288 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xn. 



son, D. D. Owen, and Featherstonhaugh, he immedi- 

 ately saw that a great reform was needed to give their 

 true value to all these government reports and publica- 

 tions. On the one hand, Wilkes's report was lost to the 

 scientific public by its scarcity and the mode of distri- 

 bution ; and, on the other hand, Fremont's report and 

 others of the same sort were so badly executed that 

 they were a disgrace to the country. 



From this moment Agassiz began to urge constantly 

 on those in power at Washington the necessity laid upon 

 the United States government to publish only well-exe- 

 cuted volumes, especially in regard to plates of natural 

 history and landscape drawings. He himself set the ex- 

 ample in 1850 in publishing his important exploration of 

 Lake Superior. His efforts, combined with the power- 

 ful help of Professor Bache and of Professor Henry, 

 succeeded in bringing about a much better state of 

 things after 1853, as we shall see. But it was during 

 his first visit to Washington, in 1846, that he laid the 

 foundation for the improvement of the government 

 scientific publications. 



As soon as Agassiz was back in Boston, he again 

 devoted himself to his practice of learning English 

 phrases by heart, and speaking aloud in English in his 

 room in order to be able to deliver his first course of 

 lectures before the Lowell Institute. The subject was 



The Plan of the Creation, especially in the Animal 

 Kingdom." It is not surprising that he was much 

 concerned about his first lecture at the beginning of 

 December ; for it was not an easy task to set forth, in a 

 language which he had never before used in public, one 



