344 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



It continued to be a grief to Agassiz that 

 Humboldt, the oldest of all his scientific 

 friends, and the one whose opinion he most 

 reverenced, still remained incredulous. Hum- 

 boldt's letters show that Agassiz did not will- 

 ingly renounce the hope of making him a con- 

 vert. Agassiz's own letters to Humboldt are 

 missing from this time onward. Overwhelmed 

 with occupation, and more at his ease in his 

 relations with the older scientific men, he had 

 ceased to make the rough drafts in which his 

 earlier correspondence is recorded. 



HUMBOLDT TO AGASSIZ. 



BERLIN, March 2, 1842. 



. . . When one has been so long separated, 

 even accidentally, from a friend as I have 

 been from you, my dear Agassiz, it is dif- 

 ficult to find beginning or end to a letter. 

 The kindly remembrance which you send me 

 is evidence that my long silence has not 

 seemed strange to you. ... It would be 

 wasting words to tell you how I have been 

 prevented, by the distractions of my life, al- 

 ways increasing with old age, from acknowl- 

 edging the admirable things received from 

 you, upon living and fossil fishes, echino- 

 derms, and glaciers. My admiration of your 



