order to study the erratic phenomena and the traces of glaciers,
+which everywhere cover the surface of the country. Polished rocks,
+as distinct as possible; moraines continuous over large spaces;
+stratified drift, as on the borders of the glacier of Grindelwald;
+in short, all the usual accompaniments of the glaciers are there,
+and one may follow the "roches moutonnees" with the eye to a great
+distance.
+
+Albany is the seat of government of the State of New York. It has a
+medical school, an agricultural society, a geological museum, an
+anatomical museum, and a museum of natural history. The government
+has just completed the publication of a work, unique of its kind, a
+natural history of the State in sixteen volumes, quarto, with
+plates; twenty-five hundred copies have been printed, only five
+hundred of which are for sale, the rest being distributed
+throughout the State. Four volumes are devoted to geology and
+mining alone, the others to zoology, botany, and agriculture. Yes,
+twenty-five hundred copies of a work in sixteen volumes, quarto,
+scattered throughout the State of New York alone! When I think that
+I began my studies in natural history by copying hundreds of pages
+from a Lamarck which some one had lent me, and that to-day there is
+a State in which the smallest farmer may have access to a costly
+work, worth a library to him in itself, I bless the efforts of
+those who devote themselves to public instruction. . .I have not
+neglected the opportunity offered by the North River (the Hudson)
+for the study of the fresh-water fishes of this country. I have
+filled a barrel with them. The species differ greatly from ours,
+with the exception of the perch, the eel, the pike, and the sucker,
+in which only a practiced eye could detect the difference; all the
+rest belong to genera unknown in Europe, or, at least, in
+Switzerland. . .
+
+I was fortunate enough to procure also, in the few days of my stay,
+all the species taken in the lakes and rivers around Albany.
+Several others have been given me from Lake Superior. Since my
+return to Boston I have been collecting birds and comparing them
+with those of Europe. If M. Coulon could obtain for me a collection
+of European eggs, even the most common, I could exchange them for
+an admirable series of the native species here. I have also
+procured several interesting mammals; among others, two species of
+hares different from those I brought from Halifax, striped
+squirrels, etc.
+
+I will tell you another time something of the collections of Boston
+and Cambridge, the only ones in the United States which can rival
+those of Philadelphia. To-day I have made my first attempt at
+lecturing. Of that, also, I will tell you more in my next letter,
+when I know how it has been liked. It is no small matter to satisfy
+an audience of three thousand people in a language with which you
+are but little familiar. . .
+
+CHAPTER 14.
+
+1846-1847: AGE 39-40.
+
+Course of Lectures in Boston on Glaciers.
+Correspondence with Scientific Friends in Europe.
+House in East Boston.
+Household and Housekeeping.
+Illness.
+Letter to Elie de Beaumont.
+Letter to James D. Dana.
+
+THE course at the Lowell Institute was immediately followed by one
+upon glaciers, the success of which was guaranteed by private
+subscription,--an unnecessary security, since the audience,
+attracted by the novelty and picturesqueness of the subject, as
+well as by the charm of presentation and fullness of illustration,
+was large and enthusiastic.
+
+Agassiz was evidently encouraged himself by his success, for toward
+the close of his Lowell Lectures he writes as follows:--
+
+TO CHANCELLOR FAVARGEZ.
+
+BOSTON, December 31, 1846.
+
+. . .Beside my lecture course, now within a few days of its
+conclusion, and the ever-increasing work which grows on my hands in
+proportion as I become familiar with the environs of Boston, where
+I shall still remain a few weeks longer, I have so much to do in
+keeping up my journals, notes, and observations that I have not
+found a moment to write you since the last steamer. . .Never did
+the future look brighter to me than now. If I could for a moment
+forget that I have a scientific mission to fulfill, to which I will
+never prove recreant, I could easily make more than enough by
+lectures which would be admirably paid and are urged upon me, to
+put me completely at my ease hereafter. But I will limit myself to
+what I need in order to repay those who have helped me through a
+difficult crisis, and that I can do without even turning aside from
+my researches. Beyond that all must go again to science,--there
+lies my true mission. I rejoice in what I have been able to do thus
+far, and I hope that at Berlin they will be satisfied with the
+results which I shall submit to competent judges on my return. If I
+only have time to finish what I have begun! You know my plans are
+not wont to be too closely restricted.
+
+Why do you not write to me? Am I then wholly forgotten in your
+pleasant circle while my thoughts are every day constantly with my
+Neuchatel friends?. . .
+
+Midnight, January 1st. A happy new year to you and to all members
+of the Tuesday Club. Bonjour et bon an. . .
+
+Some portions of Agassiz's correspondence with his European friends
+and colleagues during the winter and summer of 1847 give a clew to
+the occupations and interests of his new life, and keep up the
+thread of the old one.
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ TO M. DECAISNE.
+
+February, 1847.
+
+. . .I write only to thank you for the pleasure your note gave me.
+When one is far away, as I am, from everything belonging to one's
+past life, the merest sign of friendly remembrance is a boon. Do
+not infer from this that America does not please me. On the
+contrary, I am delighted with my stay here, although I do not quite
+understand all that surrounds me; or I should perhaps rather say
+that many principles which, theoretically, we have been wont to
+think perfect in themselves, seem in their application to involve
+results quite contrary to our expectations. I am constantly asking
+myself which is better,--our old Europe, where the man of
+exceptional gifts can give himself absolutely to study, opening
+thus a wider horizon for the human mind, while at his side
+thousands barely vegetate in degradation or at least in
+destitution; or this new world, where the institutions tend to keep
+all on one level as part of the general mass,--but a mass, be it
+said, which has no noxious elements. Yes, the mass here is
+decidedly good. All the world lives well, is decently clad, learns
+something, is awake and interested. Instruction does not, as in some
+parts of Germany for instance, furnish a man with an intellectual
+tool and then deny him the free use of it. The strength of America
+lies in the prodigious number of individuals who think and work at
+the same time. It is a severe test of pretentious mediocrity, but
+I fear it may also efface originality . . .You are right in
+believing that one works, or at least that one CAN work, better
+in Paris than elsewhere, and I should esteem myself happy if I had
+my nest there, but who will make it for me? I am myself incapable
+of making efforts for anything but my work. . .
+
+AGASSIZ TO MILNE EDWARDS.
+
+May 31, 1847.
+
+. . .After six weeks of an illness which has rendered me unfit for
+serious work I long to be transported into the circle of my Paris
+friends, to find myself again among the men whose devotion to
+science gives them a clear understanding of its tendency and
+influence. Therefore I take my way quite naturally to the Rue
+Cuvier and mount your stairs, confident that there I shall find
+this chosen society. Question upon question greets me regarding
+this new world, on the shore of which I have but just landed, and
+yet about which I have so much to say that I fear to tire my
+listeners.
+
+Naturalist as I am, I cannot but put the people first,--the people
+who have opened this part of the American continent to European
+civilization. What a people! But to understand them you must live
+among them. Our education, the principles of our society, the
+motives of our actions, differ so greatly from what I see here,
+that I should try in vain to give you an idea of this great nation,
+passing from childhood to maturity with the faults of spoiled
+children, and yet with the nobility of character and the enthusiasm
+of youth. Their look is wholly turned toward the future; their
+social life is not yet irrevocably bound to exacting antecedents,
+and thus nothing holds them back, unless, perhaps, a consideration
+for the opinion in which they may be held in Europe. This deference
+toward England (unhappily, to them, Europe means almost exclusively
+England) is a curious fact in the life of the American people. They
+know us but little, even after having made a tour in France, or
+Italy, or Germany. From England they receive their literature, and
+the scientific work of central Europe reaches them through English
+channels. . .Notwithstanding this kind of dependence upon England,
+in which American savans have voluntarily placed themselves, I have
+formed a high opinion of their acquirements, since I have learned
+to know them better, and I think we should render a real service to
+them and to science, by freeing them from this tutelage, raising
+them in their own eyes, and drawing them also a little more toward
+ourselves. Do not think that these remarks are prompted by the
+least antagonism toward English savans, whom no one more than
+myself has reason to regard with affection and esteem. But since
+these men are so worthy to soar on their own wings, why not help
+them to take flight? They need only confidence, and some special
+recognition from Europe would tend to give them this. . .
+
+Among the zoologists of this country I would place Mr. Dana at the
+head. He is still very young, fertile in ideas, rich in facts,
+equally able as geologist and mineralogist. When his work on corals
+is completed, you can better judge of him. One of these days you
+will make him a correspondent of the Institute, unless he kills
+himself with work too early, or is led away by his tendency to
+generalization. Then there is Gould, author of the malacologic
+fauna of Massachusetts, and who is now working up the mollusks of
+the Wilkes Expedition. De Kay and Lea, whose works have long been
+known, are rather specialists, I should say. I do not yet know
+Holbrook personally. Pickering, of the Wilkes Expedition, is a well
+of science, perhaps the most erudite naturalist here. Haldeman
+knows the fresh-water gasteropods of this country admirably well,
+and has published a work upon them. Le Conte is a critical
+entomologist who seems to me thoroughly familiar with what is doing
+in Europe. In connection with Haldeman he is working up the
+articulates of the Wilkes Expedition. Wyman, recently made
+professor at Cambridge, is an excellent comparative anatomist, and
+the author of several papers on the organization of fishes. . .The
+botanists are less numerous, but Asa Gray and Dr. Torrey are known
+wherever the study of botany is pursued. Gray, with his
+indefatigable zeal, will gain upon his competitors. . .The
+geologists and mineralogists form the most numerous class among the
+savans of the country. The fact that every state has its corps of
+official geologists has tended to develop study in this direction
+to the detriment of other branches, and will later, I fear, tend to
+the detriment of science itself; for the utilitarian tendency thus
+impressed on the work of American geologists will retard their
+progress. With us, on the contrary, researches of this kind
+constantly tend to assume a more and more scientific character.
+Still, the body of American geologists forms, as a whole, a most
+respectable contingent. The names of Charles T. Jackson, James
+Hall, Hitchcock, Henry and William Rogers (two brothers), have long
+been familiar to European science. After the geologists, I would
+mention Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia, well known as the author of
+several papers upon fossils, and still better by his great work
+upon the indigenous races of America. He is a man of science in the
+best sense; admirable both as regards his knowledge and his
+activity. He is the pillar of the Philadelphia Academy.
+
+The chemists and physicists, again, form another utilitarian class
+of men in this country. As with many of them purely scientific work
+is not their sole object, it is difficult for an outsider to
+distinguish between the clever manipulators and those who have
+higher aims. . .
+
+The mathematicians have also their culte, dating back to Bowditch,
+the translator of the "Mecanique celeste," and the author of a work
+on practical navigation. He died in Boston, where they are now
+erecting a magnificent monument to his memory. Mr. Peirce,
+professor at Cambridge, is considered here the equal of our great
+mathematicians. It is not for me, who cannot do a sum in addition,
+to pretend to a judgment in the matter.* (* Though Agassiz was no
+mathematician, and Peirce no naturalist, they soon found that their
+intellectual aims were the same, and they became very close
+friends.)
+
+You are familiar, no doubt, with the works of Captain Wilkes and
+the report of his journey around the world. His charts are much
+praised. The charts of the coasts and harbors of the United States,
+made under the direction of Dr. Bache and published at government
+expense, are admirable. The reports of Captain Fremont concerning
+his travels are also most interesting and instructive; to botanists
+especially so, on account of the scientific notes accompanying
+them.
+
+I will not speak at length of my own work,--my letter is already
+too long. During the winter I have been chiefly occupied in making
+collections of fishes and birds, and also of the various woods. The
+forests here differ greatly from ours in the same latitude. I have
+even observed that they resemble astonishingly the forests of the
+Molasse epoch, and the analogy is heightened by that between the
+animals of this country and those of the eastern coasts of Asia as
+compared with those of the Molasse, such as the chelydras, andreas,
+etc. I will send a report upon this to M. Brongniart as soon as I
+have the time to prepare it. On the erratic phenomena, also, I have
+made numerous observations, which I am anxious to send to M. de
+Beaumont. These phenomena, so difficult of explanation with us,
+become still more complicated here, both on account of their
+contact with the sea and of the vast stretches of flat country over
+which they extend.
+
+For the last few days I have been especially occupied with the
+development of the medusae. In studying the actiniae I have made a
+striking discovery, and I should be glad if you would communicate
+it to the Academy in advance of the illustrated paper on the same
+subject, which I hope soon to send you. Notwithstanding their
+star-like appearance, the star-fishes have, like the sea-urchins,
+indications by no means doubtful, of a symmetrical disposition of
+their organs in pairs, and an anterior and posterior extremity
+easily recognized by the special form of their oral opening. I have
+now satisfied myself that the madrepores have something analogous
+to this in the arrangement of their partitions, so that I am
+tempted to believe that this tendency to a symmetrical arrangement
+of parts in pairs, is a general character of polyps, disguised by
+their radiating form. Among the medusae something similar exists in
+the disposition of the marginal appendages and the ocelli. I attach
+the more importance to these observations, because they may lead to
+a clearer perception than we have yet reached of the natural
+relations between the radiates and the other great types of the
+animal kingdom.
+
+This summer I hope to explore the lower lakes of Canada, and also
+the regions lying to the eastward as far as Nova Scotia; in the
+autumn I shall resume my excursions on the coast and in the
+Alleghenies, and shall pass a part of the winter in the Carolinas.
+I will soon write to Monsieur Brongniart concerning my plans for
+next year. If the Museum were desirous to aid me in my
+undertakings, I should like to make a journey of exploration next
+summer in a zone thus far completely neglected by naturalists, the
+region, namely, of the small lakes to the west of Lake Superior,
+where the Mississippi takes its rise, and also of that lying
+between this great basin of fresh water and the southern arm of
+Hudson Bay. I would employ the autumn in exploring the great valley
+of the Mississippi, and would pass the winter on the borders of the
+Gulf of Mexico.
+
+To carry out such projects, however, I have need of larger
+resources than I can create by my own efforts, and I shall soon be
+at the end of the subsidy granted me by the King of Prussia. I
+shall, however, subordinate all these projects to the possibilities
+of which you kindly tell me. Notwithstanding the interest offered
+by the exploration of a country so rich as this, notwithstanding
+the gratifying welcome I have received here, I feel, after all,
+that nowhere can one work better than in our old Europe, and the
+friendship you have shown me is a more than sufficient motive,
+impelling me to return as soon as possible to Paris. Remember me
+to our common friends. I have made some sufficiently interesting
+collections which I shall forward to the Museum; they will show
+you that I have done my best to fulfill my promises, forgetting
+no one. . .
+
+In the summer of 1847 Agassiz established himself in a small house
+at East Boston, sufficiently near the sea to be a convenient
+station for marine collections. Here certain members of his old
+working corps assembled about him, and it soon became, like every
+place he had ever inhabited, a hive of industry. Chief among his
+companions were Count Francois de Pourtales, who had accompanied
+him to this country; Mr. E. Desor, who soon followed him to
+America; and Mr. Jacques Burkhardt, who had preceded them all, and
+was now draughtsman in chief to the whole party. To his labors were
+soon added those of Mr. A. Sonrel, the able lithographic artist,
+who illustrated the most important works subsequently published by
+Agassiz. To an exquisite skill in his art he added a quick,
+intelligent perception of structural features from the naturalist's
+point of view, which made his work doubly valuable. Besides those
+above-mentioned, there were several assistants who shared the
+scientific work in one department or another.
+
+It must be confessed that this rather original establishment had
+the aspect of a laboratory rather than a home, domestic comfort
+being subordinate to scientific convenience. Every room served in
+some sort the purposes of an aquarium or a studio, while garret and
+cellar were devoted to collections. The rules of the household were
+sufficiently elastic to suit the most erratic student. A sliding
+scale for meals allowed the greatest freedom for excursions along
+the neighboring shores and beaches, and punctuality in work was the
+only punctuality demanded.
+
+Agassiz himself was necessarily often absent, for the maintenance
+of the little colonydepended in great degree upon his exertions.
+During the winter of 1847, while continuing his lectures in Boston
+and its vicinity, he lectured in other places also. It is difficult
+to track his course at this time; but during the winters of 1847
+and 1848 he lectured in all the large eastern cities, New York,
+Albany, Philadelphia, and Charleston, S.C. Everywhere he drew large
+crowds, and in those days his courses of lectures were rarely
+allowed to close without some public expression of gratitude and
+appreciation from the listeners. Among his papers are preserved
+several sets of resolutions from medical and scientific societies,
+from classes of students, and from miscellaneous audiences,
+attesting the enthusiasm awakened by his instruction. What he
+earned in this way enabled him to carry on his work and support his
+assistants. Still, the strain upon his strength, combined with all
+that he was doing beside in purely scientific work, was severe, and
+before the twelvemonth was out he was seriously ill. At this time
+Dr. B.E. Cotting, a physician whose position as curator of the
+Lowell Institute had brought him into contact with Agassiz, took
+him home to his house in the country, where he tended him through
+some weeks of tedious illness, hastening his convalescence by
+excursions in all the neighboring country, from which they returned
+laden with specimens,--plants, birds, etc. In this hospitable home
+he passed his fortieth birthday, the first in this country. His
+host found him standing thoughtful and abstracted by the window.
+"Why so sad?" he asked. "That I am so old, and have done so
+little," was the answer.
+
+After a few weeks he was able to return to his work, and the next
+letter gives some idea of his observations, especially upon the
+traces of glacial action in the immediate vicinity of Boston and
+upon the shores of Massachusetts Bay. Indeed, he never lost sight
+of these features, which had caught his attention the moment he
+landed on the continent. In one of his later lectures he gives a
+striking account of this first impression.
+
+"In the autumn of 1846," he says, "six years after my visit to
+Great Britain in search of glaciers, I sailed for America. When the
+steamer stopped at Halifax, eager to set foot on the new continent
+so full of promise for me, I sprang on shore and started at a brisk
+pace for the heights above the landing. On the first undisturbed
+ground, after leaving the town, I was met by the familiar signs,
+the polished surfaces, the furrows and scratches, the LINE
+ENGRAVING, so well known in the Old World; and I became convinced
+of what I had already anticipated as the logical sequence of my
+previous investigations, that here also this great agent had been
+at work." The incident seems a very natural introduction to the
+following letter, written a few months later:--
+
+TO ELIE DE BEAUMONT.
+
+BOSTON, August 31, 1847.
+
+. . .I have waited to write until I should have some facts
+sufficiently important to claim your attention. In truth, the study
+of the marine animals, which I am, for the first time, able to
+observe in their natural conditions of existence, has engrossed me
+almost exclusively since I came to the United States, and only
+incidentally, as it were, I have turned my attention to
+paleontology and geology. I must, however, except the glacial
+phenomena, a problem, the solution of which always interests me
+deeply. This great question, far from presenting itself more simply
+here, is complicated by peculiarities never brought to my notice in
+Europe. Happily for me, Mr. Desor, who had been in Scandinavia
+before joining me here, called my attention at once to certain
+points of resemblance between the phenomena there and those which I
+had seen in the neighborhood of Boston. Since then, we have made
+several excursions together, have visited Niagara, and, in short,
+have tried to collect all the special facts of glacial phenomena in
+America. . .You are, no doubt, aware that the whole rocky surface
+of the ground here is polished. I do not think that anywhere in the
+world there exist polished and rounded rocks in better preservation
+or on a larger scale. Here, as elsewhere, erratic debris are
+scattered over these surfaces, scratched pebbles impacted in mud,
+forming unstratified masses mixed with and covered by large erratic
+boulders, more or less furrowed or scratched, the upper ones being
+usually angular and without marks. The absence of moraines,
+properly so-called, in a country so little broken, is not
+surprising; I have, however, seen very distinct ones in some
+valleys of the White Mountains and in Vermont. Up to this time
+there had been nothing very new in the aspect of the phenomena as a
+whole; but on examining attentively the internal arrangement of all
+these materials, especially in the neighborhood of the sea, one
+soon becomes convinced that the ocean has partially covered and
+more or less remodeled them. In certain places there are patches of
+stratified sand interposed between masses of glacial drift-deposit;
+elsewhere, banks of sand and pebbles crown the irregularities of
+the glacial deposit, or fill in its depressions; in other
+localities the glacial pebbles may be washed and completely cleared
+of mud, retaining, however, their markings; or again, these
+markings may have disappeared, and the material is arranged in
+lines or ramparts, as it were, of diverse conformation, in which
+Mr. Desor recognized all the modifications of the "oesars" of
+Scandinavia. The disposition of the oesars, as seen here, is
+evidently due entirely to the action of the waves, and their
+frequency along the coast is a proof of this. In a late excursion
+with Captain Davis on board a government vessel I learned to
+understand the mode of formation of the submarine dikes bordering
+the coast at various distances, which would be oesars were they
+elevated; with the aid of the dredge I satisfied myself of their
+identity. With these facts before me I cannot doubt that the oesars
+of the United States consist essentially of glacial material
+remodeled by the sea; while farther inland, though here and there
+reaching the sea-coast, we have unchanged glacial drift deposit. At
+some points the alteration is so slight as to denote only a
+momentary rise of the sea. Under these circumstances one would
+naturally look for fossils in the drift, and M. Desor, in company
+with M. de Pourtales, was the first to find them, at Brooklyn, in
+Long Island, which lies to the south of New York. They were
+imbedded in a glacial clay deposit, having all the ordinary
+character of such deposits, with only slight traces of stratified
+sand. It is true that the greater number of these fossils (all
+belonging to species now living on the coast) were broken into
+angular fragments, not excepting even the thick tests of the Venus
+mercenaria. . .
+
+The suburb of Boston where I am living (East Boston) is built on an
+island, one kilometer and a half long, extending from north to
+southeast, and varying in width at different points from two to six
+or seven hundred metres. Its height above the sea-level is about
+sixty feet. This little island is composed entirely of glacial
+muddy deposit, containing scratched pebbles mixed with larger
+boulders or blocks, and covered also with a considerable number of
+boulders of divers forms and dimensions. At East Boston you cannot
+see what underlies this deposit; but no doubt it rests upon a
+rounded mass of granite, polished and grooved like several others
+in Boston harbor. . .
+
+In our journey to Niagara, Mr. Desor and I assured ourselves that
+the river deposits, in which, among other things, the mastodon is
+found with the fresh-water shells of Goat Island, are posterior to
+the drift. It is a fact worth consideration that the mastodons
+found in Europe are buried in true tertiary formations, while the
+great mastodon of the United States is certainly posterior to the
+drift. . .In another letter I will tell you something of my
+observations upon the geographical distribution of marine animals
+at different depths and on different bottoms, and also upon the
+relations between this distribution and that of the fossils in the
+tertiary deposits. . .* (* I have left out a portion of this letter
+which appeared in the first edition of the book, because I learned
+that the facts there given concerning the deposit of Zostera marina
+were not substantiated, and that Agassiz consequently did not
+forward the letter in its first form. The remainder of this chapter
+appears in this edition for the first time.--E.C.A.)
+
+Although so deeply interested by the geological features of the
+country, Agassiz was nevertheless drawn even more strongly to the
+study of the marine animals for which his position on the sea-coast
+gave him such opportunities as he had never before had. The next
+letter shows how fully his time was occupied, and how fascinating
+this new field of observation was to him. The English is still a
+little foreign. He was not yet quite at home in the language which
+he afterward wrote and spoke with such fluency.
+
+TO JAMES D. DANA.
+
+EAST BOSTON, September, 1847.
+
+. . .What have you thought of me all this time, not having written
+a single line neither to you nor to Professor Silliman after the
+kind reception I have met with by your whole family? Pray excuse me
+and consider, if you please, the difficulty under which I labor,
+having every day to look after hundreds of new things which always
+carry me beyond usual hours of working, when I am then so much
+tired that I can think of nothing. Nevertheless, it is a delightful
+life to be allowed to examine in a fresh state so many things of
+which I had but an imperfect knowledge from books. The Boston
+market supplies me with more than I can examine.
+
+Since I had the pleasure of seeing you I have been very successful
+in collecting specimens, especially in New York and Albany. In
+Washington I have been delighted to see the collections of the
+Exploring Expedition. They entitle you to the highest thanks from
+all scientific naturalists, and I hope it will be also felt in the
+same manner by your countrymen at large. . .I long for the
+opportunity of studying your fossil shells. As soon as I have gone
+over my Lowell lectures I hope to be able to move. I shall only
+pack up what I have already collected; but I cannot yet tell you
+precisely the time.
+
+I began studying your "Zoophytes," but it is so rich a book that I
+proceed slowly. For years I have not learned so much from a book as
+from yours. As I soon saw I would not be able to go through in a
+short time, I sent a short preliminary report to one of our most
+widely diffused papers, "Preussische Staats Zeitung," giving only
+the general impression of your work, and I shall send to Erichson a
+fuller scientific report after I have done with the whole volume.
+
+As I happen to have a lithograph of the original specimen of the
+Homo deluvii testis of Scheuchzer, I will forward it to Professor
+Silliman with this letter. I expect you will find it the
+counterpart of the specimen in your museum; or very nearly in the
+same state of preservation.
+
+Having just lately received my books, I also inclose a pamphlet
+from Ehrenberg, which he desired me to leave with you, and also
+the books Professor Silliman has had the kindness to lend me. . .
+I have made many observations which I wish to publish, but I can
+find no time to write them for you now. I must wait till the
+weather is so dull as to bring nothing into the hands of gunners
+and fishermen. . .
+
+So closed his first year in America. The second unfolded events
+both in the home he had left and in the one to which he had
+unconsciously come, which were to shape his future career, and
+exert the most powerful influence upon his whole life.
+
+CHAPTER 15.
+
+1847-1850: AGE 40-43.
+
+Excursions on Coast Survey Steamer.
+Relations with Dr. Bache, the Superintendent of the Coast Survey.
+Political Disturbances in Switzerland.
+Change of Relations with Prussia.
+Scientific School established in Cambridge.
+Chair of Natural History offered to Agassiz.
+Acceptance.
+Removal to Cambridge.
+Literary and Scientific Associations there and in Boston.
+Household in Cambridge.
+Beginning of Museum.
+Journey to Lake Superior.
+"Report, with Narration."
+"Principles of Zoology," by Agassiz and Gould.
+Letters from European Friends respecting these Publications.
+Letter from Hugh Miller.
+Second Marriage.
+Arrival of his Children in America.
+
+One of Agassiz's great pleasures in the summer of 1847 consisted in
+excursions on board the Coast Survey steamer Bibb, then employed in
+the survey of the harbor and bay of Boston, under command of
+Captain (afterward Admiral) Charles Henry Davis. Under no more
+kindly auspices could Agassiz's relations with this department of
+government work have been begun. "My cabin," writes Captain Davis,
+after their first trip together, "seems lonely without you."
+
+Hitherto the sea-shore had been a closed book to the Swiss
+naturalist, and now it opened to him a field of research almost as
+stimulating as his own glaciers. Born and bred among the mountains,
+he knew marine animals only as they can be known in dried and
+alcoholic specimens, or in a fossil state. From the Bibb he writes
+to a friend on shore: "I learn more here in a day than in months
+from books or dried specimens. Captain Davis is kindness itself.
+Everything I can wish for is at my disposal so far as it is
+possible."
+
+Dr. Bache was at this time Superintendent of the Coast Survey, and
+he saw at once how the work of the naturalist might ally itself
+with the professional work of the Survey to the greater usefulness
+of both. From the beginning to the end of his American life,
+therefore, the hospitalities of the United States Coast Survey were
+open to Agassiz. As a guest on board her vessels he studied the
+reefs of Florida and the Bahama Banks, as well as the formations of
+our New England shores. From the deck of the Bibb, in connection
+with Count de Pourtales, his first dredging experiments were
+undertaken; and his last long voyage around the continent, from
+Boston to San Francisco, was made on board the Hassler, a Coast
+Survey vessel fitted out for the Pacific shore. Here was another
+determining motive for his stay in this country. Under no other
+government, perhaps, could he have had opportunities so invaluable
+to a naturalist.
+
+But events were now passing in Europe which made his former
+position there, as well as that of many of his old friends, wholly
+unstable. In February, 1848, the proclamation of the French
+republic broke upon Europe like a clap of thunder from a clear sky.
+The news created great disturbances in Switzerland, and especially
+in the canton of Neuchatel, where a military force was immediately
+organized by the republican party in opposition to the
+conservatives, who would fain have continued loyal to the Prussian
+king. For the moment all was chaos, and the prospects of
+institutions of learning were seriously endangered. The republican
+party carried the day; the canton of Neuchatel ceased to be a
+dependence of the Prussian monarchy, and became merged in the
+general confederation of Switzerland.
+
+At about the same time that Agassiz, in consequence of this change
+of conditions, was honorably discharged from the service of the
+Prussian king, a scientific school was organized at Cambridge,
+Massachusetts, in direct connection with Harvard University. This
+school, known as the Lawrence Scientific School, owed its existence
+to the generosity of Abbott Lawrence, formerly United States
+Minister at the Court of St. James. He immediately offered the
+chair of Natural History (Zoology and Geology) to Agassiz, with a
+salary of fifteen hundred dollars, guaranteed by Mr. Lawrence
+himself, until such time as the fees of the students should be
+worth three thousand dollars to their professor. This time never
+came. Agassiz's lectures, with the exception of the more technical
+ones addressed to small classes, were always fully attended, but
+special students were naturally very few in a department of pure
+science, and their fees never raised the salary of the professor
+perceptibly. This was, however, counterbalanced in some degree by
+the clause in his contract which allowed him entire freedom for
+lectures elsewhere, so that he could supplement his restricted
+income from other sources.
+
+In accordance with this new position Agassiz now removed his
+bachelor household to Cambridge, where he opened his first course
+in April, 1848. He could hardly have come to Harvard at a more
+auspicious moment, so far as his social and personal relations were
+concerned. The college was then on a smaller scale than now, but
+upon its list of professors were names which would have given
+distinction to any university. In letters, there were Longfellow
+and Lowell, and Felton, the genial Greek scholar, of whom
+Longfellow himself wrote, "In Attica thy birthplace should have
+been." In science, there were Peirce, the mathematician, and Dr.
+Asa Gray, then just installed at the Botanical Garden, and Jeffries
+Wyman, the comparative anatomist, appointed at about the same time
+with Agassiz himself. To these we might almost add, as influencing
+the scientific character of Harvard, Dr. Bache, the Superintendent
+of the Coast Survey, and Charles Henry Davis, the head of the
+Nautical Almanac, since the kindly presence of the former was
+constantly invoked as friend and counselor in the scientific
+departments, while the latter had his residence in Cambridge, and
+was as intimately associated with the interests of Harvard as if he
+had been officially connected with the university.
+
+A more agreeable set of men, or one more united by personal
+relations and intellectual aims, it would have been difficult to
+find. In connection with these names, those of Prescott, Ticknor,
+Motley, and Holmes also arise most naturally, for the literary men
+and scholars of Cambridge and Boston were closely united; and if
+Emerson, in his country home at Concord, was a little more
+withdrawn, his influence was powerful in the intellectual life of
+the whole community, and acquaintance readily grew to friendship
+between him and Agassiz. Such was the pleasant and cultivated
+circle into which Agassiz was welcomed in the two cities, which
+became almost equally his home, and where the friendships he made
+gradually transformed exile into household life and ties.
+
+In Cambridge he soon took his share in giving as well as receiving
+hospitalities, and his Saturday evenings were not the less
+attractive because of the foreign character and somewhat unwonted
+combination of the household. Over its domestic comforts now
+presided an old Swiss clergyman, Monsieur Christinat. He had been
+attached to Agassiz from childhood, had taken the deepest interest
+in his whole career, and, as we have seen, had assisted him to
+complete his earlier studies. Now, under the disturbed condition of
+things at home, he had thrown in his lot with him in America. "If
+your old friend," he writes, "can live with his son Louis, it will
+be the height of his happiness." To Agassiz his presence in the
+house was a benediction. He looked after the expenses, and acted as
+commissary in chief to the colony. Obliged, as Agassiz was,
+frequently to be absent on lecturing tours, he could, with perfect
+security, intrust the charge of everything connected with the
+household to his old friend, from whom he was always sure of an
+affectionate welcome on his return. In short, so far as an old man
+could, "papa Christinat," as he was universally called in this
+miscellaneous family, strove to make good to him the absence of
+wife and children.
+
+The make-up of the settlement was somewhat anomalous. The house,
+though not large, was sufficiently roomy, and soon after Agassiz
+was established there he had the pleasure of receiving under his
+roof certain friends and former colleagues, driven from their
+moorings in Europe by the same disturbances which had prevented him
+from returning there. The arrival among them of Mr. Guyot, with
+whom his personal and scientific intimacy was of such long
+standing, was a great happiness. It was especially a blessing at
+this time, for troubles at home weighed upon Agassiz and depressed
+him. His wife, always delicate in health, had died, and although
+his children were most affectionately provided for in her family
+and his own, they were separated from each other, as well as from
+him; nor did he think it wise to bring them while so young, to
+America. The presence, therefore, of one who was almost like a
+brother in sympathy and companionship, was now more than welcome.
+His original staff of co-workers and assistants still continued
+with him, and there were frequent guests besides, chiefly
+foreigners, who, on arriving in a new country, found their first
+anchorage and point of departure in this little European
+settlement.
+
+The house stood in a small plot of ground, the cultivation of which
+was the delight of papa Christinat. It soon became a miniature
+zoological garden, where all sorts of experiments in breeding and
+observations on the habits of animals, were carried on. A tank for
+turtles and a small alligator in one corner, a large hutch for
+rabbits in another, a cage for eagles against the wall, a tame bear
+and a family of opossums, made up the menagerie, varied from time
+to time by new arrivals.
+
+But Agassiz could not be long in any place without beginning to
+form a museum. When he accepted the chair offered him at Cambridge,
+there were neither collections nor laboratories belonging to his
+department. The specimens indispensable to his lectures were
+gathered almost by the day, and his outfit, with the exception of
+the illustrations he had brought from Europe, consisted of a
+blackboard and a lecture-room. There was no money for the necessary
+objects, and the want of it had to be supplied by the professor's
+own industry and resources. On the banks of the Charles River, just
+where it is crossed by Brighton Bridge, was an old wooden shanty
+set on piles; it might have served perhaps, at some time, as a
+bathing or a boat house. The use of this was allowed Agassiz for
+the storing of such collections as he had brought together. Pine
+shelves nailed against the walls served for cases, and with a table
+or two for dissection this rough shelter was made to do duty as a
+kind of laboratory. The fact is worth noting, for here was the
+beginning of the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge, now
+admitted to a place among the great institutions of its kind in the
+world.
+
+In the summer of 1848 Agassiz organized an expedition entirely
+after his own heart, inasmuch as it combined education with
+observation in the field. The younger portion of the party
+consisted of several of his special pupils, and a few other Harvard
+students who joined the expedition from general interest. Beside
+these, there were several volunteer members, who were either
+naturalists or had been attracted to the undertaking by their love
+of nature and travel. Their object was the examination of the
+eastern and northern shores of Lake Superior from Sault Ste. Marie
+to Fort William, a region then little known to science or to
+tourists. Agassiz taught along the road. At evening, around the
+camp-fire, or when delayed by weather or untoward circumstances, he
+would give to his companions short and informal lectures, it might
+be on the forest about them, or on the erratic phenomena in the
+immediate neighborhood,--on the terraces of the lake shore, or on
+the fish of its waters. His lecture-room, in short, was everywhere;
+his apparatus a traveling blackboard and a bit of chalk; while his
+illustrations and specimens lay all around him, wherever the party
+chanced to be.
+
+To Agassiz himself the expedition was of the deepest interest.
+Glacial phenomena had, as we have seen, met him at every turn since
+his arrival in the United States, but nowhere had he found them in
+greater distinctness than on the shores of Lake Superior. As the
+evidence accumulated about him, he became more than ever satisfied
+that the power which had modeled and grooved the rocks all over the
+country, and clothed it with a sheet of loose material reaching to
+the sea, must have been the same which had left like traces in
+Europe. In a continent of wide plains and unbroken surfaces, and,
+therefore, with few centres of glacial action, the phenomena were
+more widely and uniformly scattered than in Europe. But their
+special details, down to the closest minutiae, were the same, while
+their definite circumscription and evenness of distribution forbade
+the idea of currents or floods as the moving cause. Here, as
+elsewhere, Agassiz recognized at once the comprehensive scope of
+the phenomena. The whole history reconstructed itself in his mind,
+to the time when a sheet of ice clothed the land, reaching the
+Atlantic sea-board, as it now does the coast of Spitzbergen and the
+Arctic shores.
+
+He made also a careful survey of the local geology of Lake
+Superior, and especially of the system of dykes, by the action of
+which he found that its bed had been excavated, and the outline of
+its shores determined. But perhaps the inhabitants of the lake
+itself occupied him even more than its conformation or its
+surrounding features. Not only for its own novelty and variety, but
+for its bearing on the geographical distribution of animals, the
+fauna of this great sheet of fresh water interested him deeply. On
+this journey he saw at Niagara for the first time a living
+gar-pike, the only representative among modern fishes of the fossil
+type of Lepidosteus. From this type he had learned more perhaps
+than from any other, of the relations between the past and the
+present fishes. When a student of nineteen years of age, his first
+sight of a stuffed skin of a gar-pike in the Museum of Carlsruhe
+told him that it stood alone among living fishes. Its true alliance
+with the Lepidosteus of the early geological ages became clear to
+him only later in his study of the fossil fishes. He then detected
+the reptilian character of the type, and saw that from the
+articulation of the vertebrae the head must have moved more freely
+on the trunk than that of any fish of our days. To his great
+delight, when the first living specimen of the gar-pike, or modern
+Lepidosteus, was brought to him, it moved its head to the right and
+left and upward, as a Saurian does and as no other fish can.
+
+The result of this expedition was a valuable collection of fishes
+and a report upon the fauna and the geology of Lake Superior,
+comprising the erratic phenomena. A narrative written by James
+Elliot Cabot formed the introduction to the report, and it was also
+accompanied by two or three shorter contributions on special
+subjects from other members of the party. The volume was
+illustrated by a number of plates exquisitely drawn and colored on
+stone by A. Sonrel.
+
+This was not Agassiz's first publication in America. His
+"Principles of Zoology" (Agassiz and Gould) was published in 1848.
+The book had a large sale, especially for schools. Edition followed
+edition, but the sale of the first part was checked by the want of
+the second, which was never printed. Agassiz was always swept along
+so rapidly by the current of his own activity that he was sometimes
+forced to leave behind him unfinished work. Before the time came
+for the completion of the second part of the zoology, his own
+knowledge had matured so much, that to be true to the facts, he
+must have remodeled the whole of the first part, and for this he
+never found the time. Apropos of these publications the following
+letters are in place.
+
+FROM SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.
+
+BELGRAVE SQUARE, October 3, 1849.
+
+. . .I thank you very sincerely for your most captivating general
+work on the "Principles of Zoology." I am quite in love with it. I
+was glad to find that you had arranged the nummulites with the
+tertiary rocks, so that the broad generalization I attempted in my
+last work on the Alps, Apennines, and Carpathians is completely
+sustained zoologically, and you will not be sorry to see the
+stratigraphical truth vindicated (versus E. de Beaumont and--). I
+beseech you to look at my memoir, and especially at my reasoning
+about the miocene and pliocene divisions of the Alps and Italy. It
+seems to me manifest that the percentage system derived from marine
+life can never be applied to tertiary TERRESTRIAL successions. . .
+
+My friends have congratulated me much on this my last effort, and
+as Lyell and others most interested in opposing me have been
+forward in approval, I begin to hope that I am not yet quite done
+up; and that unlike the Bishop of Oviedo, my last sermon "ne sent
+pas de l'apoplexie." I have, nevertheless, been desperately out of
+sorts and full of gout and liver and all kinds of irritation this
+summer, which is the first for many a long year in which I have
+been unable to take the field. The meeting at Birmingham, however,
+revived me. Professor W. Rogers will have told you all about our
+doings. Buckland is up to his neck in "sewage," and wishes to
+change all underground London into a fossil cloaca of pseudo
+coprolites. This does not quite suit the chemists charged with
+sanitary responsibilities; for they fear the Dean will poison half
+the population in preparing his choice manures! But in this as in
+everything he undertakes there is a grand sweeping view.
+
+When are we to meet again? And when are we to have a "stand-up
+fight" on the erratics of the Alps? You will see by the abstract of
+my memoir appended to my Alpine affair that I have taken the field
+against the extension of the Jura! In a word, I do not believe that
+great trunk glaciers ever filled the valleys of the Rhone, etc.
+Perhaps you will be present at our next meeting of the British
+Association at Edinburgh, August, 1850. Olim meminisse juvabit! and
+then, my dear and valued and most enlightened friend, we may study
+once more together the surface of my native rocks for "auld lang
+syne.". . .
+
+FROM CHARLES DARWIN.
+
+DOWN, FARNBOROUGH, KENT, June 15 [1850, probably].
+
+MY DEAR SIR,
+
+I have seldom been more deeply gratified than by receiving your
+most kind present of "Lake Superior." I had heard of it, and had
+much wished to read it, but I confess it was the very great honor
+of having in my possession a work with your autograph, as a
+presentation copy, that has given me such lively and sincere
+pleasure. I cordially thank you for it. I have begun to read it
+with uncommon interest, which I see will increase as I go on.
+
+The Cirripedia, which you and Dr. Gould were so good as to send me,
+have proved of great service to me. The sessile species from
+Massachusetts consist of five species. . .Of the genus Balanus, on
+the shores of Britain, we have ONE species (B. perforata
+Bruguiere), which you have not in the United States, in the same
+way as you exclusively have B. eburneus. All the above species
+attain a somewhat larger average size on the shores of the United
+States than on those of Britain, but the specimens from the glacial
+beds of Uddevalla, Scotland, and Canada, are larger even than those
+of the United States.
+
+Once again allow me to thank you with cordiality for the pleasure
+you have given me.
+
+Believe me, with the highest respect, your truly obliged,
+
+C. DARWIN.
+
+The following letter from Hugh Miller concerning Agassiz's
+intention of introducing "The Footprints of the Creator" to the
+American public by a slight memoir of Miller is of interest here.
+It is to be regretted that with this exception no letters have been
+found from him among Agassiz's papers, though he must have been in
+frequent correspondence with him, and they had, beside their
+scientific sympathy, a very cordial personal relation.
+
+EDINBURGH, 2 STUART STREET, May 25, 1850.
+
+DEAR SIR,
+
+I was out of town when your kind letter reached here, and found
+such an accumulation of employment on my return that it is only now
+I find myself able to devote half an hour to the work of reply, and
+to say how thoroughly sensible I am of the honor you propose doing
+me. It never once crossed my mind when, in writing my little
+volume, the "Footprints," I had such frequent occasion to refer to
+my master, our great authority in ichthyic history, that he himself
+would have associated his name with it on the other side of the
+Atlantic, and referred in turn to its humble writer.
+
+In the accompanying parcel I send you two of my volumes, which you
+may not yet have seen, and in which you may find some materials for
+your proposed introductory memoir. At all events they may furnish
+you with amusement in a leisure hour. The bulkier of the two,
+"Scenes and Legends," of which a new edition has just appeared, and
+of which the first edition was published, after lying several years
+beside me, in 1835, is the earliest of my works to which I attached
+my name. It forms a sort of traditionary history of a district of
+Scotland, about two hundred miles distant from the capital, in
+which the character of the people has been scarce at all affected
+by the cosmopolitanism which has been gradually modifying and
+altering it in the larger towns; and as it has been frequently
+remarked,--I know not with what degree of truth,--that there is a
+closer resemblance between the Scotch and Swiss than between any
+other two peoples of Europe, you may have some interest in
+determining whether the features of your own country-folk are not
+sometimes to be seen in those of mine, as exhibited in my legendary
+history. Certainly both countries had for many ages nearly the same
+sort of work to do; both had to maintain a long and ultimately
+successful war of independence against nations greatly more
+powerful than themselves; and as their hills produced little else
+than the "soldier and his sword," both had to make a trade abroad
+of that art of war which they were compelled in self-defense to
+acquire at home. Even in the laws of some nations we find them
+curiously enough associated together. In France, under the old
+regime, the personal property of all strangers dying in the
+country, SWISS AND SCOTS EXCEPTED, was forfeited to the king.
+
+The other volume, "First Impressions of England and its People,"
+contains some personal anecdotes and some geology. But the
+necessary materials you will chiefly find in the article from the
+"North British Review" which I also inclose. It is from the pen of
+Sir David Brewster, with whom for the last ten years I have spent a
+few very agreeable days every year at Christmas, under the roof of
+a common friend,--one of the landed proprietors of Fifeshire. Sir
+David's estimate of the writer is, I fear, greatly too high, but
+his statement of facts regarding him is correct; and I think you
+will find it quite full enough for the purposes of a brief memoir.
+With his article I send you one of my own, written about six years
+ago for the same periodical, as the subject is one in which, from
+its connection with your master study,--the natural history of
+fishes,--you may take more interest than most men. It embodies,
+from observation, what may be regarded as THE NATURAL HISTORY OF
+THE FISHERMAN, and describes some curious scenes and appearances
+which I witnessed many years ago when engaged, during a truant
+boyhood, in prosecuting the herring fishery as an amateur. Many of
+my observations of natural phenomena date from this idle, and yet
+not wholly wasted, period of my life.
+
+With the volumes I send also a few casts of my less fragile
+specimens of Asterolepis. Two of the number, those of the external
+and internal surfaces of the creature's cranial buckler, are really
+very curious combinations of plates, and when viewed in a slant
+light have a decidedly sculpturesque and not ungraceful effect. I
+have seen on our rustic tombstones worse representations of angels,
+winged and robed, than that formed by the central plates of the
+interior surface when the light is made to fall along their higher
+protuberances, leaving the hollows in the shade. You see how truly
+your prediction regarding the flatness of the creature's head is
+substantiated by these casts; it is really not easy to know how,
+placed on so flat a surface, the eyes could have been very
+available save for star-gazing; but as nature makes no mistakes in
+such matters, it is possible that the creature, like the
+flatfishes, may have lived much at the bottom, and that most of the
+seeing it had use for may have been seeing in an upward direction.
