I 3 4 LOUIS AGASSI/.. [CHAP. xix. 



Charles Simmer, although a good friend, was too 

 much engrossed by politics for Agassiz, who never 

 much relished political societies and meetings. Natural 

 history discussions left no time for other debates. Out- 

 side of his natural history pursuit, pictures, especially 

 landscapes, were the only things which attracted him, 

 although he had little time to devote to them. He saw 

 at once the quality of a picture ; and I have seen him 

 lost in admiration before Alpine landscapes by Calame, 

 Diday, and Topffer, or beautiful "paysages" of the 

 Jura Mountains by Gustave Courbet. 



At the beginning of the Civil War Agassiz received, 

 through M. Jules Souchard, the French consul at 

 Boston and his personal friend, a message written by 

 order of the Emperor Napoleon, asking information 

 in regard to the acclimatization of several marine ani- 

 mals living in the American Atlantic. With his usual 

 promptness to help in anything relating to natural 

 history, Agassiz took the trouble to send, in charge 

 of his old friend Burkhardt, a whole cargo of living 

 Mya arenaria, Venus mcnenaria, Pectcn conccntricns, 

 llomarus americanus, Mactra solidissima, and Mylilus 

 edulis, which might be experimented with at the oyster 

 station near Havre. The passage from Boston to Liver- 

 pool, which was made just at the equinoctial time, at 

 the end of September, 1861, was very stormy and long; 

 and almost all the animals died during the voyage, not- 

 withstanding the care of the captain of the steamer, 

 James (afterward Sir James) Anderson, a special friend 

 and great admirer of Agassiz. 



Agassiz, Burkhardt, and Anderson took every pro- 



