38 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



slowly issuing from the press. Martins 

 liad the general charge of the botanical 

 and Spix of the zoological departments ; 

 but Spix's death in 1826 left unfinished 

 three zoological volumes, which were to 

 deal with shells, insects, and fishes re- 

 spectively. Martius, his surviving col- 

 league, who as professor had seen much 

 of the Cloverleaf, thought Louis Agassiz 

 quite competent to act as editor of the 

 volume on fishes, and offered him. the 

 work. It was such a chance as seldom 

 comes to a boy of twenty-one 5 but it 

 was a chance fairly earned by thorough 

 and eager labour, and opportunities are 

 among the things geniuses find and col- 

 lect. 



Besides Agassiz' s delight in the thing 

 itself, he had another reason for grati- 

 tude. Such public recognition and such 

 a tangible result of his studies could not 

 but affect his parents in Switzerland, 

 whose attitude toward a purely scientific 

 career was still sceptical. They seem to 



