218 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



ontological Rooms alone now remain to be done, with ex- 

 ception of the marine fauna?, and I can take my time 

 about all this and start the work more in the direction 

 in which I should have been most interested — that of 

 publication of work of students and of professors en- 

 gaged here. I feel as if I had done my duty to the In- 

 stitution I have inherited, and at my age — for I fear 

 we are all getting on — I have not a great many 

 working years to start the Institution in the direction in 

 which I should like to see it develop. Had I the Museum 

 alone to attend to, I would move fast enough and make 

 progress rapid enough even for my taste ; but what with 

 all the claims of the University in various directions, 

 and the necessity of hunting up funds to carry out pro- 

 jects, it seems to leave but little time for scientific work 

 proper, and I often feel as though when I got ready to 

 work my time would be past. That is the great misfor- 

 tune of having to work in a new country where every- 

 thing is to be built up and nothing is accomplished 

 without spending the lifetime of private individuals in 

 doing what a Government does for you in a few years. 



TO SIR W. H. FLOWER 1 



Newport, Aug. 12, 1885. 



Many thanks for your kind note of the 21st July, 

 and for the pleasing information regarding the Hume 

 collection. I shall look forward with patience to its com- 

 ing and am very glad to entrust our interests to your care 

 and Mrs. Flower's. I am thankful the collection is at 

 last safely housed. 



I have been hard at work this summer preparing the 

 text of my final Blake Report, and trust to finish it this 



1 Director of the Natural History Department of the British Museum. 



