THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



271 



OUR Fn'E 1-JKES CHAPTER ( CKEEN W 1(1 1, (O.XXECTICUT.i HOLDS ITS MEE 1 1 .\( IS IN A BARN. 



up for the purpose. Professor Holder 

 in his "Louis Agassiz : His Life and 

 Work" tells us of the first day and of 

 Agassiz's opening the school with si- 

 lent prayer, a fact recorded in the poem 

 by Whittier and familiar to all our 

 readers. 



Dr. Jordan says : 



"None of us will ever forget his first 

 sight of Agassiz. We had come down 

 from New Bedford in a little tug-boat 

 in the early morning, and Agassiz met 

 us at the landing-place on the island. 

 He was standing almost alone on the 

 little wharf, and his great face beamed 

 with pleasure. For this summer school, 

 the thought of his old age, might be 

 the crowning work of his lifetime. Who 

 could forsee what might come from the 

 efforts of fifty men and women, teach- 

 ers of science, each striving to do his 

 work in the most rational way? His 

 thoughts and hopes rose to expecta- 

 tions higher than any of us then un- 

 derstood. 



"His tall, robust figure, his broad 

 shoulders bending a little under the 

 weight of years, his large round face 

 lit up by kindly dark-brown eyes, his 

 cheery smile, the enthusiastic tones of 

 his voice, his rolling gait, like that of 

 'a man who had walked much over 



ploughed ground, — all these entered 

 into our first as well as our last impres- 

 sion of Agassiz. He greeted us with 

 great warmth as we landed. He looked 

 into our faces to justify himself in 

 making choice of us among the many 

 whom he might have chosen. 



"The old barn on the island had been 

 hastily converted into a dining-hall 

 and lecture-room. A new floor had 

 been put in ; but the doors and walls 

 remained unchanged, and the swal- 

 lows' nests were undisturbed under 

 the eaves. The sheep had been turned 

 out, the horse-stalls were changed to 

 a kitchen, :and on the floor of the 

 barn, instead of the hay-wagon, were 

 placed three long tables. At the head 

 of one of these sat Agassiz. At his 

 left hand always stood a movable 

 blackboard, for he seldom spoke with- 

 out a piece of chalk in his hand. He 

 would often give us a lecture while we 

 sat at the table, frequently about some 

 fish or other creature the remains of 

 which still lay on our plates." 



In that famous school Agassiz taught 

 his pupils to take the near-by things of 

 marine life and study them. He then 

 stood at the blackboard making sket- 

 ches of the things under consideration. 



