1865-67.] JOHN B. PERRY. 161 



truly say that he is the American palaeo-entomologist 

 par excellence. 



John B. Perry came to Cambridge among the last 

 of Agassiz's pupils and assistants. I had met him at 

 Swanton, Vermont, in 1861, where he was a pastor 

 of the Congregational church, and was much impressed 

 by his capacity as an observer in practical geology. 

 He was my constant companion during all my re- 

 searches on the Taconic system, in Vermont and North- 

 eastern New York, and, as his biographer says, my 

 "friendship was the great turning-point in Mr. Perry's 

 future." He rapidly became a good palaeontologist, 

 and in 1868 left the ministry to accept a position as 

 assistant in the Agassiz Museum. But Perry did not 

 live long ; during a protracted excursion in the Southern 

 States, during the summer of 1872, in search of Tertiary 

 fossils, he contracted malaria, and died of it at Cam- 

 bridge in October, 1872. He was a man whose honest 

 and modest diligence as a geologist Agassiz highly 

 appreciated. 



During the fall of 1867 Agassiz lost his mother, -- the 

 heaviest sorrow of his life. She died at Montagny 

 on November n, at the age of eighty-four years. 

 " Madame la pasteur Agassiz," as she was called in 

 Switzerland, was a most remarkable lady, superior to 

 all her surroundings. Every one loved her, and she 

 was respected as few women ever were. Her son 

 Louis was her favourite child, and in her Agassiz found 

 a profound maternal love, comforting him in all his 

 trouble, giving gentle counsel, never discouraged, but 

 always hoping for better times to come. Mother-like, 



VOL. II. M 



