FIGHTING THE INSECTS 



One day when we were in swimming one of the boys, Henry 

 White, the son of the Presbyterian clergyman, dressed first, took 

 his elaborate butterfly net, and started off into the woods. My 

 brother George, who had no butterfly net, and whose collecting 

 apparatus consisted of an old straw hat, followed him. As I was 

 leisurely dressing, I heard yells of delight in the woods beyond 

 and voices crying excitedly, "A Luna! A Luna!" "Thunder!" I 

 said to myself. "Henry has caught the first one." Without waiting 

 to draw on my shoes, I started after them, and when I got there, 

 beheld the kid brother on his hands and knees, with the Luna 

 under his straw hat, while Henry with his expensive butterfly 

 net stood by trembling with jealous rage! 



In those early days the University wisely drew in a number of 

 prominent non-resident lecturers. Among them was the elder 

 Agassiz, and as a boy I heard several of his lectures. I was not 

 so much interested in his subject, which mainly concerned sea 

 forms of life, but I was greatly interested in the man himself 

 and in his rapid and picturesque way of presenting his subject. 

 Of course this was before the days of lantern slides, and while 

 the lectures were profusely illustrated, it was all done with crayon 

 on a great blackboard. And for the first time I saw a man draw 

 with a bit of chalk in each hand, using both simultaneously. It 

 was arresting; it was beautiful! And how much easier it was to 

 draw a bi-symmetrical figure with two hands than with one! 

 Years later I saw the late E. S. Morse (a student of Agassiz) 

 do the same thing and even better. And still later C. V. Riley, 

 but hardly with the same success, although he sketched normally 

 in an exquisite way. 



Before each lecture Agassiz allowed the students to ask ques- 

 tions for a few minutes. I remember with great joy that a fellow 

 named Charley Raymond stood up very impressively one night 

 and said, "Professor, is there such a place as Hell?" The rotund 



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