LOUIS AGASSIZ. 307 



ter was saving to the uttermost to pay for board 

 and decent clothes for his sons, to say nothing of 

 books. Therefore the use of Schinz's library was a 

 great favor. 



Said Agassiz in after years, "My inability to 

 buy books was, perhaps, not so great a misfortune 

 as it seemed to me ; at least, it saved me from too 

 great dependence on written authority. I spent 

 all rny time in dissecting animals and in studying 

 human anatomy, not forgetting my favorite amuse- 

 ments of fishing and collecting. I was always sur- 

 rounded with pets, and had at this time some 

 forty birds flying about my study, with no other 

 home than a large pine-tree in the corner. I still 

 remember my grief when a visitor, entering sud- 

 denly, caught one of my little favorites between the 

 floor and the door, and he was killed before I could 

 extricate him. Professor Schinz's private collection 

 of birds was my daily resort, and I then described 

 every bird it contained, as I could not afford to buy 

 even a text-book of ornithology. 



" I also copied with my own hand, having no 

 means of purchasing the work, two volumes of 

 Lamarck's ' Animaux sans Vertebres,' and my dear 

 brother copied another half-volume for me. I 

 finally learned that the study of the things them- 

 selves was far more attractive than the books I so 

 much coveted, and when, at last, large libraries 

 became accessible to me, I usually contented my- 

 self with turning over the leaves of the volumes 

 on natural history, looking at the illustrations, and 



