MEXICO AND INDIA 193 



America had excited his interest in the old civilizations 

 of this hemisphere. In the following letter, when speak- 

 ing of this project, he expresses his intention of doing 

 absolutely nothing till his return ; it is curious to note 

 in his letters from Yucatan to Mrs. Agassiz what his 

 idea of doing nothing was. 



TO SIR WYVILLE THOMSON 



Cambridge, Nov. 26, 1881. 



I am off in a few days for Mexico via Yucatan. The 

 doctor says I must not be seasick any more for the next 

 year, so I shall go on land and look up antiquities. I 

 shall bring up in Mexico middle of January and ride 

 across country from there to Gulf of California, to be 

 about six weeks on horseback. I have an excellent com- 

 panion in Clarence King, and we have also a first-rate 

 cook as part of our escort. I shall do absolutely nothing 

 except keep my eyes open and hope to come back a new 

 man. While I am gone, my Report on Blake Echini 

 will make excellent progress. I leave artist plenty of 

 Plates arranged and I hope on my return to find the 

 bulk of the Plates for that memoir done. There are now 

 fourteen finished and ten more to make. This will make 

 quite a dose even after the Challenger Echini. In mean- 

 while, to fill up time I am finishing a short paper on 

 Young Fishes, which has been under way in some shape 

 for more than eight years. 



You will receive shortly, as soon as I can get them 

 bound, a copy of the Challenger Echini via bookseller. 

 It may seem a waste of material to duplicate yours and 

 Murray's, but I don't want you to have a copy from 

 anybody but myself, and hope you will put it on your 

 shelves, and when you look at it sometimes think how 



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