The Days of a Man 1886 



institution (1914-16) added to his high reputation 

 as professor. 



In the summer of this year I went again to Europe, 

 The attaching myself for a second Norwegian trip to a 

 group of students led by Swain. The rest of my 

 vacation was mostly spent at the Jardin des Plantes, 

 where I devoted myself to the study of fishes, 

 especially to the type specimens examined by 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes, and afterward by Agassiz. 



Those little low rooms, five in number [said Theodore 

 Lyman], should be the Mecca of scientific devotees. Every 

 great naturalist of the past hundred years has sat in them 

 and discussed those problems which are ever inviting solu- 

 tion and are never solved. The spirits of great naturalists still 

 haunt these corridors, and speak from the specimens their 

 hands have set in order. 



in the Upon my return from Europe, I spent some time 

 moun- m the White Mountains, climbing Mount Washing- 

 ton, the highest peak north of the Great Smokies. 

 Its bleak summit, though little more than 6000 feet 

 above the sea, carries the impression of great ele- 

 vation, rising as it does into a treeless belt charac- 

 teristic of the Arctic Zone. 



Speaking of Eastern mountains, I also recall that 

 in the latter part of four different summers between 

 1878 and 1888 I went to the Adirondacks for short 

 outings. There the fine forests and trout-filled 

 lakes excavated by glaciers always charmed me. 

 At one time I visited Moriah and Mineville, the 

 . home of my fathers, who had, however, been wholly 

 forgotten in the region. Mount Marcy, the highest 

 of the Adirondacks, I climbed as a matter of course, 

 it being my habit never to let a peak escape if it 

 could be "conquered." Marcy is not lofty, but is 



C 320] 



