10 LOUIS AGASS1Z 



to the driver of a country stage- coach 

 among the mountains or to some work- 

 man splitting rock at the roadside with 

 as much earnestness as if he had been 

 discussing problems with a brother ge- 

 ologist. He would take the common 

 fisherman into his scientific confidence, 

 telling him the intimate secrets of fish 

 structure or fish embryology till the man 

 in his turn grew enthusiastic, and began 

 to pour out information from the stores 

 of his own rough and untaught observa- 

 tion. 



So it was, too, in Agassiz's youth. He 

 not only made friends everywhere, but 

 he made them on an intellectual basis 

 which would have pleased Emerson 

 himself 5 and then he poured out a 

 hearty affection and emotional wealth 

 that transformed the relation. Ear- 

 liest and strongest of his friendships, and 

 most important for his after-life, was 

 that with Alexander Braun, whose par- 

 ents' house at Carlsruhe soon was to 



