2 LOUIS AGASS1Z. 



chain of the Bernese Alps, was especially so. 

 It possessed a vineyard large enough to add 

 something in good years to the small salary 

 of the pastor ; an orchard containing, among 

 other trees, an apricot famed the country 

 around for the unblemished beauty of its 

 abundant fruit; a good vegetable garden, and 

 a delicious spring of water flowing always 

 fresh and pure into a great stone basin behind 

 the house. That stone basin was Agassiz's 

 first aquarium ; there he had his first collec- 

 tion of fishes. 1 



It does not appear that he had any preco- 

 cious predilection for study, and his parents, 

 who for the first ten years of his life were 

 his only teachers, were too wise to stimulate 

 his mind beyond the ordinary attainments of 

 his age. Having lost her first four children 

 in infancy, his mother watched with trem- 

 bling solicitude over his early years. It was 

 perhaps for this reason that she was drawn so 

 closely to her boy, and understood that his 

 love of nature, and especially of all living 



1 After his death a touching tribute was paid to his mem- 

 ory by the inhabitants of his birthplace. With appropriate 

 ceremonies, a marble slab was placed above the door of the 

 parsonage of Metier, with this inscription, " J. Louis Agas- 

 siz, celebre naturaliste, est n dans cette maison, le 28 Mai, 

 1807." 



