414 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



an important scientific journal, the channel 

 through which, ever since its foundation, 

 European scientific researches have reached 

 America. His son is now professor of chem- 

 istry at Yale. One of his sons-in-law, Mr. 

 Shepard, is also chemical professor in the 

 University of South Carolina. Another, Mr. 

 Dana, still a very young man, strikes me as 

 likely to be the most distinguished naturalist 

 of the United States. He was a member of 

 the expedition around the world under the 

 command of Captain Wilkes, and has just 

 published a magnificent volimie containing 

 monographs of all the species of polyps and 

 corals, with curious observations on their 

 mode of growth and on the coral islands. I 

 was surprised to find in the collection at New 

 Haven a fine specimen of the great fossil sal- 

 amander of Oeningen, the " Homo diluvii tes- 

 tis " of Scheuchzer. 



From New Haven I went to New York by 

 steamboat. The Sound, between Long Island 

 and the coast of Connecticut, presents a suc- 

 cession of cheerful towns and villages, with 

 single houses scattered over the country, while 

 magnificent trees overhang the sea ; we con- 

 stantly disturbed numbers of aquatic birds 

 which, at our approach, fluttered up around 



