1832-35-] FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND. 59 



" livraison ' fully deserved such a reception. Agassiz 

 never surpassed, perhaps never equalled, that first 

 number of the " Fossil Fishes." It is the work of a 

 great master. 



A few days after, in May, 1834, another memoir, 

 also very remarkable, was read before the Natural 

 History Society of Neuchatel on " Quelques Especes 

 de Cyprins du lac de Neuchatel " (" Memoires Soc. Sc. 

 nat. de Neuchatel," Vol. I., p. 33). In this Agassiz 

 shows his tendency to create new genera and his admi- 

 rable talent for description of species and for classifica- 

 tion. 



In August, 1834, Agassiz made a long-desired visit 

 to England. Buckland, Lyell, and others received him 

 with open arms. His visit coincided with Frangois 

 Arago's journey to collect material for his academic 

 eulogy of Watts, and as he had become well acquainted 

 with Arago during his sojourn at Paris in 1832, they 

 were much together, meeting at Oxford at the hos- 

 pitable home of Buckland, and travelling together to 

 Edinburgh, and back to Paris. 



Agassiz found such a wealth of fossil fishes that he 

 wrote at once to his artist, Dinkel, to come over. One 

 of the rooms of the Geological Society, then at the 

 Somerset House, was generously placed at his disposal 

 by the society, and as soon as he had collected there 

 some two thousand specimens, he began in earnest his 

 studies of comparison, determination, and classification, 

 and directed Dinkel to draw all specimens worthy of 

 being reproduced for his great monograph, or even 

 such as might prove useful afterward for general 



