FIRST UNIVERSITY APPOINTMENT 225 



Parker ROOM, BOSTON, Jane 28, '04. 



... I have been engaged during the day in looking up acquaintances 

 and endeavoring to find some suitable place of abode for you and the little 

 one. I met Professor Agassiz this afternoon and received from him a somewhat 

 cordial greeting. The old fellow is in a great rage against all students, and 

 is worn with the trouble they have lately given him. I am inclined to think 

 that there has been much wrong done him in the way of petty spite work 

 by the rebels of the M. C. Z. [Museum]. The students have failed to show 

 him the consideration his age and preeminent services entitle him to receive, 

 and have done much to embitter his declining years. I am satisfied that 

 reasonable treatment from them would have secured an amicable adjust- 

 ment. . . . 



I have been out to the M.'s: received a cordial welcome, which in this 

 land of cool greetings was very agreeable. They were packed ready to 

 move. . . . 



It is going to be very difficult to get such accommodations as we want 

 on the seashore. Everything, they tell me, is full four new paste-board 

 hotels have been built this year at Hingham, a place which fashion has 

 lately invaded. Prices are high, but not greatly above what I expected, still 

 it will make no great difference, for when our money gives out we will go 

 home: the higher the price the shorter the time we will have to stay. 



The weather is delightfully cool and bracing, and old Boston looks mag- 

 nificent. It is a great gratification to see a clean town once more after 

 having lived in Western mud and dust for two years. . . . 



In 1864 Mr. Shaler was appointed assistant in paleontology 

 in the Museum of Comparative Zoology. In the following year 

 he took charge of the regular instruction in zoology and geology, 

 given in the Lawrence Scientific School. This work, owing to 

 the continued indisposition of the Lawrence professor, remained 

 in his hands until 1872. As in the past so in the future much 

 of his time was spent within the walls of what was commonly 

 known as the Agassiz Museum ; therefore to pause here even at 

 the expense of anticipating dates seems worth while. In this 

 place he worked almost daily, often lingering late in the after- 

 noon, that is, until daylight failed, in the waning hours occa- 

 sionally glancing out of the window in expectation of the little 

 child and her mother who came regularly to entice him home. 

 During these early years the life of the Museum was exceedingly 



