LETTER FROM HUMBOLDT. 201 



zeal, and that you have brought together fine 

 collections, which you place at the disposal of 

 others with a noble liberality. It gratifies me 

 to see your kindness shown to a young man 

 to whom I am so warmly attached, and one 

 whom the illustrious Cuvier, whose loss we 

 must ever deplore, would have recommended 

 with the same heartiness, for his faith, like 

 mine, was based on those admirable works of 

 Agassiz which are now nearly completed. . . . 

 I have strongly advised M. Agassiz not to 

 accept the offers made to him at Paris since 

 M. Cuvier's death, and his decision has antici- 

 pated my advice. How happy it would be for 

 him, and for the completion of the excellent 

 works on which he is engaged, could he this 

 very year be established on the shores of your 

 lake ! I have no doubt that he will receive 

 the powerful protection of your worthy gov- 

 ernor, to whom I shall repeat my requests, 

 and who honors me, as well as my brother, 

 with a friendship I warmly appreciate. M. 

 von Buch also has promised me, before leav- 

 ing Berlin for Bonn and Vienna, to add his 

 entreaty to mine. . . . He is almost as much 

 interested as myself in M. Agassiz and his 

 work on fossil fishes, the most important ever 

 undertaken, and equally exact in its relation 



