494 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



over the ground, but among the lower orders 

 there are a great many in store for a micro- 

 scopic observer. I have only to regret that I 

 cannot apply myself more steadily. I find 

 my nervous system so over-excited that any 

 continuous exertion makes me feverish. So I 

 go about as much as the weather allows, and 

 gather materials for better times. 



Several interesting medusae have been al- 

 ready observed ; among others, the entire 

 metamorphosis and alternate generation of a 

 new species of my genus tiaropsis. You will 

 be pleased to know that here, as well as at 

 the North, tiaropsis is the medusa of a campa- 

 nularia. Mr. Clark, one of my assistants, has 

 made very good drawings of all its stages of 

 growth, and of various other hydroid medu- 

 sa peculiar to this coast. Mr. Stimpson, 

 another very promising young naturalist, who 

 has been connected with me for some tune in 

 the same capacity, draws the Crustacea and 

 bryozoa, of which there are also a good many 

 new ones here. My son and my old friend 

 Burkhardt are also with me (upon Sullivan's 

 Island), and they look after the larger species, 

 so that I shall probably have greatly increased 

 my information upon the fauna of the Atlan- 

 tic coast by the time I return to Cambridge. 



