CURIOUS DREAM. 181 



scale, a spine, as my guide in the reconstruc- 

 tion of all these characters, although some- 

 times we are fortunate enough to find species 

 with the fins and the skeletons complete. . . . 



" I ask pardon if I have tired you with my 

 long talk, but you know how pleasant it is 

 to ramble on about what interests us, and the 

 pleasure of being questioned by you upon sub- 

 jects of this kind has been such a rare one for 

 me, that I have wished to present the matter 

 in its full light, that you may understand the 

 zeal and the enthusiasm which such researches 

 can excite." 



To this period belongs a curious dream 

 mentioned by Agassiz in his work on the fos- 

 sil fishes.^ It is interesting both as a psycho- 

 logical fact and as showing how, sleeping and 

 waking, his work was ever present with him. 

 He had been for two weeks striving to deci- 

 pher the somewhat obscure impression of a fos- 

 sil fish on the stone slab in which it was pre- 

 served. Weary and perplexed he put his work 

 aside at last, and tried to dismiss it from his 

 mind. Shortly after, he waked one night per- 

 suaded that while asleep he had seen his fish 

 with all the missing features perfectly restored. 



* Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles. Cyclopoma spinosum 

 Agassi;.. Vol. iv. tab. 1, pp. 20, 21. 