+None of my other specimens of bucklers are so entire and in so good
+a state of keeping as the two from which I have taken the casts,
+but they are greatly larger. One specimen, nearly complete,
+exhibits an area about four times as great as the largest of these
+two, and I have fragments of others which must have belonged to
+fish still more gigantic. The two other casts are of specimens of
+gill covers, which in the Asterolepis, as in the sturgeon,
+consisted each of a single plate. In both the exterior surface of
+the buckler and of the operculum the tubercles are a good deal
+enveloped in the stone, which is of a consistency too hard to be
+removed without injuring what it overlies; but you will find them
+in the smaller cast which accompanies the others, and which, as
+shown by the thickness of the plate in the original, indicates
+their size and form in a large individual, very characteristically
+shown. So coral-like is their aspect, that if it was from such a
+cast, not a fossil (which would, of course, exhibit the
+peculiarities of the bone), that Lamarck founded his genus
+Monticularia, I think his apology for the error might almost be
+maintained as good. I am sorry I cannot venture on taking casts
+from some of my other specimens; but they are exceedingly fragile,
+and as they are still without duplicates I am afraid to hazard
+them. Since publishing my little volume I have got several new
+plates of Asterolepis,--a broad palatal plate, covered with
+tubercles, considerably larger than those of the creature's
+external surface,--a key-stone shaped plate, placed, when in situ,
+in advance of the little plate between the eyes, which form the
+head and face of the effigy in the centre of the buckler,--and a
+side-plate, into which the condyloid processes of the lower jaw
+were articulated, and which exhibited the processes on which these
+hinged. There are besides some two or three plates more, whose
+places I have still to find. The small cast, stained yellow, is
+taken from an instructive specimen of the jaws of coccosteus, and
+exhibits a peculiarity which I had long suspected and referred to
+in the first edition of my volume on the Old Red Sandstone in
+rather incautious language, but which a set of my specimens now
+fully establishes. Each of the under jaws of the fish was furnished
+with two groups of teeth: one group in the place where, in
+quadrupeds, we usually find the molars; and another group in the
+line of the symphyses. And how these both could have acted is a
+problem which our anatomists here--many of whom have carefully
+examined my specimen--seem unable, and in some degree, indeed,
+afraid to solve.
+
+I have written to the Messrs. Gould, Kendall & Lincoln to say that
+the third edition of the "Footprints" differs from the first and
+second only by the addition of a single note and an illustrative
+diagram, both of which I have inclosed to them in my communication.
+I anticipate much pleasure from the perusal of your work on Lake
+Superior, when it comes to hand, which, as your publishers have
+intrusted it to the care of a gentleman visiting this country,
+will, I think, be soon. It is not often that a region so remote and
+so little known as that which surrounds the great lake of America
+is visited by a naturalist of the first class. From such a terra
+incognita, at length unveiled to eyes so discerning, I anticipate
+strange tidings.
+
+I am, my dear sir, with respect and admiration, very truly yours,
+
+HUGH MILLER.
+
+In the spring of 1850 Agassiz married Elizabeth Cabot Cary,
+daughter of Thomas Graves Cary, of Boston. This marriage confirmed
+his resolve to remain, at least for the present, in the United
+States. It connected him by the closest ties with a large family
+circle, of which he was henceforth a beloved and honored member,
+and made him the brother-in-law of one of his most intimate friends
+in Cambridge, Professor C.C. Felton. Thus secure of favorable
+conditions for the care and education of his children, he called
+them to this country. His son (then a lad of fifteen years of age)
+had joined him the previous summer. His daughters, younger by
+several years than their brother, arrived the following autumn, and
+home built itself up again around him.
+
+The various foreign members of his household had already scattered.
+One or two had returned to Europe, others had settled here in
+permanent homes of their own. Among the latter were Professor Guyot
+and M. de Pourtales, who remained, both as scientific colleagues
+and personal friends, very near and dear to him all his life. "Papa
+Christinat" had also withdrawn. While Agassiz was absent on a
+lecturing tour, the kind old man, knowing well the opposition he
+should meet, and wishing to save both himself and his friend the
+pain of parting, stole away without warning and went to New
+Orleans, where he had obtained a place as pastor. This was a great
+disappointment to Agassiz, who had urged him to make his home with
+him, a plan in which his wife and children cordially concurred, but
+which did not approve itself to the judgment of his old friend. M.
+Christinat afterward returned to Switzerland, where he ended his
+days. He wrote constantly until his death, and was always kept
+advised of everything that passed in the family at Cambridge. Of
+the old household, Mr. Burkhardt alone remained a permanent member
+of the new one.
+
+CHAPTER 16.
+
+1850-1852: AGE 43-45.
+
+Proposition from Dr. Bache.
+Exploration of Florida Reefs.
+Letter to Humboldt concerning Work in America.
+Appointment to Professorship of Medical College in Charleston, S.C.
+Life at the South.
+Views concerning Races of Men.
+Prix Cuvier.
+
+THE following letter from the Superintendent of the Coast Survey
+determined for Agassiz the chief events of the winter of 1851.
+
+FROM ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE.
+
+WEBB'S HILL, October 30, 1850.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,
+
+Would it be possible for you to devote six weeks or two months to
+the examination of the Florida reefs and keys in connection with
+their survey? It is extremely important to ascertain what they are
+and how formed. One account treats them as growing corals, another
+as masses of something resembling oolite, piled together,
+barrier-wise. You see that this lies at the root of the progress of
+the reef, so important to navigation, of the use to be made of it
+in placing our signals, of the use as a foundation for
+light-houses, and of many other questions practically important and
+of high scientific interest. I would place a vessel at your
+disposal during the time you were on the reef, say six weeks.
+
+The changes at or near Cape Florida, from the Atlantic coast and
+its siliceous sand, to the Florida coast and its coral sand, must
+be curious. You will be free to move from one end of the reef to
+the other, which will be, say one hundred and fifty miles. Motion
+to eastward would be slow in the windy season, though favored by
+the Gulf Stream as the winds are "trade." Whatever collections you
+might make would be your own. I would only ask for the survey such
+information and such specimens as would be valuable to its
+operations, especially to its hydrography, and some report on these
+matters. As this will, if your time and engagements permit, lead to
+a business arrangement, I must, though reluctantly, enter into
+that. I will put aside six hundred dollars for the two months,
+leaving you to pay your own expenses; or, if you prefer it, will
+pay all expenses of travel, including subsistence, to and from Key
+West, and furnish vessel and subsistence while there, and four
+hundred dollars.
+
+What results would flow to science from your visit to that region!
+You have spoken of the advantage of using our vessels when they
+were engaged in their own work. Now I offer you a vessel the
+motions of which you will control, and the assistance of the
+officers and crew of which you will have. You shall be at no
+expense for going and coming, or while there, and shall choose your
+own time. . .
+
+Agassiz accepted this proposal with delight, and at once made
+arrangements to take with him a draughtsman and an assistant, in
+order to give the expedition such a character as would make it
+useful to science in general, as well as to the special objects of
+the Coast Survey. It will be seen that Dr. Bache gladly concurred
+in all these views.
+
+FROM ALEXANDER DALLAS BACHE.
+
+WASHINGTON, December 18, 1850.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,
+
+On the basis of our former communications I have been, as the time
+served, raising a superstructure. I have arranged with Lieutenant
+Commander Alden to send the schooner W.A. Graham, belonging to the
+Coast Survey, under charge of an officer who will take an interest
+in promoting the great objects in which you will be engaged, to Key
+West, in time to meet you on your arrival in the Isabel of the
+15th, from Charleston to Key West. The vessel will be placed at
+your absolute disposal for four to six weeks, as you may find
+desirable, doing just such things as you require, and going to such
+places as you direct. If you desire more than a general direction,
+I will give any specific ones which you may suggest. . .
+
+I have requested that room be made in the cabin for you and for two
+aids, as you desire to take a draughtsman with you; and in
+reference to your enlarged plan of operating, of which I see the
+advantage, I have examined the financial question, and propose to
+add two hundred dollars to the six hundred in my letter of October
+30th, to enable you to execute it. I would suggest that you stop a
+day in Washington on your way to Charleston, to pick up the
+topographical and geographical information which you desire, and to
+have all matters of a formal kind arranged to suit your convenience
+and wishes, which, I am sure, will all be promotive of the objects
+in view from your visit to Florida. . .You say I shall smile AT
+your plans,--instead of which, they have been smiled ON; now, there
+is a point for you,--a true Saxon distinction.
+
+If you succeed (and did you ever fail!?) in developing for our
+Coast Survey the nature, structure, growth, and all that, of the
+Florida reefs, you will have conferred upon the country a priceless
+favor. . .
+
+The Superintendent of the Coast Survey never had cause to regret
+the carte-blanche he had thus given. A few weeks, with the
+facilities so liberally afforded, gave Agassiz a clew to all the
+phenomena he had been commissioned to examine, and enabled him to
+explain the relation between the keys and the outer and inner
+reefs, and the mud swamps, or more open channels, dividing them,
+and to connect these again with the hummocks and everglades of the
+main-land. It remains to be seen whether his theory will hold good,
+that the whole or the greater part of the Florida peninsula has,
+like its southern portion, been built up of concentric reefs. But
+his explanation of the present reefs, their structure, laws of
+growth, relations to each other and to the main-land, as well as to
+the Gulf Stream and its prevailing currents, was of great practical
+service to the Coast Survey. It was especially valuable in
+determining how far the soil now building up from accumulations of
+mud and coral debris was likely to remain for a long time shifting
+and uncertain, and how far and in what localities it might be
+relied upon as affording a stable foundation. When, at the meeting
+of the American Association in the following spring, Agassiz gave
+an account of his late exploration, Dr. Bache, who was present,
+said that for the first time he understood the bearing of the whole
+subject, though he had so long been trying to unravel it.
+
+The following letter was written immediately after Agassiz's
+return.
+
+TO SIR CHARLES LYELL.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, April 26, 1851.
+
+. . .I have spent a large part of the winter in Florida, with a
+view of studying the coral reefs. I have found that they constitute
+a new class of reefs, distinct from those described by Darwin and
+Dana under the name of fringing reefs, barrier reefs, and atolls. I
+have lately read a paper upon that subject before the American
+Academy, which I shall send you as soon as it is printed. The case
+is this. There are several concentric reefs separated by deep
+channels; the peninsula of Florida itself is a succession of such
+reefs, the everglades being the filled-up channels, while the
+hummocks were formerly little intervening islands, like the
+mangrove islands in the present channels. But what is quite
+remarkable, all these concentric reefs are upon one level, above
+that of the sea, and there is no indication whatever of upheaval.
+You will find some observations upon upheavals, etc., in Silliman,
+by Tuomey; it is a great mistake, as I shall show. The Tortugas are
+a real atoll, but formed without the remotest indication of
+subsidence.
+
+Of course this does not interfere in the least with the views of
+Darwin, for the whole ground presents peculiar features. I wish you
+would tell him something about this. One of the most remarkable
+peculiarities of the rocks in the reefs of the Tortugas consists in
+their composition; they are chiefly made up of CORALLINES,
+limestone algae, and, to a small extent only, of real corals. . .
+
+Agassiz's report to the Coast Survey upon the results of this first
+investigation made by him upon the reefs of Florida was not
+published in full at the time. The parts practically most important
+to the Coast Survey were incorporated in their subsequent charts;
+the more general scientific results, as touching the physical
+history of the peninsula as a whole, appeared in various forms,
+were embodied in Agassiz's lectures, and were printed some years
+after in his volume entitled "Methods of Study." The original
+report, with all the plates prepared for it, was published in the
+"Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology," under the
+supervision of Alexander Agassiz, after the death of his father. It
+forms a quarto volume, containing some sixty pages of text, with
+twenty-two plates, illustrative of corals and coral structure, and
+a map of Southern Florida with its reefs and keys.
+
+This expedition was also of great importance to Agassiz's
+collections, and to the embryo museum in Cambridge. It laid the
+foundation of a very complete collection of corals of all varieties
+and in all stages of growth. All the specimens, from huge coral
+heads and branching fans down to the most minute single corals,
+were given up to him, the value of the whole being greatly enhanced
+by the drawings taken on the spot from the living animals.
+
+To this period belongs also the following fragment of a letter to
+Humboldt.
+
+TO ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT.
+
+[Probably 1852,--date not given.]
+
+. . .What a time has passed since my last letter! Had you not been
+constantly in my thoughts, and your counsels always before me as my
+guide, I should reproach myself for my silence. I hope my two
+papers on the medusae, forwarded this year, have reached you, and
+also one upon the classification of insects, as based upon their
+development. I have devoted myself especially to the organization
+of the invertebrate animals, and to the facts bearing upon the
+perfecting of their classification. I have succeeded in tracing the
+same identity of structure between the three classes of radiates,
+and also between those of mollusks, as has already been recognized
+in the vertebrates, and partially in the articulates. It is truly a
+pleasure for me now to be able to demonstrate in my lectures the
+insensible gradations existing between polyps, medusae, and
+echinoderms, and to designate by the same name organs seemingly so
+different. Especially has the minute examination of the thickness
+of the test in echinoderms revealed to me unexpected relations
+between the sea-urchin and the medusa. No one suspects, I fancy, at
+this moment, that the solid envelope of the Scutellae and the
+Clypeasters is traversed by a net-work of radiating tubes,
+corresponding to those of the medusae, so well presented by
+Ehrenberg in Aurelia aurita. If the Berlin zoologists will take the
+trouble to file off the surface of the test of an Echinarachnius
+parma, they will find a circular canal as large and as continuous
+as that of the medusae. The aquiferous tubes specified above open
+into this canal. But the same thing may be found under various
+modifications in other genera of the family. Since I have succeeded
+in injecting colored liquid into the beroids, for instance, and
+keeping them alive with it circulating in their transparent mass, I
+am able to show the identity of their zones of locomotive fringes
+(combs), from which they take their name of Ctenophorae, with the
+ambulacral (locomotive) apparatus of the echinoderms. Furnished
+with these facts, it is not difficult to recognize true beroidal
+forms in the embryos of sea-urchins and star-fishes, published by
+Muller in his beautiful plates, and thus to trace the medusoid
+origin of the echinoderms, as the polypoid origin of the medusae
+has already been recognized. I do not here allude to their
+primitive origin, but simply to the general fact that among
+radiates the embryos of the higher classes represent, in miniature,
+types of the lower classes, as, for instance, those of the
+echinoderms resemble the medusae, those of the medusae the polyps.
+Having passed the greater part of last winter in Florida, where I
+was especially occupied in studying the coral reefs, I had the best
+opportunity in the world for prosecuting my embryological
+researches upon the stony corals. I detected relations among them
+which now enable me to determine the classification of these
+animals according to their mode of development with greater
+completeness than ever before, and even to assign a superior or
+inferior rank to their different types, agreeing with their
+geological succession, as I have already done for the fishes. I am
+on the road to the same results for the mollusks and the
+articulates, and can even now say in general terms, that the most
+ancient representatives of all the families belonging to these
+great groups, strikingly recall the first phases in the embryonic
+development of their successors in more recent formations, and even
+that the embryos of comparatively recent families recall families
+belonging to ancient epochs. You will find some allusion to these
+results in my Lectures on Embryology, given in my "Lake Superior,"
+of which I have twice sent you a copy, that it might reach you the
+more surely; but these first impressions have assumed greater
+coherence now, and I constantly find myself recurring to my fossils
+for light upon the embryonic forms I am studying and vice versa,
+consulting my embryological drawings in order to decipher the
+fossils with greater certainty.
+
+The proximity of the sea and the ease with which I can visit any
+part of the coast within a range of some twenty degrees give me
+inexhaustible resources for the whole year, which, as time goes on,
+I turn more and more to the best account. On the other hand, the
+abundance and admirable state of preservation of the fossils found
+in our ancient deposits, as well as the regular succession of the
+beds containing them, contribute admirable material for this kind
+of comparative study. . .
+
+In the summer of 1851 Agassiz was invited to a professorship at the
+Medical College in Charleston, S.C. This was especially acceptable
+to him, because it substituted a regular course of instruction to
+students, for the disconnected lectures given to miscellaneous
+audiences, in various parts of the country, by which he was obliged
+to eke out his small salary and provide for his scientific
+expenses. While more fatiguing than class-room work, these
+scattered lectures had a less educational value, though, on the
+other hand, they awakened a very wide-spread interest in the study
+of nature. The strain of constant traveling for this purpose, the
+more harassing because so unfavorable to his habits of continuous
+work, had already told severely upon his health; and from this
+point of view also the new professorship was attractive, as
+promising a more quiet, though no less occupied, life. The lectures
+were to be given during the three winter months, thus occupying the
+interval between his autumn and spring courses at Cambridge.
+
+He assumed his new duties at Charleston in December, 1851, and by
+the kindness of his friend Mrs. Rutledge, who offered him the use
+of her cottage for the purpose, he soon established a laboratory on
+Sullivan's Island, where the two or three assistants he had brought
+with him could work conveniently. The cottage stood within hearing
+of the wash of the waves, at the head of the long, hard sand beach
+which fringed the island shore for some three or four miles. There
+could hardly be a more favorable position for a naturalist, and
+there, in the midst of their specimens, Agassiz and his band of
+workers might constantly be found. His studies here were of the
+greater interest to him because they connected themselves with his
+previous researches, not only upon the fishes, but also upon the
+lower marine animals of the coast of New England and of the Florida
+reefs; so that he had now a basis for comparison of the fauna
+scattered along the whole Atlantic coast of the United States. The
+following letter gives some idea of his work at this time.
+
+TO PROFESSOR JAMES D. DANA.
+
+CHARLESTON, January 26, 1852.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,
+
+You should at least know that I think of you often on these shores.
+And how could I do otherwise when I daily find new small crustacea,
+which remind me of the important work you are now preparing on that
+subject.
+
+Of course, of the larger ones there is nothing to be found after
+Professor Gibbes has gone over the ground, but among the lower
+orders there are a great many in store for a microscopic observer.
+I have only to regret that I cannot apply myself more steadily. I
+find my nervous system so over-excited that any continuous exertion
+makes me feverish. So I go about as much as the weather allows, and
+gather materials for better times.
+
+Several interesting medusae have been already observed; among
+others, the entire metamorphosis and alternate generation of a new
+species of my genus tiaropsis. You will be pleased to know that
+here, as well as at the North, tiaropsis is the medusa of a
+campanularia. Mr. Clark, one of my assistants, has made very good
+drawings of all its stages of growth, and of various other hydroid
+medusae peculiar to this coast. Mr. Stimpson, another very
+promising young naturalist, who has been connected with me for some
+time in the same capacity, draws the crustacea and bryozoa, of
+which there are also a good many new ones here. My son and my old
+friend Burkhardt are also with me (upon Sullivan's Island), and
+they look after the larger species, so that I shall probably have
+greatly increased my information upon the fauna of the Atlantic
+coast by the time I return to Cambridge.
+
+In town, where I go three times a week to deliver lectures at the
+Medical College (beside a course just now in the evening also
+before a mixed audience), I have the rest of my family, so that
+nothing would be wanting to my happiness if my health were only
+better. . .What a pity that a man cannot work as much as he would
+like; or at least accomplish what he aims at. But no doubt it is
+best it should be so; there is no harm in being compelled by
+natural necessities to limit our ambition,--on the contrary, the
+better sides of our nature are thus not allowed to go to sleep.
+However, I cannot but regret that I am unable at this time to trace
+more extensively subjects for which I should have ample
+opportunities here, as for instance the anatomy of the echinoderms,
+and also the embryology of the lower animals in general. . .
+
+This winter, notwithstanding the limitations imposed upon his work
+by the state of his health, was a very happy one to Agassiz. As
+mentioned in the above letter his wife and daughters had
+accompanied him to Charleston, and were established there in
+lodgings. Their holidays and occasional vacations were passed at
+the house of Dr. John E. Holbrook (the "Hollow Tree"), an
+exquisitely pretty and picturesque country place in the
+neighborhood of Charleston. Here Agassiz had been received almost
+as one of the family on his first visit to Charleston, shortly
+after his arrival in the United States. Dr. Holbrook's name, as the
+author of the "Herpetology of South Carolina," had long been
+familiar to him, and he now found a congenial and affectionate
+friend in the colleague and fellow-worker, whose personal
+acquaintance he had been anxious to make. Dr. Holbrook's wife, a
+direct descendant of John Rutledge of our revolutionary history,
+not only shared her husband's intellectual life, but had herself
+rare mental qualities, which had been developed by an unusually
+complete and efficient education. The wide and various range of her
+reading, the accuracy of her knowledge in matters of history and
+literature, and the charm of her conversation, made her a
+delightful companion. She exercised the most beneficent influence
+upon her large circle of young people, and without any effort to
+attract, she drew to herself whatever was most bright and clever in
+the society about her. The "Hollow Tree," presided over by its
+hospitable host and hostess was, therefore, the centre of a
+stimulating and cultivated social intercourse, free from all gene
+or formality. Here Agassiz and his family spent many happy days
+during their southern sojourn of 1852. The woods were yellow with
+jessamine, and the low, deep piazza was shut in by vines and roses;
+the open windows and the soft air full of sweet, out-of-door
+fragrance made one forget, spite of the wood fire on the hearth,
+that it was winter by the calendar. The days, passed almost wholly
+in the woods or on the veranda, closed with evenings spent not
+infrequently in discussions upon the scientific ideas and theories
+of the day, carried often beyond the region of demonstrated facts
+into that of speculative thought. An ever-recurring topic was that
+of the origin of the human race. It was Agassiz's declared belief
+that man had sprung not from a common stock, but from various
+centres, and that the original circumscription of these primordial
+groups of the human family corresponded in a large and general way
+with the distribution of animals and their combination into faunae.
+* (* See "Sketch of the Natural Provinces of the Animal World and
+their Relation to the Different Types of Man" included in Nott &
+Gliddon's "Types of Mankind".) His special zoological studies were
+too engrossing to allow him to follow this line of investigation
+closely, but it was never absent from his view of the animal
+kingdom as a whole. He valued extremely Mrs. Holbrook's thoughtful
+sympathy, and as the following letter connects itself with the
+winter evening talks by the "Hollow Tree" fireside, and was
+suggested by them, it may be given here, though in date it is a
+little in advance of the present chapter.
+
+TO MRS. HOLBROOK.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, July, 1852.
+
+. . .I am again working at the human races, and have opened another
+line of investigation in that direction. The method followed by
+former investigators does not seem to me to have been altogether
+the best, since there is so little agreement between them. The
+difficulty has, no doubt, arisen on one side from the circumstance
+that the inquirer sought for evidence of the unity of all races,
+expecting the result to agree with the prevailing interpretation of
+Genesis; and on the other from too zoological a point of view in
+weighing the differences observed. Again, both have almost set
+aside all evidence not directly derived from the examination of the
+races themselves. It has occurred to me that as a preliminary
+inquiry we ought to consider the propriety of applying to man the
+same rules as to animals, examining the limits within which they
+obtain, and paying due attention to all circumstances bearing upon
+the differences observed among men, from whatever quarter in the
+study of nature they may be gathered. What do the monkeys say to
+this? or, rather, what have they to tell in reference to it? There
+are among them as great, and, indeed, even greater, differences
+than among men, for they are acknowledged to constitute different
+genera, and are referred to many, indeed to more than a hundred,
+species; but they are the nearest approach to the human family, and
+we may at least derive some hints from them. How much mixture there
+is among these species, if any, is not at all ascertained; indeed,
+we have not the least information respecting their intercourse; but
+one point is certain,--zoologists agree as little among themselves
+respecting the limits of these species as they do respecting the
+affinities of the races of men. What some consider as distinct
+species, others consider as mere varieties, and these varieties or
+species differ in particulars neither more constant nor more
+important than those which distinguish the human races. The fact
+that they are arranged in different genera, species, and varieties
+does not lessen the value of the comparison; for the point in
+question is just to know whether nations, races, and what have also
+been called families of men, such as the Indo-Germanic, the
+Semitic, etc., do not in reality correspond to the families,
+genera, and species of monkeys. Now the first great subdivisions
+among the true monkeys (excluding Makis and Arctopitheci) are
+founded upon the form of the nose, those of the new world having a
+broad partition between the nostrils, while those of the old world
+have it narrow. How curious that this fact, which has been known to
+naturalists for half a century, as presenting a leading feature
+among monkeys, should have been overlooked in man, when, in
+reality, the negroes and Australians differ in precisely the same
+manner from the other races; they having a broad partition, and
+nostrils opening sideways, like the monkeys of South America, while
+the other types of the human family have a narrow partition and
+nostrils opening downward, like the monkeys of Asia and Africa.
+Again, the minor differences, such as the obliquity of the anterior
+teeth, the thickness of the lips, the projection of the
+cheek-bones, the position of the eyes, the characteristic hair, or
+wool, afford as constant differences as those by which the
+chimpanzees, orangs, and gibbons are separated into distinct
+genera; and their respective species differ no more than do the
+Greeks, Germans, and Arabs,--or the Chinese, Tartars, and Finns,
+--or the New Zealanders and Malays, which are respectively referred
+to the same race. The truth is, that the different SPECIES admitted
+by some among the orangs are in reality RACES among monkeys, or
+else the races among men are nothing more than what are called
+species among certain monkeys. . .Listen for a moment to the
+following facts, and when you read this place a map of the world
+before you. Upon a narrow strip of land along the Gulf of Guinea,
+from Cape Palmas to the Gaboon, live two so-called species of
+chimpanzee; upon the islands of Sumatra and Borneo live three or
+four orangs; upon the shores of the Gulf of Bengal, including the
+neighborhood of Calcutta, Burmah, Malacca, Sumatra, Borneo, and
+Java together, ten or eleven species of gibbons, all of which are
+the nearest relatives to the human family, some being as large as
+certain races of men; altogether, fifteen species of anthropoid
+monkeys playing their part in the animal population of the world
+upon an area not equaling by any means the surface of Europe. Some
+of these species are limited to Borneo, others to Sumatra, others
+to Java alone, others to the peninsula of Malacca; that is to say
+to tracts of land similar in extent to Spain, France, Italy, and
+even to Ireland; distinct animals, considered by most naturalists
+as distinct species, approaching man most closely in structural
+eminence and size, limited to areas not larger than Spain or Italy.
+Why, then, should not the primitive theatre of a nation of men have
+been circumscribed within similar boundaries, and from the
+beginning have been as independent as the chimpanzee of Guinea, or
+the orangs of Borneo and Sumatra? Of course, the superior powers of
+man have enabled him to undertake migrations, but how limited are
+these, and how slight the traces they have left behind them. . .
+Unfortunately for natural history, history so-called has recorded
+more faithfully the doings of handfuls of adventurers than the real
+history of the primitive nations with whom the migrating tribes
+came into contact. But I hope it will yet be possible to dive under
+these waves of migration, to remove, as it were, the trace of their
+passage, and to read the true history of the past inhabitants of
+the different parts of the world, when it will be found, if all
+analogies are not deceptive, that every country equaling in extent
+those within the limits of which distinct nationalities are known
+to have played their part in history, has had its distinct
+aborigines, the character of which it is now the duty of
+naturalists to restore, if it be not too late, in the same manner
+as paleontologists restore fossil remains. I have already made some
+attempts, by studying ancient geography, and I hope the task may
+yet be accomplished. . .Look, for instance, at Spain. The Iberians
+are known as the first inhabitants, never extending much beyond the
+Pyrenees to the Garonne, and along the gulfs of Lyons and Genoa. As
+early as during the period of Phoenician prosperity they raised
+wool from their native sheep, derived from the Mouflon, still found
+wild in Spain, Corsica, and Sardinia; they had a peculiar breed of
+horses, to this day differing from all other horses in the world.
+Is this not better evidence of their independent origin, than is
+the fancied lineage with the Indo-Germanic family of their Oriental
+descent? For we must not forget, in connection with this, that the
+Basque language was once the language of all Spain, that which the
+Iberian spoke, and which has no direct relation to Sanskrit.
+
+I have alluded but slightly to the negro race, and not at all to
+the Indians. I would only add with reference to these that I begin
+to perceive the possibility of distinguishing different centres of
+growth in these two continents. If we leave out of consideration
+fancied migrations, what connection can be traced, for instance,
+between the Eskimos, along the whole northern districts of this
+continent, and the Indians of the United States, those of Mexico,
+those of Peru, and those of Brazil? Is there any real connection
+between the coast tribes of the northwest coast, the mound
+builders, the Aztec civilization, the Inca, and the Gueranis? It
+seems to me no more than between the Assyrian and Egyptian
+civilization. And as to negroes, there is, perhaps, a still greater
+difference between those of Senegal, of Guinea, and the Caffres and
+Hottentots, when compared with the Gallahs and Mandingoes. But
+where is the time to be taken for the necessary investigations
+involved in these inquiries? Pray write to me soon what you say to
+all this, and believe me always your true friend,
+
+L. AGASSIZ.
+
+In the spring of 1852, while still in Charleston, Agassiz heard
+that the Prix Cuvier, now given for the first time, was awarded to
+him for the "Poissons Fossiles." This gratified him the more
+because the work had been so directly bequeathed to him by Cuvier
+himself. To his mother, through whom he received the news in
+advance of the official papers, it also gave great pleasure. "Your
+fossil fishes," she says, "which have cost you so much anxiety, so
+much toil, so many sacrifices, have now been estimated at their
+true value by the most eminent judges. . .This has given me such
+happiness, dear Louis, that the tears are in my eyes as I write it
+to you." She had followed the difficulties of his task too closely
+not to share also its success.
+
+CHAPTER 17.
+
+1852-1855: AGE 45-48.
+
+Return to Cambridge.
+Anxiety about Collections.
+Purchase of Collections.
+Second Winter in Charleston.
+Illness.
+Letter to James D. Dana concerning Geographical Distribution
+   and Geological Succession of Animals.
+Resignation of Charleston Professorship.
+Propositions from Zurich.
+Letter to Oswald Heer.
+Decision to remain in Cambridge.
+Letters to James D. Dana, S.S. Haldeman, and Others respecting
+   Collections illustrative of the Distribution of Fishes, Shells,
+   etc., in our Rivers.
+Establishment of School for Girls.
+
+Agassiz returned from Charleston to Cambridge in the early spring,
+pausing in Washington to deliver a course of lectures before the
+Smithsonian Institution. By this time he had become intimate with
+Professor Henry, at whose hospitable house he and his family were
+staying during their visit at Washington. He had the warmest
+sympathy not only with Professor Henry's scientific work and
+character, but also with his views regarding the Smithsonian
+Institution, of which he had become the Superintendent shortly
+after Agassiz arrived in this country. Agassiz himself was soon
+appointed one of the Regents of the Institution and remained upon
+the Board until his death.
+
+Agassiz now began to feel an increased anxiety about his
+collections. During the six years of his stay in the United States
+he had explored the whole Atlantic sea-board as well as the lake
+and river system of the Eastern and Middle States, and had amassed
+such materials in natural history as already gave his collections,
+in certain departments at least, a marked importance. In the lower
+animals, and as illustrating the embryology of the marine
+invertebrates, they were especially valuable. It had long been a
+favorite idea with him to build up an embryological department in
+his prospective museum; the more so because such a provision on any
+large scale had never been included in the plan of the great
+zoological institutions, and he believed it would have a direct and
+powerful influence on the progress of modern science. The
+collections now in his possession included ample means for this
+kind of research, beside a fair representation of almost all
+classes of the animal kingdom. Packed together, however, in the
+narrowest quarters, they were hardly within his own reach, much
+less could they be made available for others. His own resources
+were strained to the utmost, merely to save these precious
+materials from destruction. It is true that in 1850 the sum of four
+hundred dollars, to be renewed annually, was allowed him by the
+University for their preservation, and a barrack-like wooden
+building on the college grounds, far preferable to the bath-house
+by the river, was provided for their storage. But the cost of
+keeping them was counted by thousands, not by hundreds, and the
+greater part of what Agassiz could make by his lectures outside of
+Cambridge was swallowed up in this way. It was, perhaps, the
+knowledge of this which induced certain friends, interested in him
+and in science, to subscribe twelve thousand dollars for the
+purchase of his collections, to be thus permanently secured to
+Cambridge. This gave him back, in part, the sum he had already
+spent upon them, and which he was more than ready to spend again in
+their maintenance and increase.
+
+The next year showed that his over-burdened life was beginning to
+tell upon his health. Scarcely had he arrived in Charleston and
+begun his course at the Medical College when he was attacked by a
+violent fever, and his life was in danger for many days.
+Fortunately for him his illness occurred at the "Hollow Tree,"
+where he was passing the Christmas holidays. Dr. and Mrs. Holbrook
+were like a brother and sister to him, and nothing could exceed the
+kindness he received under their roof. One young friend who had
+been his pupil, and to whom he was much attached, Dr. St. Julian
+Ravenel, was constantly at his bedside. His care was invaluable,
+for he combined the qualities of physician and nurse. Under such
+watchful tending, Agassiz could hardly fail to mend if cure were
+humanly possible. The solicitude of these nearer friends seemed to
+be shared by the whole community, and his recovery gave general
+relief. He was able to resume his lectures toward the end of
+February. Spite of the languor of convalescence his elastic mind
+was at once ready for work, as may be seen by the following extract
+from one of his first letters.
+
+TO JAMES D. DANA.
+
+SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, CHARLESTON, February 16, 1853.
+
+. . .It seems, indeed, to me as if in the study of the geographical
+distribution of animals the present condition of the animal kingdom
+was too exclusively taken into consideration. Whenever it can be
+done, and I hope before long it may be done for all classes, it
+will be desirable to take into account the relations of the living
+to the fossil species. Since you are as fully satisfied as I am
+that the location of animals, with all their peculiarities, is not
+the result of physical influences, but lies within the plans and
+intentions of the Creator, it must be obvious that the successive
+introduction of all the diversity of forms which have existed from
+the first appearance of any given division of the animal kingdom up
+to the present creation, must have reference to the location of
+those now in existence. For instance, if it be true among mammalia
+that the highest types, such as quadrumana, are essentially
+tropical, may it not be that the prevailing distribution of the
+inferior pachyderms within the same geographical limits is owing to
+the circumstance that their type was introduced upon earth during a
+warmer period in the history of our globe, and that their present
+location is in accordance with that fact, rather than related to
+their degree of organization? The pentacrinites, the lowest of the
+echinoderms, have only one living representative in tropical
+America, where we find at the same time the highest and largest
+spatangi and holothuridae. Is this not quite a parallel case with
+the monkeys and pachyderms? for once crinoids were the only
+representatives of the class of echinoderms. May we not say the
+same of crocodiles when compared with the ancient gigantic
+saurians? or are the crocodiles, as an order, distinct from the
+other saurians, and really higher than the turtles? Innumerable
+questions of this kind, of great importance for zoology, are
+suggested at every step, as soon as we compare the present
+distribution of animals with that of the inhabitants of former
+geological periods. Among crustacea, it is very remarkable that
+trilobites and limulus-like forms are the only representatives of
+the class during the paleozoic ages; that macrourans prevailed in
+the same manner during the secondary period; and that brachyurans
+make their appearance only in the tertiary period. Do you discover
+in your results any connection between such facts and the present
+distribution of crustacea? There is certainly one feature in their
+classification which must appear very striking,--that, taken on a
+large scale, the organic rank of these animals agrees in the main
+with their order of succession in geological times; and this fact
+is of no small importance when it is found that the same
+correspondence between rank and succession obtains through all
+classes of the animal kingdom, and that similar features are
+displayed in the embryonic growth of all types so far as now known.
+
+But I feel my head is growing dull, and I will stop here. Let me
+conclude by congratulating you on having completed your great work
+on crustacea. . .
+
+Agassiz returned to the North in the spring of 1853 by way of the
+Mississippi, stopping to lecture at Mobile, New Orleans, and St.
+Louis. On leaving Charleston he proffered his resignation with deep
+regret, for, beside the close personal ties he had formed, he was
+attached to the place, the people, and to his work there. He had
+hoped to establish a permanent station for sustained observations
+in South Carolina, and thus to carry on a series of researches
+which, taken in connection with his studies on the New England
+coast and its vicinity, and on the Florida reefs and shores, would
+afford a wide field of comparison. This was not to be, however. The
+Medical College refused, indeed, to accept his resignation,
+granting him, at the same time, a year of absence. But it soon
+became evident that his health was seriously shaken, and that he
+needed the tonic of the northern winter. He was, indeed, never
+afterward as strong as he had been before this illness.
+
+The winter of 1854 was passed in Cambridge with such quiet and rest
+as the conditions of his life would allow. In May of that year he
+received an invitation to the recently established University of
+Zurich, in Switzerland. His acceptance was urged upon the ground of
+patriotism as well as on that of a liberal endowment both for the
+professor, and for the museum of which he was to have charge. The
+offer was tempting, but Agassiz was in love (the word is not too
+strong) with the work he had undertaken and the hopes he had formed
+in America. He believed that by his own efforts, combined with the
+enthusiasm for science which he had aroused and constantly strove
+to keep alive and foster in the community, he should at last
+succeed in founding a museum after his own heart in the United
+States,--a museum which should not be a mere accumulation, however
+vast or extensive, of objects of natural history, but should have a
+well-combined and clearly expressed educational value. As we shall
+see, neither the associations of his early life nor the most
+tempting scientific prizes in the gift of the old world could
+divert him from this settled purpose. The proposition from Zurich
+was not official, but came through a friend and colleague, for whom
+he had the deepest sympathy and admiration,--Oswald Heer. To work
+in his immediate neighborhood would have been in itself a
+temptation.
+
+TO PROFESSOR OSWALD HEER.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, January 9, 1855.
+
+MY HONORED FRIEND,
+
+How shall I make you understand why your kind letter, though it
+reached me some months ago, has remained till now unanswered. It
+concerns a decision of vital importance to my whole life, and in
+such a case one must not decide hastily, nor even with too
+exclusive regard for one's own preference in the matter. You cannot
+doubt that the thought of joining an institution of my native
+country, and thus helping to stimulate scientific progress in the
+land of my birth, my home, and my early friends, appeals to all I
+hold dear and honorable in life. On the other side I have now been
+eight years in America, have learned to understand the advantages
+of my position here, and have begun undertakings which are not yet
+brought to a conclusion. I am aware also how wide an influence I
+already exert upon this land of the future,--an influence which
+gains in extent and intensity with every year,--so that it becomes
+very difficult for me to discern clearly where I can be most useful
+to science. Among my privileges I must not overlook that of passing
+much of my time on the immediate sea-shore, where the resources for
+the zoologist and embryologist are inexhaustible. I have now a
+house distant only a few steps from an admirable locality for these
+studies, and can therefore pursue them uninterruptedly throughout
+the whole year, instead of being limited, like most naturalists, to
+the short summer vacations. It is true I miss the larger museums,
+libraries, etc., as well as the stimulus to be derived from
+association with a number of like-minded co-workers, all striving
+toward the same end. With every year, however, the number of able
+and influential investigators increases here, and among them are
+some who might justly claim a prominent place anywhere. . .
+
+Neither are means for publication lacking. The larger treatises
+with costly illustrations appear in the Smithsonian Contributions,
+in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, in those
+of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and in the Memoirs of the
+American Academy; while the smaller communications find a place in
+Silliman's Journal, in the Journal of the Boston Natural History
+Society, and in the proceedings of other scientific societies.
+Museums also are already founded;. . .and beside these there are a
+number of private collections in single departments of zoology. . .
+Better than all this, however, is the lively and general interest
+taken in the exploration of the country itself. Every scientific
+expedition sent out by the government to the interior, or to the
+Western States of Oregon and California, is accompanied by a
+scientific commission,--zoologists, geologists, and botanists. By
+this means magnificent collections, awaiting only able
+investigators to work them up, have been brought together. Indeed,
+I do not believe that as many new things are accumulated anywhere
+as just here, and it is my hope to contribute hereafter to the more
+critical and careful examination of these treasures. Under these
+circumstances I have asked myself for months past how I ought to
+decide; not what were my inclinations, for that is not the
+question,--but what was my duty toward science? After the most
+careful consideration I am no longer in doubt, and though it
+grieves me to do so, I write to beg that you will withdraw from any
+action which might bring me a direct call to the professorship in
+Zurich. I have decided to remain here for an indefinite time, under
+the conviction that I shall exert a more advantageous and more
+extensive influence on the progress of science in this country than
+in Europe.
+
+I regret that I cannot accept your offer of the Oeningen fossils.
+In the last two years I have spent more than 20,000 francs on my
+collection, and must not incur any farther expense of that kind at
+present. As soon, however, as I have new means at my command such a
+collection would be most welcome, and should it remain in your
+hands I may be very glad to take it. Neither can I make any
+exchange of duplicates just now, as I have not yet been able to
+sort my collections and set aside the specimens which may be
+considered only as materials for exchange. Can you procure for me
+Glarus fishes in any considerable number? I should like to purchase
+them for my collection, and do not care for single specimens of
+every species, but would prefer whole suites that I may revise my
+former identifications in the light of a larger insight.
+
+Remember me kindly to all my Zurich friends, and especially to
+Arnold Escher. . .
+
+Agassiz's increasing and at last wholly unmanageable correspondence
+attests the general sympathy for and cooperation with his
+scientific aims in the United States. In 1853, for instance, he had
+issued a circular, asking for collections of fishes from various
+fresh-water systems of the United States, in order that he might
+obtain certain data respecting the laws of their distribution and
+localization. To this he had hundreds of answers coming from all
+parts of the country, many of them very shrewd and observing,
+giving facts respecting the habits of fishes, as well as concerning
+their habitat, and offering aid in the general object. Nor were
+these empty promises. A great number and variety of collections,
+now making part of the ichthyological treasures of the Museum at
+Cambridge, were forwarded to him in answer to this appeal. Indeed,
+he now began to reap, in a new form, the harvest of his wandering
+lecture tours. In this part of his American experience he had come
+into contact with all classes of people, and had found some of his
+most intelligent and sympathetic listeners in the working class.
+Now that he needed their assistance he often found his co-laborers
+among farmers, stock-raisers, sea-faring men, fishermen, and
+sailors. Many a New England captain, when he started on a cruise,
+had on board collecting cans, furnished by Agassiz, to be filled in
+distant ports or nearer home, as the case might be, and returned to
+the Museum at Cambridge. One or two letters, written to scientific
+friends at the time the above-mentioned circular was issued, will
+give an idea of the way in which Agassiz laid out such
+investigations.
+
+TO JAMES D. DANA.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, July 8, 1853.
+
+. . .I have been lately devising some method of learning how far
+animals are truly autochthones, and how far they have extended
+their primitive boundaries. I will attempt to test that question
+with Long Island, the largest of all the islands along our coast.
+For this purpose I will for the present limit myself to the
+fresh-water fishes and shells, and for the sake of comparison I
+will try to collect carefully all the species living in the rivers
+of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, and see whether they are
+identical with those of the island. Whatever may come out of such
+an investigation it will, at all events, furnish interesting data
+upon the local distribution of the species. . .I am almost
+confident that it will lead to something interesting, for there is
+one feature of importance in the case; the present surface of Long
+Island is not older than the drift period; all its inhabitants
+must, therefore, have been introduced since that time. I shall see
+that I obtain similar collections from the upper course of the
+Connecticut, so as to ascertain whether there, as in the
+Mississippi, the species differ at different heights of the river
+basin. . .
+
+TO PROFESSOR S.S. HALDEMAN, COLUMBIA, PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, July 9, 1853.
+
+. . .While ascending the great Mississippi last spring I was struck
+with the remarkable fact that the fishes differ essentially in the
+different parts of that long water-course,--a fact I had already
+noticed in the Rhine, Rhone, and Danube, though there the
+difference arises chiefly from the occurrence, in the higher Alpine
+regions, of representatives of the trout family which are not found
+in the main river course. In the Mississippi, however, the case is
+otherwise and very striking, inasmuch as we find here, at separate
+latitudes, distinct species of the same genera, somewhat like the
+differences observed in distinct water-basins; and yet the river is
+ever flowing on past these animals, which remain, as it were,
+spell-bound to the regions most genial to them. The question at
+once arises, do our smaller rivers present similar differences? I
+have already taken steps to obtain complete collections of fishes,
+shells, and crayfishes from various stations on the Connecticut and
+the Hudson, and their tributaries; and I should be very happy if I
+could include the Susquehanna, Delaware, and Ohio in my
+comparisons. My object in writing now is to inquire whether you
+could assist me in making separate collections, as complete as
+possible, of all these animals from the north and west branches of
+the Susquehanna, from the main river either at Harrisburg or
+Columbia, and from the Juniata, also from the Schuylkill, Lehigh,
+and Delaware, and from the Allegheny and Monongahela. I have Swiss
+friends in the State of New York who have promised me to collect
+the fishes from the head-waters of the Delaware and Susquehanna
+within the limits of the State of New York. I cannot, of course,
+expect you to survey your State for me, but among your acquaintance
+in various parts of your State are there not those who, with proper
+directions, could do the work for me? I would, of course, gladly
+repay all their expenses. The subject seems to me so important as
+to justify any effort in that direction. Little may be added to the
+knowledge of the fishes themselves, for I suppose most of the
+species have been described either by De Kay, Kirtland, or Storer;
+but a careful study of their special geographical distribution may
+furnish results as important to zoology as the knowledge of the
+species themselves. If you cannot write yourself, will you give me
+the names of such persons as might be persuaded to aid in the
+matter. I know from your own observations in former times that you
+have already collected similar facts for the Unios, so that you
+will at once understand and appreciate my object. . .
+
+He writes in the same strain and for the same object to Professor
+Yandell, of Kentucky, adding: "In this respect the State of
+Kentucky is one of the most important of the Union, not only on
+account of the many rivers which pass through its territory, but
+also because it is one of the few States the fishes of which have
+been described by former observers, especially by Rafinesque in his
+"Ichthyologia Ohioensis," so that a special knowledge of all his
+original types is a matter of primary importance for any one who
+would compare the fishes of the different rivers of the West. . .Do
+you know whether there is anything left of Rafinesque's collection
+of fishes in Lexington, and if so, whether the specimens are
+labeled, as it would be very important to identify his species from
+his own collection and his own labels? I never regretted more than
+now that circumstances have not yet allowed me to visit your State
+and make a stay in Louisville."
+
+In 1854 Agassiz moved to a larger house, built for him by the
+college. Though very simple, it was on a liberal scale with respect
+to space; partly in order to accommodate his library, consisting of
+several thousand volumes, now for the first time collected and
+arranged in one room. He became very fond of this Cambridge home,
+where, with few absences, he spent the remainder of his life. The
+architect, Mr. Henry Greenough, was his personal friend, and from
+the beginning the house adapted itself with a kindly readiness to
+whatever plans developed under its roof. As will be seen, these
+were not few, and were sometimes of considerable moment. For his
+work also the house was extremely convenient. His habits in this
+respect were, however, singularly independent of place and
+circumstance. Unlike most studious men, he had no fixed spot in the
+house for writing. Although the library, with the usual outfit of
+well-filled shelves, maps, large tables, etc., held his materials,
+he brought what he needed for the evening by preference to the
+drawing-room, and there, with his paper on his knee, and his books
+for reference on a chair beside him, he wrote and read as busily as
+if he were quite alone. Sometimes when dancing and music were going
+on among the young people of the family and their guests, he drew a
+little table into the corner of the room, and continued his
+occupations as undisturbed and engrossed as if he had been in
+complete solitude,--only looking up from time to time with a
+pleased smile or an apt remark, which showed that he did not lose
+but rather enjoyed what was going on about him.
