44 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



traditional knowledge has been a great impediment in 

 the development of Natural Sciences in this country 

 and we hope to remedy this as far as lies in our power 

 by entering into correspondence with all special workers 

 over the whole surface of the globe. It is for this object 

 that we ask your cooperation and we shall be most happy 

 to hear of your wishes and satisfy them as far as it is in 

 the power of our Institution. 



During the years 1860-66, although busy with the 

 affairs of the Museum, Agassiz contrived to find time 

 for an immense amount of original work, and laid the 

 foundation of all his purely zoological investigations. 

 Before his trip to the Pacific he had been interested in 

 entomology, and had devoted some time to the study of 

 Lepidoptera. It is curious that the first publication ' of 

 one who was to spend his scientific life in the study 

 of marine organisms and the questions arising from the 

 examination of coral reefs, should have been on the 

 mechanical principles involved in the flight of certain 

 insects. 



His summers, broken only by occasional scientific 

 •excursions to other portions of the New England coast, 

 were devoted to research at Nahant. Here Mr. Cary had 

 given a cottage to his daughters, Mrs. Felton and Mrs. 

 Louis Agassiz ; this they shared with Alexander Agassiz 

 and his young wife. On a cliff overlooking the sea, low 

 and vine-covered, with a rustic porch supported by un- 

 stripped fir logs, it was in the last degree picturesque, but 

 must have afforded scant elbow-room for three families. 

 In a rambling shed below the house, Agassiz and his 



1 " Mechanism of the flight of Lepidoptera," Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. 

 Hist., vol. vi, 1859. 



