80 
TRANSFER OF LOEW’s COLLECTION TO CAMBRIDGE 
of property in the latter collection, and thus the Museum, in acquiring one 
collection, will have secured both. 
Before concluding, I will add an observation. Loew continues to work 
upon tbe materials in the collection JSTo. 1. He contemplates especially 
to prepare a critical catalogue of the described Diptera of North America 
(to supersede my Catalogue of 1858). It would be desirable, therefore, to 
leave the collection in his bands for a few years longer. Nevertheless, 
some arrangement should be entered into at once to remove all uncertainty 
as to the future of the collection, and to secure the ultimate possession of 
it to the Cambridge Museum. It will remain for you and Dr. Hagen to 
decide as to the mode of proceeding for attaining this object. 
On the same clay, in October, 1872, I wrote to Dr. Hagen (at that 
time Custodian of the Entomological Department of the Museum in 
Cambridge, Mass.), informing him of some particulars concerning 
the proposed transaction which had been agreed upon between 
Loew and myself during my visit to Loew about five weeks before 
(August 28-25, 1872), but which I had not mentioned in my letter 
to Professor Agassiz. Loew thought that the sum of from fifteen 
hundred to sixteen hundred dollars would be a reasonable compensa¬ 
tion to him, and that an agreement could be entered into in virtue 
of which he (Loew) would be bound to deliver the collection 
within a certain number of years (say ten years). 
Professor Agassiz answered my letter rather late, in May 31, 
1873, having been prevented by circumstances from doing it earlier, 
and thus it happened that his letter, directed originally to my 
bankers in Florence, followed me about Europe from place to place 
during my travels, and finally came back to Cambridge, Mass., 
where I found it upon my return to the United States in the 
autumn of 1873. As the matter was not an urgent one, there was 
no harm in the delay. I quote the principal passage of Prof. L. 
Agassiz’s letter (translated from the original French) “ I am writ¬ 
ing to ask you to come to a final agreement for the acquisition of 
Loew’s collection, about which we have already had a conversation, 
and for which you have been kind enough to offer your good offices 
and assistance. I shall accept with gratitude whatever you may 
do in this business, and I write you to-day for the particular pur¬ 
pose of informing you that I hold at your, or Mr. Loew’s, disposal 
the sum agreed upon by you as the price of the collection, which 
