82 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



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 sci- 

 ences. 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 let- 

 ter 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 profes- 

 sors had hardly completed their lectures when 

 I began my Alpine excursion. Braun, impa- 

 tient 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 [Wil- 



