4 LOUIS AGASSI Z. 



try, nor would they be worth recording ex- 

 cept as illustrating the unity of Agassiz's in- 

 tellectual development from beginning to end. 

 His pet animals suggested questions, to answer 

 which was the task of his life; and his inti- 

 mate study of the fresh-water fishes of Eu- 



/ 



rope, later the subject of one of his important 

 works, began with his first collection from the 

 Lake of Morat. 



As a boy he amused himself also with all 

 kinds of handicrafts on a small scale. The 

 carpenter, the cobbler, the tailor, were then as 

 much developed in him as the naturalist. In 

 Swiss villages it was the habit in those days 

 for the trades-people to go from house to 

 house in their different vocations. The shoe- 

 maker came two or three times a year with all 

 his materials, and made shoes for the whole 

 family by the day ; the tailor came to fit them 

 for garments which he made in the house ; the 

 cooper arrived before the vintage, to repair old 

 barrels and hogsheads or to make new ones, and 

 to replace their worn-out hoops ; in short, to 

 fit up the cellar for the coming season. Agas- 

 siz seems to have profited by these lessons as 

 much as by those he learned from his father ; 

 and when a very little fellow, he could cut 

 and put together a well-fitting pair of shoes 



