210 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



When it was impossible to give the lessons 

 out of doors, the children were gathered 

 around a large table, where each one had 

 before him or her the specimens of the day, 

 sometimes stones and fossils, sometimes flow- 

 ers, fruits, or dried plants. To each child in 

 succession was explained separately what had 

 first been told to all collectively. When the 

 talk was of tropical or distant countries pains 

 were taken to procure characteristic specimens, 

 and the children were introduced to dates, 

 bananas, cocoa-nuts, and other fruits, not easily 

 to be obtained in those days in a small inland 

 town. They, of course, concluded the lesson 

 by eating the specimens, a practical illustration 

 which they greatly enjoyed. A very large 

 wooden globe, on the surface of which the va- 

 rious features of the earth as they came up 

 for discussion could be shown, served to make 

 them more clear and vivid. The children took 

 their own share in the instruction, and were 

 themselves made to point out and describe 

 that which had just been explained to them. 

 They took home their collections, and as a 

 preparation for the next lesson were often 

 called upon to classify and describe some unu- 

 sual specimen by their own unaided efforts. 

 There was no tedium in the class. Agassiz's 



