LOUIS AGASSIZ 19 



History of the Mind to the Reasons why 

 Comets have Tails. As various were 

 the specimens which adorned the room. 

 When a child, Agassiz must have bid 

 fair to choke up the little parsonage 

 with his collection of caterpillars and 

 cocoons ; and, in writing of his life in 

 Zurich, he makes passing mention of 

 "some forty birds flying about my study, 

 with no other home than a large pine- 

 tree in the corner. 7 ' At Munich it was 

 certainly the same. Braun speaks of 

 Agassiz 7 s little closet, "not for the use 

 of men, but devoted to such Lenten fare 

 as fish, otters, beavers, and birds. 77 

 "When I knock on the wall against 

 which stands the bed, then Agassiz 

 comes over : there is only a thin parti- 

 tion between us. He has a living-room 

 of irregular shape with a little bedroom 

 and an entry where his fishes are lodged. 

 While I am writing here, he sits on tie 

 other side attending to his fish, of which 

 he has already bought several hundred, 



