LOUIS F. DE POURTAL^S. 441 



the floor of the Gulf Stream between Cuba, the Bahamas, and the 

 Florida Keys, and a map with sections and other details showing the 

 ground covered by the dredgings of Mr. Pourtules. Throughout 

 the memoir there are scattered most important general remarks on 

 the afl5nities of the different families, the most interesting of which 

 are those on the Rugosa and the Stylasteridae. He also wrote for 

 Appleton's Cyclopcedia a number of articles on the Atlantic, Indian, 

 and Pacific Oceans, on the Polar Seas, the Galapagos, the Straits of 

 Magellan, Juan Fernandez, and Deep-sea Dredging. 



The titles of his memoirs indicate the range of his learning and his 

 untiring industry. His devotion to science was boundless. A model 

 worker, so quiet that his enthusiasm was known only to those who 

 watched his steadfast labor, he toiled on year after year without a 

 thought of self, wholly engrossed in his search after truth. He never 

 entered into a single scientific controversy, nor even asserted or de- 

 fended his claims to discoveries of his own which had escaped atten- 

 tion. But while modest to a fault, and absolutely careless of his own 

 position, he could rebuke in a peculiarly effective though always cour- 

 teous manner ignorant pretensions or an assumption of infallibility. 



Appointed keeper of the Museum of Comparative Zoology after the 

 death of Professor Agassiz, he devoted a large part of his time to the 

 administration of the Museum affairs. Always at his post, he passed 

 from his original investigations to practical details, carrying out plans 

 which he had himself helped to initiate for the growth of the institu- 

 tion. As he had been the devoted friend of Professor Agassiz, he 

 became to his son a wise and affectionate counsellor, without whose 

 help in the last ten years the Museum could not have taken the place 

 it now occupies. 



If he did not live to see the realization of his scientific hopes, he 

 lived at least long enough to feel that their fulfilment is only a matter 

 of time. He has followed Wyman and Agassiz, and like tliem has 

 left his fairest monument in the work he has accomplished and the 

 example he leaves to his successors. 



The following are the principal publications of Mr. Pourtales : — 



1850. On the Distribution of Foraminifera on the Coast of New Jersey, as shown 



by the Off-shore Soundings of tlie Coast Survey. Proc. Amer. Assoc. 



for Adv. of Sc., Charleston meeting, 1850. 

 On the Order of Succession of Parts in Foraminifera. Proc. Amer. Assoc. 



for Adv. of Sc, Charleston meeting, 1850. Also Amer. Journ. of Sc. 



and Arts, 2d series, Vol. II. 1851. 

 J851. On the Holothuridoe of the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Proc. 



Amer. Assoc, for Adv. of Sc, 1851, p. 8. 



