162 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



Naushon, Nonamesset, 

 Uncatena, and Wepecket, 

 Nashawena, Pesquinese, 

 Cuttyhunk, and Penikese. 



" And Penikese, least and smallest of them, lies, a little forgotten 

 speck, out in the ocean, eighteen miles south of New Bedford. It 

 contains two hills, joined together by a narrow isthmus, a little 

 harbor, a farm-house, a flagstaff, a barn, a willow tree, and a 

 flock of sheep. And here Agassiz founded his school. This was 

 in the month of June in the year 1873. 



" From the many hundred applicants who sent in their names as 

 soon as the school was made public Agassiz chose fifty, thirty 

 men and twenty women, teachers, students, and naturalists of 

 various grades from all parts of the country. This practical recog- 

 nition of co-education was criticized by many of Agassiz's friends, 

 trained in the monastic schools of New England, but the results 

 soon justified the decision. These fifty teachers should be trained 

 as far as he could train them in right methods of work. They 

 should carry into his schools his views of scientific teaching. Then 

 each of these schools would become in its time a center of help to 

 others, until the influence toward real work in science should 

 spread throughout our educational system. 



" None of us will ever forget his first sight of Agassiz. We had 

 come down from New Bedford, in a little tugboat in the early 

 morning and Agassiz met us at the landing-place on the island. He 

 was standing almost alone on the little wharf, and his great face 

 beamed with pleasure. For this summer school, the thought of 

 his old age, might be the crowning work of his lifetime. Who 

 could forsee what might come from the efforts of fifty men and 

 women, teachers of science, each striving to do his work in the 

 best possible way? His thoughts and hopes rose to expectations 

 higher than any of us then understood. His tall, robust figure, 

 broad shoulders bending a little under the weight of years, his 

 large round face lit up by kindly dark-brown eyes, his cheery 

 smile, the enthusiastic tones of his voice, all these entered into our 

 first as well a our last impressions of Agassiz. He greeted us 



