300 REMINISCENCES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 



and amenities. A visit to his rooms was a treat only next in importance to the Old Curiosity 

 Shop of Mr. Warren. Mr. True was a carver in wood, and his shop stood over a mill-dam, 

 whose fresh and salt waters gave him media close at hand for investigation, but had spent the 

 few minutes daily, that he could spare from his work in watching the development and habits 

 of some of our native shell-fish, both marine, fresh water, and terrestrial. Meantime he had 

 collected from our beaches the many species inhabiting the neighborhood. 



At this time there were few books to be had on the subjects, and those did not treat of 

 our local objects. Such men as Mr. True, however, observed for themselves, and what they 

 saw was recorded, and known as facts. To the young aspirants these old men, whose 

 knowledge was practical, these valuable associates, "Uncle John" Warren, with his courtly 

 ways and cultured mind, both were delightful companions. Our young friend in an especial 

 manner profited by their teachings and advice. Then came Agassiz, in the homely words of 

 Cuvier, " A pearl from the dirt hills of Neuchatel." Now, a new impetus was given to the 

 study of natural objects. The learned scientist found many collectors in our country, but few 

 investigators. In the glorious school of Cuvier he had been taught to observe. The mere col- 

 lection arranged and labelled was to him hollowness, meaningless ; what to him was the empty 

 shell of the periwinkle, or the impaled carcase of a beetle, so there was no story of its life, nor 

 approximation of its mysteries in death. We were fortunate in residing near his laboratory 

 at Nahant. His frequent presence on the rocky shores and sandy coves and beaches induced 

 a sort of talismanic power, that called up many an unfamiliar form from the vasty deep ; 

 and, seemingly, all then 



"Did suffer a sea change 

 Into something rich and strange." 



The wild rocky promontory is strongly suggestive of the abode of a Prospero, and an 

 Ariel, and the songs of the sea-nymphs, 



.Come unto these yellow sands. 

 Where the wild waves whyst," 



are readily conjured np. Surprisingly meagre was our knowledge of the indigenous marine 

 invertebrates, but how rapidly did those strange forms come to light at the master's bidding. 



A permanent establishment at Cambridge, which afterwards grew into the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology, offered a place to work up the collections made on the shores during 

 the warmer season. 



Stimpson was now an earnest student with Agassiz, one of the first who entered his labor- 

 atory as such. His capacity for the study so impressed the master that he selected him as 

 eminently fitted for an investigator, and recommended him, young as he was, as chief nat- 

 uralist for the Wilkes United States Expedition Around the World. In a letter written at 

 that time Stimpson says, most naively : "I have just been appointed .... I shall not be 

 able to go out to see you and bid you good-bye as I would like to do, but I will be back soon, 

 in three years at least." Suggestive of the school-boy yet, he was learned, and eminently 

 capable to enter on the important duties before him. On returning, Stimpson found ample 

 occupation in arranging and classifying the results of his collecting in various portions of 

 the globe. 



He now visited Grand Menan, and published a valuable work, embracing the invertebrates 

 of that region. His " Revision of the Synonomy of Gould's Invertebrata of Massachusetts" 

 contained valuable new matter, by pen and pencil. The invertebrates of our coast were now 

 in fair way of being brought to light, and treated with something of the scientific as well as 

 popular care that was accorded such forms in Europe. 



An interesting period in the history of our searchings for the invertebrates was when 

 dredging had not been practised in deep water ; when the deep sea forms we rescued from the 

 " Maw and gulf of the ravined salt sea-shark ;" when the cod and the haddock, by courtesy 

 of the kindly fishermen of Swampscott, yielded each their intestinal contents ; when the huge 

 halibut, from the greater depth, responded to the call for pelagic forms ; when, too, the 



