RENEWED PLANS FOR UNITED STATES. 377 



unable to make one of the glacial party this 

 year, but the work was carried on uninterrupt- 

 edly, and the results reported to him. Mean- 

 time his contemplated journey to the United 

 States flitted constantly before him. 



AGASSIZ TO THE PRINCE OF CANINO. 



Neuchatel, November 19, 1844. 



. . . Your idea of an illustrated American 

 ichthyology is admirable. But for that we 

 ought to have with us an artist clever enough 

 to paint fishes rapidly from the life. Work 

 but half done is no longer permissible in 

 our days. ... In this matter I think there 

 is a justice due to Rafinesque. However 

 poor his descriptions, he nevertheless first rec- 

 ognized the necessity of multiplying genera 

 in ichthyology, and that at a time when the 

 thing was far more difficult than now. Sev- 

 eral of his genera have even the priority over 

 those now accepted, and I think in the United 

 States it would be easier than elsewhere to 

 find again a part of the materials on which 

 he worked. We must not neo^lect from this 

 time forth to ask Americans to put us in the 

 way of extending this work throughout North 

 America. If you accept me for your collabo- 

 rator, I will at once do all that I can on my 



