ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 111 



then engaged in oceanographical work, and especially in 

 deep-sea exploration. He visited Wyville Thomson in 

 Belfast in order to see and hear about the results of the 

 " Lightning " and " Porcupine " expeditions. After this 

 visit, it seems that WyviUe Thomson " had written to 

 Agassiz complaining that he had lost or mislaid some deep- 

 sea specimen, and Agassiz jocularly replied from London 

 assuring him that he had ' taken nothing away from 

 Ireland except a bad cold.' " 



Returning now to the consideration of his oceanographical 

 work, his book The Three Cruises of the " Blahe " gives in 

 popular form the general results of aU his voyages in the 

 " Blake " from 1877 to 1880, illustrated by 545 maps and 

 figures of the remarkable inhabitants of the cold dark floor 

 of the deep sea and of many of the most interesting forms of 

 the surface plankton of the Gulf Stream and the West 

 Indies. The value to science of the 355 deep-sea observations 

 made on the Atlantic coasts of the United States may be 

 gathered from the following statement by Sir John Murray : 



"If we can say that we now know the physical and 

 biological conditions of the great ocean basins in their broad 

 general outlines — and I beHeve we can do so — the present 

 state of our knowledge is due to the combined work and 

 observations of a great many men belonging to many 

 nationalities, but most probably more to the work and 

 inspiration of Alexander Agassiz than to any other single 

 man. Agassiz 's researches in the Atlantic resulted in very 

 definite knowledge concerning the submarine topography of 

 the West Indian region and of the animals inhabiting these 

 seas at all depths — probably we know more of this submarine 

 area than of any other area of equal extent in the world 

 because of his explorations. He arrived at the general result 

 that the deep-sea animals of the Gulf of Panama were more 

 closely allied to those in the deep waters of the Caribbean 

 Sea than the Caribbean forms were to those of the deep 

 Atlantic. Hence he concluded that the Caribbean Sea was 



