572 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



merits, struggle for life, natural selection, the 

 age of the world, races of men, biblical dates, 

 apes, and gorillas, etc., and the last duel has 

 been between Owen and Huxley on the ana- 

 tomical distinction of the pithecoid brain com- 

 pared with that of man. Theological contro- 

 versy has also been rife, stirred up by the 

 " Essays and Reviews," of which you have no 

 doubt heard much. For myself, I have been 

 busy preparing, in conjunction with Huxley, 

 another decade of fossil fishes, all from the 

 old red of Scotland. . . . Enniskillen is quite 

 well. He is now at Lyme Regis. . . . 



At about this time the Copley Medal was 

 awarded to Agassiz, a distinction which was 

 the subject of cordial congratulation from his 

 English friends. 



FROM SIR RODERICK MURCHISON. 



BELGRAVE SQUARE, March, 1862. 



MY DEAR AGASSIZ, Your letter of the 

 14th February was a great surprise to me. I 

 blamed myself for not writing you sooner than 

 I did on the event which I had long been 

 anxious to see realized; but I took it for 

 granted that you had long before received the 

 official announcement from the foreign secre- 



