58 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. iv. 



chatel ; everything was so different from her delightful 

 home at Carlsruhe. She did not speak French fluently, 

 and possessing to a high degree the German placidity 

 which borders on complete indifference, she was not 

 well impressed by what she saw, and from the first 

 disliked all Agassiz's friends and acquaintances. Ac- 

 customed to the beautiful green fields and forests of 

 the vicinity of Carlsruhe, -she found herself enclosed 

 by dusty or muddy roads, by high vineyard walls, and 

 the rather inhospitable aspect of the houses : all this, 

 with the reserve and rather cold manners of the inhabi- 

 tants, disposed to copy the formality of the Prussian 

 court, displeased her so much that she soon greatly dis- 

 liked the " Neuchatelois," Neuchatel, and even Switzer- 

 land. For her, Carlsruhe was paradise on earth, and 

 her only wish was to return and live there. 



Agassiz, during the first three years of his married 

 life, showed more than at any other period the brilliancy 

 of his rare intellect, the deepness of his devotion to the 

 progress of natural history, and the greatness of the 

 effort he was able to make to place himself among 

 the foremost naturalists of the time. 



During the spring of 1834, the first number of the 

 " Poissons fossiles " came out, and made a great sensa- 

 tion among geologists and zoologists. The subject had 

 until then baffled all palaeontologists, no one having 

 ventured to go deeply into it, on account of osteologic 

 difficulties and the material obstacle of drawings. The 

 most difficult to please declared the work remarkably 

 executed, and Agassiz received approbation and con- 

 gratulations from every quarter. Undoubtedly the first 