+
+His children's friends were his friends. As his daughters grew up,
+he had the habit of inviting their more intimate companions to his
+library for an afternoon weekly. On these occasions there was
+always some subject connected with the study of nature under
+discussion, but the talk was so easy and so fully illustrated that
+it did not seem like a lesson. It is pleasant to remember that in
+later years Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson revived this custom for his own
+daughters; and their friends (being, indeed, with few changes, the
+same set of young people as had formerly met in Agassiz's library)
+used to meet in Mr. Emerson's study at Concord for a similar
+object. He talked to them of poetry and literature and philosophy
+as Agassiz had talked to them of nature. Those were golden days,
+not to be forgotten by any who shared their happy privilege.
+
+In the winter of 1855 Agassiz endeavored to resume his public
+lectures as a means of increasing his resources. He was again,
+however, much exhausted when spring came, and it seemed necessary
+to seek some other means of support, for without considering
+scientific expenses, his salary of fifteen hundred dollars did not
+suffice for the maintenance of his family. Under these
+circumstances it occurred to his wife and his two older children,
+now of an age to assist her in such a scheme, that a school for
+young ladies might be established in the upper part of the new and
+larger house. By the removal of one or two partitions, ample room
+could be obtained for the accommodation of a sufficient number of
+pupils, and if successful such a school would perhaps make good in
+a pecuniary sense the lecturing tours which were not only a great
+fatigue to Agassiz, but an interruption also to all consecutive
+scientific work. In consultation with friends these plans were
+partly matured before they were confided to Agassiz himself. When
+the domestic conspirators revealed their plot, his surprise and
+pleasure knew no bounds. The first idea had been simply to
+establish a private school on the usual plan, only referring to his
+greater experience for advice and direction in its general
+organization. But he claimed at once an active share in the work.
+Under his inspiring influence the outline enlarged, and when the
+circular announcing the school was issued, it appeared under his
+name, and contained these words in addition to the programme of
+studies: "I shall myself superintend the methods of instruction and
+tuition, and while maintaining that regularity and precision in the
+studies so important to mental training shall endeavor to prevent
+the necessary discipline from falling into a lifeless routine,
+alike deadening to the spirit of teacher and pupil. It is farther
+my intention to take the immediate charge of the instruction in
+Physical Geography, Natural History, and Botany, giving a lecture
+daily, Saturdays excepted, on one or other of these subjects,
+illustrated by specimens, models, maps, and drawings."
+
+In order not to interrupt the course of the narrative, the history
+of this undertaking in its sequence and general bearing on his life
+and work may be completed here in a few words. This school secured
+to him many happy and comparatively tranquil years. It enabled him
+to meet both domestic and scientific expenses, and to pay the heavy
+debt he had brought from Europe as the penalty of his "Fossil
+Fishes" and his investigations on the glaciers. When the school
+closed after eight years he was again a free man. With an increased
+salary from the college, and with such provision for the Museum
+(thanks to the generosity of the State and of individuals) as
+rendered it in a great degree independent, he was never again
+involved in the pecuniary anxieties of his earlier career. The
+occupation of teaching was so congenial to him that his part in the
+instruction of the school did not at any time weigh heavily upon
+him. He never had an audience more responsive and more eager to
+learn than the sixty or seventy girls who gathered every day at the
+close of the morning to hear his daily lecture; nor did he ever
+give to any audience lectures more carefully prepared, more
+comprehensive in their range of subjects, more lofty in their tone
+of thought. As a teacher he always discriminated between the
+special student, and the one to whom he cared to impart only such a
+knowledge of the facts of nature, as would make the world at least
+partially intelligible to him. To a school of young girls he did
+not think of teaching technical science, and yet the subjects of
+his lectures comprised very abstruse and comprehensive questions.
+It was the simplicity and clearness of his method which made them
+so interesting to his young listeners. "What I wish for you," he
+would say, "is a culture that is alive, active, susceptible of
+farther development. Do not think that I care to teach you this or
+the other special science. My instruction is only intended to show
+you the thoughts in nature which science reveals, and the facts I
+give you are useful only, or chiefly, for this object."
+
+Running over the titles of his courses during several consecutive
+years of this school instruction they read: Physical Geography and
+Paleontology; Zoology; Botany; Coral Reefs; Glaciers; Structure and
+Formation of Mountains; Geographical Distribution of Animals;
+Geological Succession of Animals; Growth and Development of
+Animals; Philosophy of Nature, etc. With the help of drawings,
+maps, bas-reliefs, specimens, and countless illustrations on the
+blackboard, these subjects were made clear to the pupils, and the
+lecture hour was anticipated as the brightest of the whole morning.
+It soon became a habit with friends and neighbors, and especially
+with the mothers of the scholars, to drop in for the lectures, and
+thus the school audience was increased by a small circle of older
+listeners. The corps of teachers was also gradually enlarged. The
+neighborhood of the university was a great advantage in this
+respect, and Agassiz had the cooperation not only of his
+brother-in-law, Professor Felton, but of others among his
+colleagues, who took classes in special departments, or gave
+lectures in history and literature.
+
+This school opened in 1855 and closed in 1863. The civil war then
+engrossed all thoughts, and interfered somewhat also with the
+success of private undertakings. Partly on this account, partly
+also because it had ceased to be a pecuniary necessity, it seemed
+wise to give up the school at this time. The friendly relations
+formed there did not, however, cease with it. For years afterward
+on the last Thursday of June (the day of the annual closing of the
+school) a meeting of the old pupils was held at the Museum, which
+did not exist when the school began, but was fully established
+before its close. There Agassiz showed them the progress of his
+scientific work, told them of his future plans for the institution,
+and closed with a lecture such as he used to give them in their
+school-days. The last of these meetings took place in 1873, the
+last year of his own life. The memory of it is connected with a
+gift to the Museum of four thousand and fifty dollars from a number
+of the scholars, now no longer girls, but women with their own
+cares and responsibilities. Hearing that there was especial need of
+means for the care of the more recent collections, they had
+subscribed this sum among themselves to express their affection for
+their old teacher, as well as their interest in his work, and in
+the institution he had founded. His letter of acknowledgment to the
+one among them who had acted as their treasurer makes a fitting
+close to this chapter.
+
+. . .Hardly anything in my life has touched me more deeply than the
+gift I received this week from my school-girls. From no source in
+the world could sympathy be more genial to me. The money I shall
+appropriate to a long-cherished scheme of mine, a special work in
+the Museum which must be exclusively my own,--the arrangement of a
+special collection illustrating in a nutshell, as it were, all the
+relations existing among animals,--which I have deferred because
+other things were more pressing, and our means have been
+insufficient. The feeling that you are all working with me will be
+even more cheering than the material help, much needed as that is.
+I wish I could write to each individually. I shall try to find some
+means of expressing my thanks more widely. Meantime I write to you
+as treasurer, and beg you, as far as you can do so without too much
+trouble, to express my gratitude to others. Will you also say to
+those whom you chance to meet that I shall be at the Museum on the
+last Thursday of June, at half-past eleven o'clock. I shall be
+delighted to see all to whom it is convenient to come. The Museum
+has grown not only in magnitude, but in scientific significance,
+and I like from time to time to give you an account of its
+progress, and of my own work and aims. How much thought and care
+and effort this kind plan of yours must have involved, scattered as
+you all are! It cannot have been easy to collect the names and
+addresses of all those whose signatures it was delightful to me to
+see again. Words seem to me very poor, but you will accept for
+yourself and your school-mates the warm thanks and affectionate
+regards of your old friend and teacher.
+
+L.R. AGASSIZ.
+
+CHAPTER 18.
+
+1855-1860: AGE 48-53.
+
+"Contributions to Natural History of the United States."
+Remarkable Subscription.
+Review of the Work.
+Its Reception in Europe and America.
+Letters from Humboldt and Owen concerning it.
+Birthday.
+Longfellow's Verses.
+Laboratory at Nahant.
+Invitation to the Museum of Natural History in Paris.
+Founding of Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge.
+Summer Vacation in Europe.
+
+A few months earlier than the school circular Agassiz issued
+another prospectus, which had an even more important bearing upon
+his future work. This was the prospectus for his "Contributions to
+the Natural History of the United States." It was originally
+planned in ten volumes, every volume to be, however, absolutely
+independent, so that the completeness of each part should not be
+impaired by any possible interruption of the sequence. The mass of
+original material accumulated upon his hands ever since his arrival
+in America made such a publication almost imperative, but the
+costliness of a large illustrated work deterred him. The "Poissons
+Fossiles" had shown him the peril of entering upon such an
+enterprise without capital. Perhaps he would never have dared to
+undertake it but for a friendly suggestion which opened a way out
+of his perplexities. Mr. Francis C. Gray, of Boston, who felt not
+only the interest of a personal friend in the matter, but also that
+of one who was himself a lover of letters and science, proposed an
+appeal to the public spirit of the country in behalf of a work
+devoted entirely to the Natural History of the United States. Mr.
+Gray assumed the direction of the business details, set the
+subscription afloat, stimulated its success by his own liberal
+contributions, by letters, by private and public appeals. The
+result far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of those
+interested in its success. Indeed, considering the purely
+scientific character of the work, the number of subscribers for it
+was extraordinary, and showed again the hold Agassiz had taken upon
+the minds and affections of the people in general. The contributors
+were by no means confined to Boston and Cambridge, although the
+Massachusetts list was naturally the largest, nor were they found
+exclusively among literary and scientific circles. On the contrary,
+the subscription list, to the astonishment of the publishers, was
+increased daily by unsolicited names, sent in from all sections of
+the country, and from various grades of life and occupation. In
+reference to the character of this subscription Agassiz says in his
+Preface: "I must beg my European readers to remember that this work
+is written in America, and more especially for Americans; and that
+the community to which it is particularly addressed has very
+different wants from those of the reading public in Europe. There
+is not a class of learned men here distinct from the other
+cultivated members of the community. On the contrary, so general is
+the desire for knowledge, that I expect to see my book read by
+operatives, by fishermen, by farmers, quite as extensively as by
+the students in our colleges or by the learned professions, and it
+is but proper that I should endeavor to make myself understood by
+all." If Agassiz, perhaps, overestimated in this statement the
+appreciation of the reading public in the United States for pure
+scientific research, it was because the number and variety of his
+subscribers gave evidence of a cordiality toward his work which
+surprised as much as it gratified him. On the list there were also
+some of his old European subscribers to the "Poissons Fossiles,"
+among them the King of Prussia, who still continued, under the
+influence of Humboldt, to feel an interest in his work.
+
+FROM HUMBOLDT TO AGASSIZ.
+
+September 1, 1856.
+
+. . .I hear that by some untoward circumstances, no doubt
+accidental, you have never received, my dear Agassiz, the letter
+expressing the pleasure which I share with all true lovers of
+science respecting your important undertaking, "Contributions to
+the Natural History of the United States." You must have been
+astonished at my silence, remembering, not only the affectionate
+relations we have held to each other ever since your first sojourn
+at Paris, but also the admiration I have never ceased to feel for
+the great and solid works which we owe to your sagacious mind and
+your incomparable intellectual energy. . .I approve especially the
+general conceptions which lie at the base of the plan you have
+traced. I admire the long series of physiological investigations,
+beginning with the embryology of the so-called simple and lower
+organisms and ascending by degrees to the more complicated. I
+admire that ever-renewed comparison of the types belonging to our
+planet, in its present condition, with those now found only in a
+fossil state, so abundant in the immense space lying between the
+shores opposite to northern Europe and northern Asia. The
+geographical distribution of organic forms in curves of equal
+density of occupation represents in great degree the inflexions of
+the isothermal lines. . .I am charged by the king, who knows the
+value of your older works, and who still feels for you the
+affectionate regard which he formerly expressed in person, to
+request that you will place his name at the head of your long list
+of subscribers. He wishes that an excursion across the Atlantic
+valley may one day bring you, who have so courageously braved
+Alpine summits, to the historic hill of Sans Souci. . .
+
+Something of Agassiz's astonishment and pleasure at the
+encouragement given to his projected work is told in his letters.
+To his old friend Professor Valenciennes, in Paris, he writes: "I
+have just had an evidence of what one may do here in the interest
+of science. Some six months ago I formed a plan for the publication
+of my researches in America, and determined to carry it out with
+all possible care and beauty of finish. I estimated my materials at
+ten volumes, quarto, and having fixed the price at 60 francs (12
+dollars) a volume, thought I might, perhaps, dispose of five
+hundred. I brought out my prospectus, and I have to-day seventeen
+hundred subscribers. What do you say to that for a work which is to
+cost six hundred francs a copy, and of which nothing has as yet
+appeared? Nor is the list closed yet, for every day I receive new
+subscriptions,--this very morning one from California! Where will
+not the love of science find its niche!". . .
+
+In the same strain he says, at a little later date, to Sir Charles
+Lyell: "You will, no doubt, be pleased to learn that the first
+volume of my new work, 'Contributions to the Natural History of the
+United States,' which is to consist of ten volumes, quarto, is now
+printing, to come out this summer. I hope it will show that I have
+not been idle during ten years' silence. I am somewhat anxious
+about the reception of my first chapter, headed, 'Classification,'
+which contains anything but what zoologists would generally expect
+under that head. The subscription is marvelous. Conceive twenty-one
+hundred names before the appearance of the first pages of a work
+costing one hundred and twenty dollars! It places in my hands the
+means of doing henceforth for Natural History what I had never
+dreamed of before.". . .
+
+This work, as originally planned, was never completed. It was cut
+short by ill-health and by the pressure of engagements arising from
+the rapid development of the great Museum, which finally became, as
+will be seen, the absorbing interest of his life. As it stands, the
+"Contributions to the Natural History of the United States"
+consists of four large quarto volumes. The first two are divided
+into three parts, namely: 1st. An Essay on Classification. 2nd. The
+North American Testudinata. 3rd. The Embryology of the Turtle,--the
+latter two being illustrated by thirty-four plates. The third and
+fourth volumes are devoted to the Radiata, and consist of five
+parts, namely: 1st. Acalephs in general. 2nd. Ctenophorae. 3rd.
+Discophorae. 4th. Hydroida. 5th. Homologies of the Radiates,
+--illustrated by forty-six plates.* (* The plates are of rare
+accuracy and beauty, and were chiefly drawn by A. Sonrel, though
+many of the microscopic drawings were made by Professor H.J. Clark,
+who was at that time Agassiz's private assistant. For details
+respecting Professor Clark's share in this work, and also
+concerning the aid of various kinds furnished to the author during
+its preparation, the reader is referred to the Preface of the
+volumes themselves.)
+
+For originality of material, clearness of presentation, and beauty
+of illustration, these volumes have had their full recognition as
+models of scientific work. Their philosophy was, perhaps, too much
+out of harmony with the current theories of the day to be
+acceptable. In the "Essay on Classification" especially, Agassiz
+brought out with renewed earnestness his conviction that the animal
+world rests upon certain abstract conceptions, persistent and
+indestructible. He insists that while physical influences maintain,
+and within certain limits modify, organisms, they have never
+affected typical structure,--those characters, namely, upon which
+the great groups of the animal kingdom are united. From his point
+of view, therefore, what environment can do serves to emphasize
+what it cannot do. For the argument on which these conclusions are
+based we refer to the book itself. The discussion of this question
+occupies, however, only the first portion of the volume, two thirds
+of which are devoted to a general consideration of classification,
+and the ideas which it embodies, with a review of the modern
+systems of zoology.
+
+The following letter was one of many in the same tone received from
+his European correspondents concerning this work.
+
+FROM RICHARD OWEN.
+
+December 9, 1857.
+
+. . .I cannot permit a day to elapse without thanking you for the
+two volumes of your great work on American zoology, which, from
+your masterly and exhaustive style of treatment, becomes the most
+important contribution to the right progress of zoological science
+in all parts of the world where progress permits its cultivation.
+It is worthy of the author of the classical work on fossil fishes;
+and such works, like the Cyclopean structures of antiquity, are
+built to endure. I feel and I beg to express a fervent hope that
+you may be spared in health and vigor to see the completion of your
+great plan.
+
+I have placed in Mr. Trubner's hands a set of the numbers (6) of my
+"History of British Fossil Reptiles," which have already appeared;
+a seventh will soon be out, and as they will be sent to you in
+succession I hope you will permit me to make a small and inadequate
+return for your liberality in the gift of your work by adding your
+name to the list of my subscribers. . .
+
+Believe me always truly yours,
+
+RICHARD OWEN.
+
+Agassiz had promised himself that the first volume of his new work
+should be finished in time for his fiftieth birthday,--a milestone
+along the road, as it were, to mark his half century. Upon this
+self-appointed task he spent himself with the passion dominated by
+patience, which characterized him when his whole heart was bent
+toward an end. For weeks he wrote many hours of the day and a great
+part of the night, going out sometimes into the darkness and the
+open air to cool the fever of work, and then returning to his desk
+again. He felt himself that the excitement was too great, and in
+proportion to the strain was the relief when he set the seal of
+finis on his last page within the appointed time.
+
+His special students, young men who fully shared his scientific
+life and rewarded his generosity by an affectionate devotion,
+knowing, perhaps, that he himself associated the completion of his
+book with his birthday, celebrated both events by a serenade on the
+eve of his anniversary. They took into their confidence Mr. Otto
+Dresel, warmly valued by Agassiz both as friend and musician, and
+he arranged their midnight programme for them. Always sure of
+finding their professor awake and at work at that hour, they
+stationed the musicians before the house, and as the last stroke of
+twelve sounded, the succeeding stillness was broken by men's voices
+singing a Bach choral. When Agassiz stepped out to see whence came
+this pleasant salutation, he was met by his young friends bringing
+flowers and congratulations. Then followed one number after another
+of the well-ordered selection, into which was admitted here and
+there a German student song in memory of Agassiz's own university
+life at Heidelberg and Munich. It was late, or rather early, since
+the new day was already begun, before the little concert was over
+and the guests had dispersed. It is difficult to reproduce with
+anything like its original glow and coloring a scene of this kind.
+It will no more be called back than the hour or the moonlight night
+which had the warmth and softness of June. It is recorded here only
+because it illustrates the intimate personal sympathy between
+Agassiz and his students.
+
+For this occasion also were written the well-known birthday verses
+by Longfellow, which were read the next day at a dinner given to
+Agassiz by the "Saturday Club." In speaking of Longfellow's
+relation to this club, Holmes says "On one occasion he read a short
+poem at the table. It was in honor of Agassiz's birthday, and I
+cannot forget the very modest, delicate musical way in which he
+read his charming verses." Although included in many collections of
+Longfellow's Poems, they are reproduced here, because the story
+seems incomplete without them.
+
+THE FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY OF AGASSIZ.
+
+    It was fifty years ago,
+    In the pleasant month of May,
+    In the beautiful Pays de Vaud,
+    A child in its cradle lay.
+
+    And Nature, the old nurse, took
+    The child upon her knee,
+    Saying: "Here is a story-book
+    Thy Father has written for thee."
+
+    "Come wander with me," she said,
+    "Into regions yet untrod;
+    And read what is still unread
+    In the manuscripts of God."
+
+    And he wandered away and away
+    With Nature, the dear old nurse,
+    Who sang to him night and day
+    The rhymes of the universe.
+
+    And whenever the way seemed long,
+    Or his heart began to fail,
+    She would sing a more wonderful song,
+    Or tell a more marvelous tale.
+
+    So she keeps him still a child,
+    And will not let him go,
+    Though at times his heart beats wild
+    For the beautiful Pays de Vaud;
+
+    Though at times he hears in his dreams
+    The Ranz des Vaches of old,
+    And the rush of mountain streams
+    From glaciers clear and cold;
+
+    And the mother at home says, "Hark!
+    For his voice I listen and yearn;
+    It is growing late and dark,
+    And my boy does not return!"
+
+May 28, 1857.
+
+Longfellow had an exquisite touch for occasions of this kind,
+whether serious or mirthful. Once, when some years after this
+Agassiz was keeping Christmas Eve with his children and
+grandchildren, there arrived a basket of wine containing six old
+bottles of rare vintage. They introduced themselves in a charming
+French "Noel" as pilgrims from beyond the sea who came to give
+Christmas greeting to the master of the house. Gay pilgrims were
+these six "gaillards," and they were accompanied by the following
+note:--
+
+"A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all the house of Agassiz!
+
+"I send also six good wishes in the shape of bottles. Or is it
+wine?
+
+"It is both; good wine and good wishes, and kind memories of you on
+this Christmas Eve."
+
+H.W.L.
+
+An additional word about the "Saturday Club," the fame of which has
+spread beyond the city of its origin, may not be amiss here.
+Notwithstanding his close habits of work Agassiz was eminently
+social, and to this club he was especially attached. Dr. Holmes
+says of it in his volume on Emerson, who was one of its most
+constant members: "At one end of the table sat Longfellow, florid,
+quiet, benignant, soft-voiced, a most agreeable rather than a
+brilliant talker, but a man upon whom it was always pleasant to
+look,--whose silence was better than many another man's
+conversation. At the other end sat Agassiz, robust, sanguine,
+animated, full of talk, boy-like in his laughter. The stranger who
+should have asked who were the men ranged along the sides of the
+table would have heard in answer the names of Hawthorne, Motley,
+Dana, Lowell, Whipple, Peirce, the distinguished mathematician,
+Judge Hoar, eminent at the bar and in the cabinet, Dwight, the
+leading musical critic of Boston for a whole generation, Sumner,
+the academic champion of freedom, Andrew, 'the great War Governor'
+of Massachusetts, Dr. Howe, the philanthropist, William Hunt, the
+painter, with others not unworthy of such company." We may complete
+the list and add the name of Holmes himself, to whose presence the
+club owed so much of its wit and wisdom. In such company the guests
+were tempted to linger long, and if Holmes has described the circle
+around the table, Lowell has celebrated the late walk at night
+across the bridge as he and Agassiz returned to Cambridge on foot
+together. To break the verse by quotation would mar the quiet scene
+and interrupt the rambling pleasant talk it so graphically
+describes. But we may keep the parting words:
+
+"At last, arrived at where our paths divide,'Good night!' and, ere
+the distance grew too wide, 'Good night!' again; and now with
+cheated ear I half hear his who mine shall never hear."
+
+(* See Memorial poem, entitled "Agassiz", by James Russell Lowell.)
+
+Agassiz was now the possessor of a small laboratory by the
+immediate sea-coast. It was situated on the northeastern shore of
+Nahant, within a stone's throw of broken and bold rocks, where the
+deep pools furnished him with ever fresh specimens from natural
+aquariums which were re-stocked at every rise of the tide. This
+laboratory, with a small cottage adjoining, which was shared during
+the summer between his own family and that of Professor Felton, was
+the gift of his father-in-law, Mr. Cary. So carefully were his
+wishes considered that the microscope table stood on a flat rock
+sunk in the earth and detached from the floor, in order that no
+footstep or accidental jarring of door or window in other parts of
+the building might disturb him at his work.
+
+There, summer after summer, he pursued his researches on the
+medusae; from the smaller and more exquisite kinds, such as the
+Pleurobrachyias, Idyias, and Bolinas, to the massive Cyaneas, with
+their large disks and heavy tentacles, many yards in length.
+Nothing can be prettier than the smaller kinds of jellyfishes.
+Their structure is so delicate, yet so clearly defined, their color
+so soft, yet often so brilliant, their texture so transparent, that
+you seek in vain among terrestrial forms for terms of comparison,
+and are tempted to say that nature has done her finest work in the
+sea rather than on land. Sometimes hundreds of these smaller
+medusae might be seen floating together in the deep glass bowls, or
+jars, or larger vessels with which Agassiz's laboratory at Nahant
+was furnished. When the supply was exhausted, new specimens were
+easily to be obtained by a row in a dory a mile or two from shore,
+either in the hot, still noon, when the jelly-fish rise toward the
+surface, or at night, over a brilliantly phosphorescent sea, when
+they are sure to be abundant, since they themselves furnish much of
+the phosphorescence. In these little excursions, many new and
+interesting things came to his nets beside those he was seeking.
+The fishermen, also, were his friends and coadjutors. They never
+failed to bring him whatever of rare or curious fell into their
+hands, sometimes even turning aside from their professional calling
+to give the laboratory preference over the market.
+
+Neither was his summer work necessarily suspended during winter,
+his Cambridge and Nahant homes being only about fifteen miles
+distant from each other. He writes to his friends, the Holbrooks,
+at this time, "You can hardly imagine what a delightful place
+Nahant is for me now. I can trace the growth of my little marine
+animals all the year round without interruption, by going
+occasionally over there during the winter. I have at this moment
+young medusae budding from their polyp nurses, which I expect to
+see freeing themselves in a few weeks." In later years, when his
+investigations on the medusae were concluded, so far as any
+teaching from the open book of Nature can be said to be concluded,
+he pursued here, during a number of years, investigations upon the
+sharks and skates. For this work, which should have made one of the
+series of "Contributions," he left much material, unhappily not
+ready for publication.
+
+In August, 1857, Agassiz received the following letter from M.
+Rouland, Minister of Public Instruction in France.
+
+TO PROFESSOR AGASSIZ.
+
+PARIS, August 19, 1857.
+
+SIR,
+
+By the decease of M. d'Orbigny the chair of paleontology in the
+Museum of Natural History in Paris becomes vacant. You are French;
+you have enriched your native country by your eminent works and
+laborious researches. You are a corresponding member of the
+Institute. The emperor would gladly recall to France a savant so
+distinguished. In his name I offer you the vacant chair, and should
+congratulate your country on the return of a son who has shown
+himself capable of such devotion to science.
+
+Accept the assurance of my highest esteem,
+
+ROULAND.
+
+Had it been told to Agassiz when he left Europe that in ten years
+he should be recalled to fill one of the coveted places at the
+Jardin des Plantes, the great centre of scientific life and
+influence in France, he would hardly have believed himself capable
+of refusing it. Nor does a man reject what would once have seemed
+to him a great boon without a certain regret. Such momentary regret
+he felt perhaps, but not an instant of doubt. His answer expressed
+his gratitude and his pleasure in finding himself so remembered in
+Europe. He pleaded his work in America as his excuse for declining
+a position which he nevertheless considered the most brilliant that
+could be offered to a naturalist. In conclusion he adds: "Permit me
+to correct an error concerning myself. I am not French, although of
+French origin. My family has been Swiss for centuries, and spite of
+my ten years' exile I am Swiss still."
+
+The correspondence did not end here. A few months later the offer
+was courteously renewed by M. Rouland, with the express condition
+that the place should remain open for one or even two years to
+allow time for the completion of the work Agassiz had now on hand.
+To this second appeal he could only answer that his work here was
+the work not of years, but of his life, and once more decline the
+offer. That his refusal was taken in good part is evident from the
+fact that the order of the Legion of Honor was sent to him soon
+after, and that from time to time he received friendly letters from
+the Minister of Public Instruction, who occasionally consulted him
+upon general questions of scientific moment.
+
+This invitation excited a good deal of interest among Agassiz's old
+friends in Europe. Some urged him to accept it, others applauded
+his resolve to remain out of the great arena of competition and
+ambition. Among the latter was Humboldt. The following extract is
+from a letter of his (May 9, 1858) to Mr. George Ticknor, of
+Boston, who had been one of Agassiz's kindest and best friends in
+America from the moment of his arrival. "Agassiz's large and
+beautiful work (the first two volumes) reached me a few days since.
+It will produce a great effect both by the breadth of its general
+views and by the extreme sagacity of its special embryological
+observations. I have never believed that this illustrious man, who
+is also a man of warm heart, a noble soul, would accept the
+generous offers made to him from Paris. I knew that gratitude would
+keep him in the new country, where he finds such an immense
+territory to explore, and such liberal aid in his work."
+
+In writing of this offer to a friend Agassiz himself says: "On one
+side, my cottage at Nahant by the sea-shore, the reef of Florida,
+the vessels of the Coast Survey at my command from Nova Scotia to
+Mexico, and, if I choose, all along the coast of the Pacific,--and
+on the other, the Jardin des Plantes, with all its accumulated
+treasures. Rightly considered, the chance of studying nature must
+prevail over the attractions of the (Paris) Museum. I hope I shall
+be wise enough not to be tempted even by the prospect of a new
+edition of the 'Poissons Fossiles.'"
+
+To his old friend Charles Martins, the naturalist, he writes: "The
+work I have undertaken here, and the confidence shown in me by
+those who have at heart the intellectual development of this
+country, make my return to Europe impossible for the present; and,
+as you have well understood, I prefer to build anew here rather
+than to fight my way in the midst of the coteries of Paris. Were I
+offered absolute power for the reorganization of the Jardin des
+Plantes, with a revenue of fifty thousand francs, I should not
+accept it. I like my independence better."
+
+The fact that Agassiz had received and declined this offer from the
+French government seemed to arouse anew the public interest in his
+projects and prospects here. It was felt that a man who was ready
+to make an alliance so uncompromising with the interests of science
+in the United States should not be left in a precarious and
+difficult position. His collections were still heaped together in a
+slight wooden building. The fact that a great part of them were
+preserved in alcohol made them especially in danger from fire. A
+spark, a match carelessly thrown down, might destroy them all in
+half an hour, for with material so combustible, help would be
+unavailing. This fear was never out of his mind. It disturbed his
+peace by day and his rest by night. That frail structure, crowded
+from garret to cellar with seeming rubbish, with boxes, cases,
+barrels, casks still unpacked and piled one above the other, held
+for him the treasure out of which he would give form and substance
+to the dream of his boyhood and the maturer purpose of his manhood.
+The hope of creating a great museum intelligently related in all
+its parts, reflecting nature, and illustrating the history of the
+animal kingdom in the past and the present, had always tempted his
+imagination. Nor was it merely as a comprehensive and orderly
+collection that he thought of it. From an educational point of view
+it had an even greater value for him. His love of teaching prompted
+him no less than his love of science. Indeed, he hoped to make his
+ideal museum a powerful auxiliary in the interests of the schools
+and teachers throughout the State, and less directly throughout the
+country. He hoped it would become one of the centres for the
+radiation of knowledge, and that the investigations carried on
+within its walls would find means of publication, and be a fresh,
+original contribution to the science of the day. This hope was
+fully realized. The first number of the Museum Bulletin was
+published in March, 1863, the first number of the Illustrated
+Catalogue in 1864, and both publications have been continued with
+regularity ever since.* (* At the time of Agassiz's death nearly
+three volumes of the Bulletin had been published, and the third
+volume of the "Memoirs" (Illustrated Catalogue Number 7) had been
+begun.)
+
+In laying out the general plan, which was rarely absent from his
+thought, he distinguished between the demands which the specialist
+and the general observer might make upon an institution intended to
+instruct and benefit both. Here the special student should find in
+the laboratories and work rooms all the needed material for his
+investigations, stored in large collections, with duplicates enough
+to allow for that destruction of specimens which is necessarily
+involved in original research. The casual visitor meanwhile should
+walk through exhibition rooms, not simply crowded with objects to
+delight and interest him, but so arranged that the selection of
+every specimen should have reference to its part and place in
+nature; while the whole should be so combined as to explain, so far
+as known, the faunal and systematic relations of animals in the
+actual world, and in the geological formations; or, in other words,
+their succession in time, and their distribution in space.
+
+A favorite part of his plan was a room which he liked to call his
+synoptic room. Here was to be the most compact and yet the fullest
+statement in material form of the animal kingdom as a whole, an
+epitome of the creation, as it were. Of course the specimens must
+be few in so limited a space, but each one was to be characteristic
+of one or other of the various groups included under every large
+division. Thus each object would contribute to the explanation of
+the general plan. On the walls there were to be large, legible
+inscriptions, serving as a guide to the whole, and making this room
+a simple but comprehensive lesson in natural history. It was
+intended to be the entrance room for visitors, and to serve as an
+introduction to the more detailed presentation of the same vast
+subject, given by the faunal and systematic collections in the
+other exhibition rooms.
+
+The standard of work involved in this scheme is shown in many of
+his letters to his students and assistants, to whom he looked for
+aid in its execution. To one he writes: "You will get your synoptic
+series only after you have worked up in detail the systematic
+collection as a whole, the faunal collections in their totality,
+the geological sequence of the entire group under consideration, as
+well as its embryology and geographical distribution. Then alone
+will you be able to know the representatives in each series which
+will best throw light upon it and complete the other series."
+
+He did not live to fill in this comprehensive outline with the
+completeness which he intended, but all its details were fully
+explained by him before his death, and since that time have been
+carried out by his son, Alexander Agassiz. The synoptic room, and
+in great part the systematic and faunal collections, are now
+arranged and under exhibition, and the throngs of visitors during
+all the pleasant months of the year attest the interest they
+excite.
+
+This conception, of which the present Museum is the expression, was
+matured in the brain of the founder before a brick of the building
+was laid, or a dollar provided for the support of such an
+institution. It existed for him as his picture does for the artist
+before it lives upon the canvas. One must have been the intimate
+companion of his thoughts to know how and to what degree it
+possessed his imagination, to his delight always, yet sometimes to
+his sorrow also, for he had it and he had it not. The thought alone
+was his; the means of execution were far beyond his reach.
+
+His plan was, however, known to many of his friends, and especially
+he had explained it to Mr. Francis C. Gray, whose intellectual
+sympathy made him a delightful listener to the presentation of any
+enlightened purpose. In 1858 Mr. Gray died, leaving in his will the
+sum of fifty thousand dollars for the establishment of a Museum of
+Comparative Zoology, with the condition that this sum should be
+used neither for the erection of buildings nor for salaries, but
+for the purely scientific needs of such an institution. Though this
+bequest was not connected in set terms with the collections already
+existing in Cambridge, its purpose was well understood; and Mr.
+Gray's nephew, Mr. William Gray, acting upon the intention of his
+uncle as residuary legatee, gave it into the hands of the President
+and Fellows of Harvard University. In passing over this trust, the
+following condition, among others, was made, namely: "That neither
+the collections nor any building which may contain the same shall
+ever be designated by any other name than the Museum of Comparative
+Zoology at Harvard." This is worth noting, because the title was
+chosen and insisted upon by Agassiz himself in opposition to many
+who would have had it called after him. To such honor as might be
+found in connecting his own name with a public undertaking of any
+kind he was absolutely indifferent. It was characteristic of him to
+wish, on the contrary, that the name should be as impersonal and as
+comprehensive as the uses and aims of the institution itself. Yet
+he could not wholly escape the distinction he deprecated. The
+popular imagination, identifying him with his work, has
+re-christened the institution; and, spite of its legal title, its
+familiar designation is almost invariably the "Agassiz Museum."
+
+Mr. Gray's legacy started a movement which became every day more
+active and successful. The university followed up his bequest by a
+grant of land suitable for the site of the building, and since the
+Gray fund provided for no edifice, an appeal was made to the
+Legislature of Massachusetts to make good that deficiency. The
+Legislature granted lands to the amount of one hundred thousand
+dollars, on condition that a certain additional contribution should
+be made by private subscription. The sum of seventy-one thousand
+one hundred and twenty-five dollars, somewhat exceeding that
+stipulated, was promptly subscribed, chiefly by citizens of Boston
+and Cambridge, and Agassiz himself gave all the collections he had
+brought together during the last four or five years, estimated,
+merely by the outlay made upon them, at ten thousand dollars. The
+architects, Mr. Henry Greenough and Mr. George Snell, offered the
+plan as their contribution. The former had long been familiar with
+Agassiz's views respecting the internal arrangements of the
+building. The main features had been discussed between them, and
+now, that the opportunity offered, the plan was practically ready
+for execution. These events followed each other so rapidly that
+although Mr. Gray's bequest was announced only in December, 1858,
+the first sod was turned and the corner-stone of the future Museum
+was laid on a sunny afternoon in the following June, 1859.* (* The
+plan, made with reference to the future increase as well as the
+present needs of the Museum, included a main building 364 feet in
+length by 64 in width, with wings 205 feet in length by 64 in
+width, the whole enclosing a hollow square. The structure erected
+1859-60 was but a section of the north wing, being two fifths of
+its whole length. This gave ample space at the time for the
+immediate requirements of the Museum. Additions have since been
+made, and the north wing is completed, while the Peabody Museum
+occupies a portion of the ground allotted to the south wing.)
+
+This event, so full of significance for Agassiz, took place a few
+days before he sailed for Europe, having determined to devote the
+few weeks of the college and school vacation to a flying visit in
+Switzerland. The incidents of this visit were of a wholly domestic
+nature and hardly belong here. He paused a few days in Ireland and
+England to see his old friends, the Earl of Enniskillen and Sir
+Philip Egerton, and review their collections. A day or two in
+London gave him, in like manner, a few hours at the British Museum,
+a day with Owen at Richmond, and an opportunity to greet old
+friends and colleagues called together to meet him at Sir Roderick
+Murchison's. He allowed himself also a week in Paris, made
+delightful by the cordiality and hospitality of the professors of
+the Jardin des Plantes, and by the welcome he received at the
+Academy, when he made his appearance there. The happiest hours of
+this brief sojourn in Paris were perhaps spent with his old and
+dear friend Valenciennes, the associate of earlier days in Paris,
+when the presence of Cuvier and Humboldt gave a crowning interest
+to scientific work there.
+
+From Paris he hastened on to his mother in Switzerland, devoting to
+her and to his immediate family all the time which remained to him
+before returning to his duties in Cambridge. They were very happy
+weeks, passed, for the most part, in absolute retirement, at
+Montagny, near the foot of the Jura, where Madame Agassiz was then
+residing with her daughter. The days were chiefly spent in an
+old-fashioned garden, where a corner shut in by ivy and shaded by
+trees made a pleasant out-of-door sitting-room. There he told his
+mother, as he had never been able to tell her in letters, of his
+life and home in the United States, and of the Museum to which he
+was returning, and which was to give him the means of doing for the
+study of nature all he had ever hoped to accomplish. His quiet stay
+here was interrupted only by a visit of a few days to his sister at
+Lausanne, and a trip to the Diablerets, where his brother, then a
+great invalid, was staying. He also passed a day or two at Geneva,
+where he was called to a meeting of the Helvetic Society, which
+gave him an opportunity of renewing old ties of friendship, as well
+as scientific relations, with the naturalists of his own country,
+with Pictet de la Rive, de Candolle, Favre, and others.
+
+CHAPTER 19.
+
+1860-1863: AGE 53-56.
+
+Return to Cambridge.
+Removal of Collection to New Museum Building.
+Distribution of Work.
+Relations with his Students.
+Breaking out of the War between North and South.
+Interest of Agassiz in the Preservation of the Union.
+Commencement of Museum Publications.
+Reception of Third and Fourth Volumes of "Contributions."
+Copley Medal.
+General Correspondence.
+Lecturing Tour in the West.
+Circular Letter concerning Anthropological Collections.
+Letter to Mr. Ticknor concerning Geographical Distribution of Fishes
+   in Spain.
+
+On his return to Cambridge at the end of September, Agassiz found
+the Museum building well advanced. It was completed in the course
+of the next year, and the dedication took place on the 13th
+November, 1860. The transfer of the collections to their new and
+safe abode was made as rapidly as possible, and the work of
+developing the institution under these more favorable conditions
+moved steadily on. The lecture rooms were at once opened, not only
+to students but to other persons not connected with the university.
+Especially welcome were teachers of schools for whom admittance was
+free. It was a great pleasure to Agassiz thus to renew and
+strengthen his connection with the teachers of the State, with
+whom, from the time of his arrival in this country, he had held
+most cordial relations, attending the Teachers' Institutes,
+visiting the normal schools, and associating himself actively, as
+far as he could, with the interests of public education in
+Massachusetts. From this time forward his college lectures were
+open to women as well as to men. He had great sympathy with the
+desire of women for larger and more various fields of study and
+work, and a certain number of women have always been employed as
+assistants at the Museum.
+
+The story of the next three years was one of unceasing but
+seemingly uneventful work. The daylight hours from nine or ten
+o'clock in the morning were spent, with the exception of the hour
+devoted to the school, at the Museum, not only in personal
+researches and in lecturing, but in organizing, distributing, and
+superintending the work of the laboratories, all of which was
+directed by him. Passing from bench to bench, from table to table,
+with a suggestion here, a kindly but scrutinizing glance there, he
+made his sympathetic presence felt by the whole establishment. No
+man ever exercised a more genial personal influence over his
+students and assistants. His initiatory steps in teaching special
+students of natural history were not a little discouraging.
+Observation and comparison being in his opinion the intellectual
+tools most indispensable to the naturalist, his first lesson was
+one in LOOKING. He gave no assistance; he simply left his student
+with the specimen, telling him to use his eyes diligently, and
+report upon what he saw. He returned from time to time to inquire
+after the beginner's progress, but he never asked him a leading
+question, never pointed out a single feature of the structure,
+never prompted an inference or a conclusion. This process lasted
+sometimes for days, the professor requiring the pupil not only to
+distinguish the various parts of the animal, but to detect also the
+relation of these details to more general typical features. His
+students still retain amusing reminiscences of their despair when
+thus confronted with their single specimen; no aid to be had from
+outside until they had wrung from it the secret of its structure.
+But all of them have recognized the fact that this one lesson in
+looking, which forced them to such careful scrutiny of the object
+before them, influenced all their subsequent habits of observation,
+whatever field they might choose for their special subject of
+study. One of them who was intending to be an entomologist
+concludes a very clever and entertaining account of such a first
+lesson, entirely devoted to a single fish, with these words: "This
+was the best entomological lesson I ever had,--a lesson whose
+influence has extended to the details of every subsequent study; a
+legacy the professor has left to me, as he left it to many others,
+of inestimable value, which we could not buy, with which we could
+not part."* (* "In the Laboratory with Agassiz", by S.H. Scudder.)
+
+But if Agassiz, in order to develop independence and accuracy of
+observation, threw his students on their own resources at first,
+there was never a more generous teacher in the end than he. All his
+intellectual capital was thrown open to his pupils. His original
+material, his unpublished investigations, his most precious
+specimens, his drawings and illustrations were at their command.
+This liberality led in itself to a serviceable training, for he
+taught them to use with respect the valuable, often unique, objects
+intrusted to their care. Out of the intellectual good-fellowship
+which he established and encouraged in the laboratory grew the
+warmest relations between his students and himself. Many of them
+were deeply attached to him, and he was extremely dependent upon
+their sympathy and affection. By some among them he will never be
+forgotten. He is still their teacher and their friend, scarcely
+more absent from their work now than when the glow of his
+enthusiasm made itself felt in his personal presence.
+
+But to return to the distribution of his time in these busy days.
+Having passed, as we have seen, the greater part of the day in the
+Museum and the school, he had the hours of the night for writing,
+and rarely left his desk before one or two o'clock in the morning,
+or even later. His last two volumes of the "Contributions," upon
+the Acalephs, were completed during these years. In the mean time,
+the war between North and South had broken out, and no American
+cared more than he for the preservation of the Union and the
+institutions it represented. He felt that the task of those who
+served letters and science was to hold together the intellectual
+aims and resources of the country during this struggle for national
+existence, to fortify the strongholds of learning, abating nothing
+of their efficiency, but keeping their armories bright against the
+return of peace, when the better weapons of civilization should
+again be in force. Toward this end he worked with renewed ardor,
+and while his friends urged him to suspend operations at the Museum
+and husband his resources until the storm should have passed over,
+he, on the contrary, stimulated its progress by every means in his
+power. Occasionally he was assisted by the Legislature, and early
+in this period an additional grant of ten thousand dollars was made
+to the Museum. With this grant was begun the series of illustrated
+publications already mentioned, known as the "Bulletin of the
+Museum of Comparative Zoology in Cambridge."
+
+During this period he urged also the foundation of a National
+Academy of Sciences, and was active in furthering its organization
+and incorporation (1863) by Congress. With respect to this effort,
+and to those he was at the same time making for the Museum, he was
+wont to recall the history of the University of Berlin. In an
+appeal to the people in behalf of the intellectual institutions of
+the United States during the early years of the war he says: "A
+well known fact in the history of Germany has shown that the moment
+of political danger may be that in which the firmest foundations
+for the intellectual strength of a country may be laid. When in
+1806, after the battle of Jena, the Prussian monarchy had been
+crushed and the king was despairing even of the existence of his
+realm, he planned the foundation of the University of Berlin, by
+the advice of Fichte, the philosopher. It was inaugurated the very
+year that the despondent monarch returned to his capital. Since
+that time it has been the greatest glory of the Prussian crown, and
+has made Berlin the intellectual centre of Germany."
+
+It may be added here as an evidence of Agassiz's faith in the
+institutions of the United States and in her intellectual progress
+that he was himself naturalized in the darkest hour of the war,
+when the final disruption of the country was confidently prophesied
+by her enemies. By formally becoming a citizen of the United States
+he desired to attest his personal confidence in the stability of
+her Constitution and the justice of her cause.
+
+Some light is thrown upon the work and incidents of these years by
+the following letters:--
+
+FROM SIR PHILIP DE GREY EGERTON.
+
+LONDON, ALBEMARLE ST., April 16, 1861.
+
+MON CHER AGASS,* (* An affectionate abbreviation which Sir Philip
+often used for him.)
+
+I have this morning received your handsome and welcome present of
+the third volume of your great undertaking, and this reminds me how
+remiss I have been in not writing to you sooner. In fact, I have
+had nothing worth writing about, and I know your time is too
+valuable to be intrenched upon by letters of mere gossip. I have
+not of course had time to peruse any portion of the monograph, but
+I have turned over the pages and seen quite enough to sharpen my
+appetite for the glorious scientific feast you have so liberally
+provided. And now that the weight is off your mind, I hope shortly
+to hear that you are about to fulfill this year the promise you
+made of returning to England for a good long visit, only postponed
+by circumstances you could not have foreseen. Now that you have
+your son as the sharer of your labors, you will be able to leave
+him in charge during your absence, and so divest your mind of all
+care and anxiety with reference to matters over the water. Here we
+are all fighting most furiously about Celts and flint implements,
+struggle for life, natural selection, the age of the world, races
+of men, biblical dates, apes, and gorillas, etc., and the last duel
+has been between Owen and Huxley on the anatomical distinction of
+the pithecoid brain compared with that of man. Theological
+controversy has also been rife, stirred up by the "Essays and
+Reviews," of which you have no doubt heard much. For myself, I have
+been busy preparing, in conjunction with Huxley, another decade of
+fossil fishes, all from the old red of Scotland. . .Enniskillen is
+quite well. He is now at Lyme Regis. . .
+
+At about this time the Copley Medal was awarded to Agassiz, a
+distinction which was the subject of cordial congratulation from
+his English friends.
+
+FROM SIR RODERICK MURCHISON.
+
+BELGRAVE SQUARE, March, 1862.
