LOUIS AGASSIZ. 337 



United States, and responses came from every 

 direction. New England captains, when they 

 started on a cruise, took out cans, furnished by 

 Agassiz, for collections in distant ports. Fisher- 

 men and farmers, indeed all classes, heartily joined 

 in cooperating with the man who had said in the 

 University at Munich, " I will be a leader of others," 

 and he had reached the mark which he set for him- 

 self. In 1854 he was urged to accept a professor- 

 ship in the recently established University of Zu- 

 rich, Switzerland ; but he declined, for he had one 

 definite aim in America, to found a great museum, 

 where the best methods of study could be adopted. 

 He said in his " Fossil Fishes " : " Possessing no 

 fossil fishes myself, and renouncing forever the 

 acquisition of collections so precious, I have been 

 forced to seek the materials for my work in all the 

 collections of Europe containing such remains ; I 

 have, therefore, made frequent journeys in Ger- 

 many, in France, and in England, in order to exam- 

 ine, describe, and illustrate the objects of my 

 researches ; but, notwithstanding the cordiality with 

 which even the most precious specimens have been 

 placed at my disposition, a serious inconvenience 

 has resulted from this mode of working, namely, 

 that I have rarely been able to compare directly 

 the various specimens of the same species from dif- 

 ferent collections, and that I have often been 

 obliged to make my identification from memory, 

 or from simple notes, or, in the more fortunate 

 cases, from my drawings only. It is impossible to 



22 



