122 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



Water Fishes to account, is to finish them com- 

 pletely before offering them to a publisher. All 

 the expenses being then paid, I could afford, 

 if the first publisher should not feel able to 

 take them on my own terms, to keep them as 

 a safe investment. The publisher himself see- 

 ing the material finished, and being sure of 

 bringing it out as a complete work, the value 

 of which he can on that account better es- 

 timate, will be more disposed to accept my 

 proposals, while I, on my side, can be more 

 exacting. The text for this I write in the 

 afternoon. My greatest difficulty at first was 

 the execution of the plates. But here, also, 

 my good star has served me wonderfully. I 

 told you that beside the complete drawings of 

 the fishes I wanted to represent their skele- 

 tons and the anatomy of the soft parts, which 

 has never been done for this class. I shall 

 thereby give a new value to the work, and 

 make it desirable for all who study compara- 

 tive anatomy. The puzzle was to find some 

 one who was prepared to draw things of this 

 kind; but I have made the luckiest hit, and 

 am more than satisfied. My former artist con- 

 tinues to draw the fishes, a second draws the 

 skeletons (one who had already been engaged 

 for several years in the same way, for a work 