+
+MY DEAR AGASSIZ,
+
+Your letter of the 14th February was a great surprise to me. I
+blamed myself for not writing you sooner than I did on the event
+which I had long been anxious to see realized; but I took it for
+granted that you had long before received the official announcement
+from the foreign secretary that you were, at the last anniversary
+of the Royal Society, the recipient of the highest honor which our
+body can bestow, whether on a foreigner or a native. . .On going to
+the Royal Society to-day I found that the President and Secretaries
+were much surprised that you had never answered the official letter
+sent to you on the 1st or 2nd December by the Foreign Secretary,
+Professor Muller, of Cambridge. He wrote to announce the award, and
+told you the Copley Medal was in his safe keeping till you wrote to
+say what you wished to have done with it. I have now recommended
+him to transmit it officially to you through the United States
+Minister, Mr. Adams. In these times of irritation, everything which
+soothes and calms down angry feelings ought to be resorted to; and
+I hope it may be publicly known that when our newspapers were
+reciprocating all sorts of rudenesses, the men of science of
+England thought of nothing but honoring a beloved and eminent
+savant of America.
+
+I thank you for your clear and manly view of the North and South,
+which I shall show to all our mutual friends. Egerton, who is now
+here, was delighted to hear of you, as well as Huxley, Lyell, and
+many others. . .
+
+In a paper just read to the Geological Society Professor Ramsay has
+made a stronger demand on the powers of ice than you ever did. He
+imagines that every Swiss lake north and south (Geneva, Neuchatel,
+Como, etc.) has been scooped out, and the depressions excavated by
+the abrading action of the glaciers.
+
+FROM SIR PHILIP DE GREY EGERTON.
+
+ALBEMARLE ST., LONDON, March 11, 1862.
+
+MON CHER AGASS,
+
+As I am now settled in London for some months, I take the first
+opportunity of writing to congratulate you on the distinction which
+has been conferred upon you by the Royal Society, and I will say
+that you have most fully earned it. I rejoice exceedingly in the
+decision the Council have arrived at. I only regret I was not on
+the Council myself to have advocated your high claims and taken a
+share in promoting your success. It is now long since I have heard
+from you, but this terrible disruption between the North and South
+has, I suppose, rendered the pursuit of science rather difficult,
+and the necessary funds also difficult of attainment. I should like
+very much to hear how you are getting on, and whether there is any
+likelihood of your being able to come over in the course of the
+summer or autumn. I fully expected you last year, and was very much
+disappointed that you could not realize your intention. I have this
+day sent to you through Bailliere, the last decade of the Jermyn
+St. publications.* (* Publications of the Geological Survey of
+England.) You will see that Huxley has taken up the subject of the
+Devonian fishes in a truly scientific spirit. . .
+
+FROM OWEN TO AGASSIZ.
+
+BRITISH MUSEUM, August 30, 1862.
+
+MY DEAR AGASSIZ,
+
+I have received, and since its reception have devoted most of my
+spare moments to the study of, your fourth volume of the "Natural
+History of the United States,"--a noble contribution to our
+science, and worthy of your great name.
+
+The demonstration of the unity of plan pervading the diversities of
+the Polyps, Hydroids, Acalephal and Echinodermal modifications of
+your truly natural group of Radiates, is to my mind perfect, and I
+trust that the harsh and ugly and essentially error-breeding name
+of Coelenterata may have received its final sentence of exile from
+lasting and rational zoological terminology.
+
+I shall avail myself of opportunities for bringing myself to your
+recollection by such brochures as I have time for. One of them will
+open to your view something of the nature of the contest here
+waging to obtain for England a suitable Museum of Natural History,
+equivalent to her wealth and colonies and maritime business. In
+this I find you a valuable ally, and have cited from the Reports of
+your Museum of Comparative Zoology in support of my own claims for
+space.
+
+I was glad to hear from Mr. Bates that the Megatherium had not gone
+to the bottom, but had been rescued, and that it was probably ere
+this in your Museum at Cambridge. I trust it may be so.
+
+A line from you or the sight of any friend of yours is always
+cheering to me. Our friends Enniskillen and Egerton are both
+well. . .
+
+I remain ever truly yours,
+
+RICHARD OWEN.
+
+As has been seen by a previous letter from Sir Roderick Murchison,
+Agassiz tried from time to time to give his English friends more
+just views of our national struggle. The letter to which the
+following is an answer is missing, but one may easily infer its
+tenor, and the pleasure it had given him.
+
+TO SIR PHILIP DE GREY EGERTON.
+
+NAHANT, MASSACHUSETTS, August 15, 1862.
+
+. . .I feel so thankful for your words of sympathy, that I lose not
+an hour in expressing my feeling. It has been agonizing week after
+week to receive the English papers, and to see there the noble
+devotion of the men of the North to their country and its
+government, branded as the service of mercenaries. You know I am
+not much inclined to meddle with politics; but I can tell you that
+I have never seen a more generous and prompt response to the call
+of country than was exhibited last year, and is exhibiting now, in
+the loyal United States. In the last six weeks nearly 300,000 men
+have volunteered, and I am satisfied that the additional 300,000
+will be forthcoming without a draft in the course of the next
+month. And believe me, it is not for the sake of the bounty they
+come forward, for our best young men are the first to enlist; if
+anything can be objected to these large numbers of soldiers, it is
+that it takes away the best material that the land possesses. I
+thank you once more for your warm sympathy. I needed it the more,
+as it is almost the first friendly word of that kind I have
+received from England, and I began to question the humanity of your
+civilization. . .Under present circumstances, you can well imagine
+that I cannot think of leaving Cambridge, even for a few weeks,
+much as I wish to take some rest, and especially to meet your kind
+invitation. But I feel that I have a debt to pay to my adopted
+country, and all I can now do is to contribute my share toward
+maintaining the scientific activity which has been awakened during
+the last few years, and which even at this moment is on the
+increase.
+
+I am now at Nahant, on the sea-shore, studying embryology chiefly
+with reference to paleontology, and the results are most
+satisfactory. I have had an opportunity already of tracing the
+development of the representatives of three different families,
+upon the embryology of which we had not a single observation thus
+far, and of making myself familiar with the growth of many others.
+With these accessions I propose next winter seriously to return to
+my first scientific love. . .
+
+I have taken with me to the sea-shore your and Huxley's
+"Contributions to the Devonian Fishes," and also your notice of
+Carboniferous fish-fauna; but I have not yet had a chance to study
+them critically, from want of time, having been too successful with
+the living specimens to have a moment for the fossils. The season
+for sea-shore studies is, however, drawing rapidly to an end, and
+then I shall have more leisure for my old favorites.
+
+I am very sorry to hear such accounts of the sufferings of the
+manufacturing districts in England. I wish I could foretell the end
+of our conflict; but I do not believe it can now be ended before
+slavery is abolished, though I thought differently six months ago.
+The most conservative men at the North have gradually come to this
+conviction, and nobody would listen for a moment to a compromise
+with the southern slave power. Whether we shall get rid of it by
+war measures or by an emancipation proclamation, I suppose the
+President himself does not yet know. I do not think that we shall
+want more money than the people are willing to give. Private
+contributions for the comfort of the army are really unbounded. I
+know a gentleman, not among the richest in Boston, who has already
+contributed over 30,000 dollars; and I heard yesterday of a
+shop-boy who tendered all his earnings of many years to the relief
+committee,--2,000 dollars, retaining NOTHING for himself,--and so
+it goes all round. Of course we have croakers and despondent
+people, but they no longer dare to raise their voices; from which I
+infer that there is no stopping the storm until by the natural
+course of events the atmosphere is clear and pure again.
+
+Ever truly your friend,
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+Agassiz had now his time more at his own disposal since he had
+given up his school and had completed also the fourth volume of his
+"Contributions." Leisure time he could never be said to have, but
+he was free to give all his spare time and strength to the Museum,
+and to this undivided aim, directly or indirectly, the remainder of
+his life was devoted. Although at intervals he received generous
+aid from the Legislature or from private individuals for the
+further development of the Museum, its growth outran such
+provision, and especially during the years of the war the problem
+of meeting expenses was often difficult of solution. To provide for
+such a contingency Agassiz made in the winter of 1863 the most
+extensive lecturing tour he had ever undertaken, even in his
+busiest lecturing days. He visited all the large cities and some of
+the smaller towns from Buffalo to St. Louis. While very
+remunerative, and in many respects delightful, since he was
+received with the greatest cordiality, and lectured everywhere to
+enthusiastic crowds, this enterprise was, nevertheless, of doubtful
+economy even for his scientific aims. Agassiz was but fifty-six,
+yet his fine constitution began to show a fatigue hardly justified
+by his years, and the state of his health was already a source of
+serious anxiety to his friends. He returned much exhausted, and
+passed the summer at Nahant, where the climate always benefited
+him, while his laboratory afforded the best conditions for work. If
+this summer home had a fault, it was its want of remoteness. He was
+almost as much beset there, by the interruptions to which a man in
+his position is liable, as in Cambridge.
+
+His letters show how constantly during this nominal vacation his
+Museum and its interests occupied his thoughts. One is to his
+brother-in-law, Thomas G. Cary, whose residence was in San
+Francisco, and who had been for years his most efficient aid in
+obtaining collections from the Pacific Coast.
+
+TO MR. THOMAS G. CARY.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, March 23, 1863.
+
+DEAR TOM,
+
+For many years past your aid in fostering the plans of the Museum
+in Cambridge has greatly facilitated the progress of that
+establishment in everything relating to the Natural History of
+California, and now that it has become desirable to extend our
+scheme to objects which have thus far been neglected I make another
+appeal to you.
+
+Every day the history of mankind is brought into more and more
+intimate connection with the natural history of the animal
+creation, and it is now indispensable that we should organize an
+extensive collection to illustrate the natural history of the
+uncivilized races. Your personal acquaintance with business friends
+in almost every part of the globe has suggested to me the propriety
+of addressing to you a circular letter, setting forth the objects
+wanted, and requesting of you the favor to communicate it as widely
+as possible among your friends.
+
+To make the most instructive collections relative to the natural
+history of mankind, two classes of specimens should be brought
+together, one concerning the habits and pursuits of the races, the
+other concerning the physical constitution of the races themselves.
+
+With reference to the first it would be desirable to collect
+articles of clothing and ornaments of all the races of men, their
+implements, tools, weapons, and such models or drawings of their
+dwellings as may give an idea of their construction; small canoes
+and oars as models of their vessels, or indications of their
+progress in navigation; in one word, everything that relates to
+their avocations, their pursuits, their habits, their mode of
+worship, and whatever may indicate the dawn or progress of the arts
+among them. As to articles of clothing, it would be preferable to
+select such specimens as have actually been worn or even cast off,
+rather than new things which may be more or less fanciful and not
+indicate the real natural condition and habits of a race.
+
+With regard to the collections intended to illustrate the physical
+constitution of the races it is more difficult to obtain
+instructive specimens, as the savage races are generally inclined
+to hold sacred all that relates to their dead; yet whenever an
+opportunity is afforded to obtain skulls of the natives of
+different parts of the world, it should be industriously improved,
+and good care taken to mark the skulls in such a way that their
+origin cannot be mistaken. Beside this, every possible effort
+should be made to obtain perfect heads, preserved in alcohol, so
+that all their features may be studied minutely and compared. Where
+this cannot be done portraits or photographs may be substituted.
+
+Trusting that you may help me in this way to bring together in
+Cambridge a more complete collection, illustrative of the natural
+history of mankind than exists thus far anywhere,* (* All the
+ethnographical collections of the Museum of Comparative Zoology
+have now been transferred to the Peabody Museum, where they more
+properly belong.)
+
+I remain, ever truly your friend and brother,
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+The following letter to Mr. Ticknor is in the same spirit as
+previous ones to Mr. Haldeman and others, concerning the
+distribution of fishes in America. It is given at the risk of some
+repetition, because it illustrates Agassiz's favorite idea that a
+key to the original combination of faunae in any given system of
+fresh waters, might be reached through a closer study than has yet
+been possible of the geographical or local circumscription of their
+inhabitants.
+
+TO MR. GEORGE TICKNOR.
+
+NAHANT, October 24, 1863.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,
+
+Among the schemes which I have devised for the improvement of the
+Museum, there is one for the realization of which I appeal to your
+aid and sympathy. Thus far the natural productions of the rivers
+and lakes of the world have not been compared with one another,
+except what I have done in comparing the fishes of the Danube with
+those of the Rhine and of the Rhone, and those of the great
+Canadian lakes with those of the Swiss lakes.
+
+I now propose to resume this subject on the most extensive scale,
+since I see that it has the most direct bearing upon the
+transmutation theory. . .First let me submit to you my plan.
+
+Rivers and lakes are isolated by the land and sea from one another.
+The question is, then, how they came to be peopled with inhabitants
+differing both from those on land and those in the sea, and how
+does it come that every hydrographic basin has its own inhabitants
+more or less different from those of any other basin? Take the
+Ganges, the Nile, and the Amazons. There is not a living being in
+the one alike to any one in the others, etc. Now to advance the
+investigation to the point where it may tell with reference to the
+scientific doctrines at present under discussion, it is essential
+to know the facts in detail, with reference to every fresh-water
+basin on earth. I have already taken means to obtain the tenants of
+all the rivers of Brazil, and partly of Russia, and I hope you may
+be able to put me in the way of getting those of Spain, if not of
+some other country beside. The plan I propose for that country
+would be worthy of the Doctors of Salamanca in her brightest days.
+If this alone were carried out, it would be, I believe, sufficient
+to settle the whole question.
+
+My idea is to obtain separate collections from all the principal
+rivers of Spain and Portugal, and even to have several separate
+collections from the larger rivers, one from their lower course,
+one from their middle course, and another from their head-waters.
+Take, for instance, the Douro. One collection ought to be made at
+Oporto, and several higher up, among its various tributaries and in
+its upper course; say, one at Zamora and Valladolid, one at
+Salamanca from the Tormes River, one at Leon from the Esla River,
+one at Burgos and Palencia from the northern tributaries, one at
+Soria and Segovia from the southern tributaries. If this could be
+done on such a scale as I propose, it would in itself be a work
+worthy of the Spanish government, and most creditable to any man
+who should undertake it. The fact is that nothing of the kind has
+ever been done yet anywhere. A single collection from the Minho
+would be sufficient, say from Orense or Melgaco. From the northern
+rivers along the gulf of Biscay all that would be necessary would
+be one thoroughly complete collection from one of the little rivers
+that come down from the mountains of Asturias, say from Oviedo.
+
+The Ebro would require a more elaborate survey. From its upper
+course, one collection would be needed from Haro or Frias or
+Miranda; another from Saragossa, and one from its mouth, including
+the minnows common among the brackish waters near the mouth of
+large rivers. In addition to this, one or two of the tributaries of
+the Ebro, coming down from the Pyrenees, should be explored in the
+same manner; say one collection from Pampeluna, and one from Urgel,
+or any other place on the southern slope of the Pyrenees. A
+collection made at Barcelona from the river and the brackish
+marshes would be equally desirable; another from the river at
+Valencia, and, if possible, also from its head-waters at Ternel;
+another from the river Segura at Murcia, and somewhere in the
+mountains from its head-waters. Granada would afford particular
+interest as showing what its mountain streams feed. A collection
+from the Almeria River at Almeria, or from any of the small rivers
+of the southern coast of Spain, would do; and it would be the more
+interesting if another from the river Xenil could be obtained at or
+near Granada, to compare with the inhabitants of the waters upon
+the southern slope of the Sierra Nevada.
+
+Next would come the Guadalquivir, from which a collection should be
+made at San Lucar, with the brackish water species; another at
+Seville or Cordova, one among the head-waters from the Sierra
+Nevada, and another from the mountains of the Mancha. From the
+Guadiana a collection from Villa Real, with the brackish species;
+one from Badajoz, and one from the easternmost headwaters, and
+about where the river is lost under ground.
+
+The Tagus would again require an extensive exploration. In the
+first place a thorough collection of all the species found in the
+great estuary ought to be made with the view of ascertaining how
+far marine Atlantic species penetrate into the river basin; then
+one from Santarem, and another either from Talavera or Toledo or
+Aranjuez, and one from the head-waters in Guadalaxara, and another
+in Molina.
+
+The collections made at different stations ought carefully to be
+kept in distinct jars or kegs, with labels so secure that no
+confusion or mistake can arise. But the specimens collected at the
+same station may be put together in the same jar. These collections
+require, in fact, very little care. (Here some details about mode
+of putting up specimens, transportation, etc.) If the same person
+should collect upon different stations, either in the same or in
+different hydrographic basins, the similarity of the specimens
+should not be a reason for neglecting to preserve them. What is
+aimed at is not to secure a variety of species, but to learn in
+what localities the same species may occur again and again, and
+what are the localities which nourish different species, no matter
+whether these species are in themselves interesting or not, new to
+science or known for ages, whether valuable for the table or unfit
+to eat. The mere fact of their distribution is the point to be
+ascertained, and this, as you see, requires the most extensive
+collections, affording in themselves comparatively little interest,
+but likely to lead, by a proper discussion of the facts, to the
+most unexpected philosophical results. . .Do, please, what you can
+in this matter. Spain alone might give us the materials to solve
+the question of transmutation versus creation. I am going to make a
+similar appeal to my friends in Russia for materials from that
+country, including Siberia and Kamschatka. Our own rivers are not
+easily accessible now.
+
+Ever truly your friend,
+
+L. AGASSIZ.
+
+CHAPTER 20.
+
+1863-1864: AGE 56-57.
+
+Correspondence with Dr. S.G. Howe.
+Bearing of the War on the Position of the Negro Race.
+Affection for Harvard College.
+Interest in her General Progress.
+Correspondence with Emerson concerning Harvard.
+Glacial Phenomena in Maine.
+
+AGASSIZ'S letters give little idea of the deep interest he felt in
+the war between North and South, and its probable issue with
+reference to the general policy of the nation, and especially to
+the relation between the black and white races. Although any
+judgment upon the accuracy of its conclusions would now be
+premature, the following correspondence between Agassiz and Dr. S.
+G. Howe is nevertheless worth considering, as showing how the
+problem presented itself to the philanthropist and the naturalist
+from their different stand-points.
+
+FROM DR. S.G. HOWE.
+
+PORTSMOUTH, August 3, 1863.
+
+MY DEAR AGASSIZ,
+
+You will learn by a glance at the inclosed circular the object of
+the commission of which I am a member.
+
+The more I consider the subject to be examined and reported upon,
+the more I am impressed by its vastness; the more I see that its
+proper treatment requires a consideration of political,
+physiological, and ethnological principles. Before deciding upon
+any political policy, it is necessary to decide several important
+questions, which require more knowledge for their solution than I
+possess.
+
+Among these questions, this one occupies me most now. Is it
+probable that the African race, represented by less than two
+million blacks and a little more than two million mulattoes,
+unrecruited by immigration, will be a persistent race in this
+country? or will it be absorbed, diluted, and finally effaced by
+the white race, numbering twenty-four millions, and continually
+increased by immigration, beside natural causes.
+
+Will not the general practical amalgamation fostered by slavery
+become more general after its abolition? If so, will not the
+proportion of mulattoes become greater and that of the pure blacks
+less? With an increase and final numerical prevalence of mulattoes
+the question of the fertility of the latter becomes a very
+important element in the calculation. Can it be a persistent race
+here where pure blacks are represented by 2, and the whites by
+20-24?
+
+Is it not true that in the Northern States at least the mulatto is
+unfertile, leaving but few children, and those mainly lymphatic and
+scrofulous?
+
+In those sections where the blacks and mulattoes together make from
+seventy to eighty and even ninety per cent of the whole population
+will there be, after the abolition of slavery, a sufficiently large
+influx of whites to counteract the present numerical preponderance
+of blacks?
+
+It looks now as if the whites would EXPLOITER the labors of the
+blacks, and that social servitude will continue long in spite of
+political equality.
+
+You will see the importance of considering carefully the natural
+laws of increase and their modification by existing causes before
+deciding upon any line of policy.
+
+If there be irresistible natural tendencies to the growth of a
+persistent black race in the Gulf and river States, we must not
+make bad worse by futile attempts to resist it. If, on the other
+hand, the natural tendencies are to the diffusion and final
+disappearance of the black (and colored) race, then our policy
+should be modified accordingly.
+
+I should be very glad, my dear sir, if you could give me your views
+upon this and cognate matters. If, however, your occupations will
+not permit you to give time to this matter, perhaps you will assist
+me by pointing to works calculated to throw light upon the subject
+of my inquiry, or by putting me in correspondence with persons who
+have the ability and the leisure to write about it.
+
+I remain, dear sir, faithfully,
+
+SAMUEL G. HOWE.
+
+TO DR. S.G. HOWE.
+
+NAHANT, August 9, 1863.
+
+MY DEAR DOCTOR,
+
+When I acknowledged a few days ago the receipt of your invitation
+to put in writing my views upon the management of the negro race as
+part of the free population of the United States, I stated to you
+that there was a preliminary question of the utmost importance to
+be examined first, since whatever convictions may be formed upon
+that point must necessarily influence everything else relating to
+the subject. The question is simply this: Is there to be a
+permanent black population upon the continent after slavery is
+everywhere abolished and no inducement remains to foster its
+increase? Should this question be answered in the negative, it is
+evident that a wise policy would look to the best mode of removing
+that race from these States, by the encouragement and acceleration
+of emigration. Should the question be answered, on the contrary, in
+the affirmative, then it is plain that we have before us one of the
+most difficult problems, upon the solution of which the welfare of
+our own race may in a measure depend, namely, the combination in
+one social organization of two races more widely different from one
+another than all the other races. In effecting this combination it
+becomes our duty to avoid the recurrence of great evils, one of
+which is already foreshadowed in the advantage which unscrupulous
+managers are taking of the freedmen, whenever the latter are
+brought into contact with new social relations.
+
+I will, for the present, consider only the case of the unmixed
+negroes of the Southern States, the number of which I suppose to be
+about two millions. It is certainly not less,--it may be a little
+more. From whatever point of view you look upon these people you
+must come to the conclusion that, left to themselves, they will
+perpetuate their race ad infinitum where they are. According to the
+prevalent theory of the unity of mankind it is assumed that the
+different races have become what they are in consequence of their
+settlement in different parts of the world, and that the whole
+globe is everywhere a fit abode for human beings who adapt
+themselves to the conditions under which they live. According to
+the theory of a multiple origin of mankind the different races have
+first appeared in various parts of the globe, each with the
+peculiarities best suited to their primitive home. Aside from these
+theoretical views the fact is, that some races inhabit very
+extensive tracts of the earth's surface, and are now found upon
+separate continents, while others are very limited in their range.
+This distribution is such that there is no reason for supposing
+that the negro is less fitted permanently to occupy at least the
+warmer parts of North and South America, than is the white race to
+retain possession of their more temperate portions. Assuming our
+pure black race to be only two millions, it is yet larger than the
+whole number of several races that have held uninterrupted
+possession of different parts of the globe ever since they have
+been known to the white race. Thus the Hottentots and the
+Abyssinians have maintained themselves in their respective homes
+without change ever since their existence has been known to us,
+even though their number is less than that of our pure black
+population. The same, also, is the case with the population of
+Australia and of the Pacific islands. The Papuan race, the Negrillo
+race, the Australian race proper, distinct from one another, as
+well as from all other inhabitants of the earth, number each fewer
+inhabitants than already exist of the negro race in the United
+States alone, not to speak of Central and South America.
+
+This being the case there is, it seems to me, no more reason to
+expect a disappearance of the negro race from the continent of
+America without violent interference, than to expect a
+disappearance of the races inhabiting respectively the South Sea
+Islands, Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, or any other part of the
+globe tenanted by the less populous races. The case of the American
+Indians, who gradually disappear before the white race, should not
+mislead us, as it is readily accounted for by the peculiar
+character of that race. The negro exhibits by nature a pliability,
+a readiness to accommodate himself to circumstances, a proneness to
+imitate those among whom he lives,--characteristics which are
+entirely foreign to the Indian, while they facilitate in every way
+the increase of the negro. I infer, therefore, from all these
+circumstances that the negro race must be considered as permanently
+settled upon this continent, no less firmly than the white race,
+and that it is our duty to look upon them as co-tenants in the
+possession of this part of the world.
+
+Remember that I have thus far presented the case only with
+reference to the Southern States, where the climate is particularly
+favorable to the maintenance and multiplication of the negro race.
+Before drawing any inference, however, from my first assertion that
+the negro will easily and without foreign assistance maintain
+himself and multiply in the warmer parts of this continent, let us
+consider a few other features of this momentous question of race.
+Whites and blacks may multiply together, but their offspring is
+never either white or black; it is always mulatto. It is a
+half-breed, and shares all the peculiarities of half-breeds, among
+whose most important characteristics is their sterility, or at
+least their reduced fecundity. This shows the connection to be
+contrary to the normal state of the races, as it is contrary to the
+preservation of species in the animal kingdom. . .Far from
+presenting to me a natural solution of our difficulties, the idea
+of amalgamation is most repugnant to my feelings. It is now the
+foundation of some of the most ill-advised schemes. But wherever it
+is practiced, amalgamation among different races produces shades of
+population, the social position of which can never be regular and
+settled. From a physiological point of view, it is sound policy to
+put every possible obstacle to the crossing of the races, and the
+increase of half-breeds. It is unnatural, as shown by their very
+constitution, their sickly physique, and their impaired fecundity.
+It is immoral and destructive of social equality as it creates
+unnatural relations and multiplies the differences among members of
+the same community in a wrong direction.
+
+From all this it is plain that the policy to be adopted toward the
+miscellaneous colored population with reference to a more or less
+distant future should be totally different from that which applies
+to the pure black; for while I believe that a wise social economy
+will foster the progress of every pure race, according to its
+natural dispositions and abilities, and aim at securing for it a
+proper field for the fullest development of all its capabilities, I
+am convinced also that no efforts should be spared to check that
+which is inconsistent with the progress of a higher civilization
+and a purer morality. I hope and trust that as soon as the
+condition of the negro in the warmer parts of our States has been
+regulated according to the laws of freedom, the colored population
+in the more northern parts of the country will diminish. By a
+natural consequence of unconquerable affinities, the colored people
+in whom the negro nature prevails will tend toward the South, while
+the weaker and lighter ones will remain and die out among us.
+
+Entertaining these views upon the fundamental questions concerning
+the races, the next point for consideration is the policy to be
+adopted under present circumstances, in order to increase the
+amount of good which is within our grasp and lessen the evil which
+we may avert. This will be for another letter.
+
+Very truly yours,
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME.
+
+August 10, 1863.
+
+MY DEAR DOCTOR,
+
+I am so deeply impressed with the dangers awaiting the progress of
+civilization, should the ideas now generally prevalent about
+amalgamation gain sufficient ascendancy to exert a practical
+influence upon the management of the affairs of the nation, that I
+beg leave to urge a few more considerations upon that point.
+
+In the first place let me insist upon the fact that the population
+arising from the amalgamation of two races is always degenerate,
+that it loses the excellences of both primitive stocks to retain
+the vices or defects of both, and never to enjoy the physical vigor
+of either. In order clearly to appreciate the tendencies of
+amalgamation, it is indispensable to discriminate correctly between
+the differences distinguishing one race from another and those
+existing between different nationalities of the same race. For
+while the mixture of nationalities of the same race has always
+proved beneficial as far as we are taught by history, the mixture
+of races has produced a very different result. We need only look at
+the inhabitants of Central America, where the white, the negro, and
+the Indian races are more or less blended, to see the baneful
+effects of such an amalgamation. The condition of the Indians on
+the borders of civilization in the United States and in Canada, in
+their contact with the Anglo-Saxons as well as with the French,
+testifies equally to the pernicious influence of amalgamation of
+races. The experience of the Old World points in the same direction
+at the Cape of Good Hope, in Australia; everywhere, in fact,
+history speaks as loudly in favor of the mixture of clearly related
+nations as she does in condemnation of the amalgamation of remote
+races. We need only think of the origin of the English nation, of
+that of the United States, etc. The question of breeding in-and-in,
+that of marriage among close relations, is again quite distinct. In
+fact, there is hardly a more complicated subject in physiology, or
+one requiring nicer discriminations, than that of the
+multiplication of man, and yet it is constantly acted upon as if it
+needed no special knowledge. I beseech you, therefore, while you
+are in a position to exert a leading influence in the councils of
+the nation upon this most important subject to allow no
+preconceived view, no favorite schemes, no immediate object, to
+bias your judgment and mislead you. I do not pretend to be in
+possession of absolute truth. I only urge upon you the
+consideration of unquestionable facts before you form a final
+opinion and decide upon a fixed policy. Conceive for a moment the
+difference it would make in future ages for the prospects of
+republican institutions, and our civilization generally, if instead
+of the manly population descended from cognate nations the United
+States should be inhabited by the effeminate progeny of mixed
+races, half Indian, half negro, sprinkled with white blood. Can you
+devise a scheme to rescue the Spaniards of Mexico from their
+degradation? Beware, then, of any policy which may bring our own
+race to their level.
+
+These considerations lead me naturally to the inquiry into the
+peculiarities of the two races, in order to find out what may be
+most beneficial for each. I rejoice in the prospect of universal
+emancipation, not only from a philanthropic point of view, but also
+because hereafter the physiologist and ethnographer may discuss the
+question of the races and advocate a discriminating policy
+regarding them, without seeming to support legal inequality. There
+is no more one-sided doctrine concerning human nature than the idea
+that all men are equal, in the sense of being equally capable of
+fostering human progress and advancing civilization, especially in
+the various spheres of intellectual and moral activity. If this be
+so, then it is one of our primary obligations to remove every
+obstacle that may retard the highest development, while it is
+equally our duty to promote the humblest aspirations that may
+contribute to raise the lowest individual to a better condition in
+life.
+
+The question is, then, what kind of common treatment is likely to
+be the best for all men, and what do the different races, taken
+singly, require for themselves? That legal equality should be the
+common boon of humanity can hardly be matter for doubt nowadays,
+but it does not follow that social equality is a necessary
+complement of legal equality. I say purposely legal equality, and
+not political equality, because political equality involves an
+equal right to every public station in life, and I trust we shall
+be wise enough not to complicate at once our whole system with new
+conflicting interests, before we have ascertained what may be the
+practical working of universal freedom and legal equality for two
+races, so different as the whites and negroes, living under one
+government. We ought to remember that what we know of the negro,
+from the experience we have had of the colored population of the
+North, affords but a very inadequate standard by which to judge of
+the capabilities of the pure blacks as they exist in the South. We
+ought, further, to remember that the black population is likely at
+all times to outnumber the white in the Southern States. We should
+therefore beware how we give to the blacks rights, by virtue of
+which they may endanger the progress of the whites before their
+temper has been tested by a prolonged experience. Social equality I
+deem at all times impracticable,--a natural impossibility, from the
+very character of the negro race. Let us consider for a moment the
+natural endowments of the negro race as they are manifested in
+history on their native continent, as far as we can trace them
+back, and compare the result with what we know of our own
+destinies, in order to ascertain, within the limits of probability,
+whether social equality with the negro is really an impossibility.
+
+We know of the existence of the negro race, with all its physical
+peculiarities, from the Egyptian monuments, several thousand years
+before the Christian era. Upon these monuments the negroes are so
+represented as to show that in natural propensities and mental
+abilities they were pretty much what we find them at the present
+day,--indolent, playful, sensual, imitative, subservient,
+good-natured, versatile, unsteady in their purpose, devoted and
+affectionate. From this picture I exclude the character of the
+half-breeds, who have, more or less, the character of their white
+parents. Originally found in Africa, the negroes seem at all times
+to have presented the same characteristics wherever they have been
+brought into contact with the white race; as in Upper Egypt, along
+the borders of the Carthaginian and Roman settlements in Africa, in
+Senegal in juxtaposition with the French, in Congo in juxtaposition
+with the Portuguese, about the Cape and on the eastern coast of
+Africa in juxtaposition with the Dutch and the English. While Egypt
+and Carthage grew into powerful empires and attained a high degree
+of civilization; while in Babylon, Syria, and Greece were developed
+the highest culture of antiquity, the negro race groped in
+barbarism and NEVER ORIGINATED A REGULAR ORGANIZATION AMONG
+THEMSELVES. This is important to keep in mind, and to urge upon the
+attention of those who ascribe the condition of the modern negro
+wholly to the influence of slavery. I do not mean to say that
+slavery is a necessary condition for the organization of the negro
+race. Far from it. They are entitled to their freedom, to the
+regulation of their own destiny, to the enjoyment of their life, of
+their earnings, of their family circle. But with all this nowhere
+do they appear to have been capable of rising, by themselves, to
+the level of the civilized communities of the whites, and therefore
+I hold that they are incapable of living on a footing of social
+equality with the whites in one and the same community without
+becoming an element of social disorder.* (* I fear the expression
+"social equality" may be misunderstood in this connection. It means
+here only the relations which would arise from the mixture of the
+two races, and thus affect the organization of society as a whole.
+It does not refer to any superficial or local social rules, such as
+sharing on common ground public conveyances, public accommodations,
+and the like.--ED.)
+
+I am not prepared to state what political privileges they are fit
+to enjoy now; though I have no hesitation in saying that they
+should be equal to other men before the law. The right of owning
+property, of bearing witness, of entering into contracts, of buying
+and selling, of choosing their own domicile, would give them ample
+opportunity of showing in a comparatively short time what political
+rights might properly and safely be granted to them in successive
+installments. No man has a right to what he is unfit to use. Our
+own best rights have been acquired successively. I cannot,
+therefore, think it just or safe to grant at once to the negro all
+the privileges which we ourselves have acquired by long struggles.
+History teaches us what terrible reactions have followed too
+extensive and too rapid changes. Let us beware of granting too much
+to the negro race in the beginning, lest it become necessary
+hereafter to deprive them of some of the privileges which they may
+use to their own and our detriment. All this I urge with reference
+to the pure blacks of the South. As to the half-breeds, especially
+in the Northern States, I have already stated it to be my opinion
+that their very existence is likely to be only transient, and that
+all legislation with reference to them should be regulated with
+this view, and so ordained as to accelerate their disappearance
+from the Northern States.
+
+Let me now sum up my answer to some of your direct questions.
+
+1st. Is it probable that the African race will be a persistent race
+in this country, or will it be absorbed, diluted, and finally
+effaced by the white race?
+
+I believe it will continue in the Southern States, and I hope it
+may gradually die out at the North, where it has only an artificial
+foothold, being chiefly represented by half-breeds, who do not
+constitute a race by themselves.
+
+2nd. Will not the practical amalgamation fostered by slavery become
+more general after its abolition?
+
+Being the result of the vices engendered by slavery, it is to be
+hoped that the emancipation of the blacks, by securing to them a
+legal recognition of their natural ties, will tend to diminish this
+unnatural amalgamation and lessen everywhere the number of these
+unfortunate half-breeds. My reason for believing that the colored
+population of the North will gradually vanish is founded in great
+degree upon the fact that that population does not increase where
+it exists now, but is constantly recruited by an influx from the
+South. The southern half-breeds feel their false position at the
+South more keenly than the blacks, and are more inclined to escape
+to the North than the individuals of purer black blood. Remove the
+oppression under which the colored population now suffers, and the
+current will at once be reversed; blacks and mulattoes of the North
+will seek the sunny South. But I see no cause which should check
+the increase of the black population in the Southern States. The
+climate is genial to them; the soil rewards the slightest labor
+with a rich harvest. The country cannot well be cultivated without
+real or fancied danger to the white man, who, therefore, will not
+probably compete with the black in the labors of the field, thus
+leaving to him an opportunity for easy and desirable support.
+
+3rd. In those sections where the blacks and mulattoes together make
+from seventy to eighty and even ninety per cent of the population
+will there be, after the abolition of slavery, a sufficiently large
+influx of whites to counteract the present numerical preponderance
+of blacks?
+
+To answer this question correctly we must take into consideration
+the mode of distribution of the white and of the colored population
+in the more Southern States. The whites inhabit invariably the
+sea-shores and the more elevated grounds, while the blacks are
+scattered over the lowlands. This peculiar localization is rendered
+necessary by the physical constitution of the country. The lowlands
+are not habitable in summer by the whites between sunset and
+sunrise. All the wealthy whites, and in the less healthy regions
+even the overseers, repair in the evening to the sea-shore or to
+the woodlands, and return only in the morning to the plantation,
+except during the winter months, after the first hard frost, when
+the country is everywhere habitable by all. This necessarily limits
+the area which can be tenanted by the whites, and in some States
+that area is very small as compared with that habitable by the
+blacks. It is therefore clear that with a free black population,
+enjoying identical rights with the whites, these States will sooner
+or later become negro States, with a comparatively small white
+population. This is inevitable; we might as soon expect to change
+the laws of nature as to avert this result. I believe it may in a
+certain sense work well in the end. But any policy based upon
+different expectations is doomed to disappointment.
+
+4th. How to prevent the whites from securing the lion's share of
+the labor of the blacks?
+
+This is a question which my want of familiarity with the operations
+of the laboring classes prevents me from answering in a manner
+satisfactory to myself. Is it not possible to apply to the
+superintendence of the working negroes something like the system
+which regulates the duties of the foreman in all our manufacturing
+establishments?
+
+I should like to go on and attempt to devise some scheme in
+conformity with the convictions I have expressed in these letters.
+But I have little ability in the way of organizing, and then the
+subject is so novel that I am not prepared to propose anything very
+definite.
+
+Ever truly yours,
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+FROM DR. S.G. HOWE.
+
+NEW YORK, August 18, 1863.
+
+MY DEAR AGASSIZ,
+
+I cannot refrain from expressing my thanks for your prompt
+compliance with my request, and for your two valuable letters.
+
+Be assured I shall try to keep my mind open to conviction and to
+forbear forming any theory before observing a wide circle of facts.
+I do not know how you got the idea that I had decided in favor of
+anything about the future of the colored population. I have
+corresponded with the founders of "La Societe Cosmopolite pour la
+fusion des races humaines" in France,--an amalgamation society,
+founded upon the theory that the perfect man is to be the result of
+the fusion of all the races upon earth. I have not, however, the
+honor of being a member thereof. Indeed, I think it hardly exists.
+I hear, too, that several of our prominent anti-slavery gentlemen,
+worthy of respect for their zeal and ability, have publicly
+advocated the doctrines of amalgamation; but I do not know upon
+what grounds.
+
+I do, indeed, hold that in this, as in other matters, we are to do
+the manifest right, regardless of consequences. If you ask me who
+is to decide what is the manifest right, I answer, that in morals,
+as well as in mathematics, there are certain truths so simple as to
+be admitted at sight as axioms by every one of common intelligence
+and honesty. The right to life is as clear as that two and two make
+four, and none dispute it. The right to liberty and to ownership of
+property fairly earned is just as clear to the enlightened mind as
+that 5 x 6 = 30; but the less enlightened may require to reflect
+about it, just as they may want concrete signs to show that five
+times six do really make thirty. As we ascend in numbers and in
+morals, the intuitive perceptions become less and less; and though
+the truths are there, and ought to be admitted as axiomatic, they
+are not at once seen and felt by ordinary minds.
+
+Now so far as the rights of blacks and the duties of whites are
+manifest to common and honest minds, so far would I admit the first
+and perform the second, though the heavens fall. I would not only
+advocate entire freedom, equal rights and privileges, and open
+competition for social distinction, but what now seems to me the
+shocking and downward policy of amalgamation. But the heavens are
+not going to fall, and we are not going to be called upon to favor
+any policy discordant with natural instincts and cultivated tastes.
+
+A case may be supposed in which the higher race ought to submit to
+the sad fate of dilution and debasement of its blood,--as on an
+island, and where long continued wrong and suffering had to be
+atoned for. But this is hardly conceivable, because, even in what
+seems punishment and atonement, the law of harmonious development
+still rules. God does not punish wrong and violence done to one
+part of our nature, by requiring us to do wrong and violence to
+another part. Even Nemesis wields rather a guiding-rod than a
+scourge. We need take no step backward, but only aside, to get
+sooner into the right path.
+
+Slavery has acted as a disturbing force in the development of our
+national character and produced monstrous deformities of a bodily
+as well as moral nature, for it has impaired the purity and lowered
+the quality of the national blood. It imported Africans, and, to
+prevent their extinction by competition with a more vigorous race,
+it set a high premium on colored blood. It has fostered and
+multiplied a vigorous black race, and engendered a feeble mulatto
+breed. Many of each of these classes have drifted northward, right
+in the teeth of thermal laws, to find homes where they would never
+live by natural election. Now, by utterly rooting out slavery, and
+by that means alone, shall we remove these disturbing forces and
+allow fair play to natural laws, by the operation of which, it
+seems to me, the colored population will disappear from the
+Northern and Middle States, if not from the continent, before the
+more vigorous and prolific white race. It will be the duty of the
+statesman to favor, by wise measures, the operation of these laws
+and the purification and elevation of the national blood.
+
+In the way of this is the existence of the colored population of
+the Northern and Middle States. Now, while we should grant to every
+human being all the rights we claim for ourselves, and bear in mind
+the cases of individual excellence of colored people, we must, I
+think, admit that mulattoism is hybridism, and that it is unnatural
+and undesirable. It has been brought to its present formidable
+proportions by several causes,--mainly by slavery. Its evils are to
+be met and lessened as far as may be, by wise statesmanship and by
+enlightenment of public opinion. These may do much.
+
+Some proclaim amalgamation as the remedy, upon the theory that by
+diluting black blood with white blood in larger and larger
+proportions, it will finally be so far diluted as to be
+imperceptible and will disappear. They forget that we may not do
+the wrong that right may come of it. They forget that no amount of
+diffusion will exterminate whatever exists; that a pint of ink
+diffused in a lake is still there, and the water is only the less
+pure.
+
+Others persist that mulattoism is not and cannot be persistent
+beyond four generations. In other words, that like some other
+abnormal and diseased conditions it is self-limiting, and that the
+body social will be purged of it.
+
+In the face of these and other theories, it is our duty to gather
+as many facts and as much knowledge as is possible, in order to
+throw light upon every part of the subject; nobody can furnish more
+than you can.
+
+Faithfully yours,
+
+SAMUEL G. HOWE.* (* In this correspondence with Dr. Howe, one or
+two phrases in Agassiz's letters are interpolated from a third
+unfinished letter, which was never forwarded to Dr. Howe. These
+sentences connect themselves so directly with the sense of the
+previous letters that it seemed worth while to add them.--ED.)
+
+The Museum and his own more immediate scientific work must
+naturally take precedence in any biography of Agassiz, and perhaps,
+for this reason, too little prominence has been given in these
+pages to his interest in general education, and especially in the
+general welfare and progress of Harvard College. He was deeply
+attached to the University with which he had identified himself in
+America. While he strained every nerve to develop his own
+scientific department, which had no existence at Harvard until his
+advent there, no one of her professors was more concerned than
+himself for the organization of the college as a whole. A lover of
+letters as well as a devotee of nature, he valued every provision
+for a well proportioned intellectual training. He welcomed the
+creation of an Academic Council for the promotion of free and
+frequent interchange of opinion between the different heads of
+departments, and, when in Cambridge, he was never absent from the
+meetings. He urged, also, the introduction of university lectures,
+to the establishment of which he largely contributed, and which he
+would fain have opened to all the students. He advocated the
+extension of the elective system, believing that while it might
+perhaps give a pretext for easy evasion of duty to the more
+inefficient and lazy students, it gave larger opportunities to the
+better class, and that the University should adapt itself to the
+latter rather than the former. "The bright students," he writes to
+a friend, "are now deprived of the best advantages to be had here,
+because the dull or the indifferent must still be treated as
+children."
+
+The two following letters, from their bearing on general university
+questions, are not out of place here. Though occasioned by a slight
+misconception, they are so characteristic of the writers, and of
+their relation to each other, that it would be a pity to omit them.
+
+TO RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+December 12, 1864.
+
+MY DEAR EMERSON,
+
+If your lecture on universities, the first of your course, has been
+correctly reported to me, I am almost inclined to quarrel with you
+for having missed an excellent chance to help me, and advance the
+true interests of the college. You say that Natural History is
+getting too great an ascendancy among us, that it is out of
+proportion to other departments, and hint that a check-rein would
+not be amiss on the enthusiastic professor who is responsible for
+this.
+
+Do you not see that the way to bring about a well-proportioned
+development of all the resources of the University is not to check
+the natural history department, but to stimulate all the others?
+not that the zoological school grows too fast, but that the others
+do not grow fast enough? This sounds invidious and perhaps somewhat
+boastful; but it is you and not I who have instituted the
+comparison. It strikes me you have not hit upon the best remedy for
+this want of balance. If symmetry is to be obtained by cutting down
+the most vigorous growth, it seems to me it would be better to have
+a little irregularity here and there. In stimulating, by every
+means in my power, the growth of the Museum and the means of
+education connected with it, I am far from having a selfish wish to
+see my own department tower above the others. I wish that every one
+of my colleagues would make it hard for me to keep up with him, and
+there are some among them, I am happy to say, who are ready to run
+a race with me. Perhaps, after all, I am taking up the cudgels
+against you rather prematurely. If I had not been called to New
+Haven, Sunday before last, by Professor Silliman's funeral, I
+should have been present at your lecture myself. Having missed it,
+I may have heard this passage inaccurately repeated. If so, you
+must forgive me, and believe me always, whatever you did or did not
+say,
+
+Ever truly your friend,
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+FROM RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
+
+CONCORD, December 13, 1864.
+
+DEAR AGASSIZ,
+
+I pray you have no fear that I did, or can, say any word unfriendly
+to you or to the Museum, for both of which blessings--the cause and
+the effect--I daily thank Heaven! May you both increase and
+multiply for ages!
+
+I cannot defend my lectures,--they are prone to be clumsy and
+hurried botches,--still less answer for any report,--which I never
+dare read; but I can tell you the amount of my chiding. I vented
+some of the old grudge I owe the college now for forty-five years,
+for the cruel waste of two years of college time on mathematics
+without any attempt to adapt, by skillful tutors, or by private
+instruction, these tasks to the capacity of slow learners. I still
+remember the useless pains I took, and my serious recourse to my
+tutor for aid which he did not know how to give me. And now I see
+to-day the same indiscriminate imposing of mathematics on all
+students during two years,--ear or no ear, you shall all learn
+music,--to the waste of time and health of a large part of every
+class. It is both natural and laudable in each professor to magnify
+his department, and to seek to make it the first in the world if he
+can. But of course this tendency must be corrected by securing in
+the constitution of the college a power in the head (whether
+singular or plural) of coordinating all the parts. Else, important
+departments will be overlaid, as in Oxford and in Harvard, natural
+history was until now. Now, it looks as if natural history would
+obtain in time to come the like predominance as mathematics have
+here, or Greek at Oxford. It will not grieve me if it should, for
+we are all curious of nature, but not of algebra. But the necessity
+of check on the instructors in the head of the college, I am sure
+you will agree with me, is indispensable. You will see that my
+allusion to naturalists is only incidental to my statement of my
+grievance.
+
+But I have made my letter ridiculously long, and pray you to
+remember that you have brought it on your own head. I do not know
+that I ever attempted before an explanation of any speech.
+
+Always with entire regard yours,
+
+R.W. EMERSON.
