346 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



of my old Catalogue published in '65, and will, I hope, 

 do something to clear up the confusion now existing in 

 the classification of the groups. In the mean time I am 

 at work on the Echini of the Albatross, and Westergren 

 is making some beautiful plates for me. My Report on 

 the Fiji coral reefs is done and ouly awaiting the com- 

 pletion of the illustrations to go to the printers. I think 

 that Darwin's theory is now disposed of, still I shall not 

 make a general resume until I have seen the Paumotus, 

 Marshall, Gilbert, and coral reefs of the Indian Ocean. 

 I am now making preparations to go to the Paumotus 

 next August, and see for myself what the reefs there 

 look like. So you see I have laid out for myself quite a 

 little block of work, and I only wish I had made up my 

 mind to give up the Museum ten years ago, as I ought 

 to have done, and have had ten years of younger blood 

 for the coral reefs. 



In the winter of 1898-99, Agassiz went to South 

 Africa to see the great gold and diamond mines of the 

 Rand and Kimberley. It was the year before the Boer 

 War, and he was much impressed by the rumblings of 

 preparation which were audible to all except the deaf 

 in office at London. Letters from his English friends 

 opened all doors to him, and his prestige as the presi- 

 dent of a great American mine made him a welcome 

 guest of the superintendents and officials of the mining 

 firms of England. When not busy underground or in- 

 specting surface plants, he appears to have been fairly 

 overwhelmed with lunches and dinners. 



There were at that time many American mining en- 

 gineers in South Africa, mostly Californians, some of 

 whom he had known in California in earlier days. At 



