SKETCH OF PROFESSOR JOSEPH LE CONTE. 359 



of science in all its departments, but especially of natural history. 

 The example of his father, and the splendid botanical garden in the 

 midst of which he lived from infancy, early imbued him with an in- 

 tense love of Nature, and cultivated in him the habit of scientific 

 observation. The unrestrained freedom of his boyhood life, in a coun- 

 try where game of all kinds abounded, engendered a passionate fond- 

 ness for field-sports ; and this again increased both his love of Nature 

 and the opportunities of observation. In later life this love of field 

 and forest took the more rational form of extensive ramblings for sci- 

 entific purposes. 



After graduating A. B. in the University of Georgia, in 1841, he 

 commenced the study of medicine, and graduated M. D. in the Col- 

 lege of Physicians and Surgeons of New York, in 1845. A few years 

 of active practice of his profession in Macon, Georgia (during which, 

 however, he was more interested in the science of medicine than in 

 the art of healing), served to convince him that he had not yet found 

 his appropriate field of activity. He therefore, in 1850, went to Cam- 

 bridge, Massachusetts, to pursue a course of practical science in the 

 laboratory of Prof. Agassiz. 



His life in Cambridge, and especially his intimate association with 

 the great teacher, powerfully stimulated his enthusiasm for science, and 

 permanently determined its direction. During the winter of 1851, in 

 company with Prof. Agassiz, he spent the months of January and 

 February on the keys and reefs of Florida, engaged in studying their 

 mode of formation. These studies afterward gave origin to a paper 

 " On the Agency of the Gulf Stream in the Formation of the Peninsula 

 and Keys of Florida." 



In 1851, after taking the degree of B. S. in the Lawrence Scientific 

 School, he returned to Georgia, and was immediately elected to the 

 chair of Natural Science in Oglethorpe University. As this chair in- 

 cluded physics, chemistry, geology, and natural history, he was not 

 unwilling to exchange it for that of geology and natural history in 

 the University of Georgia, which was tendered him in 1852. Four 

 years of laborious class-room work here laid the foundation of his suc- 

 cess as a teacher and lecturer, but left little time for research. In 

 1856 he removed to Columbia, South Carolina, to take charge of the 

 chair of Chemistry and Geology in the South Carolina College. 



The years spent in connection with this institution were among 

 the pleasantest and most active of his life. The highly-intellectual 

 and refined society gathered in Columbia was, however, more literary 

 and philosophical than scientific. His activity, therefore, took in some 

 degree this direction, and most of his articles which are not strictly 

 scientific were written at this time. 



In 1862 the call of the Confederate Government for all able-bodied 

 males over eighteen years of age entirely broke up the college for 

 want of students. During the war he was engaged first as Chemist 



