166 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



desired so earnestly to stop at Strasbourg and 

 Carlsruhe, where I knew specimens were to 

 be seen which would have a direct bearing on 

 my aim. The result has far surpassed my 

 expectation. I hastened to show my material 

 to M. Cuvier the very day after my arrival. 

 He received me with great politeness, though 

 with a certain reserve, and immediately gave 

 me permission to see everything in the galler- 

 ies of the Museum. But as I knew that he 

 had put together in private collections all that 

 could be of use to himself in writing his book, 

 and as he had never said a word to me of his 

 plan of publication, I remained in a painful 

 state of doubt, since the completion of his 

 work would have destroyed all chance for the 

 sale of mine. Last Saturday I was passing 

 the evening there, and we were talking of 

 science, when he desired his secretary to bring 

 him a certain portfolio of drawings. He 

 showed me the contents ; they were drawings 

 of fossil fishes and notes which he had taken 

 in the British Museum and elsewhere. After 

 looking it through with me, he said he had 

 seen with satisfaction the manner in which 

 I had treated this subject ; that I had in- 

 deed anticipated him, since he had intended 

 at some future time to do the same thing; 



