286 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xii. 



ment of Agassiz, the three or four small paper-covered 

 parts were far less important in regard to the quality, 

 and even the number of original papers, than his " Bul- 

 letin de la Societe d'Histoire Naturelle de Neuchatel," 

 issued in a very small town of one of the smallest can- 

 tons of Switzerland. The disappointment to one who, 

 a few months before, under the dome of the Mazarin 

 Palace, had received a Monthyon prize of physiology 

 from the Royal Institute of France, may be easily 

 understood. As a compensation, Markoe took Agassiz 

 to the rooms of the Institute, and showed him the large 

 and important collections made by Captain Wilkes dur- 

 ing his scientific expedition round the world, from 1838 

 to 1842. He was more especially impressed by the 

 extraordinarily beautiful and exact drawings of fishes, 

 reptiles, molluscs, and corals, executed from life during 

 the expedition by Mr. Drayton, by far the best artist of 

 natural history objects in America. 



Until this time, all exploring expeditions into the 

 interior of the United States, sent at the expense of 

 government, from the journeys of Lewis and Clarke, 

 Pike, Major Long, Nicolet, Featherstonhaugh, D. D. 

 Owen, to those of Captain Fremont, had had their 

 reports rather meagrely published in regard to plates 

 and natural history drawings. Congress always voted 

 liberal sums to defray the expense of these publications, 

 but they were at that time all done by contract, fall- 

 ing as spoils into the hands of politicians; and the 

 result was the issue of reports disgraceful as re- 

 gards material execution - - bad type, bad drawings, bad 

 paper - - a state of things most discouraging to all 



