466 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



years was in miniature similar to that of Bismarck to the German 

 empire. Indeed, there was a strange physical and mental resemblance 

 between Alexander Agassiz and Bismarck. Fearless, resolute, quick 

 to anger, definitely purposeful and full of resource, they were closely 

 akin in character, and indeed there seemed much in common between 

 the two, for during the course of his long and honored life Alexander 

 Agassiz had been granted many interviews with exalted personages, 

 but his meeting with Bismauck was the only one to which he delighted 

 to refer. Alexander Agassiz was a colossal leader of great enter- 

 prises, fully as much as he was a man of science. 



The cold winters of Cambridge were intolerable to him, and each 

 year from 1875 until the close of his life he sought a more genial 

 climate. Upon these pleasure excursions he visited Mexico, Central 

 America, the West Indies, India, Ceylon, Japan, the readily accessible 

 parts of Africa, and every country in Europe. He never went far 

 into the arctic regions, although he saw the midnight sun at North 

 Cape and visited the Aleutian Islands. Upon all excursions of the 

 last 20 years of his life his constant companion and friend was his 

 son Maximilian. 



In 1896, in collaboration with Dr. W. McM. Woodworth, he pub- 

 lished a paper upon the variations of 3,917 specimens of the medusa 

 Obelia (Encope), in which the authors show that aberrant specimens 

 of Obelia are very common. This paper is illustrated by interesting 

 photographs made from life by Dr. Woodworth. This is one of the 

 last of the studies published by him from his Newport laboratory, 

 the latest one being in 1898 upon the scyphomedusa Dactylometra. 



From November, 1897, to January, 1898, he cruised among the 

 Fiji Islands in the little steamer Yaralla, chartered from the Aus- 

 tralian United Steam Navigation Co. and under the command of 

 Capt. W. C. Thomson. 



Dana had stated that the coral reefs of the Fiji Islands were typical 

 examples of the theory of Darwin, and Agassiz was greatly surprised 

 therefore to find the clearest evidence of elevation, for in some places, 

 as at Vatu Vara Island, the late Tertiary limestones are lifted more 

 than 1,000 feet above the sea. This great elevation, which is so evi- 

 dent in numerous places among the Fiji Islands, probably took place 

 in later Tertiary times, and since then the islands have been greatly 

 eroded and reduced in size, deep valleys being cut into their mountain 

 slopes and many of the islands having been washed away by the 

 tropical rains, leaving only a submerged flat. The coral reefs that 

 grew around the shore line of the islands still remain after the islands 

 have washed away, and thus the living reefs now mark the contours 

 of the islands as they were. The currents flowing in and out of open- 

 ings in the reef rim have deepened the lagoons, but nevertheless there 

 are many coral heads growing in the lagoon of every coral atoll. 



