CHAPTER XI 



1891 

 THE FIRST ALBATROSS EXPEDITION 



Agassiz had always been most anxious to supplement 

 his work on the Blake in the Caribbean, by an expedi- 

 tion in the Panamic region of the Pacific. For it was 

 well known that the littoral fauna of these two locali- 

 ties bore a striking resemblance. This led him to believe 

 that a comparison of the deep-sea forms on the Pacific 

 side of the Isthmus of Panama with his old friends in 

 the Caribbean would furnish reliable data for some most 

 interesting conclusions. If he could establish geologi- 

 cally the approximate period at which the Caribbean 

 ceased to be a bay of the Pacific, he hoped to be able to 

 determine the amount of change that had taken place 

 between the deep-sea fauna on each side of the Isthmus, 

 since the passage connecting them had ceased to exist. 



Already he had been twice disappointed in his hope 

 of undertaking such an expedition. In 1879, he was in- 

 vited by Admiral Belknap to join his flagship off Panama 

 and undertake a deep-sea cruise ; unfortunately the 

 breaking-out of the war between Peru and Chile made 

 this expedition impossible. Again in 1888, business mat- 

 ters prevented his accepting an invitation to join the 

 Albatross at Panama, on her way from New York to 

 San Francisco. 



In 1890, he was asked by Colonel Marshall MacDonald, 

 the United States Fish Commissioner, to take charge of 



