place there for mere wealth, riches were prized only where their possession had contributed to the improvement or happiness of mankind, and the man without a definite occupation in life was practically unknown. It was a very simple life according to the standards of the present day but it yielded results which our larger material resources have not proportionately multiplied.

After a year's absence upon the Pacific coast, he returned to Cambridge in accordance with his father's earnest wishes and definitely entered upon the work of the Museum. His marriage in 1860 to Miss Anna Russell, sister of the wife of Theodore Lyman, his classmate and associate at the Museum, made this place also his home. His methodical habits and financial prudence were of great value to his father in the administration of the business of the establishment and he early became indispensable there. The visitor to the modest quarters of the Museum of those days would probably have failed to discover in the quiet assistant intent only on the work of the laboratories and of the Museum, the power which was destined in a few years to place these collections in halls commensurate with their value and that by resources won by himself in the fierce struggle for the wealth buried in the depths of the earth.

In 1859 was published his first scientific paper which was read before the Natural History Society of Boston, upon the mechanism of the flight of Lepidoptera - a subject hardly to be expected from one who was subsequently to gain his great honors in very different departments of zoology. Before the age of thirty he had published more than twenty (20) papers upon scientific subjects, all of which displayed originality and covered a variety of topics. He published in 1865 with his stepmother, Mrs. L. Agassiz, a book of popular character under the title "Seaside Studies in Natural History." He became much interested in 1867 in the dredging operations of his friend Louis F. de Pourtalès, who on the Coast Survey Steamer "Corwin" had successfully brought up material from the then unusual depth of 850 fathoms along the course of the Gulf Stream between the Florida coast and the Bahamas. He assisted in the arrangement and description of the collections. He thus early became interested in the study of the ocean bottom- the problems of which were to occupy so prominent a place in all his work for the rest of his life. The influence of this favorite pupil of his father and his own life long friend is acknowledged in the appreciative notices which were presented to the American Academy and to the National Academy after the death of Pourtalès.

"The Revision of the Echini," which appeared in the years 1872-74, is the best known work of Agassiz and was at once recognized as the performance of a master and made him the leading authority on the subject. The thoroughness of his methods is shown by this extract from a letter to a friend from Leuk, Switzerland, August, 1870, "I have done now with my examination of the Echini collections, having seen them all." It was of this work that Jeffries Wyman spoke when he said that the son had done a piece of work that would live as long as anything accomplished by the father." The manner in which the work was performed by Agassiz is well shown by the quotation from his letter given above - he saw every specimen that was worth seeing before he felt justified in stating his own conclusions.

The activity that marked these early years down to 1873 was a marvel to all he was intensely busy, and capable of undertaking the most strenuous physical and mental labors, his working day was habitually more than half of the twenty-four hours.

In 1869 came a serious illness from which modern surgery might have brought a more satisfactory cure than that which he obtained. Some of the consequences of this illness affected his mode of life permanently he avoided thereafter, so far as possible, our New England winters.

The end of the year 1873 was a time of great sadness for Agassiz. His father and his wife died within ten days of each other. He assumed the direction of the Museum and for 37 years labored for its development and administration, a serious task, if it had been his sole occupation.

Louis Agassiz had opened a school for natural history studies on the island of Penikese in Buzzards Bay in the summer of 1873. His immense capacity for teaching, his love for it and success in it carried the school through the first season, but it was the last great effort of his life. In the succeeding year Alexander Agassiz reluctantly took up the burden, he had not shared his father's enthusiastic belief in the possibility of carrying on a school at this remote point. He loyally made the attempt, however, and when it became evident that the necessary financial support could not be obtained, he characteristically did not hesitate to drop the enterprise and pay the deficit from his own pocket.

A few years after the closing of the Penikese school he built in the vicinity of his house at Castle Hill, Newport, an excellent marine laboratory with the required accommodations for about 12 students. Here much valuable work was done by a number of men whose names

have become well known throughout the scientific world. During his long service at the head of the Museum and under a variety of titles, he expended from his own resources for collections and the buildings to hold them, more than $1,200,000, not including very considerable sums contributed to other allied interests or to the general purposes of the University. At the end of the year 1874 he set out on the first of the many distant expeditions which were made at intervals through the rest of his life. This journey took him to Chile and Peru, and during the course of it he made the exploration of lake Titicaca, an account of which is given in our proceedings for the year 1876. His quick eye showed him at Tilibiche in Peru, a fossil coral reef at an elevation of nearly 3000 feet above the sea and 20 miles inland, and he noted with a certain satisfaction the evidence that Darwin's observations had caused on his part an underestimate of the amount of recent elevation of this coast.

He now entered upon that series of deep sea investigations which in some form had always been of exceeding interest to him. He directed three expeditions in the Atlantic on board the U. S. Steamer "Blake' and three in the Pacific on the "Albatross." The vast material collected on these trips was, with combined wisdom and generosity and in obedience to the rule of the Museum laid down in his father's time, distributed for purposes of description and study to those scientific men everywhere who were best qualified for the work.