+
+At about this time, in September, 1864, Agassiz made an excursion
+into Maine, partly to examine the drift phenomena on the islands
+and coast of that State, and partly to study the so-called
+"horse-backs." The journey proved to be one of the most interesting
+he had made in this country with reference to local glacial
+phenomena. Compass in hand, he followed the extraordinary ridges of
+morainic material lying between Bangor and Katahdin, to the Ebeene
+Mountains, at the foot of which are the Katahdin Iron Works.
+Returning to Bangor, he pursued, with the same minute
+investigation, the glacial tracks and erratic material from that
+place to the seacoast and to Mount Desert. The details of this
+journey and its results are given in one of the papers contained in
+the second volume of his "Geological Sketches." In conclusion, he
+says; "I suppose these facts must be far less expressive to the
+general observer than to one who has seen this whole set of
+phenomena in active operation. To me they have been for many years
+so familiar in the Alpine valleys, and their aspect in those
+regions is so identical with the facts above described, that
+paradoxical as the statement may seem, the presence of the ice is
+now an unimportant element to me in the study of glacial phenomena;
+no more essential than is the flesh to the anatomist who studies
+the skeleton of a fossil animal."
+
+This journey in Maine, undertaken in the most beautiful season of
+the American year, when the autumn glow lined the forest roads with
+red and gold, was a great refreshment to Agassiz. He had been far
+from well, but he returned to his winter's work invigorated and
+with a new sense of hope and courage.
+
+CHAPTER 21.
+
+1865-1868: AGE 58-61.
+
+Letter to his Mother announcing Journey to Brazil.
+Sketch of Journey.
+Kindness of the Emperor.
+Liberality of the Brazilian Government.
+Correspondence with Charles Sumner.
+Letter to his Mother at Close of Brazil Journey.
+Letter from Martius concerning Journey in Brazil.
+Return to Cambridge.
+Lectures in Boston and New York.
+Summer at Nahant.
+Letter to Professor Peirce on the Survey of Boston Harbor.
+Death of his Mother.
+Illness.
+Correspondence with Oswald Heer.
+Summer Journey in the West.
+Cornell University.
+Letter from Longfellow.
+
+THE next important event in the life of Agassiz, due in the first
+instance to his failing health, which made some change of scene and
+climate necessary, is best announced by himself in the following
+letter.
+
+TO HIS MOTHER.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, March 22, 1865.
+
+DEAR MOTHER,
+
+You will shed tears of joy when you read this, but such tears are
+harmless. Listen, then, to what has happened. A few weeks ago I was
+thinking how I should employ my summer. I foresaw that in going to
+Nahant I should not find the rest I need after all the fatigue of
+the two last years, or, at least, not enough of change and
+relaxation. I felt that I must have new scenes to give me new life.
+But where to go and what to do?
+
+Perhaps I wrote you last year of the many marks of kindness I have
+received from the Emperor of Brazil, and you remember that at the
+time of my debut as an author, my attention was turned to the
+natural history of that country. Lately, also, in a course of
+lectures at the Lowell Institute, I have been led to compare the
+Alps, where I have passed so many happy years, with the Andes,
+which I have never seen. In short, the idea came to me gradually,
+that I might spend the summer at Rio de Janeiro, and that, with the
+present facilities for travel, the journey would not be too
+fatiguing for my wife. . .Upon this, then, I had decided, when most
+unexpectedly, and as the consummation of all my wishes, my pleasure
+trip was transformed into an important scientific expedition for
+the benefit of the Museum, by the intervention of one of my
+friends, Mr. Nathaniel Thayer. By chance I met him a week ago in
+Boston. He laughed at me a little about my roving disposition, and
+then asked me what plans I had formed for the Museum, in connection
+with my journey. I answered that, thinking especially of my health,
+I had provided only for the needs of myself and my wife during an
+absence of six or eight months. Then ensued the following
+conversation.
+
+"But, Agassiz, that is hardly like you; you have never been away
+from Cambridge without thinking of your Museum."
+
+"True enough; but I am tired,--I need rest. I am going to loaf a
+little in Brazil."
+
+"When you have had a fortnight of that kind of thing you will be as
+ready for work as ever, and you will be sorry that you have not
+made some preparation to utilize the occasion and the localities in
+the interest of the Museum."
+
+"Yes, I have some such misgiving; but I have no means for anything
+beyond my personal expenses, and it is no time to ask sacrifices
+from any one in behalf of science. The country claims all our
+resources.
+
+"But suppose some one offered you a scientific assistant, all
+expenses paid, what would you say?"
+
+"Of that I had never thought."
+
+"How many assistants could you employ?"
+
+"Half a dozen."
+
+"And what would be the expense of each one?"
+
+"I suppose about twenty-five hundred dollars; at least, that is
+what I have counted upon for myself."
+
+After a moment's reflection he resumed:--
+
+"If it suits you then, Agassiz, and interferes in no way with the
+plans for your health, choose your assistants among the employees
+of your Museum or elsewhere, and I will be responsible for all the
+scientific expenses of the expedition.". . .
+
+My preparations are made. I leave probably next week, from New
+York, with a staff of assistants more numerous, and, I think, as
+well chosen, as those of any previous undertaking of the kind.* (*
+Beside the six assistants provided for by Mr. Thayer, there were a
+number of young volunteer aids who did excellent work on the
+expedition.)
+
+. . .All those who know me seem to have combined to heighten the
+attraction of the journey, and facilitate it in every respect. The
+Pacific Mail Steamship Company has invited me to take passage with
+my whole party on their fine steamer, the Colorado. They will take
+us, free of all expense, as far as Rio de Janeiro,--an economy of
+fifteen thousand francs at the start. Yesterday evening I received
+a letter from the Secretary of the Navy, at Washington, desiring
+the officers of all vessels of war stationed along the coasts I am
+to visit, to give me aid and support in everything concerning my
+expedition. The letter was written in the kindest terms, and
+gratified me the more because it was quite unsolicited. I am really
+touched by the marks of sympathy I receive, not only from near
+friends, but even from strangers. . .I seem like the spoiled child
+of the country, and I hope God will give me strength to repay in
+devotion to her institutions and to her scientific and intellectual
+development, all that her citizens have done for me.
+
+I am forgetting that you will be anxious to know what special work
+I propose to do in the interest of science in Brazil. First, I hope
+to make large collections of all such objects as properly belong in
+a Museum of Natural History, and to this end I have chosen from
+among the employees of our Museum one representative from each
+department. My only regret is that I must leave Alex in Cambridge
+to take care of the Museum itself. He will have an immense amount
+of work to do, for I leave him only six out of our usual staff of
+assistants. In the second place, I intend to make a special study
+of the habits, metamorphoses, anatomy, etc., of the Amazonian
+fishes. Finally, I dream sometimes of an ascension of the Andes, if
+I do not find myself too old and too heavy for climbing. I should
+like to see if there were not also large glaciers in this chain of
+mountains, at the period when the glaciers of the Alps extended to
+the Jura. . .But this latter part of my plan is quite uncertain,
+and must depend in great degree upon our success on the Amazons.
+Accompanied as I am with a number of aides naturalistes, we ought
+to be able among us to bring together large collections, and even
+to add duplicates, which I can then, on my return, distribute to
+the European Museums, in exchange for valuable specimens.
+
+We leave next week, and I hope to write you from Rio a letter which
+will reach you about the date of my birthday. A steamer leaves
+Brazil once a month for England. If my arrival coincides with her
+departure you shall not be disappointed in this.
+
+With all my heart,
+
+YOUR LOUIS.
+
+The story of this expedition has been told in the partly
+scientific, partly personal diary published after Agassiz's return,
+under the title of "A Journey in Brazil," and therefore a full
+account of it here would be mere repetition. He was absent sixteen
+months. The first three were spent in Rio de Janeiro, and in
+excursions about the neighborhood of her beautiful bay and the
+surrounding mountains. For greater efficiency and promptness he
+divided his party into companies, each working separately, some in
+collecting, others in geological surveys, but all under one
+combined plan of action.
+
+The next ten months were passed in the Amazonian region. This part
+of the journey had the charm of purely tropical scenery, and
+Agassiz, who was no less a lover of nature than a naturalist,
+enjoyed to the utmost its beauty and picturesqueness. Much of the
+time he and his companions were living on the great river itself,
+and the deck of the steamer was by turns laboratory, dining-room,
+and dormitory. Often, as they passed close under the banks of the
+river, or between the many islands which break its broad expanse
+into narrow channels, their improvised working room was
+overshadowed by the lofty wall of vegetation, which lifted its
+dense mass of trees and soft drapery of vines on either side. Still
+more beautiful was it when they left the track of the main river
+for the water-paths hidden in the forest. Here they were rowed by
+Indians in "montarias," a peculiar kind of boat used by the
+natives. It has a thatched hood at one end for shelter from rain or
+sun. Little sun penetrates, however, to the shaded "igarape"
+(boat-path), along which the montaria winds its way under a vault
+of green. When traveling in this manner, they stopped for the
+night, and indeed sometimes lingered for days, in Indian
+settlements, or in the more secluded single Indian lodges, which
+are to be found on the shores of almost every lake or channel. In
+this net-work of fresh waters, threading the otherwise impenetrable
+woods, the humblest habitation has its boat and landing-place. With
+his montaria and his hammock, his little plantation of bananas and
+mandioca, and the dwelling, for which the forest about him supplies
+the material, the Amazonian Indian is supplied with all the
+necessities of life.
+
+Sometimes the party were settled, for weeks at a time, in more
+civilized fashion, in the towns or villages on the banks of the
+main river, or its immediate neighborhood, at Manaos, Ega, Obydos,
+and elsewhere. Wherever they sojourned, whether for a longer or a
+shorter time, the scientific work went on uninterruptedly. There
+was not an idle member in the company.
+
+From the time he left Rio de Janeiro, Agassiz had the companionship
+of a young Brazilian officer of the engineer corps, Major Coutinho.
+Thoroughly familiar with the Amazons and its affluents, at home
+with the Indians, among whom he had often lived, he was the pearl
+of traveling companions as well as a valuable addition to the
+scientific force. Agassiz left the Amazonian valley in April, and
+the two remaining months of his stay in Brazil were devoted to
+excursions along the coast, especially in the mountains back of
+Ceara, and in the Organ mountains near Rio de Janeiro.
+
+From beginning to end this journey fulfilled Agassiz's brightest
+anticipations. Mr. Thayer, whose generosity first placed the
+expedition on so broad a scientific basis, continued to give it his
+cordial support till the last specimen was stored in the Museum.
+The interest taken in it by the Emperor of Brazil, and the
+liberality of the government toward it, also facilitated all
+Agassiz's aims and smoothed every difficulty in the path. On
+starting he had set before himself two subjects of inquiry. These
+were, first, the fresh-water fauna of Brazil, of the greater
+interest to him, because of the work on the Brazilian Fishes, with
+which his scientific career had opened; and second, her glacial
+history, for he believed that even these latitudes must have been,
+to a greater or less degree, included in the ice-period. The first
+three months spent in Rio de Janeiro and its environs gave him the
+key to phenomena connected with both these subjects, and he
+followed them from there to the head-waters of the Amazons, as an
+Indian follows a trail. The distribution of life in the rivers and
+lakes of Brazil, the immense number of species and their local
+circumscription, as distinct faunae in definite areas of the same
+water-basin, amazed him; while the character of the soil and other
+geological features confirmed him in his preconceived belief that
+the glacial period could not have been less than cosmic in its
+influence. He was satisfied that the tropical, as well as the
+temperate and arctic regions, had been, although in a less degree,
+fashioned by ice.
+
+Just before leaving the United States he received a letter of
+friendly farewell from Charles Sumner, and his answer, written on
+the Rio Negro, gives some idea of the conditions under which he
+traveled, and of the results he had obtained. As the letters
+explain each other, both are given here.
+
+FROM CHARLES SUMNER.
+
+WASHINGTON, March 20, 1865.
+
+MY DEAR AGASSIZ,
+
+It is a beautiful expedition that you are about to commence,--in
+contrast with the deeds of war. And yet you are going forth to
+conquer new realms, and bring them under a sway they have not yet
+known. But science is peaceful and bloodless in her conquests. May
+you return victorious! I am sure you will. Of course you will see
+the Emperor of Brazil, whose enlightened character is one of the
+happy accidents of government. . .You are a naturalist; but you are
+a patriot also. If you can take advantage of the opportunities
+which you will surely enjoy, and plead for our country, to the end
+that its rights may be understood, and the hardships it has been
+obliged to endure may be appreciated, you will render a service to
+the cause of international peace and good-will.
+
+You are to have great enjoyment. I imagine you already very happy
+in the scenes before you. I, too, should like to see Nature in her
+most splendid robes; but I must stay at home and help keep the
+peace. Good-by--Bon voyage!
+
+Ever sincerely yours,
+
+CHARLES SUMNER.
+
+TO CHARLES SUMNER.
+
+RIO NEGRO; ON BOARD THE BRAZILIAN WAR STEAMER IBICUHY, December 26,
+1865.
+
+MY DEAR SUMNER,
+
+The heading of these lines tells a long and interesting story. Here
+I am, sailing on the Rio Negro, with my wife and a young Brazilian
+friend, provided with all the facilities which modern improvements,
+the extraordinary liberality of the Brazilian government, and the
+kindness of our commander can bestow, and pursuing my scientific
+investigations with as much ease as if I were in my study, or in
+the Museum at Cambridge,--with this enormous difference, that I am
+writing on deck, protected by an awning from the hot sun, and
+surrounded by all the luxuriance of the richest tropical
+vegetation.
+
+The kind reception I met at the hands of the emperor on my arrival
+at Rio has been followed by every possible attention and mark of
+good-will toward me personally, but usually tendered in such a way
+as to show that an expression of cordiality toward the United
+States was intended also in the friendly feeling with which
+everything was done to facilitate my researches. In the first
+place, the emperor gave me as a traveling companion an extremely
+intelligent and well-educated Brazilian, the man of all others whom
+I should have chosen had I been consulted beforehand; and for the
+six months during which we have been on our journey here, I have
+not been able to spend a dollar except for my personal comfort, and
+for my collections. All charges for transportation of persons and
+baggage in public conveyances, as well as for specimens, have
+everywhere been remitted by order of the government. This is not
+all; when we reached Para the Brazilian Steamship Company placed a
+steamer at my disposal, that I might stop where I pleased on the
+way, and tarry as long as I liked instead of following the ordinary
+line of travel. In this way I ascended the Amazons to Manaos, and
+from there, by the ordinary steamer, reached the borders of Peru,
+making prolonged stays at Manaos and at Ega, and sending out
+exploring parties up the Javary, the Jutay, the Ica, etc. On my
+return to Manaos, at the junction of the Rio Negro and the Amazons,
+I found the Ibicuhy awaiting me with an order from the Minister of
+Public Works, placing her at my disposal for the remainder of my
+stay in the waters of the Amazons.
+
+The Ibicuhy is a pretty little war steamer of 120 horse power,
+carrying six thirty-two pound guns. On board of her, and in company
+with the President of the Province, I have already visited that
+extraordinary network of river anastomoses and lakes, stretching
+between the river Madeira and the Amazons to the river Tapajos, and
+now I am ascending the Rio Negro, with the intention of going up as
+far as the junction of the Rio Branco with the Rio Negro. That the
+Brazilian government should be able and willing to offer such
+facilities for the benefit of science, during a time of war, when
+all the resources of the nation are called upon in order to put an
+end to the barbarism of Paraguay, is a most significant sign of the
+tendencies prevailing in the administration. There can be no doubt
+that the emperor is the soul of the whole. This liberality has
+enabled me to devote all my resources to the making of collections,
+and the result of my researches has, of course, been proportionate
+to the facilities I have enjoyed. Thus far, the whole number of
+fishes known from the Amazons has amounted to a little over one
+hundred, counting everything that may exist from these waters, in
+the Jardin des Plantes, the British Museum, the museums of Munich,
+Berlin, Vienna, etc.; while I have collected and now hold, in good
+state of preservation, fourteen hundred and forty-two species, and
+may get a few hundred more before returning to Para. I have so many
+duplicates that I may make every other museum tributary to ours, so
+far as the fresh-water animals of Brazil are concerned. This may
+seem very unimportant to a statesman. But I am satisfied that it
+affords a standard by which to estimate the resources of Brazil, as
+they may be hereafter developed. The basin of the Amazons is
+another Mississippi, having a tropical climate, tempered by
+moisture. Here is room for a hundred million happy human beings.
+
+Ever truly your friend,
+
+L. AGASSIZ.
+
+The repose of the return voyage, after sixteen months of such
+uninterrupted work, and of fresh impressions daily crowding upon
+each other, was most grateful to Agassiz. The summary of this
+delightful journey may close as it began with a letter to his
+mother.
+
+AT SEA, July 7, 1866.
+
+DEAR MOTHER,
+
+When you receive this letter we shall be, I hope, at Nahant, where
+our children and grandchildren are waiting for us. To-morrow we
+shall stop at Pernambuco, where I shall mail my letter to you by a
+French steamer.
+
+I leave Brazil with great regret. I have passed nearly sixteen
+months in the uninterrupted enjoyment of this incomparable tropical
+nature, and I have learned many things which have enlarged my range
+of thought, both concerning organized beings and concerning the
+structure of the earth. I have found traces of glaciers under this
+burning sky; a proof that our earth has undergone changes of
+temperature more considerable than even our most advanced
+glacialists have dared to suggest. Imagine, if you can, floating
+ice under the equator, such as now exists on the coasts of
+Greenland, and you will probably have an approximate idea of the
+aspect of the Atlantic Ocean at that epoch.
+
+It is, however, in the basin of the Amazons especially, that my
+researches have been crowned with an unexpected success. Spix and
+Martius, for whose journey I wrote, as you doubtless remember, my
+first work on fishes, brought back from there some fifty species,
+and the sum total known now, taking the results of all the
+travelers who have followed up the inquiry, does not amount to two
+hundred. I had hoped, in making fishes the special object of my
+researches, to add perhaps a hundred more. You will understand my
+surprise when I rapidly obtained five or six hundred, and finally,
+on leaving Para, brought away nearly two thousand,--that is to say,
+ten times more than were known when I began my journey.* (* This
+estimate was made in the field when close comparison of specimens
+from distant localities was out of the question. The whole
+collection has never been worked up, and it is possible that the
+number of new species it contains, though undoubtedly greatly in
+excess of those previously known from the Amazons, may prove to be
+less than was at first supposed.--ED.) A great part of this success
+is due to the unusual facilities granted me by the Brazilian
+government. . .To the Emperor of Brazil I owe the warmest
+gratitude. His kindness to me has been beyond all bounds. . .He
+even made for me, while he was with the army last summer, a
+collection of fishes from the province of Rio Grande du Sud. This
+collection would do honor to a professional naturalist. . .
+
+Good-by, dear mother.
+
+With all my heart,
+
+YOUR LOUIS.
+
+The following letter from old Professor Martius in Munich, of
+uncertain date, but probably in answer to one of March, 1866, is
+interesting, as connecting this journey with his own Brazilian
+expedition almost half a century before.
+
+FROM PROFESSOR MARTIUS.
+
+February 26, 1867.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,
+
+Your letter of March 20th last year was most gratifying to me as a
+token of your affectionate remembrance. You will easily believe
+that I followed your journey on the Amazons with the greatest
+interest, and without any alloy of envy, though your expedition was
+undertaken forty years later than mine, and under circumstances so
+much more favorable. Bates, who lived for years in that country,
+has borne me witness that I was not wanting in courage and industry
+during an exploration which lasted eleven months; and I therefore
+believe that you also, in reviewing on the spot my description of
+the journey, will not have passed an unfavorable judgment. Our
+greatest difficulty was the small size of our boat which was so
+weak as to make the crossing of the river always dangerous. I shall
+look forward with great pleasure to the more detailed account of
+your journey, and also the plan of your route, which I hope you
+will send me. Can you tell me anything about the human skeletons at
+the Rio St. Antonio in St. Paul? I am very glad to know that you
+have paid especial attention to the palms, and I entreat you to
+send me the essential parts of every species which you hold to be
+new, because I wish to work out the palms for the Flora
+Brasiliensis this year. I wish I might find among them some new
+genus or species, which then should bear your name.
+
+Do you intend to publish an account of your journey, or shall you
+confine yourself entirely to a report on your observations on
+Natural History? With a desire to explain the numerous names of
+animals, plants, and places, which are derived from the Tupee
+language, I have studied it for years that I might be able to use
+it fluently. Perhaps you have seen my "Glossaria lignareus
+brasiliensium." It contains also 1150 names of animals. To this
+work belong, likewise, my ethnographical contributions, of which
+forty-five sheets are already printed, to be published I hope next
+year. I am curious to hear your geological conclusions. I am myself
+inclined to the belief that men existed in South America previous
+to the latest geological catastrophes. As you have seen so many
+North American Indians, you will be able to give interesting
+explanations of their somatic relations to the South American
+Indians. Why could you not send me, as secretary of the
+mathematical and physical section, a short report of your principal
+results? It would then be printed in the report of our meetings,
+which, as the forerunner of other publications, could hardly fail
+to be agreeable to you. You no doubt see our friend Asa Gray
+occasionally. Remember me cordially to him, and tell him I look
+eagerly for an answer to my last letter. The year 'sixty-six has
+taken from us many eminent botanists, Gusone, Mettenius, Von
+Schlechtendal, and Fresenius. I hear but rarely from our excellent
+friend Alexander Braun. He does not resist the approach of old age
+so well as you, my dear friend. You are still the active
+naturalist, fresh and well preserved, to judge by your photograph.
+Thank you for it; I send mine in return. My wife still holds in
+warm remembrance the days when you, a bright, pleasant young
+fellow, used to come and see us,--what a long stretch of time lies
+between. Much is changed about me. Of former friends only Kobell
+and Vogel remain; Zuccarini, Wagner, Oken, Schelling, Sieber,
+Fuchs, Walther,--all these have gone home. All the pleasanter is it
+that you, on the other side of the ocean, think sometimes of your
+old friend, to whom a letter from you will be always welcome.
+Remember me to your family, though I am not known to them. May the
+present year bring you health, cheerfulness, and the full enjoyment
+of your great and glorious success.
+
+With warm esteem and friendship, always yours,
+
+MARTIUS.
+
+Agassiz arrived in Cambridge toward the end of August, 1866. After
+the first excitement of meeting family and friends was over, he
+took up his college and museum work again. He had left for Brazil
+at the close of a course before the Lowell Institute, and his first
+public appearance after his return was on the same platform. The
+rush for tickets was far in excess of the supply, and he was
+welcomed with the most ardent enthusiasm. It continued unabated to
+the close, although the lectures borrowed no interest from personal
+adventure or incidents of travel, but dealt almost wholly with the
+intellectual results and larger scientific generalizations growing
+out of the expedition. Later in the winter he gave a course also at
+the Cooper Institute, in New York, which awakened the same interest
+and drew crowds of listeners. The resolution offered by Bancroft,
+the historian, at the close of the course, gives an idea of its
+character, and coming from such a source, may not unfitly be
+transcribed here.
+
+RESOLVED, That the thanks of this great assembly of delighted
+hearers be given to the illustrious Professor Agassiz, for the
+fullness of his instruction, for the clearness of his method of
+illustration, for his exposition of the idea as antecedent to form;
+of the superiority of the undying, original, and eternal force over
+its transient manifestations; for happy hours which passed too
+rapidly away; for genial influences of which the memory will last
+through our lives.
+
+All his leisure hours during the winter of 1867 were given to the
+review and arrangement of the great collections he had brought
+home.
+
+TO SIR PHILIP DE GREY EGERTON.
+
+MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS., March 26,
+1867.
+
+I know you will be pleased to hear that I have returned to the
+study of fishes, and that I am not likely to give it up again for
+years to come. My success in collecting in the Amazons has been so
+unexpected that it will take me years to give an account of what I
+have found, and I am bound to show that the strange statements that
+have gone abroad are strictly correct. Yes, I have about eighteen
+hundred new species of fishes from the basin of the Amazons! The
+collection is now in Cambridge, for the most part in good
+preservation. It suggests at once the idea that either the other
+rivers of the world have been very indifferently explored, or that
+tropical America nourishes a variety of animals unknown to other
+regions. In this dilemma it would be worth while to send some
+naturalist to investigate the Ganges or the Bramaputra, or some of
+the great Chinese rivers. Can it not be done by order of the
+British government?
+
+Please send me whatever you may publish upon the fossil fishes in
+your possession. I frequently sigh for another session in your
+museum, and it is not improbable that I shall solicit an invitation
+from you in a few years, in order to revise my views of the whole
+subject in connection with what I am now learning of the living
+fishes. By the way, I have eleven hundred colored drawings of the
+species of Brazil made from life by my old friend Burkhardt, who
+accompanied me on this journey.
+
+My recent studies have made me more adverse than ever to the new
+scientific doctrines which are flourishing now in England. This
+sensational zeal reminds me of what I experienced as a young man in
+Germany, when the physio-philosophy of Oken had invaded every
+centre of scientific activity; and yet, what is there left of it? I
+trust to outlive this mania also. As usual, I do not ask beforehand
+what you think of it, and I may have put my hand into a hornet's
+nest; but you know your old friend Agass, and will forgive him if
+he hits a tender spot. . .
+
+The summer of 1867 was passed very tranquilly at his Nahant
+laboratory, in that quiet work with his specimens and his
+microscope which pleased him best. The following letter to
+Professor Benjamin Peirce, who was then Superintendent of the Coast
+Survey, shows, however, his unfailing interest in the bearing of
+scientific researches on questions of public utility.
+
+TO PROFESSOR PEIRCE, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE COAST SURVEY.
+
+NAHANT, September 11, 1867.
+
+DEAR SIR,
+
+Far from considering your request a tax upon my time, it gives me
+the greatest pleasure to have an opportunity of laying before you
+some statements and reflections, which I trust may satisfy you that
+geology and natural history can be made subservient to the great
+interests of a civilized community, to a far greater extent than is
+generally admitted.
+
+The question of the harbor of Boston, for instance, has a
+geological and zoological side, thus far only indirectly
+considered. In order to ascertain whence the materials are derived
+which accumulate in the harbor, the shores ought to be studied
+geologically with a kind of accuracy and minuteness, never required
+by geological surveys made for economical purposes. The banks of
+the harbor, wherever it is not rock-bound, consist of drift, which
+itself rests upon the various rock formations of the district. Now
+this drift, as I have ascertained, formerly extended many miles
+beyond our present shores, and is still slowly washed away by the
+action of tides, winds, and currents. Until you know with precision
+the mineralogical composition of the drift of the immediate
+vicinity, so accurately indeed as to be able to recognize it in any
+new combination into which it may be brought when carried off by
+the sea, all your examination of soundings may be of little use.
+Should it, however, be ascertained that the larger amount of loose
+material spreading over the harbor is derived from some one or
+other of the drift islands in the bay, the building of sea-walls to
+stop the denudation may be of greater and more immediate use than
+any other operation. Again, it is geologically certain that all the
+drift islands of the harbor have been formed by the encroachment of
+the sea upon a sheet of drift, which once extended in unbroken
+continuity from Cape Ann to Cape Cod and farther south. This sheet
+of drift is constantly diminishing, and in centuries to come,
+which, notwithstanding the immeasurable duration of geological
+periods, may be reached, I trust, while the United States still
+remains a flourishing empire, it will be removed still further; so
+far indeed, that I foresee the time when the whole peninsula of
+Cape Cod shall disappear. Under these circumstances, it is the duty
+of a wise administration to establish with precision the rate and
+the extent of this destruction, that the coming generations may be
+forewarned. In connection with this I would advise the making of a
+thorough survey of the harbor, to ascertain the extent of rock
+surface and of drift, and the relative position of the two, with
+maps to show their relations to the different levels of the sea,
+whereby the unequal action of the tides upon the various beaches
+may be estimated.
+
+The zoological side of the question relates to the amount of loose
+materials accumulating in consequence of the increase of animal and
+vegetable life, especially of those microscopic beings which,
+notwithstanding their extraordinary minuteness, form in course of
+time vast deposits of solid materials. Ehrenberg has shown that the
+harbor of Wismar, on the Prussian coast of the Baltic, is filling,
+not in consequence of the accumulation of inorganic sediments, but
+by the rapid increase and decay of innumerable animalcules. To what
+extent such deposits may accumulate has also been shown by
+Ehrenberg, who ascertained, many years ago, that the city of Berlin
+rests upon a deposit of about eighteen feet in thickness,
+consisting almost exclusively of the solid parts of such
+microscopic beings. These two cases may suffice to show how
+important may be a zoological investigation of the harbor deposits.
+
+I need hardly add that the deposits floated into the harbor, by the
+numerous rivers and creeks which empty into it, ought to be
+investigated with the same care and minuteness as the drift
+materials. This investigation should also include the drainage of
+the city.
+
+But this is only a small part of the application I would recommend
+to be made of geological and zoological knowledge, to the purposes
+of the Coast Survey. The reefs of Florida are of the deepest
+interest, and the mere geodetic and hydrographic surveys of their
+whole range would be far from exhausting the subject. It is my
+deliberate opinion that the great reefs of Florida should be
+explored with as much minuteness and fullness as the Gulf Stream,
+and that the investigation will require as much labor as has thus
+far been bestowed on the Gulf Stream. Here again geological and
+zoological knowledge is indispensable to the completion of the
+work. The reef is formed mainly by the accumulation of solid
+materials from a variety of animals and a few plants. The relations
+of these animals and plants to one another while alive, in and upon
+the reef, ought to be studied more fully than has been the case
+heretofore, in order to determine with certainty the share they
+have in the formation of these immense submarine walls so dangerous
+to navigation. The surveys, as they have been made thus far,
+furnish only the necessary information concerning the present form
+and extent of the reef. But we know that it is constantly changing,
+increasing, enlarging, spreading, rising in such a way and at such
+a rate, that the surveys of one century become insufficient for the
+next. A knowledge of these changes can only be obtained by a
+naturalist, familiar with the structure and mode of growth of the
+animals. The survey I made about fifteen years ago, at the request
+of your lamented predecessor, could only be considered as a
+reconnaissance, in view of the extent and importance of the work. I
+would, therefore, recommend you to organize a party specially
+detailed to carry on these investigations in connection with, and
+by the side of, the regular geodetic and hydrographic survey. Here,
+also, would geological knowledge be of great advantage to the
+explorer. In confirmation of my recommendation I need only remind
+you of a striking fact in the history of our science. More than
+thirty years ago, before Dana and Darwin had published their
+beautiful investigations upon the coral reefs, a pupil of mine, the
+late Armand Gressly, had traced the structure and mode of growth of
+coral reefs and atolls in the Jura mountains, thus anticipating, by
+a geological investigation, results afterward obtained by dredging
+in the ocean. The structure of the reefs of our shores is,
+therefore, more likely to be fully understood by one who is
+entirely familiar with zoology and geology than by a surveyor who
+has no familiarity with either of these sciences.
+
+There is another reason why I would urge upon you the application
+of natural sciences to the work of the survey. The depth of the
+ocean is a great obstacle to a satisfactory exploration of its
+bottom. But we know now that nearly all dry land has been sea
+bottom before it was raised above the level of the water. This is
+at least the case with all the stratified rocks and aqueous
+deposits forming part of the earth's crust. Now it would greatly
+facilitate the study of the bottom of the sea if, after
+ascertaining by soundings the general character of the bottom in
+any particular region, corresponding bottoms on dry land were
+examined, so that by a comparison of the one with the other, both
+might be better understood. The shoals of the southern coast of
+Massachusetts have been surveyed, and their position is now known
+with great accuracy; but their internal structure, their mode of
+formation, is only imperfectly ascertained, owing to the difficulty
+of cutting into them and examining in situ the materials of which
+they are composed. Nothing, on the contrary, is easier than to
+explore the structure or composition of drift hills which are cut
+through by all our railroad tracks. Now the shoals and rips of
+Nantucket have their counterparts on the main-land; and even along
+the shores of Boston Harbor, in the direction of Dorchester and
+Milton, such shoals may be examined, far away from the waters to
+which they owe their deposits. Here, then, is the place to complete
+the exploration, for which soundings and dredgings give only
+imperfect information.
+
+I need not extend these remarks further in order to satisfy you of
+the importance of geological and zoological researches in
+connection with the regular operations of the Coast Survey. Permit
+me, however, to add a few words upon some points which, as it seems
+to me, belong legitimately to the Coast Survey, and to which
+sufficient attention has not yet been paid. I allude, first, to the
+salt marshes of our shores, their formation and uses, as well as
+their gradual disappearance under the advance of the sea; second,
+to the extended low islands in the form of reefs along the coast of
+the Southern States, the bases of which may be old coral reefs;
+third, the form of all our estuaries, which has resulted from the
+conflict of the sea with the drift formation, and is therefore, in
+a measure, a geological problem; fourth, the extensive deposits of
+foraminifera along the coast, which ought to be compared with the
+deposits of tripoli found in many tertiary formations; fifth, the
+general form and outline of our continent, with all its
+indentations, which are due to their geological structure. Indeed,
+the shore everywhere is the result of the conflict of the ocean
+with the rock formation of the land, and therefore as much a
+question for geology as geodesy to answer.
+
+Should the preceding remarks induce you to carry my suggestions
+into practical operation, be assured that it will at all times give
+me the greatest pleasure to contribute to the success of your
+administration, not only by advice, but by actual participation in
+your work whenever that is wanted. The scientific men of America
+look to you for the publication of the great results already
+secured by the Coast Survey, well knowing that this national
+enterprise can only be benefited by the high-minded course which
+has at all times marked your intellectual career.
+
+Ever truly your friend,
+
+L. AGASSIZ.
+
+This year closed for Agassiz with a heavy sorrow. His mother's
+health had been failing of late, and November brought the news of
+her death. Separated though they were, there had never been any
+break in their intercourse. As far as he could, he kept her advised
+of all his projects and undertakings, and his work was no less
+interesting to her when the ocean lay between them than when he
+could daily share it with her. She had an unbounded sympathy with
+him in the new ties he had formed in this country, and seemed
+indeed as intimately allied with his later life here as with its
+earlier European portion.
+
+His own health, which had seemed for a time to have regained the
+vigor of youth, broke down again in the following spring, and an
+attack about the region of the heart disabled him for a number of
+weeks. To this date belongs a short correspondence between Agassiz
+and Oswald Heer. Heer's work on the Fossil Flora of the Arctics had
+recently appeared, and a presentation copy from him reached Agassiz
+as he was slowly regaining strength after his illness, although
+still confined to the house. It could not have come at a happier
+moment, for it engrossed him completely, and turned his thoughts
+away from the occupations which he was not yet allowed to resume.
+The book had a twofold interest for him: although in another branch
+of science, it was akin to his own earlier investigations, inasmuch
+as it reconstructed the once rich flora of the polar regions as he
+himself had reconstructed the fauna of past geological times; it
+clothed their frozen fields with forests as he had sheeted now
+fertile lands with ice. In short, it appealed powerfully to the
+imagination, and no child in the tedious hours of convalescence was
+ever more beguiled by a story-book than he by the pictures which
+this erudite work called up.
+
+AGASSIZ TO OSWALD HEER.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, May 12, 1868.
+
+MY HONORED COLLEAGUE,
+
+Your beautiful book on the Fossil Arctic Flora reached me, just as
+I was recovering from a tedious and painful illness. I could,
+therefore, take it in hand at once, and have been delighted with
+it. You give a captivating picture of the successive changes which
+the Arctic regions have undergone. No work could be more valuable,
+either as a means of opening recent investigations in Paleontology
+to the larger public, or of advancing science itself. If I can find
+the time I mean to prepare an abridgment in popular form for one of
+our reviews. Meantime I have written to Professor Henry,
+Superintendent of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, that
+he should subscribe for a number of copies to be distributed among
+less wealthy establishments. I hope he will do this, and I shall
+continue to urge it, since my friendly relations with him give me a
+right so to do. I have, moreover, written to the directors of
+various prominent institutions, in order that your work, so far as
+is possible for works of that kind, may become known in the United
+States, and reach such persons as would naturally be interested in
+it. . .
+
+With friendly remembrance, yours always,
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+The answer is some months later in date, but is given here for its
+connection.
+
+FROM OSWALD HEER.
+
+ZURICH, December 8, 1868.
+
+MY HONORED FRIEND,
+
+Your letter of last May gave me the greatest pleasure, and I should
+have answered it earlier had I not heard that you had gone to the
+Rocky Mountains, and supposed, therefore, that my letter would
+hardly find you at home again before the late autumn. I will delay
+writing no longer,--the more so because I have received, through
+the Smithsonian Institution, your great work on the Natural History
+of the United States. Valuable as it is in itself, it has a double
+attraction for me as the gift of the author. Accept my warm thanks.
+It will always be to me a token of your friendly regard. It gave me
+great satisfaction to know that my Fossil Arctic Flora had met with
+your approval. Since then many new facts have come to light tending
+to confirm my results. The Whymper Expedition brought to England a
+number of fossil plants, which have been sent to me for
+examination. I found eighty species, of which thirty-two from North
+Greenland are new, so that we now know 137 species of Miocene
+plants from North Greenland (70 degrees north latitude). It was a
+real delight to me to find the fruit cup of the Castanea [chestnut]
+inclosing three seeds (three Kastanica) and covered with prickles
+like the Castanea vesca; and, furthermore, I was able to prove by
+the flowers, which were preserved with the fruit, that the
+supposition given in the Arctic Flora (page 106) was correct;
+namely, that the leaves of the Fagus castaneafolia Ung. truly
+belong to a Castanea. As several fruits are contained in one fruit
+cup, this Miocene Castanea must have been nearer to the European
+species (C. vesca) than to the American Castanea (the C. pumila
+Micha). The leaves have been drawn in the Flora Arctica, and are
+also preserved in the Whymper collection.
+
+I have received very beautiful and large leaves of the Castanea
+which I have called C. Ungeri, from Alaska. I am now occupied in
+working up this fossil Alaskan flora; the plants are in great part
+drawn, and contain magnificent leaves. The treatise will be
+published by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm; I hope to send you a
+copy a few months hence. This flora is remarkable for its
+resemblance to the European Miocene flora. The liquidambar, as well
+as several poplars and willows, cannot be distinguished from those
+of Oeningen; the same is true of an Elm, a Carpinus, and others. As
+Alaska now belongs to the United States, it is to be hoped that
+these collecting stations, which have already furnished such
+magnificent plants, will be farther ransacked. . .Hoping that you
+have returned safely from your journey, and that these lines may
+find you well, I remain, with cordial greeting,
+
+Sincerely yours,
+
+OSWALD HEER.
+
+Shortly after Agassiz's recovery, in July, 1868, he was invited by
+Mr. Samuel Hooper to join a party of friends, tired members of
+Congress and business men, on an excursion to the West, under
+conditions which promised not only rest and change, but an
+opportunity for studying glacial phenomena over a broad region of
+prairie and mountain which Agassiz had never visited. They were to
+meet at Chicago, keep on from there to St. Paul, and down the
+Mississippi, turning off through Kansas to the eastern branch of
+the Pacific Railroad, at the terminus of which they were to meet
+General Sherman with ambulances and an escort for conveyance across
+the country to the Union Pacific Railroad, returning then by
+Denver, Utah, and Omaha, and across the State of Iowa to the
+Mississippi once more. This journey was of great interest to
+Agassiz, and its scientific value was heightened by a subsequent
+stay of nearly two months at Ithaca, N.Y., on his return. Cornell
+University was then just opened at Ithaca, and he had accepted an
+appointment as non-resident professor, with the responsibility of
+delivering annually a course of lectures on various subjects of
+natural history. New efforts in behalf of education always
+attracted him, and this drew him with an even stronger magnet than
+usual, involving as it did an untried experiment--the attempt,
+namely, to combine the artisan with the student, manual labor with
+intellectual work. The plan was a generous one, and stimulated both
+pupils and teachers. Among the latter none had greater sympathy
+with the high ideal and broad humanity of the undertaking than
+Agassiz.* (* Very recently a memorial tablet has been placed in the
+Chapel at Cornell University by the trustees, recording their
+gratitude for the share he took in the initiation of the
+institution.)
+
+Beside the enthusiasm which he brought to his special work, he
+found an added pleasure at Cornell in the fact that the region in
+which the new university was situated contained another chapter in
+the book of glacial records he had so long been reading, and made
+also, as the following letter tells us, a natural sequence to his
+recent observations in the West.
+
+TO M. DE LA RIVE.
+
+ITHACA, October 26, 1868.
+
+. . .I am passing some weeks here, and am studying the erratic
+phenomena, and especially the formation of the many small lakes
+which literally swarm in this region, and are connected in various
+ways with the glacial epoch. The journey which I have just
+completed has furnished me with a multitude of new facts concerning
+the glacial period, the long continuance of which, and its
+importance with reference to the physical history of the globe,
+become daily more clear to me. The origin and mode of formation of
+the vast system of our American rivers have especially occupied me,
+and I think I have found the solution of the problem which they
+present. This system reproduces the lines followed by the water
+over the surface of the ground moraines, which covered the whole
+continent, when the great sheet of ice which modeled the drift
+broke up and melted away. This conclusion will, no doubt, be as
+slow of acceptance as was the theory of the ancient extension of
+glaciers. But that does not trouble me. For my own part I am
+confident of its truth, and after having seen the idea of a glacial
+epoch finally adopted by all except those who are interested in
+opposing it on account of certain old and artificial theories, I
+can wait a little till the changes which succeeded that epoch are
+also understood. I have obtained direct proof that the prairies of
+the West rest upon polished rock. It has happened in the course of
+recent building on the prairie, that the native rock has been laid
+bare here and there, and this rock is as distinctly furrowed by the
+action of the glacier and by its engraving process, as the Handeck,
+or the slopes of the Jura. I have seen magnificent slabs in
+Nebraska in the basin of the river Platte. Do not the physicists
+begin to think of explaining to us the probable cause of changes so
+remarkable and so well established? We can no longer evade the
+question by supposing these phenomena to be due to the action of
+great currents. We have to do first with sheets of ice, five or six
+thousand feet in thickness (an estimate which can be tested by
+indirect measurements in the Northern States), covering the whole
+continent, and then with the great currents which ensued upon the
+breaking up of that mass of ice. He who does not distinguish
+between these two series of facts, and perceive their connection,
+does not understand the geology of the Quaternary epoch. . .
+
+Of about this date is the following pleasant letter from Longfellow
+to Agassiz. Although it has no special bearing upon what precedes,
+it is inserted here, because their near neighborhood and constant
+personal intercourse, both at Cambridge and Nahant, made letters
+rare between them. Friends who see each other so often are
+infrequent correspondents.
+
+ROME, December 31, 1868.
+
+MY DEAR AGASSIZ,
+
+I fully intended to write you from Switzerland, that my letter
+might come to you like a waft of cool air from a glacier in the
+heat of summer. But alas! I did not find cool air enough for
+myself, much less to send across the sea. Switzerland was as hot as
+Cambridge, and all life was taken out of me; and the letter
+remained in the inkstand. I draw it forth as follows.
+
+One of the things I most wished to say, and which I say first, is
+the delight with which I found your memory so beloved in England.
+At Cambridge, Professor Sedgwick said, "Give my love to Agassiz.
+Give him the blessing of an old man." In London, Sir Roderick
+Murchison said, "I have known a great many men that I liked; but I
+LOVE Agassiz." In the Isle of Wight, Darwin said, "What a set of
+men you have in Cambridge! Both our universities put together
+cannot furnish the like. Why, there is Agassiz,--he counts for
+three."
+
+One of my pleasantest days in Switzerland was that passed at
+Yverdon. In the morning I drove out to see the Gasparins. In their
+abundant hospitality they insisted upon my staying to dinner, and
+proposed a drive up the valley of the Orbe. I could not resist; so
+up the lovely valley we drove, and passed the old chateau of the
+Reine Berthe, one of my favorite heroines, but, what was far more
+to me, passed the little town of Orbe. There it stands, with its
+old church tower and the trees on the terrace, just as when you
+played under them as a boy. It was very, very pleasant to behold
+. . .Thanks for your letter from the far West. I see by the papers
+that you have been lecturing at the Cornell University.
+
+With kindest greetings and remembrances, always affectionately
+yours,
+
+H.W.L.
+
+CHAPTER 22.
+
+1868-1871: AGE 61-64.
+
+New Subscription to Museum.
+Additional Buildings.
+Arrangement of New Collections.
+Dredging Expedition on Board the Bibb.
+Address at the Humboldt Centennial.
+Attack on the Brain.
+Suspension of Work.
+Working Force at the Museum.
+New Accessions.
+Letter from Professor Sedgwick.
+Letter from Professor Deshayes.
+Restored Health.
+Hassler Voyage proposed.
+Acceptance.
+Scientific Preparation for the Voyage.
+
+Agassiz returned to Cambridge to find the Museum on an improved
+footing financially. The Legislature had given seventy-five
+thousand dollars for an addition to the building, and private
+subscriptions had doubled this sum, in order to provide for the
+preservation and arrangement of the new collections. In
+acknowledging this gift of the Legislature in his Museum Report for
+1868 Agassiz says:--
+
+"While I rejoice in the prospect of this new building, as affording
+the means for a complete exhibition of the specimens now stored in
+our cellars and attics and encumbering every room of the present
+edifice, I yet can hardly look forward to the time when we shall be
+in possession of it without shrinking from the grandeur of our
+undertaking. The past history of our science rises before me with
+its lessons. Thinking men in every part of the world have been
+stimulated to grapple with the infinite variety of problems,
+connected with the countless animals scattered without apparent
+order throughout sea and land. They have been led to discover the
+affinities of various living beings. The past has yielded up its
+secrets, and has shown them that the animals now peopling the earth
+are but the successors of countless populations which have preceded
+them, and whose remains are buried in the crust of our globe.
+Further study has revealed relations between the animals of past
+time and those now living, and between the law of succession in the
+former and the laws of growth and distribution in the latter, so
+intimate and comprehensive that this labyrinth of organic life
+assumes the character of a connected history, which opens before us
+with greater clearness in proportion as our knowledge increases.
+But when the museums of the Old World were founded, these relations
+were not even suspected. The collections of natural history,
+gathered at immense expense in the great centres of human
+civilization, were accumulated mainly as an evidence of man's
+knowledge and skill in exhibiting to the best advantage, not only
+the animals, but the products and curiosities of all sorts from
+various parts of the world. While we admire and emulate the
+industry and perseverance of the men who collected these materials,
+and did in the best way the work it was possible to do in their
+time for science, we have no longer the right to build museums
+after this fashion. The originality and vigor of one generation
+become the subservience and indolence of the next, if we only
+repeat the work of our predecessors. They prepared the ground for
+us by accumulating the materials for extensive comparison and
+research. They presented the problem; we ought to be ready with the
+solution. If I mistake not, the great object of our museums should
+be to exhibit the whole animal kingdom as a manifestation of the
+Supreme Intellect. Scientific investigation in our day should be
+inspired by a purpose as animating to the general sympathy, as was
+the religious zeal which built the Cathedral of Cologne or the
+Basilica of St. Peter's. The time is passed when men expressed
+their deepest convictions by these wonderful and beautiful
+religious edifices; but it is my hope to see, with the progress of
+intellectual culture, a structure arise among us which may be a
+temple of the revelations written in the material universe. If this
+be so, our buildings for such an object can never be too
+comprehensive, for they are to embrace the infinite work of
+Infinite Wisdom. They can never be too costly, so far as cost
+secures permanence and solidity, for they are to contain the most
+instructive documents of Omnipotence."
