RELATIONS TO COAST SURVEY. 455 



Hitherto the sea-shore had been a closed 

 book to the Swiss naturalist, and now it opened 

 to him a field of research almost as stimulating 



o 



as his own glaciers. Born and bred among 

 the mountains, he knew marine animals only 

 as they can be known in dried and alcoholic 

 specimens, or in a fossil state. From the 

 Bibb he writes to a friend on shore : " I 

 learn more here in a day than in months from 

 books or dried specimens. Captain Davis is 

 kindness itself. Everything I can wish for is 

 at my disposal so far as it is possible." 



Dr. Bache was at this time Superintendent 

 of the Coast Survey, and he saw at once how 

 the work of the naturalist might ally itself 

 with the professional work of the Survey to 

 the greater usefulness of both. From the be- 

 ginning to the end of his American life, there- 

 fore, the hospitalities of the United States 

 Coast Survey were open to Agassiz. As a 

 guest on board her vessels he studied the reefs 

 of Florida and the Bahama Banks, as well as 

 the' formations of our New England shores. 

 From the deck of the Bibb, in connection with 

 Count de Pourtales, his first dredging experi- 

 ments were undertaken ; and his last long voy- 

 age around the continent, from Boston to San 

 Francisco, was made on board the Hassler, a 



