1858-64-] LECTURES ON GEOLOGY. 99 



very well ; but as soon as he entered into the details 

 of strata, he was weak, wholly lacking in exactness, 

 and uninformed as to geographical geology and the 

 sequence of the numerous groups into which the strata 

 have been divided in each country. If I happened 

 to be present at such lectures, - - which was very sel- 

 dom the case, - - Agassiz would look at me in a ques- 

 tioning and imploring way, which said as plainly as 

 words, " Please do not contradict me." Of course I 

 never did. 



As a resume of his unequalled capacities and talents 

 as a teacher, we may repeat what was said of the great 

 French geometer Monge : " II combinait pour la clarete 

 de ses demonstrations, les regards, les paroles et les 

 gestes. Ses auditeurs craignoient de faire le moindre 

 mouvement dont le bruit put troubler le charme de cette 

 etonnante eloquence." 



Unhappily difficulties of another nature than money 

 stringency occurred in the Museum ; namely, with the 

 personnel of the establishment. Agassiz never knew 

 how to manage his assistants, and repeated the same 

 faults, with some little variation of details, in his Cam- 

 bridge Museum, which he had committed previously at 

 Neuchatel. At first all went smoothly. As a sort of re- 

 ward, he sent most of his assistants to the Smithsonian 

 Institution at Washington, to study its management and 

 arrange exchanges of specimens. The first difficulty was 

 with Professor Clark, who left the Museum in June, 1863, 

 as we have seen. Then came a sort of revolt among most 

 of his other assistants, which developed slowly during 

 the years 1863 and 1864, and broke out at the begin- 



