Chaux de Fonds near his home. He soon married, but 
within three years became totally deaf. Lesquereux was 
unable to continue teaching, and in order to provide for 
his family, joined in partnership with his father. How- 
ever, each Sunday he would dash off into the mountains 
to gather mosses for study with his inexpensive micro- 
scope. 
At this time the government was interested in peat 
bogs as a potential source of cheap fuel for the poor, and 
offered a gold medal of twenty ducats for the best study 
on peat. Lesquereux entered into the competition and 
won the prize with his creditable memoir entitled Re- 
cherches sur les Tourbieres du Jura. Up to the time of 
his death this was the most authoritative work on Euro- 
pean peat. This publication resulted in the closer asso- 
ciation between Agassiz and Lesquereux and in the grant 
from the King of Prussia which enabled him to travel 
over western Kurope wherever peat was known to occur. 
The change of government soon after altered circum- 
stances, so that all those patronized by the former govern- 
ment were removed from their positions. 
The reputation which Lesquereux quickly acquired 
as a bryologist was responsible for his successes in Ameri- 
ea. Although his first work in this country was for Pro- 
fessor Agassiz — working up the plants collected on the 
Lake Superior expedition — he was called to Columbus, 
Ohio in December 1848 by William S. Sullivant. Mr. 
Sullivant was a man of wealth who devoted his time to 
the study of mosses and who, by 1845, with the pub- 
lication of the Musct Allegheniensis, was the foremost 
bryologist in America. He desired Lesquereux to col- 
laborate with him and publish the enormous collections 
he had accumulated. For two years he hired Lesquereux 
full time,and thereafter generously paid him for part time 
employment. In 1856 they Jointly published the Musci 
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