THE NEWPORT LABORATORY 155 



the other end of the table and asked to add a postscript. 

 Steam launches, he said, were uncommon in the late 

 seventies, and Mr. Agassiz was one of the few graduates 

 who had one, which he used in connection with his 

 scientific work. This launch was regularly placed at the 

 disposal of the crew when it went to New London for a 

 final preparation for the Yale race. Its absence from 

 Newport must have sadly interfered with the work there, 

 especially as, when the boat went out to follow the shell, 

 the figure in the bow of the launch, coaching the crew, 

 often bore a strange resemblance to the guest of the 

 evening. 



The laboratory was closed to students in 1898, for 

 Agassiz then found himself forced to devote most of his 

 time during the summer to the preparation of the re- 

 ports of his various expeditions, to the publication of the 

 reports of the specialists who were working on his col- 

 lections, and his correspondence with them. But press 

 of work was not the only reason that kept the labora- 

 tory closed ; the lukewarm interest that the University 

 authorities showed toward a proposed project of enlarg- 

 ing it, undoubtedly influenced him. In writing of the 

 incident some years later, he says : — 



" On unfolding my plans they were received with such 

 cold water that I then and there abandoned the whole 

 scheme. 



" I closed the Laboratory at Newport, which I planned 

 to be a substitute for the Anderson School of Natural 

 History, with less regret, as since the opening of that 

 Laboratory the Fish Commission had established itself 

 at Wood's Hole, where the Marine Biological Associa- 

 tion had also built a Laboratory, and many of the larger 



