1852-55-] ALI'.XAXDER DALLAS BACHE. 49 



list of regents, being the last of the list ; and from that 

 time until his death he was a constant attendant at 

 the meetings, taking great interest in all that related 

 to the Institution. 



Professor Alexander Dallas Bache, the justly cele- 

 brated director of the United States Coast Survey, was 

 the first American savant to appreciate what a valuable 

 addition Agassiz was to American science ; and he at 

 once put at his disposal all the vessels and steamers 

 employed in surveying the Atlantic coast. A very 

 strong friendship rapidly sprang up between them, and 

 though the two men were entirely different, they ad- 

 mirably supplemented one another. Bache was a good 

 and accurate mathematician, and inherited from his 

 grandfather, Benjamin Franklin, great administrative 

 power, --two things entirely wanting in Agassiz, who 

 knew absolutely nothing of mathematics, or even of 

 arithmetic, and was a rather poor administrator, as we 

 have seen. 



Bache preceded Henry at Washington by three 

 years, having been appointed Professor Hassler's suc- 

 cessor as superintendent of the United States Coast 

 Survey, in December, 1843. Under his direction, the 

 bureau became very important ; and he had the good 

 judgment to choose for his principal assistants the 

 most able young officers of the army, such as Major 

 Isaac I. Stevens, afterwards governor of Washington 

 Territory, and major-general, United States Volun- 

 teers ; Lieutenant A. A. Humphrey, afterward chief 

 of the staff of Meade during the last Virginia cam- 

 paign, and brigadier-general and chief of engineers, 



VOL. II. E 