Sir John Murray says, and no living authority is better able to make the statement, "If we can say that we now know the physical and biological conditions of the great ocean basins in their broad general outlines — and I believe we can do so— the present state of our knowledge is due to the combined work and observations of a great many men belonging to many nationalities, but most probably more to the work and inspiration of Alexander Agassiz than to any other single man."

In these later years he was also much interested in the study of the coral reefs. He organized many expeditions to all parts of the world—to the Maldives, to Australia and to remote portions of the Pacific. He saw, explored, and accurately described every important coral reef region on the globe and having done so he felt that he was ready to give his own views to the world.

Darwin saw but one atoll and upon that founded his theory of coral building. Agassiz was at work in his last days upon the publication which would have given to the world the well considered conclusions acquired by the studies of nearly a lifetime. Though his own final

results cannot be surely known, his vast material still exists for some more fortunate investigator. He had written and rewritten his sketch of the book upon this subject and a few days before his death said to his friend, Sir John Murray in London, that it was his intention to practically rewrite the book during the year for the fourth and last time, leaving out all criticism of the work of others and stating exactly what he had himself observed and his own views. It should be understood that Darwin's theory of the coral reefs belonged to his younger years and has no bearing upon his later published theory of natural selection. What Agassiz's views were, upon this and other theories conveniently grouped under the title Darwinism, cannot be accurately stated. It is true that he found much that was objectionable in the opinions maintained by some of Darwin's German followers. No one who knew him, however, can doubt his ability to weigh dispassionately any evidence, which could be produced for this or for any other doctrine, though it might run counter to opinions long entertained by him or by those whom he delighted to honor.

Some intimations of his views upon the position of the Zoologist of today as compared with that of the great men of an earlier generation may be found in the remarks made by him as representative of his class at the Commencement at Harvard in 1905, that being the 50th anniversary of his graduation. He called attention to the inconveniences and the primitive appliances which hampered the work of the student of natural history in his own student days and added, "The change in scientific thought is most striking-fifty years ago authority was the powerful factor scientific dictators were not uncommon now authority as such is no longer recognized beyond the point at which it can be controlled. Successful experiment has taken its place, and while recognizing the value of imagination and of pleasing speculations, men of science no longer accept the dicta of their leaders."

As John Hunter said to his pupil Jenner, who had asked for the explanation of some perplexing phenomenon, "I think your solution is just; but why think, why not try the experiment." So with Agassiz, discussions had little interest for him when it was not possible to put the conclusion to the test of observation or experiment.

The bibliography of his own scientific papers contains 248 titles which cover a great range of subjects and procured for him marked distinctions throughout the world. No man among men of science promoted the interests of zoology so generously as he. In 1910 the 54th volume of the Bulletin and the 40th volume of the Memoirs

of the Museum of Comparative Zoology were coming from the press. These publications began to appear in 1863-64 and in the number of important and finely illustrated papers which are presented there, they have been excelled by few only of the great and most active scientific societies of the world, yet the expense of producing them was largely borne by Agassiz.

Much has been said about the great sums of money spent by him upon the monument he raised in filial piety to the memory of his father, and which he duly commemorated in that characteristically simple inscription upon the walls of the Museum "Alexander, son of Louis Agassiz, to his father." The voice of the public has named it the Agassiz Museum-father and son were both content to call it the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Whatever legally that title may be, the memory of these two lives will possess a force greater than the statute, and will preserve for generations to come the name common to the enthusiastic founder and to the wise, patient and munificent builder. Whatever Agassiz's contributions in money may have been and others, not he counted them up to sums exceeding any thus far made to the University, yet he gave a greater still in the devotion of himself to the task of developing and making secure the future activities of the Museum. All the material successes he had won in other fields he pledged to the support of the Museum after he had satisfied the reasonable requirements of his family, but of his own labors he made no reservation. The Museum had all that he could bestow.

On the pages of the quinquennial catalogue of Harvard College are enumerated the distinctions conferred upon him by universities, learned societies and foreign governments, they are a sufficient proof of the esteem in which he was held throughout the world. Such distinctions sometimes reveal a more than passive recipient, but they came to him absolutely unsought. His intimates even had little knowledge of the honors bestowed upon him, and rarely obtained it from himself.

The great gold Victoria Research Medal given to him in 1909, was shown to his friends, but this was more for the exquisite beauty of the workmanship of the Medal, than for the pride in receiving it. He had a keen appreciation of anything that had artistic merit and surrounded himself in his home with many beautiful objects of art collected in his travels from all parts of the world. In addition to the Victoria Research Medal of the Royal Geographical Society, he had received the Walker Grand prize of the Boston Society of Natural History and in 1878 the Serres prize of the French Academy of Sciences, the first foreigner to be so honored.