138 Naturalist at Large 



Jordan records that Garman was one of the little group 

 who, with Professor Agassiz, with their own hands laid 

 the floor of the barn which became the first Marine Bio- 

 logical Laboratory at Penikese Island on Buzzard's Bay. 

 Garman kept the books of the Laboratory. His costume 

 was singular: at first he wore a broad "Western" hat and a 

 flaming red four-in-hand necktie. Later on he dressed in a 

 ciuriously somber and semi-ecclesiastical suit, somewhat 

 like that affected by the late David Belasco. 



In 1873 Louis Agassiz died, and so did his daughter-in- 

 law, Alexander's lovely young bride. Alexander Agassiz 

 was a distracted man and, to escape his grief, he set sail 

 to make a hydrographical survey of Lake Titicaca in Peru. 

 He took Garman with him and I well recall Garman's tales 

 of the glories of the Andes. The Agassiz Museum still has 

 the skin of a magnificent condor which Garman says sailed 

 by him as he was perched on a high crag overlooking the 

 lake. The bird had its regular beat and came by every so 

 often. Garman's shotgun shells were loaded with fine shot, 

 for he was collecting small birds. Feeling sure that the 

 condor would be back before long, he took his penknife, 

 cut his suspender buttons off and pushed them into the 

 barrel of his gun, tamping them down with some of the 

 paper he had to wrap his birds. Before long the great con- 

 dor swept by again and with a quick aim Garman killed it. 

 This was his last adventure. He returned to Cambridge and, 

 so far as I know, never left it again. 



His early experiences with the way Cope and Marsh 

 treated one another's researches evidently soured Garman, 

 for it was many years before I could come into his room 

 without his spreading sheets of newspaper over the table 



