1807-27.] COLLEGE OF BIENNE. 9 



Next to his passion for teaching, but developed before 

 it, was his passion for collecting all sorts of objects be- 

 longing to natural history. As soon as he was able to 

 catch fish, he brought them alive and placed them in a 

 great stone basin of the fountain of the parsonage. 1 It 

 is the custom in the Canton de Vaud and the neighbour- 

 ing Swiss cantons to use boulders for basins, either to 

 receive the water flowing from springs, or to hold the 

 fruit of the vintage when the grapes are brought from 

 the vineyard to be pressed and converted into wine. 

 These boulders are generally of Alpine granite, and are 

 cut into the proper shape, great care being taken not to 

 break them, but to keep the block one great monolith. 

 Such an Alpine boulder was the basin of the Motier 

 parsonage, used as a mvier or aquarium by our young 

 ichthyologist. It is not strange that, later in life, Agassiz 

 became such an expert in boulders transported by gla- 

 ciers ; and it seems specially appropriate that one of 

 them, transported from the Alps, should be his tomb- 

 stone in America. 



At the age of ten years, he was sent to the College of 

 Bienne, to begin his classical studies ; finishing them at 

 the Academy of Lausanne in 1822-1824. He was a 

 very clever student, but never had much inclination for 

 mathematics and the physical and chemical sciences. 

 He always showed great capacity for languages, be- 

 coming quite proficient in Latin and Greek, and when 

 at Bienne, learning German and Italian, especially the 



1 " Le fils d'un pasteur du Canton de Vaud, dont le pere, ne savait que 

 faire de ce gar$on courant toujours les champs et toutes les rives du Lac a 

 chercher des betes" as one of the contemporaries of his youth said. 



