538 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



possible care and beauty of finish. I estimated 

 my materials at ten volumes, quarto, and hav- 

 ing fixed the price at 60 francs ($12.00) a 

 volume, thought I might, perhaps, dispose of 

 five hundred. I brought out my prospectus, 

 and I have to-day seventeen hundred subscrib- 

 ers. What do you say to that for a work 

 which is to cost six hundred francs a copy, 

 and of which nothing has as yet appeared? 

 Nor is the list closed yet, for every day I re- 

 ceive new subscriptions, — this very morning 

 one from California ! Where will not the love 

 of science find its niche ! " . . . 



In the same strain he says, at a little later 

 date, to Sir Charles Lyell : " You will, no 

 doubt, be pleased to learn that the fbst vol- 

 ume of my new work, ^ Contributions to the 

 Natural History of the United States,' which 

 is to consist of ten volumes, quarto, is now 

 printing, to come out this summer. I hope it 

 will show that I have not been idle during ten 

 years' silence. I am somewhat anxious about 

 the reception of my first chapter, headed, 

 ' Classification,' which contains anything but 

 what zoologists would generally expect under 

 that head. The subscription is marvelous. 

 Conceive twenty-one hundred names before 

 the appearance of the first pages of a work 



