LOUIS AGASSIZ 155 



the world. Agassiz was an international figure and as a teacher of 

 the sciences, he occupied a distinguished position. He now took 

 the Wollaston prize of seven hundred francs, a godsend as he had 

 expended his last cent in producing a volume of his splendid work, 

 Researches Among the Fossil Fishes, which was only finished in 

 1843, occupying ten years for its completion. 



Agassiz now visited England and was enthusiastically received, 

 meeting Lyell, Murchison, Buckland, Egerton, Lord Coll, and 

 before these leaders of the day he demonstrated his marvelous 

 insight into the secrets of nature. At a meeting he was asked to 

 give his idea of a fish that might belong to a certain ancient geolog- 

 ical horizon. He of course had never seen such a fish nor did he 

 know that one had been found in this ancient stratum, but he 

 walked to the board and made a sketch of the fish as he thought 

 it would appear, a rousing cheer greeting his work. Then to his 

 amazement some one pulled aside a screen and showed the fossil 

 specimen. Agassiz had anticipated and figured it perfectly. 



To such an extent said Dr. Stebbins "had this great scientist 

 advanced in a knowledge of the plan of God in nature." Agassiz 

 now became interested in glaciers and in the following years gave 

 the world his splendid works, opinions based on observation of 

 these marvelous phenomena of the Alps, and his work aroused 

 the greatest interest and discussion all over Europe and in scien- 

 tific centers of America. His views received criticism in many 

 quarters, but they prevailed and his masterly handling of the 

 subject made him still more famous, and in 1838, when thirty 

 years of age, he received the membership of the Royal Society of 

 London. 



It is impossible to even mention the books and subjects which 

 Agassiz had in mind, during this and following years, in the limited 

 space of this paper. America, where he was destined to rise to the 

 highest pinnacle of his career as a great teacher of science, first 

 came seriously into his mind in 1842 when a trip was suggested 

 by the Prince of Canino. His books were contributions to science, 

 and their production was often a continual drain, keeping him 

 impoverished, but when an offer came from America for a course 



