74 LOUIS AGASSI Z. [CHAP. xvi. 



Plantes, and was created Knight and officer of the 

 Legion of Honour. In 1870-1871, when France was 

 in trouble and suffering such crushing defeats, although 

 mainly through her own fault, Agassiz came forward, 

 and expressed his great disapproval of the brutal con- 

 duct of the victorious Prussians, fully realizing the debt 

 the present civilization and political freedom in Europe 

 owed to the many good acts and the intervention of 

 France in behalf of progress. Indeed, without the 

 help offered so generously to Switzerland, in 1857, his 

 own canton of Neuchatel, of which he was a burgess 

 (Bourgeois de Neuchatel ct de Valengin), would have 

 remained to this day under the rule of the king of 

 Prussia. Although Agassiz shrank all his life from 

 politics, he was very liberal, and always in favour of 

 liberty. 



One of Agassiz's first schemes when he came to the 

 New World was the preparation of a great work on the 

 fresh-water fishes, analogous to the one he had attempted 

 in Europe on the same subject. He soon discovered that 

 the best man to associate with him to carry out his inten- 

 tions was Dr. Spencer F. Baird, then a young professor at 

 Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Baird entered with great enthu- 

 siasm into all the views and ideas of Agassiz, explained 

 to him during a prolonged visit to Cambridge in May 

 and June, 1848; and after an understanding in regard 

 to the number of specimens to be collected and their 

 geographical distribution, he started to explore Lake 

 Champlain. Baird succeeded, but he did one thing 

 which he had not anticipated. He made the acquaint- 

 ance, at Burlington, of Senator George P. Marsh of Ver- 



