DREDGING EXPEDITION. 671 



wonderful and beautiful religious edifices; 

 but it is my hope to see, with the progress of 

 intellectual culture, a structure arise among 

 us which may be a temple of the revelations 

 written in the material universe. If this be 

 so, our buildings for such an object can never 

 be too comprehensive, for they are to embrace 

 the infinite work of Infinite Wisdom. They 

 can never be too costly, so far as cost secures 

 permanence and solidity, for they are to con- 

 tain the most instructive documents of Om- 

 nipotence." 



Agassiz gave the winter of 1869 to iden- 

 tifying, classifying, and distributing the new 

 collections. A few weeks in the spring were, 

 however, passed with his friend Count de 

 Pourtales in a dredging expedition on board 

 the Coast Survey Steamer Bibb, off the coast 

 of Cuba, on the Bahama Banks, and among 

 the reefs of Florida. This dredging excur- 

 sion, though it covered a wider ground than 

 any previous one, was the third deep-sea ex- 

 ploration undertaken by M. de Pourtales un- 

 der the auspices of the Coast Survey. His 

 investigations may truly be said to have exer- 

 cised a powerful influence upon this line of 

 research, and to have led the way to the more 

 extended work of the same kind carried on 



