EXPEDITION TO LAKE SUPERIOR. 463 



asmuch as it combined education with ob- 

 servation in the field. The younger portion 

 of the party consisted of several of his spe- 

 cial pupils, and a few other Harvard students 

 who joined the expedition from general in- 

 terest. Beside these, there were several vol- 

 unteer members, who were either naturalists 

 or had been attracted to the undertaking by 

 their love of nature and travel. Their ob- 

 ject was the examination of the eastern and 

 northern shores of Lake Superior from Sault 

 Ste. Marie to Fort WilHam, a region then lit- 

 tle known to science or to tourists. Agassiz 

 taught along the road. At evening, around 

 the camp-fire, or when delayed by weather or 

 untoward circumstances, he would give to his 

 companions short and informal lectures, it 

 might be on the forest about them, or on the 

 erratic phenomena in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood, — on the terraces of the lake shore, or 

 on the fish of its waters. His lecture-room, 

 in short, was everywhere ; his apparatus a 

 traveling blackboard and a bit of chalk ; while 

 his illustrations and specimens lay all around 

 him, wherever the party chanced to be. 



To Agassiz himself the expedition was of 

 the deepest interest. Glacial phenomena had, 

 as we have seen, met him at every turn since 