+
+Agassiz gave the winter of 1869 to identifying, classifying, and
+distributing the new collections. A few weeks in the spring were,
+however, passed with his friend Count de Pourtales in a dredging
+expedition on board the Coast Survey Steamer Bibb, off the coast of
+Cuba, on the Bahama Banks, and among the reefs of Florida. This
+dredging excursion, though it covered a wider ground than any
+previous one, was the third deep-sea exploration undertaken by M.
+de Pourtales under the auspices of the Coast Survey. His
+investigations may truly be said to have exercised a powerful
+influence upon this line of research, and to have led the way to
+the more extended work of the same kind carried on by the Coast
+Survey in later years. He had long wished to show his old friend
+and teacher some of the rich dredging grounds he had discovered
+between Florida and the West Indies, and they thoroughly enjoyed
+this short period of work together. Every day and hour brought some
+new interest, and excess of material seemed the only difficulty.
+
+This was Agassiz's last cruise in the Bibb, on whose hospitable
+deck he had been a welcome guest from the first year of his arrival
+in this country. The results of this expedition, as connected with
+the present conformation of the continent and its probable
+geological history in the past, were given as follows in the Museum
+Bulletin of the same year.
+
+REPORT UPON DEEP SEA DREDGINGS.*
+
+(* "Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology" 1 Number 13 1869
+pages 368, 369.)
+
+BY LOUIS AGASSIZ.
+
+From what I have seen of the deep-sea bottom, I am already led to
+infer that among the rocks forming the bulk of the stratified crust
+of our globe, from the oldest to the youngest formation, there are
+probably none which have been formed in very deep waters. If this
+be so, we shall have to admit that the areas now respectively
+occupied by our continents, as circumscribed by the two hundred
+fathom curve or thereabout, and the oceans at greater depth, have
+from the beginning retained their relative outline and position;
+the continents having at all times been areas of gradual upheaval
+with comparatively slight oscillations of rise and subsidence, and
+the oceans at all times areas of gradual depression with equally
+slight oscillations. Now that the geological constitution of our
+continent is satisfactorily known over the greatest part of its
+extent, it seems to me to afford the strongest evidence that this
+has been the case; while there is no support whatever for the
+assumption that any part of it has sunk again to any very great
+depth after its rise above the surface of the ocean. The fact that
+upon the American continent, east of the Rocky Mountains, the
+geological formations crop out in their regular succession, from
+the oldest azoic and primordial deposits to the cretaceous
+formation, without the slightest indication of a great subsequent
+subsidence, seems to me the most complete and direct demonstration
+of my proposition. Of the western part of the continent I am not
+prepared to speak with the same confidence. Moreover, the position
+of the cretaceous and tertiary formations along the low grounds
+east of the Allegheny range is another indication of the permanence
+of the ocean trough, on the margin of which these more recent beds
+have been formed. I am well aware that in a comparatively recent
+period, portions of Canada and the United States, which now stand
+six or seven hundred feet above the level of the sea, have been
+under water; but this has not changed the configuration of the
+continent, if we admit that the latter is in reality circumscribed
+by the two hundred fathom curve of depth.
+
+The summer was passed in his beloved laboratory at Nahant (as it
+proved, the last he ever spent there), where he was still
+continuing the preparation of his work on sharks and skates. At the
+close of the summer, he interrupted this occupation for one to
+which he brought not only the reverence of a disciple, but a
+life-long debt of personal gratitude and affection. He had been
+entreated to deliver the address at the Humboldt Centennial
+Celebration (September 15, 1869), organized under the auspices of
+the Boston Society of Natural History. He had accepted the
+invitation with many misgivings, for to literary work as such he
+was unaccustomed, and in the field of the biographer he felt
+himself a novice. His preparation for the task was conscientious
+and laborious. For weeks he shut himself up in a room of the Public
+Library in Boston and reviewed all the works of the great master,
+living, as it were, in his presence. The result was a very concise
+and yet full memoir, a strong and vigorous sketch of Humboldt's
+researches, and of their influence not only upon higher education
+at the present day, but on our most elementary instruction, until
+the very "school-boy is familiar with his methods, yet does not
+know that Humboldt is his teacher." Agassiz's picture of this
+generous intellect, fertilizing whatever it touched, was made the
+more life-like by the side lights which his affection for Humboldt
+and his personal intercourse with him in the past enabled him to
+throw upon it. Emerson, who was present, said of this address,
+"that Agassiz had never delivered a discourse more wise, more
+happy, or of more varied power." George William Curtis writes of
+it: "Your discourse seems to me the very ideal of such an address,
+--so broad, so simple, so comprehensive, so glowing, so profoundly
+appreciative, telling the story of Humboldt's life and work as I am
+sure no other living man can tell it." In memory of this occasion
+the "Humboldt Scholarship" was founded at the Museum of Comparative
+Zoology.
+
+It is hardly worth while to consider now whether this effort, added
+to the pressing work of the year, hastened the attack which
+occurred soon after, with its warning to Agassiz that his
+overtasked brain could bear no farther strain. The first seizure,
+of short duration, but affecting speech and motion while it lasted,
+was followed by others which became less and less acute until they
+finally disappeared. For months, however, he was shut up in his
+room, absolutely withdrawn from every intellectual effort, and
+forbidden by his physicians even to think. The fight with his own
+brain was his greatest difficulty, and perhaps he showed as much
+power in compelling his active intellect to stultify itself in
+absolute inactivity for the time, as he had ever shown in giving it
+free rein. Yet he could not always banish the Museum, the
+passionate dream of his American life. One day, after dictating
+some necessary directions concerning it, he exclaimed, with a sort
+of despairing cry, "Oh, my Museum! my Museum! always uppermost, by
+day and by night, in health and in sickness, always--ALWAYS!"
+
+He was destined, however, to a few more years of activity, the
+reward, perhaps, of his patient and persistent struggle for
+recovery. After a winter of absolute seclusion, passed in his sick
+chamber, he was allowed by his physician, in the spring of 1870, to
+seek change at the quiet village of Deerfield on the Connecticut
+River. Nature proved the best physician. Unable when he arrived to
+take more than a few steps without vertigo, he could, before many
+weeks were over, walk several miles a day. Keen as an Egyptologist
+for the hieroglyphics of his science, he was soon deciphering the
+local inscriptions of the glacial period, tracking the course of
+the ice on slab and dike and river-bed,--on every natural surface.
+The old music sang again in his ear and wooed him back to life.
+
+In the mean time, his assistants and students were doing all in
+their power to keep the work of the Museum at high-water mark. The
+publications, the classification and arrangement of the more recent
+collections, the distribution of such portions as were intended for
+the public, the system of exchanges, went on uninterruptedly. The
+working force at the Museum was, indeed, now very strong. In great
+degree it was, so to speak, home-bred. Agassiz had gradually
+gathered about him, chiefly from among his more special students, a
+staff of assistants who were familiar with his plans and shared his
+enthusiasm. To these young friends he was warmly attached. It would
+be impossible to name them all, but the knot of younger men who
+were for years his daily associates in scientific work, whose
+sympathy and cooperation he so much valued, and who are now in
+their turn growing old in the service of science, will read the
+roll-call between the lines, and know that none are forgotten here.
+Years before his own death, he had the pleasure of seeing several
+of them called to important scientific positions, and it was a
+cogent evidence to him of the educational efficiency of the Museum,
+that it had supplied to the country so many trained investigators
+and teachers. Through them he himself teaches still. There was a
+prophecy in Lowell's memorial lines:--
+
+    "He was a Teacher: why be grieved for him
+    Whose living word still stimulates the air?
+    In endless file shall loving scholars come,
+    The glow of his transmitted touch to share."
+
+Beside these, there were several older, experienced naturalists,
+who were permanently or transiently engaged at the Museum. Some
+were heads of departments, while others lent assistance
+occasionally in special work. Again the list is too long for
+enumeration, but as the veteran among the older men Mr. J.G.
+Anthony should be remembered. Already a conchologist of forty
+years' standing when he came to the Museum in 1863, he devoted
+himself to the institution until the day of his death, twenty years
+later. Among those who came to give occasional help were Mr.
+Lesquereux, the head of paleontological botany in this country; M.
+Jules Marcou, the geologist; and M. de Pourtales, under whose care
+the collection of corals was constantly improved and enlarged. The
+last named became at last wholly attached to the Museum, sharing
+its administration with Alexander Agassiz after his father's death.
+
+To this band of workers some accessions had recently been made.
+More than two years before, Agassiz had been so fortunate as to
+secure the assistance of the entomologist, Dr. Hermann Hagen, from
+Konigsberg, Prussia. He came at first only for a limited time, but
+he remained, and still remains, at the Museum, becoming more and
+more identified with the institution, beside filling a place as
+professor in Harvard University. His scientific sympathy and
+support were of the greatest value to Agassiz during the rest of
+his life. A later new-corner, and a very important one at the
+Museum, was Dr. Franz Steindachner, of Vienna, who arrived in the
+spring of 1870 to put in final order the collection of Brazilian
+fishes, and passed two years in this country. Thus Agassiz's hands
+were doubly strengthened. Beside having the service of the salaried
+assistants and professors, the Museum received much gratuitous aid.
+Among the scientific volunteers were numbered for years Francois de
+Pourtales, Theodore Lyman, James M. Barnard, and Alexander Agassiz,
+while the business affairs of the institution were undertaken by
+Thomas G. Cary, Agassiz's brother-in-law. The latter had long been
+of great service to the Museum as collector on the Pacific coast,
+where he had made this work his recreation in the leisure hours of
+a merchant's life.* (* For the history of the Museum in later times
+reference is made to the regular reports and publications of the
+institution.)
+
+Broken as he was in health, it is amazing to see the amount of work
+done or directed by Agassiz during this convalescent summer of
+1870. The letters written by him in this time concerning the Museum
+alone would fill a good-sized volume. Such a correspondence is
+unfit for reproduction here, but its minuteness shows that almost
+the position of every specimen, and the daily, hourly work of every
+individual in the Museum, were known to him. The details of
+administration form, however, but a small part of the material of
+this correspondence. The consideration and discussion of the future
+of the Museum with those most nearly concerned, fill many of the
+letters. They give evidence of a fostering and far-reaching care,
+which provided for the growth and progress of the Museum, long
+after his own share in it should have ceased.
+
+In reviewing Agassiz's scientific life in the United States, its
+brilliant successes, and the genial generous support which it
+received in this country, it is natural to give prominence to the
+brighter side. And yet it must not be forgotten that like all men
+whose ideals outrun the means of execution, he had moments of
+intense depression and discouragement. Some of his letters, written
+at this time to friends who controlled the financial policy of the
+Museum, are almost like a plea for life. While the trustees urge
+safe investments and the expenditure of income alone, he believes
+that in proportion to the growth and expansion of the Museum will
+be its power of self-maintenance and its claim on the community at
+large. In short, expenditure seemed to him the best investment,
+insuring a fair return, on the principle that the efficiency and
+usefulness of an institution will always be the measure of the
+support extended to it. The two or three following letters, in
+answer to letters from Agassiz which cannot be found, show how
+earnestly, in spite of physical depression, he strove to keep the
+Museum in relation with foreign institutions, to strengthen the
+former, and cooperate as far as possible with the latter.
+
+FROM PROFESSOR VON SIEBOLD.
+
+MUNICH, 1869.
+
+. . .Most gladly shall I meet your wishes both with regard to the
+fresh-water fishes of Central Europe and to your desire for the
+means of direct comparison between the fishes brought by Spix from
+Brazil and described by you, and those you have recently yourself
+collected in the Amazons. The former, with one exception, are still
+in existence and remain undisturbed, for since your day no one has
+cared to work at the fishes or reptiles. Schubert took no interest
+in the zoological cabinet intrusted to him; and Wagner, who later
+relieved him of its management, cared chiefly for the mammals. I
+have now, however, given particular attention to the preservation
+of everything determined by you, so far as it could be found, and
+am truly glad that this material is again to be called into the
+service of science. Of course I had to ask permission of the
+"General Conservatorium of Scientific Collections" before sending
+this property of the state on so long a journey. At my urgent
+request this permission was very cordially granted by Herr von
+Liebig, especially as our collection is likely to be increased by
+the new forms you offer us.
+
+As to the fresh-water fishes I must beg for a little time. At the
+fish market, in April or May, I can find those Cyprinoids, the
+males of which bear at the spawning season that characteristic
+eruption of the skin, which has so often and so incorrectly led to
+the making of new species. . .
+
+From your son Alexander I receive one beautiful work after another.
+Give him my best thanks for these admirable gifts, which I enter
+with sincere pleasure in my catalogue of books. You are indeed
+happy to have such a co-worker at your side. At the next
+opportunity I shall write my thanks to him personally.
+
+How is Dr. Hermann Hagen pleased with his new position? I think the
+presence of this superior entomologist will exert a powerful and
+important influence upon the development of entomology in North
+America. . .
+
+FROM PROFESSOR G.P. DESHAYES.
+
+MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, PARIS, February 4, 1870.
+
+Your letter was truly an event, my dear friend, not only for me but
+for our Museum. . .How happy you are, and how enviable has been
+your scientific career, since you have had your home in free
+America! The founder of a magnificent institution, to which your
+glorious name will forever remain attached, you have the means of
+carrying out whatever undertaking commends itself to you as useful.
+Men and things, following the current that sets toward you, are
+drawn to your side. You desire, and you see your desires carried
+out. You are the sovereign leader of the scientific movement around
+you, of which you yourself have been the first promoter.
+
+What would our old Museum not have gained in having at its head a
+man like you! We should not now be lying stagnant in a space so
+insufficient that our buildings, by the mere force of
+circumstances, are transformed into store-houses, where objects of
+study are heaped together, and can be of no use to any one. . .You
+can fancy how much I envy your organization. It depressed me to
+read your letter, with its brilliant proposals of exchange,
+remembering how powerless we are to meet even a small number of
+them. Your project is certainly an admirable one; to find the
+scientific nomenclature where it is best established, and by the
+help of good specimens transport it to your own doors. Nothing
+could be better, and I would gladly assist in it. But to succeed in
+this excellent enterprise one must have good duplicate specimens;
+not having them, one must have money. As a conclusion to your
+letter, the question of money was brought before my assembled
+colleagues, but the answer was vague and uncertain. I must, then,
+find resources in some other way, and this is what I propose to do
+. . .[Here follow some plans for exchange.] Beside this, I will
+busy myself in getting together authentic collections from our
+French seas, both Oceanic and Mediterranean, and even from other
+points in the European seas. Meantime, you shall have your share
+henceforth in whatever comes to me. . .I learn from your son that
+your health is seriously attacked. I was grieved to hear it. Take
+care of yourself, my dear friend. You are still needed in this
+world; you have a great work to accomplish, the end and aim of
+which you alone are able to reach. You must, therefore, still stand
+in the breach for some years to come.
+
+Your letter, which shows me the countless riches you have to offer
+at the Museum, puts me in the frame of mind of the child who was
+offered his choice in a toy-shop. "I choose everything," he said. I
+could reply in the same way. I choose all you offer me. Still, one
+must be reasonable, and I will therefore name, as the thing I
+chiefly desire, the remarkable fauna dredged from the Gulf Stream.
+Let me add, however, in order to give you entire freedom, that
+whatever you may send to the Museum will be received with sincere
+and ardent gratitude.
+
+And so, farewell, my dear friend, with a warm shake of the hand and
+the most cordial regard.
+
+DESHAYES.
+
+The next is in answer to a letter from Agassiz to the veteran
+naturalist, Professor Sedgwick, concerning casts of well-known
+fossil specimens in Cambridge, England. Though the casts were
+unattainable, the affectionate reply gave Agassiz keen pleasure.
+
+FROM PROFESSOR ADAM SEDGWICK.
+
+THE CLOSE, NORWICH, August 9, 1871.
+
+MY VERY DEAR AND HONORED FRIEND,
+
+. . .I of course showed your letter to my friend Seeley, and after
+some consultation with men of practical knowledge, it was
+considered almost impossible to obtain such casts of the reptilian
+bones as you mention. The specimens of the bones are generally so
+rugged and broken, that the artists would find it extremely
+difficult to make casts from them without the risk of damaging
+them, and the authorities of the university, who are the
+proprietors of the whole collection in my Museum, would be
+unwilling to encounter that risk. Mr. Seeley, however, fully
+intends to send you a gutta-percha cast of the cerebral cavity of
+one of our important specimens described in "Seeley's Catalogue,"
+but he is full of engagements and may not hitherto have realized
+his intentions. As for myself, at present I can do nothing except
+hobble daily on my stick from my house to the Cathedral, for I am
+afflicted by a painful lameness in my left knee. The load of years
+begins to press upon me (I am now toiling through my 87th year),
+and my sight is both dim and irritable, so that, as a matter of
+necessity, I am generally compelled to employ an amanuensis. That
+part is now filled by a niece who is to me in the place of a dear
+daughter.
+
+I need not tell you that the meetings of the British Association
+are still continued, and the last session (this year at Edinburgh)
+only ended yesterday. Let me correct a mistake. I met you first at
+Edinburgh in 1834, the year I became Canon, and again at Dublin in
+1835. . .It is a great pleasure to me, my dear friend, to see again
+by the vision of memory that fine youthful person, that benevolent
+face, and to hear again, as it were, the cheerful ring of the sweet
+and powerful voice by which you made the old Scotchmen start and
+stare, while you were bringing to life again the fishes of their
+old red sandstone. I must be content with the visions of memory and
+the feelings they again kindle in my heart, for it will never be my
+happiness to see your face again in this world. But let me, as a
+Christian man, hope that we may meet hereafter in heaven, and see
+such visions of God's glory in the moral and material universe, as
+shall reduce to a mere germ everything which has been elaborated by
+the skill of man, or revealed to God's creatures. I send you an old
+man's blessing, and remain,
+
+Your affectionate friend,
+
+ADAM SEDGWICK.
+
+In November, 1870, Agassiz was able to return to Cambridge and the
+Museum, and even to resume his lectures, which were as vigorous and
+fresh as ever. So entirely did he seem to have recovered, that in
+the course of the winter the following proposition was made to him
+by his friend, Professor Benjamin Peirce, then Superintendent of
+the Coast Survey.
+
+FROM PROFESSOR PEIRCE.
+
+COAST SURVEY OFFICE, WASHINGTON, February 18, 1871.
+
+. . .I met Sumner in the Senate the day before yesterday, and he
+expressed immense delight at a letter he had received from
+Brown-Sequard, telling him that you were altogether free from
+disease. . .Now, my dear friend, I have a very serious proposition
+for you. I am going to send a new iron surveying steamer round to
+California in the course of the summer. She will probably start at
+the end of June. Would you go in her, and do deep-sea dredging all
+the way round? If so, what companions will you take? If not, who
+shall go?. . .
+
+FROM AGASSIZ TO PROFESSOR PEIRCE.
+
+CAMBRIDGE, February 20, 1871.
+
+. . .I am overjoyed at the prospect your letter opens before me. Of
+course I will go, unless Brown-Sequard orders me positively to stay
+on terra firma. But even then, I should like to have a hand in
+arranging the party, as I feel there never was, and is not likely
+soon again to be, such an opportunity for promoting the cause of
+science generally, and that of natural history in particular. I
+would like Pourtales and Alex to be of the party, and both would
+gladly join if they can. Both are as much interested about it as I
+am, and I have no doubt between us we may organize a working team,
+strong enough to do something creditable. It seems to me that the
+best plan to pursue in the survey would be to select carefully a
+few points (as many as time would allow) on shore, from which to
+work at right angles with the coast, to as great a distance as the
+results would justify, and then move on to some other head-land. If
+this plan be adopted, it would be desirable to have one additional
+observer to make collections on shore, to connect with the result
+of the dredgings. This would be the more important as, with the
+exception of Brazil, hardly anything is known of the shore faunae
+upon the greater part of the South American coast. For shore
+observations I should like a man of the calibre of Dr.
+Steindachner, who has spent a year on the coast of Senegal, and
+would thus bring a knowledge of the opposite side of the Atlantic
+as a starting basis of comparison. . .
+
+After consultation with his physicians, it was decided that Agassiz
+might safely undertake the voyage in the Hassler, that it might
+indeed be of benefit to his health. His party of naturalists, as
+finally made up, consisted of Agassiz himself, Count de Pourtales,
+Dr. Franz Steindachner, and Mr. Blake, a young student from the
+Museum, who accompanied Agassiz as assistant and draughtsman. Dr.
+Thomas Hill, ex-president of Harvard University, was also on the
+expedition, and though engaged in special investigations of his
+own, he joined in all the work with genial interest. The vessel was
+commanded by Captain (now Commodore) Philip C. Johnson, whose
+courtesy and kindness made the Hassler a floating home to the
+guests on board. So earnest and active was the sympathy felt by him
+and his officers in the scientific interests of the expedition,
+that they might be counted as a valuable additional volunteer
+corps. Among them should be counted Dr. William White, of
+Philadelphia, who accompanied the expedition in a partly
+professional, partly scientific capacity.
+
+The hopes Agassiz had formed of this expedition, as high as those
+of any young explorer, were only partially fulfilled. His
+enthusiasm, though it had the ardor of youth, had none of its
+vagueness. In a letter to Mr. Peirce, published in the Museum
+Bulletin at this time, there is this passage: "If this world of
+ours is the work of intelligence and not merely the product of
+force and matter, the human mind, as a part of the whole, should so
+chime with it, that from what is known it may reach the unknown. If
+this be so, the knowledge gathered should, within the limits of
+error which its imperfection renders unavoidable, enable us to
+foretell what we are likely to find in the deepest abysses of the
+sea." He looked, in short, for the solution of special problems
+directly connected with all his previous work. He believed the
+deeper sea would show forms of life akin to animals of earlier
+geological times, throwing new light on the relation between the
+fossil and the living world. In the letter above quoted, he even
+named the species he expected to find most prevalent in those
+greater depths: as, for instance, representatives of the older
+forms of Ganoids and Selachians; Cephalopods, resembling the more
+ancient chambered shells; Gasteropods, recalling the tertiary and
+cretaceous types; and Acephala, resembling those of the jurassic
+and cretaceous formations. He expected to find Crustaceans also,
+more nearly approaching the ancient Trilobites than those now
+living on the surface of the globe; and among Radiates he looked
+for the older forms of sea-urchins, star-fishes, and corals.
+Although the collections brought together on this cruise were rich
+and interesting, they gave but imperfect answers to these
+comprehensive questions. Owing to defects in the dredging
+apparatus, the hauls from the greatest depths were lost.
+
+With reference to the glacial period he anticipated still more
+positive results. In the same letter the following passage occurs:
+"There is, however, still one kind of evidence wanting, to remove
+all doubt that the greater extension of glaciers in former ages was
+connected with cosmic changes in the physical condition of our
+globe. Namely, all the phenomena relating to the glacial period
+must be found in the southern hemisphere, accompanied by the same
+characteristic features as in the north, but with this essential
+difference,--that everything must be reversed. The trend of the
+glacial abrasions must be from the south northward, the lee-side of
+abraded rocks must be on the north side of the hills and mountain
+ranges, and the boulders must have traveled from the south to their
+present position. Whether this be so or not, has not yet been
+ascertained by direct observation. I expect to find it so
+throughout the temperate and cold zones of the southern hemisphere,
+with the exception of the present glaciers of Terra del Fuego and
+Patagonia, which may have transported boulders in every direction.
+Even in Europe, geologists have not yet sufficiently discriminated
+between local glaciers and the phenomena connected with their
+different degrees of successive retreat on the one hand; and, on
+the other, the facts indicating the action of an extensive sheet of
+ice moving over the whole continent from north to south. Among the
+facts already known from the southern hemisphere are the so-called
+rivers of stone in the Falkland Islands, which attracted the
+attention of Darwin during his cruise with Captain Fitzroy, and
+which have remained an enigma to this day. I believe it will not be
+difficult to explain their origin in the light of the glacial
+theory, and I fancy they may turn out to be ground moraines similar
+to the 'horsebacks' in Maine.
+
+"You may ask what this question of drift has to do with deep-sea
+dredging? The connection is closer than may at first appear. If
+drift is not of glacial origin, but is the product of marine
+currents, its formation at once becomes a matter for the Coast
+Survey to investigate. But I believe it will be found in the end,
+that so far from being accumulated by the sea, the drift of the
+Patagonian lowlands has been worn away by the sea to its present
+outline, like the northern shores of South America and Brazil.". . .
+
+This is not the place for a detailed account of the voyage of the
+Hassler, but enough may be told to show something of Agassiz's own
+share in it. A journal of scientific and personal experience, kept
+by Mrs. Agassiz under his direction, was nearly ready for
+publication at the time of his death. The two next chapters,
+devoted to the cruise of the Hassler, are taken from that
+manuscript. A portion of it appeared many years ago in the pages of
+the "Atlantic Monthly."
+
+CHAPTER 23.
+
+1871-1872: AGE 64-65.
+
+Sailing of the Hassler.
+Sargassum Fields.
+Dredging at Barbados.
+From the West Indies to Rio de Janeiro.
+Monte Video.
+Quarantine.
+Glacial Traces in the Bay of Monte Video.
+The Gulf of Mathias.
+Dredging off Gulf of St. George.
+Dredging off Cape Virgens.
+Possession Bay.
+Salt Pool.
+Moraine.
+Sandy Point.
+Cruise through the Straits.
+Scenery.
+Wind Storm.
+Borja Bay.
+Glacier Bay.
+Visit to the Glacier.
+Chorocua Bay.
+
+The vessel was to have started in August, but, owing to various
+delays in her completion, she was not ready for sea until the late
+autumn. She finally sailed on December 4, 1871, on a gray
+afternoon, which ushered in the first snow-storm of the New England
+winter. Bound for warmer skies, she was, however, soon in the
+waters of the Gulf Stream, where the work of collecting began in
+the fields of Sargassum, those drifting, wide-spread expanses of
+loose sea-weed carrying a countless population, lilliputian in
+size, to be sure, but very various in character. Agassiz was no
+less interested than other naturalists have been in the old
+question so long asked and still unanswered, about the Sargassum.
+"Where is its home, and what its origin? Does it float, a rootless
+wanderer on the deep, or has it broken away from some submarine
+attachment?" He had passed through the same region before, in going
+to Brazil, but then he was on a large ocean steamer, while from the
+little Hassler, of 360 tons, one could almost fish by hand from the
+Sargassum fields. Some of the chief results are given in the
+following letter.
+
+TO PROFESSOR PEIRCE.
+
+ST. THOMAS, December 15, 1871.
+
+. . .As soon as we reached the Gulf Stream we began work. Indeed,
+Pourtales had organized a party to study the temperatures as soon
+as we passed Gay Head, and will himself report to you his results.
+My own attention was entirely turned to the Gulf weed and its
+inhabitants, of which we made extensive collections. Our
+observations on the floating weed itself favor the view of those
+who believe it to be torn from rocks, on which Sargassum naturally
+grows. I made a simple experiment which seems to me conclusive. Any
+branch of the sea-weed which is deprived of its FLOATS sinks at
+once to the bottom of the water, and these floats are not likely to
+be the first parts developed from the spores. Moreover, after
+examining large quantities of the weed, I have not seen a single
+branch, however small, which did not show marks of having been torn
+from a solid attachment.
+
+You may hardly feel an interest in my zoological observations, but
+I am sure you will be glad to learn that we had the best
+opportunity of carefully examining most of the animals known to
+inhabit the Gulf weed, and some also which I did not know to occur
+among them. The most interesting discovery of our voyage thus far,
+however, is that of a nest built by a fish, and floating on the
+broad ocean with its living freight. On the 13th, Mr. Mansfield,
+one of our officers, brought me a ball of Gulf weed which he had
+just picked up, and which excited my curiosity to the utmost. It
+was a round mass of Sargassum about the size of two fists. The bulk
+of the ball was made up of closely packed branches and leaves, held
+together by fine threads, running through them in every direction,
+while other branches hung more loosely from the margin. Placed in a
+large bowl of water it became apparent that the loose branches
+served to keep the central mass floating, cradle-like, between
+them. The elastic threads, which held the ball of Gulf weed
+together, were beaded at intervals, sometimes two or three beads
+close together, or a bunch of them hanging from the same cluster of
+threads, or occasionally scattered at a greater distance from each
+other. Nowhere was there much regularity in the distribution of the
+beads. They were scattered pretty uniformly throughout the whole
+ball of seaweed, and were themselves about the size of an ordinary
+pin's head. Evidently we had before us a nest of the most curious
+kind, full of eggs. What animal could have built this singular
+nest? It did not take long to ascertain the class to which it
+belonged. A common pocket lens revealed at once two large eyes on
+the side of the head, and a tail bent over the back of the body, as
+in the embryo of ordinary fishes shortly before the period of
+hatching. The many empty egg cases in the nest gave promise of an
+early opportunity of seeing some embryos, freeing themselves from
+their envelope. Meanwhile a number of these eggs containing live
+embryos were cut out of the nest and placed in separate glass jars,
+in order to multiply the chances of preserving them; while the nest
+as a whole was secured in alcohol, as a memorial of our discovery.
+
+The next day I found two embryos in my glass jars; they moved
+occasionally in jerks, and then rested a long time motionless on
+the bottom of the jar. On the third day I had over a dozen of these
+young fishes, the oldest beginning to be more active. I need not
+relate in detail the evidence I soon obtained that these embryos
+were actually fishes. . .But what kind of fish was it? At about the
+time of hatching, the fins differ too much from those of the adult,
+and the general form has too few peculiarities, to give any clew to
+this problem. I could only suppose it would prove to be one of the
+pelagic species of the Atlantic. In former years I had made a
+careful study of the pigment cells of the skin in a variety of
+young fishes, and I now resorted to this method to identify my
+embryos. Happily we had on board several pelagic fishes alive. The
+very first comparison I made gave the desired result. The pigment
+cell of a young Chironectes pictus proved identical with those of
+our little embryos. It thus stands, as a well authenticated fact,
+that the common pelagic Chironectes of the Atlantic, named Ch.
+pictus by Cuvier, builds a nest for its eggs in which the progeny
+is wrapped up with the materials of which the nest itself is
+composed; and as these materials consist of the living Gulf weed,
+the fish cradle, rocking upon the deep ocean, is carried along as
+in an arbor, which affords protection and afterwards food also, to
+its living freight. This marvelous story acquires additional
+interest, when we consider the characteristic peculiarities of the
+genus Chironectes. As its name indicates, it has fin-like hands;
+that is to say, the pectoral fins are supported by a kind of long
+wrist-like appendage, and the rays of the ventrals are not unlike
+rude fingers. With these limbs these fishes have long been known to
+attach themselves to sea-weeds, and rather to walk than to swim in
+their natural element. But now that we know their mode of
+reproduction, it may fairly be asked if the most important use of
+their peculiarly constructed fins is not the building of their
+nest?. . .There thus remains one closing chapter to the story. May
+some naturalist, becalmed among the Gulf weed, have the good
+fortune to witness the process by which the nest is built. . .
+
+This whole investigation was of the greatest interest to Agassiz,
+and, coming so early in the voyage, seemed a pleasant promise of
+its farther opportunities. The whole ship's company soon shared his
+enthusiasm, and the very sailors gathered about him in the
+intervals of their work, or hung on the outskirts of the scientific
+circle. A pause of a few days was made at one or two of the West
+Indian islands, at St. Thomas and Barbados. At the latter, the
+first cast of the large dredge was made on a ledge of shoals in a
+depth of eighty fathoms, and, among countless other things, a
+number of stemmed crinoids and comatulae were brought up. An ardent
+student of the early fossil echinoderms, it was a great pleasure to
+Agassiz to gather their fresh and living representatives. It was
+like turning a leaf of the past and finding the subtle thread which
+connects it with the present.
+
+TO PROFESSOR PEIRCE.
+
+PERNAMBUCO, January 16, 1872.
+
+MY DEAR PEIRCE,
+
+I should have written to you from Barbados, but the day before we
+left the island was favorable for dredging, and our success in that
+line was so unexpectedly great, that I could not get away from the
+specimens, and made the most of them for study while I had the
+chance. We made only four hauls, in between seventy-five and one
+hundred and twenty fathoms. But what hauls! Enough to occupy half a
+dozen competent zoologists for a whole year, if the specimens could
+be kept fresh for that length of time. The first haul brought up a
+Chemidium-like sponge; the next gave us a crinoid, very much like
+the Rhizocrinus lofotensis, but probably different; the third, a
+living Pleurotomaria; the fourth, a new genus of Spatangoids, etc.,
+etc., not to speak of the small fry. We had the crinoid alive for
+ten or twelve hours. When contracted, the pinnules are pressed
+against the arms, and the arms themselves shut against one another,
+so that the whole looks like a swash made up of a few long, coarse
+twines. When the animal opens, the arms at first separate without
+bending outside, so that the whole looks like an inverted pentapod;
+but gradually the tips of the arms bend outward as the arms diverge
+more and more, and when fully expanded the crown has the appearance
+of a lily of the L. martagon type, in which each petal is curved
+upon itself, the pinnules of the arms spreading laterally more and
+more, as the crown is more fully open. I have not been able to
+detect any motion in the stem traceable to contraction, though
+there is no stiffness in its bearing. When disturbed, the pinnules
+of the arms first contract, the arms straighten themselves out, and
+the whole gradually and slowly closes up. It was a very impressive
+sight for me to watch the movements of the creature, for it not
+only told of its own ways, but at the same time afforded a glimpse
+into the countless ages of the past, when these crinoids, so rare
+and so rarely seen nowadays, formed a prominent feature of the
+animal kingdom. I could see, without great effort of the
+imagination, the shoal of Lockport teeming with the many genera of
+crinoids which the geologists of New York have rescued from that
+prolific Silurian deposit, or recall the formations of my native
+country, in the hill-sides of which also, among fossils indicating
+shoal water deposits, other crinoids abound, resembling still more
+closely those we find in these waters. The close affinities of
+Rhizocrinus with Apiocrinoids are further exemplified by the fact
+that when the animal dies, it casts off its arms, like Apiocrinus,
+the head of which is generally found without arms. And now the
+question may be asked, what is the meaning of the occurrence of
+these animals in deep waters at the present day, when, in former
+ages, similar types inhabited shallow seas? Of the fact there can
+be no doubt, for it is not difficult to adduce satisfactory
+evidence of the shoal-like character of the Silurian deposits of
+the State of New York; their horizontal position, combined with the
+gradual recession of the higher beds in a southerly direction,
+leaves no doubt upon this point; and in the case of the jurassic
+formation alluded to above, the combination of the crinoids with
+fossils common upon coral reefs, and their presence in atolls of
+that period, are satisfactory proofs of my assertion. What does it
+mean, then, when we find the Pentacrinus and Rhizocrinus of the
+West Indies in deep water only? It seems to me that there is but
+one explanation of the fact, namely, that in the progress of the
+earth's growth, we must look for such a displacement of the
+conditions favorable to the maintenance of certain lower types, as
+may recall most fully the adaptations of former ages. It was in
+this sense I alluded, in my first letter to you, to the probability
+of our finding in deeper water representatives of earlier
+geological types; and if my explanation is correct, my anticipation
+is also fully sustained. But do the deeper waters of the present
+constitution of our globe really approximate the conditions for the
+development of animal life, which existed in the shallower seas of
+past geological ages? I think they do, or at least I believe they
+approach it as nearly as anything can in the present order of
+things upon earth; for the depths of the ocean alone can place
+animals under a pressure corresponding to that caused by the heavy
+atmosphere of earlier periods. But, of course, such high pressure
+as animals meet in great depths cannot be a favorable condition for
+the development of life; hence the predominance of lower forms in
+the deep sea. The rapid diminution of light with the increasing
+depth, and the small amount of free oxygen in these waters under
+greater and greater pressure, not to speak of other limitations
+arising from the greater uniformity of the conditions of existence,
+the reduced amount and less variety of nutritive substances, etc.,
+etc., are so many causes acting in the same direction and with
+similar results. For all these reasons, I have always expected to
+find that the animals living in great depths would prove to be of a
+standing, in the scale of structural complications, inferior to
+those found in shoal waters or near shore; and the correlation
+elsewhere pointed out between the standing of animals and their
+order of succession in geological times (see "Essay on
+Classification ") justifies another form of expression of these
+facts, namely, that in deeper waters we should expect to find
+representatives of earlier geological periods. There is in all this
+nothing which warrants the conclusion that any of the animals now
+living are lineal descendants of those of earlier ages; nor does
+their similarity to those of earlier periods justify the statement
+that the cretaceous formation is still extant. It would be just as
+true to nature to say that the tertiaries are continued in the
+tropics, on account of the similarity of the miocene mammalia to
+those of the torrid zone.
+
+We have another case in the Pleurotomaria. It is not long since it
+has been made known that the genus Pleurotomaria is not altogether
+extinct, a single specimen having been discovered about ten years
+ago in the West Indies. Even Pictet, in the second edition of his
+Paleontology, still considers Pleurotomaria as extinct, and as
+belonging to the fossiliferous formations which extend from the
+Silurian period to the Tertiary. Of the living species found at
+Marie Galante, nothing is known except the specific characteristics
+of the shell. We dredged it in one hundred and twenty fathoms, on
+the west side of Barbados, alive, and kept it alive for twenty-four
+hours, during which time the animal expanded and showed its
+remarkable peculiarities. It is unquestionably the type of a
+distinct family, entirely different from the other Mollusks with
+which it has been hitherto associated. Mr. Blake has made fine
+colored drawings of it, which may be published at some future
+time. . .The family of the Pleurotomariae numbers between four and
+five hundred fossil species, beginning in the Silurian deposits, but
+especially numerous in the carboniferous and jurassic formations.
+
+The sponges afford another interesting case. When the first number
+of the great work of Goldfuss, on the fossils of Germany, made its
+appearance, about half a century ago, the most novel types it made
+known were several genera of sponges from the jurassic and
+cretaceous beds, described under the names of Siphonia, Chemidium,
+and Scyphia. Nothing of the kind has been known among the living to
+this day; and yet, the first haul of the dredge near Barbados gave
+us a Chemidium, or, at least, a sponge so much like the fossil
+Chemidium, that it must remain for future comparisons to determine
+whether there are any generic differences between our living sponge
+and the fossil. The next day brought us a genuine Siphonia, another
+genus thus far only known from the jurassic beds; and it is worth
+recording, that I noticed in the collection of Governor Rawson
+another sponge,--brought to him by a fisherman who had caught it on
+his line, on the coast of Barbados,--which belongs to the genus
+Scyphia. Thus the three characteristic genera of sponges from the
+secondary formation, till now supposed to be extinct, are all three
+represented in the deep waters of the West Indies. . .
+
+Another family of organized beings offers a similar testimony to
+that already alluded to. If there is a type of Echinoderms
+characteristic of a geological period, it is the genus Micraster of
+the cretaceous formation, in its original circumscription. No
+species of this genus is known to have existed during the Tertiary
+era, and no living species has as yet been made known. You may
+therefore imagine my surprise when the dredge first yielded three
+specimens of a small species of that particular group of the genus,
+which is most extensively represented in the upper cretaceous beds.
+
+Other examples of less importance might be enumerated; suffice it
+now to add that my expectation of finding in deep waters animals
+already known, but thus far exceedingly rare in museums, is already
+in a measure realised. . .
+
+Little can be said of the voyage from the West Indies to Rio de
+Janeiro. It had the usual vicissitudes of weather, with here and
+there a flight (so it might justly be called) of flying-fish, a
+school of porpoises or dog-fish, or a sail in the distance, to
+break the monotony. At Rio de Janeiro it became evident that the
+plan of the voyage must be somewhat curtailed. This was made
+necessary partly by the delays in starting,--in consequence of
+which the season would be less favorable than had been anticipated
+along certain portions of the proposed route,--and partly by the
+defective machinery, which had already given some trouble to the
+Captain. The Falkland Islands, the Rio Negro, and the Santa Cruz
+rivers were therefore renounced; with what regret will be
+understood by those who know how hard it is to be forced to break
+up a scheme of work, which was originally connected in all its
+parts. The next pause was at Monte Video; but as there was a strict
+quarantine, Agassiz was only allowed to land at the Mount, a hill
+on the western side of the bay, the geology of which he was anxious
+to examine. He found true erratics--loose pebbles, granite, gneiss,
+and granitic sandstone, having no resemblance to any native rock in
+the vicinity--scattered over the whole surface of the hill to its
+very summit. The hill itself had also the character of the "roches
+moutonnees" modeled by ice in the northern hemisphere. As these
+were the most northern erratics and glaciated surfaces reported in
+the southern hemisphere, the facts there were very interesting to
+him.
+
+With dredgings off the Rio de la Plata, and along the coast between
+that and the Rio Negro, the vessel held on her way to the Gulf of
+Mathias, a deep, broad bay running some hundred miles inland, and
+situated a little south of the Rio Negro. Here some necessary
+repairs enforced a pause, of which Agassiz took advantage for
+dredging and for studying the geology of the cliffs along the north
+side of the bay. As seen from the vessel, they seemed to be
+stratified with extraordinary evenness and regularity to within a
+few feet of the top, the summit being crowned with loose sand.
+Farther on, they sank to sand dunes piled into rounded banks and
+softly moulded ledges, like snow-drifts. Landing the next day at a
+bold bluff marked Cliff End on the charts, he found the lower
+stratum to consist of a solid mass of tertiary fossils, chiefly
+immense oysters, mingled, however, with sea-urchins. Superb
+specimens were secured,--large boulders crowded with colossal
+shells and perfectly preserved echini. From the top of the cliff,
+looking inland, only a level plain was seen, stretching as far as
+the eye could reach, broken by no undulations, and covered with
+low, scrubby growth. The seine was drawn on the beach, and yielded
+a good harvest for the fish collection. At evening the vessel
+anchored at the head of the bay, off the Port of San Antonio. The
+name would seem to imply some settlement; but a more lonely spot
+cannot be imagined. More than thirty years ago, Fitzroy had sailed
+up this bay, partially surveyed it, and marked this harbor on his
+chart. If any vessel has broken the loneliness of its waters since,
+no record of any such event has been kept. Of the presence of man,
+there was no sign. Yet the few days passed there were among the
+pleasantest of the voyage to Agassiz. The work of the dredge and
+seine was extremely successful, and the rambles inland were
+geological excursions of great interest. Here he had the first
+sight of the guanaco of the Patagonian plains. The weather was
+fine, and at night-fall, to the golden light of sunset succeeded
+the fitful glow, over land and water, of the bonfires built by the
+sailors on the beach. Returning to the ship after dark, the various
+parties assembled in the wardroom, to talk over the events of the
+day and lay out plans for the morrow. These are the brightest hours
+in such a voyage, when the novelty of the locality gives a zest to
+every walk or row, and all are full of interest in a new and
+exciting life. One is more tolerant even of monotonous natural
+features in a country so isolated, so withdrawn from human life and
+occupation. The very barrenness seems in harmony with the intense
+solitude.
+
+The Hassler left her anchorage on this desolate shore on an evening
+of singular beauty. It was difficult to tell when she was on her
+way, so quietly did she move through the glassy waters, over which
+the sun went down in burnished gold, leaving the sky without a
+cloud. The light of the beach fires followed her till they too
+faded, and only the phosphorescence of the sea attended her into
+the night. Rough and stormy weather followed this fair start, and
+only two more dredgings were possible before reaching the Strait of
+Magellan. One was off the Gulf of St. George, where gigantic
+star-fishes seemed to have their home. One of them, a superb
+basket-fish, was not less than a foot and a half in diameter; and
+another, like a huge sunflower of reddish purple tint, with
+straight arms, thirty-seven in number, radiating from the disk, was
+of about the same size. Many beautiful little sea-urchins came up
+in the same dredging. About fifty miles north of Cape Virgens, in
+tolerably calm weather, another haul was tried, and this time the
+dredge returned literally solid with Ophiurans.
+
+On Wednesday, March 13th, on a beautifully clear morning, like the
+best October weather in New England, the Hassler rounded Cape
+Virgens and entered the Strait of Magellan. The tide was just on
+the flood, and all the conditions favorable for her run to her
+first anchorage in the Strait at Possession Bay. Here the working
+force divided, to form two shore parties, one of which, under
+Agassiz's direction, the reader may follow. The land above the
+first shore bluff at Possession Bay rises to a height of some four
+hundred feet above the sea-level, in a succession of regular
+horizontal terraces, of which Agassiz counted eight. On these
+terraces, all of which are built, like the shore-bluffs, of
+tertiary deposits, were two curious remnants of a past state of
+things. The first was a salt-pool lying in a depression on the
+second terrace, some one hundred and fifty feet above the sea. This
+pool contained living marine shells, identical with those now found
+along the shore. Among them were Fusus, Mytilus, Buccinum,
+Fissurella, Patella, and Voluta, all found in the same numeric
+relations as those in which they now exist upon the beach below.
+This pool is altogether too high to be reached by any tidal
+influence, and undoubtedly indicates an old sea-level, and a
+comparatively recent upheaval of the shore. The second was a
+genuine moraine, corresponding in every respect to those which
+occur all over the northern hemisphere. Agassiz came upon it in
+ascending to the third terrace above the salt-pool and a little
+farther inland. It had all the character of a terminal moraine in
+contact with an actual glacier. It was composed of heterogeneous
+materials,--large and small pebbles and boulders impacted together
+in a paste of clayey gravel and sand. The ice had evidently
+advanced from the south, for the mass had been pushed steeply up on
+the southern side, and retained so sharp an inclination on that
+face that but little vegetation had accumulated upon it. The
+northern side, on the contrary, was covered with soil and
+overgrown; it sloped gently off,--pebbles and larger stones being
+scattered beyond it. The pebbles and boulders of this moraine were
+polished, scratched, and grooved, and bore, in short, all the usual
+marks of glacial action. Agassiz was naturally delighted with this
+discovery. It was a new link in the chain of evidence, showing that
+the drift phenomena are connected at the south as well as at the
+north with the action of ice, and that the frozen Arctic and
+Antarctic fields are but remnants of a sheet of ice, which has
+retreated from the temperate zones of both hemispheres to the polar
+regions. The party pushed on beyond the moraine to a hill of
+considerable height, which gave a fine view of the country toward
+Mount Aymon and the so-called Asses' Ears. They brought back a
+variety of game, but their most interesting scientific acquisitions
+were boulders from the moraine scored with glacial characters, and
+shells from the salt pool.
