1 847-49-1 A BLACK HEAR. 23 



ing, and dissected, his bones being preserved for the 

 collection. 



Another day there arrived, on a wagon, a single speci- 

 men, so large and weighty, that it was as much as the 

 horse could do to drag the heavy load. It was an 

 enormous sea-turtle, the gigantic leather-back (Sphargis 

 corriacea), found cast up on the coast of Cape Cod, after 

 a violent storm. The big animal, an inhabitant of the 

 Caribbean Sea, had lost one of its largest paddles, near 

 his head, cut off close to the carapace, very likely by a 

 shark ; and although the wound was well healed, the 

 loss of the paddle incapacitated him for facing a Gulf 

 Stream storm, which carried him far north, until 

 beached on the sand of Cape Cod. He was carried 

 to the old bath-house, where dissection was begun. 

 Christinat, with an eye to economy, noting the beautiful 

 veal-like meat, took some home, and at dinner it was 

 so praised and relished, that for a week the numerous 

 guests of the " Hotel des Neuchatelois " lived on turtle 

 soup, turtle steak, turtle pie, and turtle roast. 



It was really beautiful to see Agassiz struggle to 

 provide for all the expenses of his household. In the 

 three months from September to December, 1848, he 

 had spent three thousand dollars, while his salary at the 

 Lawrence Scientific School was only sixteen hundred 

 dollars a year. John A. Lowell came forward at once, 

 paying him twelve hundred dollars in advance for 

 another course of lectures. But even this was not 

 enough, and Agassiz had to accept every offer made 

 to him for lectures in the towns and villages around 

 Boston. Besides his two regular lectures every week 



