1856-58.] FRESH-WATER FISHES. 75 



mont, one of the regents and a member of the executive 

 committee of the Smithsonian Institution, who was so 

 impressed by the knowledge, modest bearing, and indus- 

 try of the young ichthyologist that he proposed him as 

 assistant director of the new institution. After some 

 years of dilatoriness and continuous postponement, 

 really due to want of time, Baird saw that it was 

 idle to expect the realization of Agassiz's scheme, and 

 abandoned it altogether. Agassiz, however, was too 

 much of a fish-lover not to be constantly reminded that 

 a great work was in reserve for him ; and during his 

 journey up the Mississippi from New Orleans to St. 

 Louis in 1853, he was much struck by the differences 

 of fishes, according to difference of latitude, in that 

 long north-south watercourse, and in accordance with a 

 habit formed at that time, and practised constantly after- 

 ward, he printed a circular asking for information and 

 for collections, which was distributed largely all along 

 the courses of the rivers and on the coasts of the Lakes. 

 Answers came by dozens, and collections followed one 

 another, until Agassiz had ichthyological treasures to 

 his heart's content. But time to co-ordinate and make 

 use of all these facts and specimens was lacking, and 

 one scheme after another constantly postponed the 

 promised study of the distribution and localization of 

 the fresh-water fishes of the United States. Only a 

 few short papers were published on " Extraordinary 

 Fishes from California," on " Fishes from the Southern 

 Bend of the Tennessee River, Alabama," while some 

 of his letters on the subject have appeared in Mrs. 

 Agassiz's life of her husband ; but this is all. 