+
+Still accompanied by beautiful weather, the Hassler anchored at the
+Elizabeth Islands and at San Magdalena. Here Agassiz had an
+opportunity of examining the haunts and rookeries of the penguins
+and cormorants, and obtaining fine specimens of both. As the
+breeding places and the modes of life of these animals have been
+described by other travelers, there is nothing new to add from his
+impressions, until the vessel anchored, on the 16th March, before
+Sandy Point, the only permanent settlement in the Strait.
+
+Here there was a pause of several days, which gave Agassiz an
+opportunity to draw the seine with large results for his marine
+collections. By the courtesy of the Governor, he had also an
+opportunity of making an excursion along the road leading to the
+coal-mines. The wooded cliffs, as one ascends the hills toward the
+mines, are often bold and picturesque, and Agassiz found that
+portions of them were completely built of fossil shells. There is
+an oyster-bank, some one hundred feet high, overhanging the road in
+massive ledges that consist wholly of oyster-valves, with only
+earth enough to bind them together. He was inclined, from the
+character of the shells, to believe that the coal must be
+cretaceous rather than tertiary.
+
+On Tuesday, the 19th March, the Hassler left Sandy Point. The
+weather was beautiful,--a mellow autumn day with a reminiscence of
+summer in its genial warmth. The cleft summit of Sarmiento was
+clear against the sky, and the snow-fields, swept over by alternate
+light and shadow, seemed full of soft undulations. The evening
+anchorage was in the Bay of Port Famine, a name which marks the
+site of Sarmiento's ill-fated colony, and recalls the story of the
+men who watched and waited there for the help that never came. The
+stay here was short, and Agassiz spent the time almost wholly in
+studying the singularly regular, but completely upturned strata
+which line the beach, with edges so worn down as to be almost
+completely even with each other.
+
+For many days after this, the Hassler pursued her course, past a
+seemingly endless panorama of mountains and forests rising into the
+pale regions of snow and ice, where lay glaciers in which every
+rift and crevasse, as well as the many cascades flowing down to
+join the waters beneath, could be counted as she steamed by them.
+Every night she anchored in the sheltered harbors formed by the
+inlets and fords which break the base of the rocky walls, and often
+lead into narrower ocean defiles penetrating, one knows not
+whither, into the deeper heart of these great mountain masses.
+
+These were weeks of exquisite delight to Agassiz. The vessel often
+skirted the shore so closely that its geology could be studied from
+the deck. The rounded shoulders of the mountains, in marked
+contrast to their peaked and jagged crests, the general character
+of the snow-fields and glaciers, not crowded into narrow valleys as
+in Switzerland, but spread out on the open slopes of the loftier
+ranges, or, dome like, capping their summits,--all this afforded
+data for comparison with his past experience, and with the
+knowledge he had accumulated upon like phenomena in other regions.
+Here, as in the Alps, the abrupt line, where the rounded and worn
+surfaces of the mountains (moutonnees, as the Swiss say) yield to
+their sharply cut, jagged crests, showed him the ancient and
+highest line reached by the glacial action. The long, serrated edge
+of Mount Tarn, for instance, is like a gigantic saw, while the
+lower shoulders of the mass are hummocked into a succession of
+rounded hills. In like manner the two beautiful valleys, separated
+by a bold bluff called Bachelor's Peak, are symmetrically rounded
+on their slopes, while their summits are jagged and rough.
+
+On one occasion the Hassler encountered one of those sudden and
+startling flaws of wind common to the Strait. The breeze, which had
+been strong all day, increased with sudden fury just as the vessel
+was passing through a rather narrow channel, which gave the wind
+the additional force of compression. In an inconceivably short
+time, the channel was lashed into a white foam; the roar of wind
+and water was so great you could not hear yourself speak, though
+the hoarse shout of command and the answering cry of the sailors
+rose above the storm. To add to the confusion, a loose sail slatted
+as if it would tear itself in pieces, with that sharp, angry,
+rending sound which only a broad spread of loose canvas can make.
+It became impossible to hold the vessel against the amazing power
+of the blast, and the Captain turned her round with the intention
+of putting her into Borja Bay, not far from which, by good fortune,
+she chanced to be. As she came broadside to the wind in turning, it
+seemed as if she must be blown over, so violently did she careen.
+Once safely round, she flew before the wind, which now became her
+ally instead of her enemy, and by its aid she was soon abreast of
+Borja Bay. Never was there a more sudden transition from chaos to
+peace than that which ensued as she turned in from the tumult in
+the main channel to the quiet waters of the bay. The Hassler almost
+filled the tiny harbor shut in between mountains. She lay there
+safe and sheltered in breathless calm, while the storm raged and
+howled outside. These frequent, almost land-locked coves, are the
+safety of navigators in these straits; but after this day's
+experience, it was easy to understand how sailing vessels may be
+kept waiting for months between two such harbors, struggling vainly
+to make a few miles and constantly driven back by sudden squalls.
+
+In this exquisite mountain-locked harbor, the vessel was
+weather-bound for a couple of days. Count Pourtales availed himself
+of this opportunity to ascend one of the summits. Up to a height of
+fifteen hundred feet, the rock was characterized by the smoothed,
+rounded surfaces which Agassiz had observed along his whole route
+in the Strait. Above that height all was broken and rugged, the
+line of separation being as defined as on any valley wall in
+Switzerland. It was again impossible to decide, on such short
+observation, whether these effects were due to local glacial
+action, or whether they belonged to an earlier general ice-period.
+But Agassiz became satisfied, as he advanced, that the two sets of
+phenomena existed together, as in the northern hemisphere. The
+general aspect of the opposite walls of the Strait confirmed him in
+the idea that the sheet of ice in its former extension had advanced
+from south to north, grinding its way against and over the southern
+wall to the plains beyond. In short, he was convinced that, as a
+sheet of ice has covered the northern portion of the globe, so a
+sheet of ice has covered also the southern portion, advancing, in
+both instances, far toward the equatorial regions. His observations
+in Europe, in North America, and in Brazil seemed here to have
+their closing chapter.
+
+With these facts in his mind, he did not fail to pause before
+Glacier Bay, noted for its immense glacier, which seems, as seen
+from the main channel, to plunge sheer down into the waters of the
+bay. A boat party was soon formed to accompany him to the glacier.
+It proved less easy of access than it looked at a distance. A broad
+belt of wood, growing, as Agassiz afterward found, on an
+accumulation of old terminal moraines, spanned the lower valley
+from side to side. Through this wood there poured a glacial river,
+emptying itself into the bay. Strange to say, this glacier-washed
+forest, touching the ice on one side and the sea on the other, was
+full of flowers. The red bells of the glossy-leaved Desfontainia,
+the lovely pink blossoms of the Phylesia, the crimson berries of
+the Pennetia, stood out in bright relief from a background of mossy
+tree-trunks and rocks. After an hour's walking, made laborious by
+the spongy character of the ground,--a mixture of loose soil and
+decaying vegetation, in which one sank knee-deep,--the gleam of the
+ice began to shimmer through the trees; and issuing from the wood,
+the party found themselves in front of a glacier wall, stretching
+across the whole valley and broken into deep rifts, caves, and
+crevasses of dark blue ice. The glacier was actually about a mile
+wide; but as the central portion was pressed forward in advance of
+the sides, the whole front was not presented at once. It formed a
+sharp crescent, with the curve turned outward. One of the caves in
+this front wall was some thirty or forty feet high, about a hundred
+feet deep, and two or three yards wide at the entrance. At the
+further end it narrowed to a mere gallery, where the roof was
+pierced by a circular window, quite symmetrical in shape, through
+which one looked up to the blue sky and drifting clouds. There must
+be strange effects in this ice-cavern, when the sun is high and
+sends a shaft of light through its one window to illuminate the
+interior.
+
+This first excursion was a mere reconnaissance. An approximate idea
+of the dimensions of the glacier, and some details of its
+structure, were obtained on a second visit the following day. The
+anchorage for the night was in Playa Parda Cove, one of the most
+beautiful of the many beautiful harbors of the Magellan Strait. It
+is entered by a deep, narrow slit, cut into the mountains on the
+northern side of the Strait, and widening at its farther end into a
+kind of pocket or basin, hemmed in between rocky walls bordered by
+forests, and overhung by snow and ice-fields. The next morning at
+half-past three o'clock, just as moonlight was fading before the
+dawn, and the mountains were touched with the coming day, the
+reveille was sounded for those who were to return to Glacier Bay.
+This time Agassiz divided his force so that they could act
+independently of each other, though under a general plan laid out
+by him. M. de Pourtales and Dr. Steindachner ascended the mountain
+to the left of the valley, following its ridge, in the hope of
+reaching a position from which they could discover the source and
+the full length of the glacier. In this they did not succeed,
+though M. de Pourtales estimated its length, as far as he could see
+from any one point, to be about three miles, beyond which it was
+lost in the higher range. It made part of a net-work of glaciers
+running back into a large massif of mountains, and fed by many a
+neve on their upper slopes. The depth as well as the length of this
+glacier remains somewhat problematical, and indeed all the
+estimates in so cursory a survey must be considered as
+approximations rather than positive results. The glazed surface of
+the ice is an impediment to any examination from the upper side. It
+would be impossible to spring from brink to brink of a crevasse, as
+is so constantly done by explorers of Alpine glaciers where the
+edges of the cracks are often snowy or granular. Here the edges of
+the crevasses are sharp and hard, and to spring across one of any
+size would be almost certain death. There is no hold for an Alpine
+stock, no grappling point for hands or feet. Any investigation from
+the upper surface would, therefore, require special apparatus, and
+much more time than Agassiz and his party could give. Neither was
+an approach from the side very easy. The glacier arches so much in
+the centre, and slopes away so steeply, that when one is in the
+lateral depression between it and the mountain, one faces an almost
+perpendicular wall of ice, which blocks the vision completely. M.
+de Pourtales measured one of the crevasses in this wall, and found
+that it had a depth of some seventy feet. Judging from the
+remarkable convexity of the glacier, it can hardly be less in the
+centre than two or three times its thickness on the edges,
+--something over two hundred feet, therefore. Probably none of
+these glaciers of the Strait of Magellan are as thick as those of
+Switzerland, though they are often much broader. The mountains are
+not so high, the valleys not so deep, as in the Alps; the ice is
+consequently not packed into such confined troughs. By some of the
+party an attempt was made to ascertain the rate of movement,
+signals having been adjusted the day before for its measurement.
+During the middle of the day, it advanced at the rate of ten inches
+and a fraction in five hours. One such isolated observation is of
+course of little comparative value. For himself, Agassiz reserved
+the study of the bay, the ancient bed of the glacier in its former
+extension. He spent the day in cruising about the bay in the
+steam-launch, landing at every point he wished to investigate. His
+first care was to examine minutely the valley walls over which the
+glacier must once have moved. Every characteristic feature, known
+in the Alps as the work of the glaciers, was not only easily
+recognizable here, but as perfectly preserved as anywhere in
+Switzerland. The rounded knolls to which De Saussure first gave the
+name of roches moutonnees were smoothed, polished, scratched, and
+grooved in the direction of the ice movement, the marks running
+mostly from south to north, or nearly so. The general trend of the
+scratches and furrows showed them to have been continuous from one
+knoll to another. The furrows were of various dimensions, sometimes
+shallow and several inches broad, sometimes narrow with more
+defined limits, gradually passing into mere lines on a very
+smoothly polished surface. Even the curious notches scooped out of
+the even surfaces, and technically called "coups de gouge," were
+not wanting. In some places the seams of harder rock stood out for
+a quarter of an inch or so above adjoining decomposed surfaces; in
+such instances the dike alone retained the glacial marks, which had
+been worn away from the softer rock.
+
+The old moraines were numerous and admirably well preserved.
+Agassiz examined with especial care one colossal lateral moraine,
+standing about two miles below the present terminus of the ice and
+five hundred feet above the sea-level. It consisted of the same
+rocks as those found on the present terminal moraine, part of them
+being rounded and worn, while large, angular boulders rested above
+the smaller materials. This moraine forms a dam across a trough in
+the valley wall, and holds back the waters of a beautiful lake,
+about a thousand feet in length and five hundred in width, shutting
+it in just as the Lake of Meril in Switzerland is held in its basin
+by the glacier of Aletsch. There are erratics some two or three
+hundred feet above this great moraine, showing that the glacier
+must have been more than five hundred feet thick when it left this
+accumulation of loose materials at such a height. It then united,
+however, with a large glacier more to the west. Its greatest
+thickness, as an independent glacier, is no doubt marked, not by
+the boulders lying higher up, but by the large moraine which shuts
+in the lake. The direct connection of this moraine with the glacier
+in its former extension is still further shown by two other
+moraines, on lower levels and less perfect, but having the same
+relation to the present terminus of the ice. The lower of these is
+only one hundred and fifty feet above the actual level of the
+glacier. These three moraines occur on the western slope of the
+bay. The eastern slope is more broken, and while the rounded knolls
+are quite as distinct and characteristic, the erratics are more
+loosely scattered over the surface. In mineralogical character they
+agree with those on the western wall of the bay. Upon the summits
+of some small islands at the entrance of the bay, there are also
+some remnants of terminal moraines, formed by the glacier when it
+reached the main channel; that is, when it was some three miles
+longer than now.
+
+The more recent oscillations, marking the advance and retreat of
+the glacier within certain limits, are shown by the successive
+moraines heaped up in advance of the present terminal wall. The
+central motion here, as in all the Swiss glaciers, is greater than
+the lateral, the ice being pushed forward in the middle faster than
+on the sides. But there would seem to be more than one axis of
+progression in this broad mass of ice; for though the centre is
+pushed out beyond the rest, the terminal wall does not present one
+uniform curve, but forms a number of more or less projecting angles
+or folds. A few feet in front of this wall is a ridge of loose
+materials, stones, pebbles, and boulders, repeating exactly the
+outline of the ice where it now stands; a few feet in advance of
+this, again, is another ridge precisely like it; still a few feet
+beyond, another; and so on, for four or five concentric zigzag
+crescent-shaped moraines, followed by two others more or less
+marked, till they fade into the larger morainic mass, upon which
+stands the belt of wood dividing the present glacier from the bay.
+Agassiz counted eight distinct moraines between the glacier and the
+belt of wood, and four concentric moraines in the wood itself. It
+is plain that the glacier has ploughed into the forest within some
+not very remote period, for the trees along its margin are loosened
+and half uprooted, though not yet altogether decayed. In the
+presence of the glacier one ceases to wonder at the effects
+produced by so powerful an agent. This sheet of ice, even in its
+present reduced extent, is about a mile in width, several miles in
+length, and at least two hundred feet in depth. Moving forward as
+it does ceaselessly, and armed below with a gigantic file,
+consisting of stones, pebbles, and gravel, firmly set in the ice,
+who can wonder that it should grind, furrow, round, and polish the
+surfaces over which it slowly drags its huge weight. At once
+destroyer and fertilizer, it uproots and blights hundreds of trees
+in its progress, yet feeds a forest at its feet with countless
+streams; it grinds the rocks to powder in its merciless mill, and
+then sends them down, a fructifying soil, to the wooded shore
+below.
+
+Agassiz would gladly have stayed longer in the neighborhood of
+Glacier Bay, and have made it the central point of a more detailed
+examination of the glacial phenomena in the Strait. But the
+southern winter was opening, and already gave signs of its
+approach. At dawn on the 26th of March, therefore, the Hassler left
+her beautiful anchorage in Playa Parda Cove, six large glaciers
+being in sight from her deck as she came out. The scenery during
+the morning had a new scientific interest for Agassiz, because the
+vessel kept along the northern side of the Strait, while the course
+hitherto had been nearer the southern shore. He could thus better
+compare the differences between the two walls of the Strait. The
+fact that the northern wall is more evenly worn, more rounded than
+the southern, had a special significance for him, as corresponding
+with like facts in Switzerland, and showing that the ice-sheet had
+advanced across the Strait with greater force in its ascending than
+in its descending path. The north side being the strike side, the
+ice would have pushed against it with greater force. Such a
+difference between the two sides of any hollow or depression in the
+direct path of the ice is well known in Switzerland.
+
+Later in the day, a pause was made in Chorocua Bay, where Captain
+Mayne's chart makes mention of a glacier descending into the water.
+There is, indeed, a large glacier on its western side, but so
+inaccessible, that any examination of it would have required days
+rather than hours. No one, however, regretted the afternoon spent
+here, for the bay was singularly beautiful. On either side, deep
+gorges, bordered by richly-wooded cliffs and overhung by ice and
+snow-fields, were cut into the mountains. Where these channels
+might lead, into what dim recesses of ocean and mountain, could
+only be conjectured. The bay, with all its inlets and fiords, was
+still as a church. Voices and laughter seemed an intrusion, and a
+louder shout came back in echoes from far-off hidden retreats. Only
+the swift steamer-ducks, as they shot across, broke the glassy
+surface of the water with their arrow-like wake. From this point
+the Hassler crossed to Sholl Bay, and anchored at the entrance of
+Smythe's Channel. As sunset faded over the snow mountains opposite
+her anchorage, their white reflection lay like marble in the water.
+
+CHAPTER 24.
+
+1872: AGE 65.
+
+Picnic in Sholl Bay.
+Fuegians.
+Smythe's Channel.
+Comparison of Glacial Features with those of the Strait of Magellan.
+Ancud.
+Port of San Pedro.
+Bay of Concepcion.
+Three Weeks in Talcahuana.
+Collections.
+Geology.
+Land Journey to Santiago.
+Scenes along the Road.
+Report on Glacial Features to Mr. Peirce.
+Arrival at Santiago.
+Election as Foreign Associate of the Institute of France.
+Valparaiso.
+The Galapagos.
+Geological and Zoological Features.
+Arrival at San Francisco.
+
+The next day forces were divided. The vessel put out into the
+Strait again for sounding and dredging, while Agassiz, with a
+smaller party, landed in Sholl Bay. Here, after having made a fire
+and pitched a tent in which to deposit wraps, provisions etc., the
+company dispersed in various directions along the shore,
+geologizing, botanizing, and collecting. Agassiz was especially
+engaged in studying the structure of the beach itself. He found
+that the ridge of the beach was formed by a glacial moraine, while
+accumulations of boulders, banked up in morainic ridges, concentric
+with one another and with the beach moraine, extended far out from
+the shore like partly sunken reefs. The pebbles and boulders of
+these ridges were not local, or, at least, only partially so; they
+had the same geological character as those of the drift material
+throughout the Strait.
+
+The day was favorable for work, and there was little to remind one
+of approaching winter. A creek of fresh water, that ran out upon
+one part of the beach, led up to a romantic brook, rushing down
+through a gorge bordered by moss-grown trees and carpeted by ferns
+and lichens in all its nooks and corners. This brook took its rise
+in a small lake lying some half a mile behind the beach. The
+collections made along the shore in this excursion were large and
+various: star-fish, volutas, sea-urchins, sea-anemones, medusae,
+doris; many small fishes, also, from the tide-pools, beside a
+number drawn in the seine.
+
+Later in the day, when the party had assembled around the beach
+fire for rest and refreshment, before returning to the vessel,
+their lunch was interrupted by strange and unexpected guests. A
+boat rounded the point of the beach, and, as it came nearer, proved
+to be full of Fuegian natives, men, women, children, and dogs,
+their invariable companions. The men alone landed, some six or
+seven in number, and came toward the tent. Nothing could be more
+coarse and repulsive than their appearance, in which the brutality
+of the savage was in no way redeemed by physical strength or
+manliness. They were almost naked, for the short, loose skins tied
+around the neck, and hanging from the shoulders, over the back,
+partly to the waist, could hardly be called clothing. With swollen
+bodies, thin limbs, and stooping forms; with a childish, yet
+cunning, leer on their faces, they crouched over the fire,
+spreading their hands toward its genial warmth, and all shrieking
+at once, "Tabac! tabac!" and "Galleta!"--biscuit. Tobacco there was
+none; but the remains of the lunch, such as it was,--hard bread and
+pork,--was distributed among them, and they greedily devoured it.
+Then the one who, judging from a certain deference paid him by the
+others, might be the chief, or leader, seated himself on a stone
+and sang in a singular kind of monotonous, chanting tone. The
+words, as interpreted by the gestures and expressions, seemed to be
+an improvisation concerning the strangers they had found upon the
+beach, and were evidently addressed to them. There was something
+curious in the character of this Fuegian song. Rather recitative
+than singing, the measure had, nevertheless, certain divisions or
+pauses, as if to mark a kind of rhythm. It was brought to a close
+at regularly recurring intervals, and ended always in the same way,
+and on the same note, with a rising inflection of the voice. When
+the song was finished, a certain surprise and expectancy in the
+listeners kept them silent. This seemed to trouble the singer, who
+looked round with a comical air of inquiring disappointment. Thus
+reminded, the audience were quick to applaud, and then he laughed
+with pleasure, imitated the clapping of the hands in an awkward
+way, and nothing loth, began to sing again.
+
+The recall gun from the Hassler brought this strange scene to a
+close, and the party hastened down to the beach, closely followed
+by their guests, who still clamorously demanded tobacco. Meanwhile
+the women had brought the boat close to that of the Hassler at the
+landing. They all began to laugh, talk, and gesticulate, and seemed
+a noisy grew, chattering unceasingly, with amazing rapidity, and
+all together. Their boat, with the babies and dogs to add to the
+tumult, was a perfect babel of voices. They put off at once,
+keeping as close as they could to the Hassler boat, and reaching
+the vessel almost at the same time. They were not allowed to come
+on board, but tobacco and biscuit, as well as bright calico and
+beads for the women, were thrown down to them. They scrambled and
+snatched fiercely, like wild animals, for whatever they could
+catch. They had some idea of barter, for when they found they had
+received all that they were likely to get gratuitously, they held
+up bows and arrows, wicker baskets, birds, and the large
+sea-urchins, which are an article of food with them. Even after the
+steamer had started, they still clung to the side, praying,
+shrieking, screaming, for more "tabac." When they found it a
+hopeless chase, they dropped off, and began again the same chanting
+recitative, waving their hands in farewell.
+
+Always interested in the comparative study of the races, Agassiz
+regretted that he had no other opportunity of observing the natives
+of this region and comparing them with the Indians he had seen
+elsewhere, in Brazil and in the United States. It is true that he
+and his companions, when on shore, frequently came upon their
+deserted camps, or single empty huts; and their canoes followed the
+Hassler several times, but never when it was convenient to stop and
+let them come up with the vessel. This particular set were not in a
+canoe, but in a large boat of English build. Probably they had
+stolen it, or had found it, perhaps, stranded on the shore. They
+are usually, however, in canoes of their own making. One can only
+wonder that people ingenious enough to construct canoes so well
+modeled and so neatly and strongly put together, should have
+invented nothing better in the way of a house than a hut built of
+flexible branches, compared with which a wigwam is an elaborate
+dwelling. These huts are hood-like in shape, and too low for any
+posture but that of squatting or lying down. In front is always a
+scorched spot on the ground, where their handful of fire has
+smouldered; and at one side, a large heap of empty shells, showing
+that they had occupied this place until they had exhausted the
+supply of mussels, on which they chiefly live. When this is the
+case, they move to some other spot, gather a few branches,
+reconstruct their frail shelter, and continue the same life.
+Untaught by their necessities, they wander thus, naked and
+homeless, in snow, mist, and rain, as they have done for ages,
+asking of the land only a strip of beach and a handful of fire; and
+of the ocean, shell-fish enough to save them from starvation.
+
+The Hassler had now fairly entered upon Smythe's Channel, and was
+anchored at evening (March 27th) in Otway Bay, a lake-like harbor,
+broken by islands. Mount Burney, a noble, snow-covered mountain,
+corresponding to Mount Sarmiento in grandeur of outline, was in
+full view, but was partially veiled in mist. On the following day,
+however, the weather was perfect for the sail past Sarmiento Range
+and Snowy Glacier, which were in sight all day. Blue could not be
+more deep and pure, nor white more spotless, than their ice and
+snow-fields. Toward the latter part of the day, an immense expanse
+of snow opened out a little beyond Snowy Range. It was covered with
+the most curious snow hummocks, forming high cones over the whole
+surface, their shadows slanting over the glittering snow in the
+afternoon sunshine. They were most fantastic in shape, and some
+fifty or sixty in number. At first sight, they resembled heaped-up
+mounds or pyramids of snow; but as the vessel approached, one group
+of them, so combined as to simulate a fortification, showed a face
+of rock where the snow had been blown away, and it seemed therefore
+probable that all were alike,--snow-covered pinnacles of rock.
+
+The evening anchorage on the 28th was in Mayne's Harbor, a pretty
+inlet of Owen's Island. Here the vessel was detained for
+twenty-four hours by the breaking of the reversing rod. The
+engineers repaired it to the best of their ability, with such
+apparatus as they had, but it was a source of anxiety till a port
+was reached where a new one could be supplied. The detention, had
+it not been for such a cause, was welcome to the scientific party.
+Agassiz found the rounded and moutonnees surfaces and the general
+modeling of the outlines of ice no less marked here than in the
+Strait; and in a ramble over the hills above the anchorage, M. de
+Pourtales came upon very distinct glacial scorings and furrows on
+dikes and ledges of greenstone and syenite. They were perfectly
+regular, and could be connected by their trend from ledge to ledge,
+across intervening spaces of softer decomposed rock, from which all
+such surface markings had disappeared.
+
+The country above Mayne's Harbor was pretty, though somewhat
+barren. Beyond the narrow belt of woods bordering the shore, the
+walking was over soggy hummocks, with little growth upon them
+except moss, lichens, and coarse marsh grass. These were succeeded
+by ridges of crumbling rock, between which were numerous small
+lakes. The land seemed very barren of life. Even the shores of the
+ponds were hardly inhabited. No song of bird or buzz of insect
+broke the stillness. Rock after rock was turned over in the vain
+expectation of finding living things on the damp under side at
+least; and the cushions of moss were broken up in the same
+fruitless chase. All was barren and lifeless. Not so on the shore,
+where the collecting went on rapidly. Dredge and nets were at work
+all the morning, and abundant collections were made also from the
+little nooks and inlets of the beach. Agassiz found two new
+jelly-fishes, and christened them at once as the locality
+suggested, one for Captain Mayne, the other for Professor Owen.
+Near the shore, birds also seemed more abundant. A pair of
+kelp-geese and a steamer duck were brought in, and one of the
+officers reported humming-birds flitting across the brook from
+which the Hassler's tanks were filled.
+
+Early on the morning of the 30th, while mountains and snow-fields,
+woodland and water, still lay between moonlight and sunrise, the
+Hassler started for Tarn Bay. It was a beautiful Easter Sunday,
+with very little wind, and a soft sky, broken by few clouds. But
+such beginnings are too apt to be delusive in this region of wet
+and fog, and a heavy rain, with thick mist, came up in the
+afternoon. That night, for the first time, the Hassler missed her
+anchorage, and lay off the shore near an island, which afforded
+some protection from the wind. A forlorn hope was detailed to the
+shore, where a large fire was kept burning all night, that the
+vessel might not lose her bearings and drift away. In the morning
+all was right again, and she kept on her course to Rowlet Narrows.
+
+This passage is formed by a deep gorge, cleft between lofty walls
+over which many a waterfall foams from reservoirs of snow above.
+Agassiz observed two old glacier beds on the western side of the
+pass--two shallow depressions, lying arid and scored between
+swelling wooded ridges. He had not met in all the journey a better
+locality for the study of glacial effects than here. The sides of
+the channel show these traces throughout their whole length. In
+this same neighborhood, as a conspicuous foreground on the shore of
+Indian Reach, to the south of Lackawanna Cove, is a large moraine
+resembling the "horse-backs," in the State of Maine, New England.
+The top was as level as a railroad embankment. The anchorage for
+the night was in Eden Harbor, and for that evening, at least, it
+was lovely enough to deserve its name. The whole expanse of its
+land-locked waters, held between mountains and broken by islands,
+was rosy and purple in the setting sun. The gates of the garden
+were closed, however, not by a flaming sword, but by an
+impenetrable forest, along the edge of which a scanty rim of beach
+hardly afforded landing or foothold. The collections here,
+therefore, were small; but a good haul was made with the trawl net,
+which gathered half-a-dozen species of echinoderms, some small
+fishes, and a number of shells. Fog detained the vessel in Eden
+Harbor till a late hour in the morning, but the afternoon was
+favorable for the passage through the English Narrows, the most
+contracted part of Smythe's Channel. It is, indeed, a mere mountain
+defile, through which the water rushes with such force that, in
+navigating it, great care was required to keep the vessel off the
+rocks. Her anchorage at the close of the day was in Connor's Cove,
+a miniature harbor not unlike Borja Bay in the Strait. It was a
+tranquil retreat. The water-birds seemed to find it so, for the
+steamer ducks were trailing their long wakes through the water, and
+a large kind of stormy petrel sailed up to the vessel, and almost
+put himself into the hands of the sailors, with whom he remained an
+unresisting prisoner.
+
+Geologically, Agassiz found Connor's Cove of especial interest. It
+runs east and west, opening on the eastern side of the channel; but
+the knolls, that is to say, the rounded surfaces at its entrance,
+are furrowed across the cove, at right angles with it. In other
+words, the movement of the ice, always from south to north, has
+been with Smythe's Channel, and across the Strait of Magellan.
+Indeed it seemed to Agassiz that all the glacial agency in Smythe's
+Channel, the trend of the furrows, the worn surfaces whereon they
+were to be found, and the steepness of southern exposures as
+compared with the more rounded opposite slopes, pointed to the same
+conclusion.
+
+On the third of April Agassiz left with regret this region of ocean
+and mountain, glacier, snow-field, and forest. The weeks he had
+spent there were all too short for the work he had hoped to do.
+Yet, trained as he was in glacial phenomena, even so cursory an
+observation satisfied him that in the southern, as in the northern
+hemisphere, the present glaciers are but a remnant of the ancient
+ice-period.
+
+After two days of open sea and head winds, the next anchorage was
+in Port San Pedro, a very beautiful bay opening on the north side
+of Corcovado Gulf, with snow mountains in full sight; the Peak of
+Corcovado and a wonderfully symmetrical volcanic mountain,
+Melimoya, white as purest marble to the summit, were clearly
+defined against the sky. Forests clothed the shore on every side,
+and the shelving beach met the wood in a bank of wild Bromelia,
+most brilliant in color. Not only were excellent collections made
+on this beach, but the shore was strewn with large accumulations of
+erratics. Among them was a green epidotic rock which Agassiz had
+traced to this spot from the Bay of San Antonio on the Patagonian
+coast, without ever finding it in place. Some of the larger
+boulders had glacial furrows and scratches upon them, and all the
+hills bordering the shore were rounded and moutonnee. One of the
+great charms for Agassiz in the scenery of all this region, and
+especially in the Strait of Magellan, was a kind of home feeling
+that it gave him. Although the mountains rose from the ocean,
+instead of from the plain as in Switzerland, yet the snow-fields
+and the glaciers carried him back to his youth. To him, the sunset
+of this evening in the Port San Pedro, with the singular
+transparent rose color over the snow mountains, and the soft
+succeeding pallor, was the very reproduction of an Alpine sunset.
+
+The next morning brought a disappointment. From this point Agassiz
+had hoped to continue the voyage by the inside passage between the
+main-land and the island of Chiloe. This was of importance to him,
+on account of its geological relation to Smythe's Channel and the
+Strait of Magellan. In the absence of any good charts of the
+channel, the Captain, after examining the shoals at the entrance,
+was forced to decide, almost as much to his own regret as to that
+of Agassiz, not to attempt the further passage. Keeping up the
+outer coast of Chiloe, therefore, the vessel anchored before Ancud
+on the 8th of April. It was a heavenly day. The volcanic peak of
+Osorno and the whole snowy Cordilleras were unveiled. The little
+town above the harbor, with its outlying farms on the green and
+fertile hills around, seemed like the very centre of civilization
+to people who had been so long out of the world. It is said to rain
+in Ancud three hundred and sixty-five days in the year. But on this
+particular afternoon it was a very sunny place, and the inhabitants
+seemed to avail themselves of their rare privilege. Groups of
+Indians, who had come across the river in the morning to sell their
+milk in the town, were resting in picturesque groups around their
+empty milk-cans, the women wrapped in their long shawls, the men in
+their ponchos and slouched hats; the country people were driving
+out their double teams of strong, powerful oxen harnessed to wooden
+troughs filled with manure for the fields; the washerwomen were
+scrubbing and beating their linen along the roadside; the gardens
+of the poorest houses were bright with large shrubs of wild
+fuchsia, and, altogether, the aspect of the little place was
+cheerful and pretty. Agassiz had but two or three hours for a look
+at the geology. Even this cursory glance sufficed to show him that
+the drift materials, even to their special mineralogical elements,
+were the same as in the Magellan Strait. Here they rested, however,
+on volcanic soil.
+
+Stopping at Lota for coal, but not long enough for any scientific
+work, the Hassler entered Concepcion Bay on the 15th April, and
+anchored near Talcahuana, where she was to remain some three weeks
+for the repair of her engine. This quaint, primitive little town is
+built upon one of the finest harbors on the Pacific coast. Agassiz
+was fortunate in finding, through the kindness of Captain Johnson,
+a partially furnished house, where several large vacant rooms,
+opening on the "patio," served admirably as scientific
+laboratories. Here, then, he established himself with his
+assistants. It was soon understood that every living thing would
+find a market with him, and all the idle urchins about the town
+flocked to the house with specimens. An unceasing traffic of birds,
+shells, fish, etc., went on there from morning to night, and to the
+various vendors were added groups of Indians coming to have their
+photographs taken. There were charming excursions and walks in the
+neighborhood, and the geology of the region was so interesting that
+it determined Agassiz to go by land from Talcahuana to Valparaiso,
+on a search after any glacial tracks that might be found in the
+valley lying between the Cordillera of the Andes and the Coast
+Range. Meanwhile the Hassler was to go on a dredging expedition to
+the island of Juan Fernandez, and then proceed to Valparaiso, where
+Agassiz was to join her a fortnight later. Although this expedition
+was under the patronage of the Coast Survey, the generosity of Mr.
+Thayer, so constantly extended to scientific aims, had followed
+Agassiz on this second journey. To his kindness he owed the
+possibility of organizing an excursion apart from the direct object
+of the voyage. This change of plan and its cause is told in the
+following extract from his general report to Professor Peirce:--
+
+APRIL 27th.
+
+While I was transcribing my Report, Pourtales came in with the
+statement that he had noticed the first indication of an Andean
+glacier in the vicinity. I have visited the locality twice since.
+It is a magnificent polished surface, as well preserved as any I
+have ever seen upon old glaciated ground or under glaciers of the
+present day, with well-marked furrows and scratches. Think of it! a
+characteristic surface, indicating glacier action, in latitude 37
+degrees south, at the level of the sea! The place is only a few
+feet above tide level, upon the slope of a hill on which stand the
+ruins of a Spanish fort, near the fishermen's huts of San Vicente,
+which lies between Concepcion Bay and the Bay of Aranco. Whether
+the polished surface is the work of a glacier descending from the
+Andes to the sea-shore or not, I have not yet been able to
+determine. I find no volcanic pebbles or boulders in this vicinity,
+which, after my experience in San Carlos, I should expect all along
+the shore, if the glaciers of the Andes had descended to the level
+of the ocean, in this part of the country. The erratics here have
+the character of those observed farther south. It is true the
+furrows and scratches of this polished surface run mainly from east
+to west; but there are some crossing the main trend, at angles
+ranging from 20 to 30 degrees, and running south-east-north-west.
+Moreover, the magnetic variation is 18 degrees 3 degrees at
+Talcahuano April 23rd, the true meridian bearing to the right of
+the magnetic. I shall soon know what to make of this, as I start
+to-morrow for the interior, to go to Santiago and join the ship
+again at Valparaiso. I have hired a private carriage, to be able
+to stop whenever I wish so to do. I also take a small seine to fish
+for fresh water fishes in the many streams intervening between this
+place and Valparaiso. The trend of the glacial scratches in San
+Vicente reminds me of a fact I have often observed in New England
+near the sea-shore, where the glacial furrows dip to a considerable
+extent eastward toward the deep ocean, while further inland their
+trend is more regular and due North and South. . .
+
+"I had almost forgotten to say that I have obtained unquestionable
+evidence of the cretaceous age of the coal deposits of Lota and the
+adjoining localities, north and south, which are generally supposed
+to be tertiary lignites. They are overlaid by sandstone containing
+Baculites! I need not adduce other evidence to satisfy geologists
+of the correctness of my assertion. I have myself collected a great
+many of these fossils, in beds resting upon coal-seams. Ever truly
+yours,
+
+LOUIS AGASSIZ."
+
+On the 28th of April, then, Agassiz left Talcahuana, accompanied by
+Mrs. Agassiz, and by Dr. Steindachner, who was to assist him in
+making collections along the way. They were to travel post, along
+the diligence road, until they reached Curicu, within half a day of
+Santiago, where railroad travel began. It was a beautiful journey,
+and though the rainy season was impending, the fair weather was
+uninterrupted. The way lay for the most part through an
+agricultural district of corn, wheat, and vineyards. In this
+strange land, where seasons are reversed, and autumn has changed
+places with spring, the work of harvest and vintage was just going
+on. The road was full of picturesque scenes: troops of mules might
+be met, a hundred at a time, laden with corn-sacks; the queer,
+primitive carts of the country creaked along, carrying huge
+wine-jars filled with the fresh new juice of the grape; the road
+was gay with country people in their holiday dresses; the women,
+who wore their bright shawls like a kind of mantle, were sometimes
+on foot and sometimes pillioned behind the men, who were invariably
+on horseback, and whose brilliant ponchos and fine riding added to
+the impression of life and color. Rivers and streams were frequent;
+and as there were no bridges, the scenes at the fords, sometimes
+crossed on rafts, sometimes on flat boats, worked by ropes, were
+exciting and picturesque. For rustic interiors along the road side,
+there were the huts of the working people, rough trellises of
+tree-trunks interwoven with branches; green as arbors while fresh,
+a coarse thatch when dry. There was always a large open space in
+front, sheltered by the projecting thatch of the house, and
+furnished sometimes with a rough table and benches. Here would be
+the women at their work, or the children at play, or sometimes the
+drovers taking their lunch of tortillas and wine, while their
+animals munched their midday meal hard by. The scenery was often
+fine. On the third day the fertile soil, watered by many rivers,
+was exchanged for a sandy plain, broken by a thorny mimosa
+scattered over the surface. This plain lay between the Cordillera
+of the Andes and the Coast Range. As the road advanced farther
+inland, the panorama of the Cordilleras became more and more
+striking. In the glow of the sunset, the peaks of the abrupt,
+jagged walls and the volcano-like summits were defined against the
+sky in all their rugged beauty. There was little here to remind one
+of the loveliness of the Swiss Alps. With no lower green slopes, no
+soft pasturage grounds leading gently up to rocky heights, the
+Andes, at least in this part of their range, rise arid, stern, and
+bold from base to crest, a fortress wall unbroken by tree or shrub,
+or verdure of any kind, and relieved only by the rich and varied
+coloring of the rock.
+
+The lodgings for the night were found in small towns along the
+road, Tome, Chilian, Linarez, Talca, Curicu, and once, when there
+was no inn within reach, at a hospitable hacienda.
+
+A brief sketch of the geological observations made on this
+excursion is found in a letter from Agassiz to Mr. Peirce. He never
+wrote out, as he had intended to do, a more detailed report.
+
+OFF GUATEMALA, July 29, 1872.
+
+MY DEAR PEIRCE,
+
+. . .I have another new chapter concerning glacial phenomena,
+gathered during our land-journey from Talcahuana to Santiago. It is
+so complicated a story that I do not feel equal now to recording
+the details in a connected statement, but will try to give you the
+main facts in a few words.
+
+There is a broad valley between the Andes and the Coast Range, the
+valley of Chilian, extending from the Gulf of Ancud, or Port de
+Mott, to Santiago and farther north. This valley is a continuation,
+upon somewhat higher level, of the channels which, from the Strait
+of Magellan to Chiloe, separate the islands from the main-land,
+with the sole interruption of Tres Montes. Now this great valley,
+extending for more than twenty-five degrees of latitude, is a
+CONTINUOUS GLACIER BOTTOM, showing plainly that for its whole
+length the great southern ice-sheet has been retreating southward
+in it. I could find nowhere any indication that glaciers descending
+from the Andes had crossed this valley and reached the shores of
+the Pacific. In a few brief localities only did I notice Andean, i.
+e. volcanic, erratics upon the loose materials filling the old
+glacier bottom. Between Curicu and Santiago, however, facing the
+gorge of Tenon, I saw two distinct lateral moraines, parallel to
+one another, chiefly composed of volcanic boulders, resting upon
+the old drift, and indicating by their position the course of a
+large glacier that once poured down from the Andes of Tenon, and
+crossed the main valley, without, however, extending beyond the
+eastern slope of the Coast Range. These moraines are so well marked
+that they are known throughout the country as the cerillos of
+Tenon, but nobody suspects their glacial origin; even the
+geologists of Santiago assign a volcanic origin to them. What is
+difficult to describe in this history are the successive retrograde
+steps of the great southern ice-field that, step by step, left
+larger or smaller tracts of the valley to the north of it free of
+ice, so that large glacial lakes could be formed, and seem, indeed,
+always to have existed along the retreating edge of the great
+southern glacier. The natural consequence is that there are
+everywhere stratified terraces without border barriers (since these
+were formed only by the ice that has vanished), resting at
+successively higher or lower levels, as you move north or south,
+upon unstratified drift of older date; the northernmost of these
+terraces being the oldest, while those further south belong to later
+steps in the waning of the ice-fields. From these data I infer that
+my suggestion concerning the trend of the strike upon the polished
+and glaciated surface of the vicinity of Talcahuana, alluded to in
+the postscript of my last letter, is probably correct. . .
+
+At Santiago Agassiz rested a day or two. Here, as everywhere
+throughout the country, he met with the greatest kindness and
+cordiality. A public reception and dinner were urged upon him by
+the city, but his health obliged him to decline this and like
+honors elsewhere. Among the letters awaiting him here, was one
+which brought him a pleasant surprise. It announced his election as
+Foreign Associate of the Institute of France,--"one of the eight."
+As the crowning honor of his scientific career, this was, of
+course, very gratifying to him. In writing soon after to the
+Emperor of Brazil, who had expressed a warm interest in his
+election, he says: "The distinction pleased me the more because so
+unexpected. Unhappily it is usually a brevet of infirmity, or at
+least of old age, and in my case it is to a house in ruins that the
+diploma is addressed. I regret it the more because I have never
+felt more disposed for work, and yet never so fatigued by it."
+
+From Santiago Agassiz proceeded to Valparaiso, where he rejoined
+the ship's company. The events of their cruise had been less
+satisfactory than those of his land-journey, for, owing to the
+rottenness of the ropes, produced by dampness, the hauls of the
+dredge from the greatest depths had been lost. Several pauses for
+dredging in shallower waters were made with good success,
+nevertheless, on the way up the coast to Callao. From there the
+Hassler put out to sea once more, for the Galapagos, arriving
+before Charles Island on the 10th of June, and visiting in
+succession Albemarle, James, Jarvis, and Indefatigable islands.
+
+Agassiz enjoyed extremely his cruise among these islands of such
+rare geological and zoological interest. Purely volcanic in
+character, and of very recent formation, they yet support a fauna
+and flora quite their own, very peculiar and characteristic.
+Albemarle Island was, perhaps, the most interesting of all. It is a
+barren mountain rising from the sea, its base and slope covered
+with small extinct craters. No less than fifty--some perfectly
+symmetrical, others irregular, as if blasted out on one side--could
+be counted from the deck as the vessel neared the shore. Indeed,
+the whole island seemed like some subterranean furnace, of which
+these craters were the chimneys. The anchorage was in Tagus Sound,
+a deep, quiet bay, less peaceful once, for its steep sides are
+formed by the walls of an old crater.
+
+The next day, June 15, was spent by the whole scientific party in a
+ramble on shore. The landing was at the foot of a ravine. Climbing
+its left bank, they were led by a short walk to the edge of a large
+crater, which held a beautiful lake in its cup. It was, in fact, a
+crater within a crater, for a second one, equally symmetrical, rose
+outside and above it. Following the brink of this lake to its upper
+end, they struck across to the head of the ravine. It terminated in
+a ridge, which looked down upon an immense field or sea of hardened
+lava, spreading over an area of several miles till it reached the
+ocean. This ancient bed of lava was full of the most singular and
+fantastic details of lava structure. It was a field of charred
+ruins, among which were more or less open caves or galleries, some
+large enough to hold a number of persons standing upright, others
+hardly allowing room to creep through on hands and knees. Rounded
+domes were common, sometimes broken, sometimes whole; now and then
+some great lava bubble was pierced with a window blasted out of the
+side, through which one could look down to the floor of a deep,
+underground hollow.
+
+The whole company, some six or eight persons, lunched in one of the
+caves, resting on the seats formed by the ledges of lava along its
+sides. It had an entrance at either end, was some forty feet long,
+at least ten feet high in the centre, and perhaps six or eight feet
+wide. Probably never before had it served as a banqueting hall.
+Such a hollow tunnel or arch had been formed wherever the interior
+of a large mass of lava, once cooled, had become heated again, and
+had flowed out, leaving the outside crust standing. The whole story
+of this lava bed is so clearly told in its blackened and extinct
+remains, that it needs no stretch of the imagination to recreate
+the scene. It is again, a heaving, palpitating sheet of fire; the
+dead slags are aglow, and the burned-out furnaces cast up their
+molten, blazing contents, as of old. Now it is the home of the
+large red and orange-colored iguanas, of which a number were
+captured, both alive and dead. These islands proved, indeed,
+admirable collecting grounds, the more interesting from the
+peculiarity of their local fauna.
+
+FROM AGASSIZ TO PROFESSOR PEIRCE.
+
+OFF GUATEMALA, July 29.
+
+. . .Our visit to the Galapagos has been full of geological and
+zoological interest. It is most impressive to see an extensive
+archipelago, of MOST RECENT ORIGIN, inhabited by creatures so
+different from any known in other parts of the world. Here we have
+a positive limit to the length of time that may have been granted
+for the transformation of these animals, if indeed they are in any
+way derived from others dwelling in different parts of the world.
