CORRESPONDENCE WITH L. AGASSIZ 



to and one of the associate editors of the Journal. He 

 plied Dana with questions, and commented freely upon 

 his writings. Both were such firm theists that they ap- 

 proached the new doctrines of evolution from the same 

 direction. Le Conte, who has likewise won distinction 

 in wide fields of observation, has pointed out the differ- 

 ence between his older friends, one of whom had been his 

 teacher.* 



Dana's letters to Agassiz have not been recovered. Of 

 those received from Agassiz the pile is almost unbroken. 

 This is the earliest that has come to light. It was written 

 shortly after his first visit to New Haven. 



AGASSIZ TO DANA, 1847 



" What have you thought of me all this time, not 

 having written a single line, neither to you nor to Pro- 

 fessor Silliman, after the kind reception I have met with 

 by your whole family? Pray excuse me; consider, if 

 you please, the difficulty under which I labor, having 

 every day to look after hundreds of things which always 

 carry me beyond usual hours of working, when I am then 

 so much tired that I can think of nothing. Nevertheless 

 it is a delightful life to be allowed to examine in a fresh 

 state so many things of which I had but an imperfect 

 knowledge from books. The Boston market supplies me 

 with more than I can examine. Since I had the pleasure 

 of seeing you I have been very successful in collecting 

 specimens, especially in New York and Albany; but I 

 pity very much to have not yet been able to visit Profes- 

 sor Hitchcock. In Washington I have been delighted to 

 see the collections of the Exploring Expedition. They 

 entitle you to the highest thanks from all scientific 

 naturalists, and I hope it will also be felt in the same 

 manner by your countrymen at large. I have seen and 

 examined with some care your fossil fish with scattered 

 scales. I was so little prepared to see anything like that, 

 that I did not know it from your figure ; it is a new genus 



* See Chapter. 

 317 



