692 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



The vessel was commanded by Captain (now 

 Commodore) Philip C. Johnson, whose cour- 

 tesy and kindness made the Hassler a floating 

 home to the guests on board. So earnest and 

 active was the sympathy felt by him and his 

 officers in the scientific interests of the expedi- 

 tion, that they might be counted as a valua- 

 ble additional volunteer corps. Among them 

 should be counted Dr. William White, of Phil- 

 adelphia, who accompanied the expedition in a 

 partly professional, partly scientific capacity. 



The hopes Agassiz had formed of this ex- 

 pedition, as high as those of any young ex- 

 plorer, were only partially fulfilled. His en- 

 thusiasm, though it had the ardor of youth, 

 had none of its vagueness. In a letter to Mr. 

 Peirce, published in the Museum Bulletin at 

 this time, there is this passage : " If this world 

 of ours is the work of intelligence and not 

 merely the product of force and matter, the hu- 

 man mind, as a part of the whole, should so 

 chime with it, that from what is known it may 

 reach the unknown. If this be so, the knowl- 

 edge gathered should, within the limits of 

 error which its imperfection renders unavoid- 

 able, enable us to foretell what we are likely 

 to find in the deepest abysses of the sea." 

 He looked, in short, for the solution of special 



