THE VOYAGE OF THE HASSLER 129 



He got a most characteristic and complete collection 

 from the river of great scientific value. Among other 

 things there was the egg of some shell (Agassiz thinks 

 of a large Voluta). It was about the size of a small 

 hen's eggy quite transparent, the egg itself being about 

 the hardness and consistency of isinglass, and con- 

 tained a number of young, which Agassiz examined. 

 The whole thing was entirely new to him and of great 

 interest. Then, there were quantities of beautiful 

 shells of various kinds of starfishes (some quite rare) 

 and so forth. It is very interesting to see these beau- 

 tiful living shells, which we only associate with shells 

 in collections, with the animals all expanded and ac- 

 tive, walking about. One little shell I saw, a perfect 

 little beauty, had its mantle all spread out, and folding 

 the sides upward it used them just like wings, flapping 

 them with the greatest rapidity and flying through 

 the water like an arrow. How little after all we know 

 of the life and enjoyments of these creatures which 

 we see preserved in Museums. 



The next day, March 1, was simply heavenly — 

 like the purest of our September days, without taint 

 or blemish, — one of the days when even I can say 

 that life at sea under such circumstances is delightful. 

 At about two o'clock we had another dredging, now 

 in open sea, if you are particular about localities and 

 depths, to the northeast of Cape Corrientes in about 

 forty-five fathoms. This time we found things that 

 made Agassiz ready to jump overboard with joy. If 

 he had not thought the dredge would do it better, I 

 verily believe he would have gone down himself to 



