562 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



This event, so full of significance for Agas- 

 siz, took place a few days before he sailed for 

 Europe, having determined to devote the few 

 weeks of the college and school vacation to a 

 flying visit in Switzerland. The incidents of 

 this visit were of a wholly domestic nature and 

 hardly belong here. He paused a few days 

 in Ireland and England to see his old friends, 

 the Earl of Enniskillen and Sir Philip Eger- 

 ton, and review their collections. A day or 

 two in London gave him, in hke manner, a 

 few hours at the British Museum, a day with 

 Owen at Richmond, and an opportunity to 

 greet old friends and colleagues called to- 

 gether to meet him at Sir Roderick Murchi- 

 son's. He allowed himself also a week in 

 Paris, made delightful by the cordiaHty and 

 hospitality of the professors of the Jardin des 

 Plantes, and by the welcome he received at 

 the Academy, when he made his appearance 

 there. The happiest hours of this brief so- 

 journ in Paris were perhaps spent with his 

 old and dear friend Valenciennes, the associ- 

 ate of earHer days in Paris, when the presence 

 of Cuvier and Himiboldt gave a crowning in- 

 terest to scientific work there. 



From Paris he hastened on to his mother in 

 Switzerland, devoting to her and to his imme- 



