TURTLE EGGS FOR AGASSIZ 31 



of Middleboro'." And then it hastens on with the 

 thanks in order to get to the turtles, as if turtles 

 were the one and only thing of real importance 

 in all the world. 



Turtles no doubt are important, extremely im- 

 portant, embryologically, as part of our genea- 

 logical tree ; but they are away down among the 

 roots of the tree as compared with the late Rev. 

 Zadoc Thompson of Burlington. I happen to 

 know nothing about the Rev. Zadoc, but to me 

 he looks very interesting. Indeed, any reverend 

 gentleman of his name and day who would catch 

 turtles for Agassiz must have been interesting. 

 And as for D. Henry Thoreau, we know he was 

 interesting. The rarest wood-turtle in the United 

 States was not so rare a specimen as this gentle- 

 man of Walden Woods and Concord. We are 

 glad even for this line in the preface about him ; 

 glad to know that he tried, in this untranscen- 

 dental way, to serve his day and generation. If 

 Agassiz had only put a chapter in his turtle book 

 about it ! But this is the material he wasted, this 

 and more of the same human sort ; for the " Mr. 

 J. W. P. Jenks of Middleboro' " (at the end of 

 the quotation) was, some years later, an old col- 



