32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



whither she had removed from Neuchatel to the company of her 

 own relatives. Alexander came here into contact with Professor 

 C. T. E. von Siebold, whose character and great scientific attain- 

 ments did not fail to make a deep impression upon him. Soon after 

 his mother's death in 1848 he came to this country and joined his 

 father at Cambridge. He was prepared for college in the high school 

 of that city and was graduated from Harvard College in the class of 

 1855. 



He received degrees from the Lawrence Scientific School in 1857 and 

 again in 1862, the studies pursued there were Chemistry, Civil Engi- 

 neering and Zoology. This choice of studies shows that at this time 

 he w^as not yet settled in his mind as to his life work — he had for a 

 short time an interest in a Pennsylvania coal mine, and had thought 

 of taking up the occupation of railroad engineering. He was appointed 

 assistant in the United States Coast Survey in 1859 and was em- 

 ployed in charting the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon; and in 

 the survey of the northwest boundary, he found time in the intervals 

 of his official duties to study the marine life of San Francisco harbor 

 and to make collections at other points on the Pacific coast for the 

 Museum at Cambridge. 



Whatever his own plans may have been, powers beyond his control 

 had been at work to determine his career, he vainly thought it might 

 be in fields remote from those in which his father had labored, but 

 indulgent fates brought him back to the natural sciences and here he 

 remained for that part of his activities in which he found his highest 

 satisfaction. He had lived all his life in an atmosphere of science, he 

 had an inheritance from both father and mother of the mental qual- 

 ities that promised him successes in these fields. 



Louis Agassiz's second marriage, in 1850, to Elizabeth C. Cary, 

 brought into the family a very strong and happy influence in the 

 same direction, and ultimately the valued companionship for Alex- 

 ander Agassiz which nearly reached the span of his own life. 



Another important influence in his preparation for life is to be 

 found in the state of Cambridge social life at this time. The native 

 and unstinted hospitality of the father aided by the gracious manner 

 in which Mrs. Agassiz received his guests brought to this open house 

 every traveler of scientific prominence. The college society of the 

 fifties and the association with the neighboring city could not easily 

 be found elsewhere; some idea may be formed of its quality by 

 reading the lines in which Lowell pictures the scenes, from which his 

 great friend had been recently removed by death. There was no 



