PRIX CUVIER. 505 



me soon what you say to all this, and believe 

 me always your true friend, 



L. AGASSIZ. 



In the spring of 1852, while still in Charles- 

 ton, Agassiz heard that the Prix Cuvier, now 

 given for the first time, was awarded to him 

 for the "Poissons Fossiles." This gratified 

 him the more because the work had been so 

 directly bequeathed to him by Cuvier himself. 

 To his mother, through whom he received the 

 news in advance of the official papers, it also 

 gave great pleasure. " Your fossil fishes," 

 she says, " which have cost you so much anx- 

 iety, so much toil, so many sacrifices, have 

 now been estimated at their true value by the 

 most eminent judges. . . . This has given me 

 such happiness, dear Louis, that the tears are 

 in my eyes as I write it to you." She had fol- 

 lowed the difficulties of his task too closely 

 not to share also its success. 



