124 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



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 im- 

 pression on the business heads of the family 

 at Neuchatel, for it is forwarded to his par- 



