34 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



ing your first aim, a physician's and 

 surgeon's diploma. I will not for the 

 present hear of anything else." 



But there was one short interval when 

 there seemed a real chance that Agassiz 

 might find the opening he sought. In 

 1829 Humboldt himself was starting for 

 the Ural and the Caspian ; and on one 

 happy evening, when the little white 

 pipes were out at Professor Oken's, 

 Oken promised to recommend the entire 

 Cloverleaf in case Humboldt should be 

 willing to enlarge his company. ' ' "With 

 this/ 7 Braun wrote, u we went home in 

 great glee. It was very late and a 

 bright moonlight night. Agassiz rolled 

 himself in the snow for joy ; and we 

 agreed that, however little hope there 

 might be of our joining the expedition, 

 still the fact that Humboldt would hear 

 of us in this way was worth something, 

 even if it were only that we might be 

 able to say to him one of these days, 

 * We are the fellows whose company you 