+The Galapagos are so recent that some of the islands are barely
+covered with the most scanty vegetation, itself peculiar to these
+islands. Some parts of their surface are entirely bare, and a great
+many of the craters and lava streams are so fresh, that the
+atmospheric agents have not yet made an impression on them. Their
+age does not, therefore, go back to earlier geological periods;
+they belong to our times, geologically speaking. Whence, then, do
+their inhabitants (animals as well as plants) come? If descended
+from some other type, belonging to any neighboring land, then it
+does not require such unspeakably long periods for the
+transformation of species as the modern advocates of transmutation
+claim; and the mystery of change, with such marked and
+characteristic differences between existing species, is only
+increased, and brought to a level with that of creation. If they
+are autochthones, from what germs did they start into existence? I
+think that careful observers, in view of these facts, will have to
+acknowledge that our science is not yet ripe for a fair discussion
+of the origin of organized beings. . .
+
+There is little to tell for the rest of the voyage that cannot be
+condensed into a few words. There was a detention for despatches
+and for Coast Survey business at Panama,--a delay which was turned
+to good account in collecting, both in the Bay and on the Isthmus.
+At San Diego, also, admirable collections were made, and pleasant
+days were spent. This was the last station on the voyage of the
+Hassler. She reached her destination and entered the Golden Gate on
+the 24th of August, 1872. Agassiz was touched by his reception in
+San Francisco. Attentions and kindnesses were showered upon him
+from all sides, but his health allowed him to accept only such
+hospitalities as were of the most quiet and private nature. He
+passed a month in San Francisco, but was unable to undertake any of
+the well-known excursions to the Yosemite Valley or the great
+trees. Rest and home became every day more imperative necessities.
+
+CHAPTER 25.
+
+1872-1873: AGE 65-66.
+
+Return to Cambridge.
+Summer School proposed.
+Interest of Agassiz.
+Gift of Mr. Anderson.
+Prospectus of Penikese School.
+Difficulties.
+Opening of School.
+Summer Work.
+Close of School.
+Last Course of Lectures at Museum.
+Lecture before Board of Agriculture.
+Illness.
+Death.
+Place of Burial.
+
+In October, 1872, Agassiz returned to Cambridge. To arrange the
+collections he had brought back, to write a report of his journey
+and its results, to pass the next summer quietly at his Nahant
+laboratory, continuing his work on the Sharks and Skates, for which
+he had brought home new and valuable material, seemed the natural
+sequence of his year of travel. But he found a new scheme of
+education on foot; one for which he had himself given the first
+impulse, but which some of his younger friends had carefully
+considered and discussed in his absence, being confident that with
+his help it might be accomplished. The plan was to establish a
+summer school of natural history somewhere on the coast of
+Massachusetts, where teachers from our schools and colleges could
+make their vacations serviceable, both for work and recreation, by
+the direct study of nature. No sooner was Agassiz once more at home
+than he was confronted by this scheme, and he took it up with
+characteristic ardor. Means there were none, nor apparatus, nor
+building, nor even a site for one. There was only the ideal, and to
+that he brought the undying fervor of his intellectual faith. The
+prospectus was soon sketched, and, once before the public, it
+awakened a strong interest. In March, when the Legislature of
+Massachusetts made their annual visit to the Museum of Comparative
+zoology, Agassiz laid this new project before them as one of deep
+interest for science in general, and especially for schools and
+colleges throughout the land. He considered it also an educational
+branch of the Museum, having, as such, a claim on their sympathy,
+since it was in the line of the direct growth and continuance of
+the same work. Never did he plead more eloquently for the cause of
+education. His gift as a speaker cannot easily be described. It was
+born of conviction, and was as simple as it was impassioned. It
+kept the freshness of youth, because the things of which he spoke
+never grew old to him, but moved him to the last hour of his life
+as forcibly as in his earlier years.
+
+This appeal to the Legislature, spoken in the morning, chanced to
+be read in the evening papers of the same day by Mr. John Anderson,
+a rich merchant of New York. It at once enlisted his sympathy both
+for the work and for the man. Within the week he offered to
+Agassiz, as a site for the school, the island of Penikese, in
+Buzzard's Bay, with the buildings upon it, consisting of a
+furnished dwelling-house and barn. Scarcely was this gift accepted
+than he added to it an endowment of 50,000 dollars for the
+equipment of the school. Adjectives belittle deeds like these. The
+bare statement says more than the most laudatory epithets.
+
+Agassiz was no less surprised than touched at the aid thus
+unexpectedly offered. In his letter of acknowledgment he says: "You
+do not know what it is suddenly and unexpectedly to find a friend
+at your side, full of sympathy, and offering support to a scheme
+which you have been trying to carry out under difficulties and with
+very scanty means. I feel grateful to you for making the road so
+easy, and I believe you will have the permanent gratitude of
+scientific men here and elsewhere, for I have the utmost confidence
+that this summer school will give valuable opportunities for
+original research, as well as for instruction." At Agassiz's
+suggestion the school was to bear the name of "The Anderson School
+of Natural History." Mr. Anderson wished to substitute the name of
+Agassiz for his own. This Agassiz absolutely refused to permit,
+saying that he was but one of many scientific men who had already
+offered their services to the school for the coming summer, some of
+whom would, no doubt, continue to work for it in the future, and
+all of whom would be equally indebted to Mr. Anderson. It was,
+therefore, most suitable that it should bear his name, and so it
+was agreed.
+
+Thus the material problem was solved. Name and habitation were
+found; it remained only to organize the work for which so fitting a
+home had been provided. Mr. Anderson's gift was received toward the
+close of March, and, in the course of the following month, the
+preliminaries were concluded, and the property was transferred to
+the trustees of the Anderson School.
+
+Few men would have thought it feasible to build dormitories and
+laboratories, and provide working apparatus for fifty pupils as
+well as for a large corps of teachers, between May and July. But to
+Agassiz no obstacles seemed insurmountable where great aims were
+involved, and the opening of the school was announced for the 8th
+of July. He left Boston on Friday, the 4th of July, for the island.
+At New Bedford he was met by a warning from the architect that it
+would be simply impossible to open the school at the appointed
+date. With characteristic disregard of practical difficulties, he
+answered that it must be possible, for postponement was out of the
+question. He reached the island on Saturday, the 5th, in the
+afternoon. The aspect was certainly discouraging. The dormitory was
+up, but only the frame was completed; there were no floors, nor was
+the roof shingled. The next day was Sunday. Agassiz called the
+carpenters together. He told them that the scheme was neither for
+money, nor for the making of money; no personal gain was involved
+in it. It was for the best interests of education, and for that
+alone. Having explained the object, and stated the emergency, he
+asked whether, under these circumstances, the next day was properly
+for rest or for work. They all answered "for work." They
+accordingly worked the following day from dawn till dark, and by
+night-fall the floors were laid. On Monday, the 7th, the partitions
+were put up, dividing the upper story into two large dormitories;
+the lower, into sufficiently convenient working-rooms. On Tuesday
+morning (the 8th), with the help of a few volunteers, chiefly
+ladies connected with the school, who had arrived a day or two in
+advance, the dormitories, which were still encumbered by shavings,
+sawdust, etc., were swept, and presently transformed into not
+unattractive sleeping-halls. They were divided by neat sets of
+furniture into equal spaces, above each of which was placed the
+name of the person to whom it was appropriated. When all was done,
+the large open rooms, with their fresh pine walls, floors, and
+ceilings, the rows of white beds down the sides, and the many
+windows looking to the sea, were pretty and inviting enough. If
+they somewhat resembled hospital wards, they were too airy and
+cheerful to suggest sickness either of body or mind.
+
+Next, a large barn belonging to Mr. Anderson's former establishment
+was cleared, and a new floor laid there also. This was hardly
+finished (the last nails were just driven) when the steamer, with
+its large company, touched the wharf. There was barely time to
+arrange the seats and to place a table with flowers where the
+guests of honor were to sit, and Agassiz himself was to stand, when
+all arrived. The barn was, on the whole, not a bad lecture-room on
+a beautiful summer day. The swallows, who had their nests without
+number in the rafters, flew in and out, and twittered softly
+overhead; and the wide doors, standing broadly open to the blue sky
+and the fresh fields let in the sea-breeze, and gave a view of the
+little domain. Agassiz had arranged no programme of exercises,
+trusting to the interest of the occasion to suggest what might best
+be said or done. But, as he looked upon his pupils gathered there
+to study nature with him, by an impulse as natural as it was
+unpremeditated, he called upon them to join in silently asking
+God's blessing on their work together. The pause was broken by the
+first words of an address no less fervent than its unspoken
+prelude.* (* This whole scene is fitly told in Whittier's poem,
+"The Prayer of Agassiz".)
+
+Thus the day, which had been anticipated with so much anxiety,
+passed off, unclouded by any untoward accident, and at evening the
+guests had departed. Students and teachers, a company of some fifty
+or sixty persons, were left to share the island with the sea-gulls
+whose haunt it was.
+
+We will not enter into the daily details of the school. It was a
+new phase of teaching, even for Agassiz, old as he was in the work.
+Most of his pupils were mature men and women, some of whom had been
+teachers themselves for many years. He had, therefore, trained
+minds to deal with, and the experience was at that time as novel as
+it was interesting. The novelty has worn off now. Summer schools
+for advanced students, and especially for teachers, have taken
+their place in the general system of education; and, though the
+Penikese school may be said to have died with its master, it lives
+anew in many a sea-side laboratory organized on the same plan, in
+summer schools of Botany and field classes of Geology. The impetus
+it gave was not, and cannot be, lost, since it refreshed and
+vitalized methods of teaching.
+
+Beside the young men who formed his corps of teachers, among whom
+the resident professors were Dr. Burt G. Wilder, of Cornell
+University, and Professor Alpheus S. Packard, now of Brown
+University, Agassiz had with him some of his oldest friends and
+colleagues. Count de Pourtales was there, superintending the
+dredging, for which there were special conveniences, Mr. Charles G.
+Galloupe having presented the school with a yacht for the express
+purpose. This generous gift gave Agassiz the greatest pleasure, and
+completed the outfit of the school as nothing else could have done.
+Professor Arnold Guyot, also,--Agassiz's comrade in younger years,
+--his companion in many an Alpine excursion,--came to the island to
+give a course of lectures, and remained for some time. It was their
+last meeting in this world, and together they lived over their days
+of youthful adventure. The lectures of the morning and afternoon
+would sometimes be followed by an informal meeting held on a little
+hill, which was a favorite resort at sunset. There the whole
+community gathered around the two old friends, to hear them talk of
+their glacial explorations, one recalling what the other had
+forgotten, till the scenes lived again for themselves, and became
+almost equally vivid for their listeners. The subject came up
+naturally, for, strange to say, this island in a New England bay
+was very suggestive of glacial phenomena. Erratic materials and
+boulders transported from the north were scattered over its
+surface, and Agassiz found the illustrations for his lectures on
+this topic ready to his hand. Indeed, some of his finest lectures
+on the ice-period were given at Penikese.
+
+Nothing could be less artificial, more free from constraint or
+formality, than the intercourse between him and his companions of
+this summer. He was at home with every member of the settlement.
+Ill-health did not check the readiness of his sympathy; languor did
+not chill the glow of his enthusiasm. All turned to him for help
+and inspiration. Walking over their little sovereignty together,
+hunting for specimens on its beaches, dredging from the boats, in
+the laboratory, or the lecture-room, the instruction had always the
+character of the freest discussion. Yet the work, although combined
+with out-of-door pleasures, and not without a certain holiday
+element, was no play. On the part of the students, the application
+was close and unremitting; on the part of the teachers, the
+instruction, though untrammeled by routine, was sustained and
+systematic.
+
+Agassiz himself frequently gave two lectures a day. In the morning
+session he would prepare his class for the work of the day; in the
+afternoon he would draw out their own observations by questions,
+and lead them, by comparison and combination of the facts they had
+observed, to understand the significance of their results. Every
+lecture from him at this time was a lesson in teaching as well as
+in natural history, and to many of his hearers this gave his
+lectures a twofold value, as bearing directly upon their own
+occupation. In his opening address he had said to them: "You will
+find the same elements of instruction all about you wherever you
+may be teaching. You can take your classes out, and give them the
+same lessons, and lead them up to the same subjects you are
+yourselves studying here. And this mode of teaching children is so
+natural, so suggestive, so true. That is the charm of teaching from
+Nature herself. No one can warp her to suit his own views. She
+brings us back to absolute truth as often as we wander."
+
+This was the bright side of the picture. Those who stood nearest to
+Agassiz, however, felt that the strain not only of work, but of the
+anxiety and responsibility attendant upon a new and important
+undertaking, was perilous for him. There were moments when this
+became apparent, and he himself felt the danger. He persevered,
+nevertheless, to the end of the summer, and only left Penikese when
+the school broke up.
+
+In order to keep the story of this final effort unbroken, some
+events of great interest to Agassiz and of importance to the Museum
+have been omitted. In the spring the Museum had received a grant of
+25,000 dollars from the Legislature. To this was added 100,000
+dollars, a birthday gift to Agassiz in behalf of the institution he
+so much loved. This last sum was controlled by no official body and
+was to be expended at his own good will and pleasure, either in
+collections, publications, or scientific assistance, as seemed to
+him best. He therefore looked forward to a year of greater ease and
+efficiency in scientific work than he had ever enjoyed before. On
+returning from Penikese, full of the new possibilities thus opened
+to him, he allowed himself a short rest, partly at the sea-shore,
+partly in the mountains, and was again at his post in the Museum in
+October.
+
+His last course of lectures there was on one of his favorite
+topics,--the type of Radiates as connected with the physical
+history of the earth, from the dawn of organic life till now. In
+his opening lecture he said to his class: "You must learn to look
+upon fossil forms as the antiquarian looks upon his coins. The
+remains of animals and plants have the spirit of their time
+impressed upon them, as strongly as the spirit of the age is
+impressed upon its architecture, its literature, its coinage. I
+want you to become so familiar with these forms, that you can read
+off at a glance their character and associations." In this spirit
+his last course was conceived. It was as far-reaching and as clear
+as usual, nor did his delivery evince failure of strength or of
+mental power. If he showed in any way the disease which was even
+then upon him, it was by an over-tension of the nerves, which gave
+increased fervor to his manner. Every mental effort was, however,
+succeeded by great physical fatigue.
+
+At the same time he had undertaken a series of articles in the
+"Atlantic Monthly," entitled, "Evolution and Permanence of Type."
+They were to have contained his own convictions regarding the
+connection between all living beings, upon which his studies had
+led him to conclusions so different from the philosophy of the day.
+Of these papers, only one was completed. It was his last word upon
+science; the correction of the proofsheets was the last act of his
+working life, and the article was published after his death. In it
+he claimed that the law of evolution, in a certain sense as true to
+him as to any so-called evolutionist, was a law "controlling
+development, and keeping types within appointed cycles of growth."
+He maintained that this law acts within definite limits, and never
+infringes upon the great types, each one of which is, in his view,
+a structural unit in itself. Even metamorphoses, he adds, "have all
+the constancy and invariability of other modes of embryonic growth,
+and have never been known to lead to any transition of one species
+into another." Of heredity he says: "The whole subject of
+inheritance is exceedingly intricate, working often in a seemingly
+capricious and fitful way. Qualities, both good and bad, are
+dropped as well as acquired, and the process ends sometimes in the
+degradation of the type, and the survival of the unfit rather than
+the fittest. The most trifling and fantastic tricks of inheritance
+are quoted in support of the transmutation theory; but little is
+said of the sudden apparition of powerful original qualities, which
+almost always rise like pure creations, and are gone with their day
+and generation. The noblest gifts are exceptional, and are rarely
+inherited; this very fact seems to me an evidence of something more
+and higher than mere evolution and transmission concerned in the
+problem of life. In the same way the matter of natural and sexual
+selection is susceptible of very various interpretations. No doubt,
+on the whole, Nature protects her best. But it would not be
+difficult to bring together an array of facts as striking as those
+produced by the evolutionists in favor of their theory, to show
+that sexual selection is by no means always favorable to the
+elimination of the chaff, and the preservation of the wheat. A
+natural attraction, independent of strength or beauty, is an
+unquestionable element in this problem, and its action is seen
+among animals as well as among men. The fact that fine progeny are
+not infrequently the offspring of weak parents, and vice versa,
+points, perhaps, to some innate power of redress by which the
+caprices of choice are counterbalanced. But there can be no doubt
+that types are as often endangered as protected by the so-called
+law of sexual selection."
+
+"As to the influence of climate and physical conditions," he
+continues, "we all know their power for evil and for good upon
+living beings. But there is, nevertheless, nothing more striking in
+the whole book of nature than the power shown by types and species
+to resist physical conditions. Endless evidence may be brought from
+the whole expanse of land and air and water, showing that identical
+physical conditions will do nothing toward the merging of species
+into one another, neither will variety of conditions do anything
+toward their multiplication. One thing only we know absolutely, and
+in this treacherous, marshy ground of hypothesis and assumption, it
+is pleasant to plant one's foot occasionally upon a solid fact here
+and there. Whatever be the means of preserving and transmitting
+properties, the primitive types have remained permanent and
+unchanged,--in the long succession of ages, amid all the appearance
+and disappearance of kinds, the fading away of one species and the
+coming in of another,--from the earliest geological periods to the
+present day. How these types were first introduced, how the species
+which have successively represented them have replaced one another,
+--these are the vital questions to which no answer has been given.
+We are as far from any satisfactory solution of this problem as if
+development theories had never been discussed."
+
+In conclusion, he sketches the plan of these articles. "I hope in
+future articles to show, first, that, however broken the geological
+record may be, there is a complete sequence in many parts of it,
+from which the character of the succession may be ascertained;
+secondly, that, since the most exquisitely delicate structures, as
+well as embryonic phases of growth of the most perishable nature,
+have been preserved from very early deposits, we have no right to
+infer the disappearance of types because their absence disproves
+some favorite theory; and, lastly, that there is no evidence of a
+direct descent of later from earlier species in the geological
+succession of animals."
+
+This paper contained the sentence so often quoted since, "A
+physical fact is as sacred as a moral principle. Our own nature
+demands from us this double allegiance." This expressed the secret
+of his whole life. Every fact in nature was sacred to him, as part
+of an intellectual conception expressed in the history of the earth
+and the beings living upon it.
+
+On the 2nd of December, he was called to a meeting of the
+Massachusetts Board of Agriculture at Fitchburg, where he lectured
+in the evening on "The structural growth of domesticated animals."
+Those who accompanied him, and knew the mental and physical
+depression which had hung about him for weeks, could not see him
+take his place on the platform, without anxiety. And yet, when he
+turned to the blackboard, and, with a single sweep of the chalk,
+drew the faultless outline of an egg, it seemed impossible that
+anything could be amiss with the hand or the brain that were so
+steady and so clear.
+
+The end, nevertheless, was very near. Although he dined with
+friends the next day, and was present at a family festival that
+week, he spoke of a dimness of sight, and of feeling "strangely
+asleep." On the 6th he returned early from the Museum, complaining
+of great weariness, and from that time he never left his room.
+Attended in his illness by his friends, Dr. Brown-Sequard and Dr.
+Morrill Wyman, and surrounded by his family, the closing week of
+his life was undisturbed by acute suffering and full of domestic
+happiness. Even the voices of his brother and sisters were not
+wholly silent, for the wires that thrill with so many human
+interests brought their message of greeting and farewell across the
+ocean to his bedside. The thoughts and aims for which he had lived
+were often on his lips, but the affections were more vivid than the
+intellect in these last hours. The end came very peacefully, on the
+14th of December, 1873. He lies buried at Mount Auburn. The boulder
+that makes his monument came from the glacier of the Aar, not far
+from the spot where his hut once stood; and the pine-trees which
+are fast growing up to shelter it were sent by loving hands from
+his old home in Switzerland. The land of his birth and the land of
+his adoption are united in his grave.
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+Aar, glacier.
+last visit to.
+boulder-monument from.
+
+Abert, Colonel.
+
+"Academy, The Little".
+
+Ackermann.
+
+Actiniae.
+
+Adelstaetten.
+
+Agassiz, Alexander.
+
+Agassiz, Auguste.
+
+Agassiz, Cecile Braun.
+talent as an artist.
+
+Agassiz, Elizabeth Cary.
+
+Agassiz, Louis.
+as a teacher.
+popular reading.
+becomes pastor at Concise.
+death.
+
+Agassiz, Jean Louis Rodolphe.
+birthplace.
+first aquarium.
+early education.
+love of natural history.
+boyish studies and amusements.
+taste for handicraft; its after use.
+adventure with his brother on the ice.
+goes to Bienne.
+college of Bienne.
+vacations.
+own sketch of plans of study at fourteen.
+school and college note-books.
+distaste for commercial life.
+goes to Lausanne.
+to the medical school at Zurich.
+copies books on natural history.
+first excursion in the Alps.
+offer of adoption by a Genevese gentleman.
+goes to Heidelberg.
+student life.
+described in Braun's letters.
+at Carlsruhe.
+illness.
+at Munich.
+description of Museum at Stuttgart.
+of mammoth.
+at Munich.
+"The Little Academy".
+"Fresh-water fishes of Europe".
+desire to travel.
+vacation trip.
+work on Brazilian fishes.
+second vacation trip.
+growing collections.
+plans for travel with Humboldt.
+doctor of philosophy.
+at Orbe and Cudrefin.
+death of Dr. Mayor.
+doctor of medicine.
+new interest in medicine.
+first work on fossil fishes.
+at Vienna.
+negotiations with Cotta.
+university life.
+at home.
+studies on cholera.
+arrives in Paris.
+homesickness.
+Cuvier gives him his fossil fishes.
+last interview with Cuvier.
+embarrassments.
+offer from Ferussac.
+plans for disposing of collection.
+curious dream.
+Humboldt's gift.
+first sight of sea.
+plans for going to Neuchatel.
+inducements to stay in Paris.
+birthday festival.
+call to Neuchatel.
+first lecture at Neuchatel.
+success as a teacher.
+impulse given to science.
+children's lectures.
+call to Heidelberg.
+declination.
+sale of collection.
+threatened blindness.
+publishing "Fossil Fishes".
+marriage.
+growing reputation.
+invited to England.
+receives Wollaston prize.
+views on classification and development.
+difficulties in the work on "Fossil Fishes".
+first visit to England.
+material for "Fossil Fishes".
+return to Neuchatel.
+first relations with New England.
+second visit to England.
+various works.
+receives Wollaston medal.
+first glacial work.
+sale of original drawings of "Fossil Fishes".
+on the Jura.
+"glacial theory" announced.
+opposition.
+invitation to Geneva.
+to Lausanne.
+death of his father.
+lithographical press.
+variety of work.
+researches on mollusks.
+chromolithographs.
+elected into Royal Society.
+new glacial work.
+first English letter.
+"Etudes sur les Glaciers".
+on the glacier of the Aar.
+"Hotel des Neuchatelois".
+work.
+ascent of the Strahleck.
+of the Siedelhorn.
+second visit to England.
+in the Highlands.
+in Ireland.
+researches in the interior of glacier.
+ascent of the Ewigschneehorn.
+of the Jungfrau.
+on the Viescher.
+the chalet of Meril.
+the Aletsch.
+the Col of Rotthal.
+the peak.
+the descent.
+zoological work.
+various publications.
+unity in work.
+on glaciers.
+"Fossil Fishes".
+gifts from the king of Prussia.
+plans for visiting the United States.
+microscopic study of fossil fishes.
+critical point.
+publishes "Fossil Fishes".
+not an evolutionist.
+belief in a Creator.
+fish skeletons.
+plan of creation.
+last visit to glacier.
+receives Monthyon prize.
+publishes "Systeme Glaciaire".
+sails for America.
+arrives in Boston.
+lectures.
+their success.
+visit to New Haven.
+impressions.
+American hospitality.
+Mercantile Library Association.
+New York.
+Princeton.
+Philadelphia.
+American scientific men.
+Hudson River.
+West Point.
+Albany.
+lectures on glaciers.
+American forests.
+erratic phenomena.
+medusae and polyps.
+plans for travel.
+at East Boston.
+first birthday in America.
+on the "Bibb".
+first dredging.
+leaves Prussian service.
+professor at Harvard.
+removes to Cambridge.
+death of his wife.
+begins a collection.
+excursion to Lake Superior.
+"Principles of Zoology" published.
+second marriage.
+arrival of his children.
+examination of Florida reefs.
+radiates.
+professor at Charleston, S.C.
+laboratory on Sullivan's Island.
+the "Hollow Tree".
+origin of human race.
+receives the "Prix Cuvier".
+lectures at Smithsonian Institution.
+made regent of.
+growth of collections.
+their sale.
+illness at Charleston.
+relation of living to fossil animals.
+return to the north.
+invitation to Zurich.
+and refusal.
+circular on collecting fishes.
+and response.
+new house in Cambridge.
+manner of study.
+weekly meetings.
+renewed lectures.
+school for young ladies opened.
+and success.
+courses of lectures.
+close.
+"Contributions to the Natural History of the United States" projected.
+concluded.
+fiftieth birthday.
+laboratory at Nahant.
+invitation to Paris.
+refusal, and reasons.
+receives cross of Legion of Honor.
+dangerous state of collections.
+an ideal museum.
+"Museum of Comparative Zoology" founded.
+visit to Europe.
+teaching at museum.
+attitude during civil war.
+urges founding National Academy.
+naturalized.
+receives Copley medal.
+lecturing tour.
+ethnographical collections.
+hydrographical distribution of animals.
+future of negro race.
+visit to Maine.
+to Brazil.
+return.
+at Lowell Institute.
+at Cooper Institute.
+illness.
+journey to the West.
+professor at Cornell University.
+address at Humboldt Centennial.
+illness.
+anxiety for Museum.
+restored health.
+Hassler expedition.
+at Talcahuana.
+journey from Talcahuana to Santiago.
+elected Foreign Associate of the Institute of France.
+at the Galapagos islands.
+at San Francisco.
+return to Cambridge.
+summer school projected.
+gift of Penikese.
+opening of school.
+last lectures at Museum.
+last work.
+last lecture.
+last visit to Museum.
+death.
+
+Agassiz, Rose Mayor.
+sympathy with her son.
+at Concise.
+visit to.
+death.
+
+Albany.
+
+Albemarle Island.
+
+Aletsch, glacier of the.
+
+Alps, first excursion in.
+later excursions.
+first permanent station.
+
+Amalgamation.
+
+Amazons, the.
+
+America, native races of.
+
+America, South, native races of.
+
+American forests.
+
+Ancud.
+
+Anderson, John.
+
+Anderson School of Natural History.
+opening.
+
+Anthony, J.G.
+
+Asterolepis.
+
+Australian race.
+
+Austrian custom-house officers.
+
+Bache, A.D.
+
+Bachelor's Peak.
+
+Baer.
+
+Bailey, Professor.
+
+Baird, S.F.
+
+Balanus.
+
+Bancroft, George.
+
+Barbados.
+
+Barnard, J.M.
+
+Beaumont, Elie de.
+aids Agassiz with a collection of fossil fishes.
+at the Helvetic Association at Neuchatel.
+
+Berlin, University of, quoted.
+
+Beroids.
+
+"Bibb" U.S. Coast Survey steamer.
+
+"Bibliographica Zoologica".
+
+Bienne, college at.
+
+Bischoff.
+
+Blake, J.H.
+
+Bombinator obstetricans, observations on.
+
+Bonaparte, Prince of Canino.
+
+Booth.
+
+Borja Bay.
+
+Boston.
+
+Boston, East.
+laboratory.
+observations upon the geology of,
+   with reference to the glacial theory.
+
+Boston Harbor.
+
+Botany, questions in.
+
+Bowditch.
+
+Braun, Alexander.
+
+Brazil, visit to.
+fresh-water fauna of.
+glacier phenomena.
+
+Brewster, Sir David.
+
+Brongniart.
+
+Bronn.
+his collection now in Cambridge.
+
+Brown-Sequard, Dr.
+
+Buch, Leopold von.
+
+Buckland, Dr.
+invites Agassiz to England.
+acts as his guide to fossil fishes.
+to glacier tracks.
+a convert to glacial theory.
+mentioned by Murchison.
+
+Burkhardt.
+
+Cabot, J.E.
+
+Cambridge.
+
+Cambridge, first mention of.
+
+Campanularia.
+
+Carlsruhe, Agassiz at.
+
+Cary, T.G.
+
+Castanea.
+
+Charleston, S.C.
+
+Charpentier.
+
+Chavannes, Professor.
+
+Chelius.
+
+Chemidium.
+
+Chemidium-like sponge.
+
+Chiem, lake of.
+
+Chilian, valley of.
+
+Chironectes pictus.
+
+Chorocua Bay.
+
+Christinat, Mr.
+
+Civil war.
+
+Clark, H.J.
+
+Coal deposits at Lota, age of.
+
+Coal mines at Sandy Point.
+
+Coast range.
+
+Coelenterata, Owen on the term.
+
+Collections, growth of.
+embryological.
+appropriation for.
+place of storage.
+sale.
+
+Concepcion Bay.
+
+Concise, Parsonage of.
+
+Connecticut geology.
+
+Connecticut River.
+
+Conner's Cove.
+
+Corcovado Gulf.
+
+Corcovado Peak.
+
+"Contributions to Natural History of the United States".
+
+Copley medal.
+
+Coral collection.
+
+Cordilleras.
+
+Cornell University.
+
+Cotting, B.E.
+
+Coulon, H.
+
+Coulon, L.
+
+Coutinho, Major.
+
+Crinoids, deep-sea and fossil, compared.
+
+Ctenophorae.
+
+Cudrefin.
+
+Curicu.
+
+Cuvier, Georges.
+dedication to.
+notes on Spix fishes.
+reception of Agassiz.
+gives material for fossil fishes.
+last words.
+
+Cyclopoma spinosum, curious dream about.
+
+Cyprinus uranoscopus.
+
+Dana J.D.
+
+Darwin, C.
+accepts glacier theory.
+on "Lake Superior".
+on Massachusetts cirripedia.
+estimation of Darwinism.
+of Agassiz.
+
+Davis, Admiral.
+
+Deep-sea dredgings.
+
+Deep-sea fauna.
+
+De Kay.
+
+De la Rive, A., invites Agassiz to Geneva.
+
+Desor.
+
+Dinkel, Joseph.
+
+Dinkel, his description of Agassiz.
+
+Dollinger.
+
+Drayton.
+
+Drift-hills.
+
+Easter fete.
+
+Echinarachnius parma.
+
+Echinoderms, relation to medusae.
+
+Eden Harbor.
+
+Egerton, Lord Francis, buys original drawings.
+
+Egerton, Sir Philip.
+
+Elizabeth islands.
+
+Embryonic and specific development.
+
+Emerson, R.W.
+
+Emperor of Brazil.
+
+England.
+first visit to.
+generosity of naturalists.
+second visit to.
+
+English Narrows.
+
+Enniskillen, Lord.
+
+Equality of races.
+
+Escher von der Linth.
+
+Esslingen.
+
+Estuaries.
+
+Ethnographical circular.
+
+"Evolution and Permanence of Type".
+
+Ewigschneehorn.
+
+Fagus castaneafolia.
+
+Favre, E., quotation from.
+
+Favre, L., quotation from.
+
+Felton, C.C.
+
+Ferussac.
+
+Fishes.
+classification.
+collecting.
+prophetic types.
+
+Fishes of America.
+
+Fishes of Brazil.
+
+Fishes, Spix's Brazilian.
+
+Fishes of Europe.
+of Kentucky.
+of New York.
+of Switzerland.
+
+Fishes, fossil.
+geological and genetic development.
+study of bones.
+in English collections.
+of the "Old Red".
+of Sheppy.
+of Connecticut.
+
+Fishes, Fossil.
+"Recherches sur les poissons fossiles".
+receives Wollaston prize.
+Monthyon prize.
+Prix Cuvier.
+
+Fish-nest.
+
+Fitchburg, lecture at.
+
+Florida reefs.
+
+Forbes, Edward.
+
+Forbes, James D.
+
+Fossil Alaskan flora.
+
+"Fossil Arctic flora".
+
+Frazer.
+
+Fremont, J.C.
+
+Fuchs.
+
+Fuegian natives.
+
+Galapagos Islands.
+
+Galloupe, C.G.
+
+Geneva, invitation to.
+
+Geoffrey St. Hilaire's progressive theory, remarks on.
+
+Gibbes.
+
+Glacial marks in Scotland.
+"Roads of Glen Roy".
+in Ireland.
+in New England.
+in New York.
+at Halifax.
+at Brooklyn.
+at East Boston.
+on Lake Superior.
+in Maine.
+in Brazil.
+in New York.
+in Penikese.
+in western prairies.
+in South America.
+
+Glacial submarine dykes.
+
+Glacial phenomena.
+lectures on.
+
+Glacial work.
+gift from king of Prussia toward.
+"Systeme glaciaire" published.
+
+"Glacial theory".
+opposition from Buch.
+from Humboldt.
+Studer's acceptance of.
+"Etudes sur les glaciers" published.
+Humboldt's later views.
+
+Glacier Bay.
+moraine.
+
+Glaciers.
+first researches.
+renewed.
+"blue bands".
+advance.
+Hugi's cabin.
+of the Aar.
+in the winter.
+the Rosenlaui.
+boring.
+glacier wells.
+caves of the Viescher.
+capillary fissures.
+formation of crevasses.
+sundials.
+topographical survey.
+stratification of neve.
+new work.
+
+Glaciers in Strait of Magellan.
+
+Glen Roy, roads of.
+
+Goeppingen.
+
+Gould, A.A.
+
+Gray, Asa.
+
+Gray, Francis C.
+leaves a sum to found a Museum of Comparative Zoology.
+
+Gray, William.
+
+Greenough, H.
+
+Gressly, A.
+
+Griffith, Dr.
+collection of.
+
+Grindelwald.
+
+Gruithuisen.
+
+Guyot, Arnold.
+on Agassiz's views.
+
+Hagen, H.A.
+
+Haldeman, S.S.
+
+Hall, J.
+
+Harbor deposits.
+
+Hare.
+
+Harvard University.
+
+Hassler expedition.
+
+Heath.
+
+Heer, Oswald.
+
+Heidelberg.
+arrival at.
+rambles in vicinity of.
+student life at.
+invitation to.
+
+Henry, Joseph.
+
+Hill, Thomas.
+
+Hitchcock.
+
+Hochstetter, the botanist.
+
+Holbrook, J.E.
+
+Holbrook, J.E., Mrs.
+
+Holmes, O.W.
+description of "Saturday Club".
+
+Hooper, Samuel.
+
+"Horse-backs".
+
+Hospice of the Grimsel.
+
+Hotel des Neuchatelois.
+last of.
+
+Howe, Dr. S.G.
+on the future of the negro race.
+
+Hudson River.
+
+Hugi's cabin.
+
+Humboldt, Alexander von.
+projects of travel with.
+kindness.
+writes to L. Coulon.
+gives form for letter to the king.
+on succession of life.
+on Ehrenberg's discoveries.
+on his brother's death.
+urges concentration and economy.
+discourages glacial work.
+opposes glacial theory.
+on works on "Fossil" and "Fresh-water" fishes.
+on his own works.
+later views on glacial theory.
+farewell words to Agassiz.
+
+Humboldt, centennial.
+
+Humboldt, scholarship.
+
+Humboldt, William von.
+letter concerning his death, from his brother.
+
+Iberians.
+
+"Ibicuhy" the.
+
+Indian Reach.
+
+Invertebrates, relations of.
+
+Ithaca, N.Y.
+
+Jackson, C.T.
+
+Johnson, P.C.
+
+Kentucky, fishes of.
+
+Kobell.
+
+Koch, the botanist.
+
+Labyrinthodon.
+
+Lackawanna cove.
+
+Lake Superior.
+excursion to.
+glacial phenomena.
+local geology.
+fauna.
+
+Lake Superior, "Narrative" of.
+
+Lakes in New York, origin of.
+
+Lausanne, Agassiz at the college of.
+
+Lausanne, invitation to.
+
+Lava bed in Albemarle island.
+
+Lawrence, Abbott.
+
+Lawrence, Scientific school established.
+Agassiz made professor.
+
+Lea, Isaac, collection of shells.
+
+Leconte.
+
+Lepidosteus.
+
+Lesquereux.
+
+Letters:
+Agassiz to his brother Auguste.
+to his father.
+to his father and mother.
+to his mother.
+to his sister Cecile.
+to his sister Olympe.
+to his old pupils.
+to Elie de Beaumont.
+to Bonaparte, Prince of Canino.
+to A. Braun.
+to Dr. Buckland.
+to T.G. Cary.
+to James D. Dana.
+to L. Coulon.
+to Decaisne.
+to A. de la Rive.
+to Sir P. Egerton.
+to R.W. Emerson.
+to Chancellor Favargez.
+to S.S. Haldeman.
+to Oswald Heer.
+to Mrs. Holbrook.
+to S.G. Howe.
+to A. von Humboldt.
+to J.A. Lowell.
+to Sir Charles Lyell.
+to Charles Martins.
+to Dr. Mayor.
+to Henri Milne-Edwards.
+to Benjamin Peirce.
+to Adam Sedgwick.
+to Charles Sumner.
+to Valenciennes.
+Auguste Agassiz to Louis Agassiz.
+M. Agassiz to Louis Agassiz.
+Madame Agassiz to Louis Agassiz.
+A.D. Bache to Louis Agassiz.
+Alexander Braun to Louis Agassiz.
+Leopold von Buch to Agassiz.
+Dr. Buckland to Agassiz.
+L. Coulon to Agassiz.
+Cuvier to Agassiz.
+Charles Darwin to Agassiz.
+A. de la Rive to Agassiz.
+G.P. Deshayes to Agassiz.
+Egerton to Agassiz.
+R.W. Emerson to Agassiz.
+Edward Forbes to Agassiz.
+Oswald Heer to Agassiz.
+Dr. Howe to Agassiz.
+A. von Humboldt to Agassiz
+A. von Humboldt to Agassiz (extract).
+H.W. Longfellow to Agassiz.
+Sir Charles Lyell to Agassiz.
+Lady Lyell to Agassiz.
+L. von Martius to Agassiz.
+Hugh Miller to Agassiz.
+Sir R. Murchison to Agassiz.
+Richard Owen to Agassiz.
+Benjamin Peirce to Agassiz.
+M. Rouland to Agassiz.
+Adam Sedgwick to Agassiz.
+C.T. von Siebold to Agassiz.
+B. Silliman to Agassiz.
+Charles Sumner to Agassiz.
+Tiedemann to Agassiz.
+Alexander Braun to his father.
+to his mother.
+Charles Darwin to Dr. Tritten.
+A. von Humboldt to Madame Agassiz.
+to L. Coulon.
+to G. Ticknor (extract).
+
+Leuckart.
+
+Leuthold.
+death.
+
+Longfellow, H.W.
+verses on Agassiz's fiftieth birthday.
+Christmas gift.
+
+Long Island Sound.
+
+Lota.
+
+Lota coal deposits.
+
+Lowell, James Russell.
+
+Lowell, John Amory.
+
+Lowell Institute.
+lectures at.
+reception at.
+audience.
+
+Lyell, Sir Charles.
+accepts glacial theory.
+
+Lyman, T.
+
+Madrepores.
+
+Magellan, Strait of.
+
+Mahir.
+
+Maine, visit to.
+
+Man, origin of.
+compared with monkeys.
+distinction of races.
+form of nose.
+geographical distribution.
+
+Man prehistoric in S. America.
+
+Marcou, J.
+
+Martius, L. von.
+
+Mastodon of U.S. compared to old world.
+
+Mathias, Gulf of.
+
+Mayne's Harbor.
+
+Mayor, Dr.
+death of.
+
+Mayor, Auguste.
+
+Mayor, Francois.
+
+Mayor, Lisette.
+
+Mayor, Mathias.
+
+Meckel.
+
+Medusae.
+relation to echinoderms.
+beroids.
+tiaropsis.
+campanularia.
+
+Megatherium.
+
+Melimoya Mountain.
+
+Mellet, Pastor.
+
+Mercantile Library Association, meeting of.
+
+Meril, the chalets of.
+
+Michahelles.
+
+Micraster.
+
+Miller, Hugh.
+on "Footprints of the Creator".
+on "Scenes and Legends".
+on resemblance of Scotch and Swiss.
+on "First Impressions".
+on Asterolepis.
+on Monticularia.
+
+Mississippi, fishes in the.
+
+Mollusks, inner moulds of shells of.
+
+Monkeys.
+
+Monte Video.
+
+Monticularia.
+
+More.
+
+Morton, S.G.
+collection of skulls.
+
+Motier.
+birthplace of Agassiz.
+inscription to Agassiz.
+
+Motley, J.L.
+
+Mount Burney.
+
+Mount Sarmiento.
+
+Mount Tarn.
+
+Munich.
+
+Murchison, Sir R.
+on glacial theory.
+accepts it.
+sends his Russian "Old Red" fishes.
+on "Principles of Zoology".
+on tertiary geology.
+
+Murchison, Sir R.
+
+Museum of Comparative Zoology.
+first beginning.
+coral collection begun.
+gift from pupils.
+idea of museum.
+publications.
+Mr. Gray's legacy.
+name given.
+popular name.
+Harvard University gives land.
+Legislative grant.
+cornerstone laid.
+plan.
+dedication.
+work at Museum.
+public lectures.
+additional grants.
+first Bulletin.
+growth.
+new subscription.
+new building.
+object and scope.
+new collections.
+staff.
+a birthday gift.
+last lectures by Agassiz.
+
+Nageli.
+
+Nahant, laboratory at.
+
+National Academy of Sciences founded.
+
+Negroes.
+
+Neuchatel.
+plans for.
+accepts professorship there.
+first lecture.
+founding of Natural History Society.
+museum.
+
+New Haven.
+
+New York, city of.
+
+"New York, Natural History of".
+
+Nicolet, C.
+
+"Nomenclator Zoologicus".
+
+Nuremberg.
+the Durer festival.
+
+Oesars.
+
+Oesterreicher.
+
+Oken.
+
+Orbe.
+
+Ord, collection.
+
+Osorno.
+
+Otway Bay.
+
+Owen's Island.
+
+Packard, A.S.
+
+Panama.
+
+Paris, Agassiz in.
+
+Peale, R.
+Museum.
+
+Peirce, B.
+
+Penikese Island.
+glacial marks.
+
+Perty.
+
+Philadelphia.
+Academy of Science.
+American Philosophical Society.
+
+Phyllotaxis, first hint at the law of.
+
+Physio-philosophy.
+
+Pickering, Charles.
+
+Playa Parda Cove.
+
+Pleurotomaria.
+
+"Poissons d'eau douce".
+
+"Poissons fossiles".
+
+Port Famine.
+
+Port San Pedro.
+
+Portugal, plan for collections in.
+
+Possession Bay.
+moraine.
+
+Pourtales, L.F. de.
+
+Pourtales, extract from his journal.
+
+Prescott, W.H.
+
+Princeton.
+
+"Principles of Zoology".
+
+Radiates, relations of.
+
+Ramsey, Prof.
+
+Ravenel, St. Julian.
+
+Redfield.
+
+Rhizocrinus.
+
+Rickley (Rickly), Mr., director at college at Bienne.
+
+Ringseis.
+
+Rivers, American, origin of.
+
+Rogers, H.
+
+Rogers, W.B.
+
+Rosenlaui, glacier of the.
+
+Roththal, Col of.
+
+Rowlet Narrows.
+
+St. George, Gulf of.
+
+Salamander, fossil, at New Haven.
+
+Salt marshes.
+
+Salzburg.
+precautions concerning students.
+
+San Antonio, Port of.
+
+San Diego.
+
+Sandy Point.
+
+San Francisco.
+
+San Magdalena.
+
+Santiago.
+
+San Vicente.
+
+Sargassum.
+
+Sarmiento Range.
+
+Saturday Club.
+
+Schelling.
+
+Schimper, Karl.
+
+Schimper, William.
+
+Schinz, Prof.
+library and collection.
+
+School for young ladies opened.
+success.
+lectures at.
+close.
+yearly meeting of old pupils,--gift to the Museum.
+
+Schubert.
+
+Scudder, S.H.
+description by, of a first lesson by Agassiz.
+
+Scyphia.
+
+Sea bottom.
+
+Sedgwick, Adam.
+on Geoffrey St. Hilaire's theory.
+question on descent.
+
+Sedgwick, Adam.
+
+Seeley, H.G.
+
+Seiber.
+
+Sharks and skates.
+
+Shepard.
+
+Sholl Bay.
+moraine at.
+
+Shore level, change of.
+
+Siebold, Letter of, about Agassiz at Munich.
+
+Siedelhorn, ascent of the.
+
+Silliman, Benjamin.
+announces subscribers to "Fossil Fishes".
+Visit to.
+
+Siphonia.
+
+Smithsonian Institution.
+lectures at.
+Agassiz becomes regent of.
+
+Smythe's Channel.
+
+Snell, G.
+
+Snowy Glacier.
+
+Snowy Range.
+
+Sonrel.
+
+Spain, plan for collecting in.
+
+Spatangus.
+
+Spix.
+his "Brazilian Fishes".
+
+Sponge, chemidium-like.
+
+Sponges, deep sea.
+
+Stahl.
+
+Starke.
+
+Steindachner, F.
+
+Steudel, the botanist.
+
+Stimpson, W.
+
+Strahleck, ascent of the.
+
+Studer.
+
+Stuttgart, Museum at.
+
+Sullivan's Island.
+
+Summer School of Natural History, plan for.
+
+Sumner, Charles.
+
+Tagus Sound.
+
+Talcahuana.
+
+Tarn Bay.
+
+Tenon.
+
+Thayer, Nathaniel, promotes Brazil expedition.
+
+Tiaropsis.
+
+Ticknor.
+
+Tiedemann, Professor.
+invites Agassiz to Heidelberg.
+
+Torrey, Professor J.
+
+Tortugas.
+
+Traunstein.
+
+Trettenbach.
+
+United States.
+first thought of visiting.
+idea given up.
+resumed.
+departure for.
+impressions of.
+scientific men.
+
+United States Coast Survey.
+steamer "Bibb".
+constant connection with.
+examination of Florida reefs.
+dredging expedition.
+
+United States Museum of Natural History.
+
+Valenciennes.
+
+Vallorbe.
+
+Valparaiso.
+
+Vanuxem.
+
+Vienna, visit to.
+
+Viescher Glacier, cave of.
+
+Vintage in Switzerland, the.
+
+Vogt, Karl.
+
+Volcanic islands.
+
+Volcanic soil.
+boulders.
+
+Wahren.
+
+Wagler.
+
+Wagner.
+
+Walther.
+
+Waltl.
+
+Washington.
+
+Weber, J.C.
+
+West Point.
+
+White, W.
+
+Whymper collection.
+
+Wild, Mr.
+
+Wilder, B.G.
+
+Wilkes Exploring Expedition.
+collection.
+
+Wollaston prize.
+
+Wollaston medal.
+
+Wyman, J.
+
+Wyman, Dr. Morrill.
+
+Yandell.
+
+Zuccarini.
+
+Zurich.
+professorship offered.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, LOUIS AGASSIZ: HIS LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE ***
+
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