LOUIS AGASSIZ 47 



ever delightful, was not all lie sought, 

 and investigations cost money in the 

 making and in the publishing too. 

 The Brazilian Fishes had introduced him 

 to a scientific publisher who might pos- 

 sibly be induced to purchase works 

 which were properly laid before him. 

 Agassiz's specialty was chosen he was 

 deeply interested in ichthyology and 

 for some years it had been his purpose 

 to write a work upon Fresh-water 

 Fishes. To this plan he had added a 

 still larger and more ambitious project. 

 This was the publication of a Natural 

 History of Fossil Fishes. Palaeontology 

 was then so new a science that the sys- 

 tematic treatment of extinct forms along 

 with living species had hardly begun. 

 The fossil specimens were scattered 

 through the museums of Europe, and 

 great expense would be necessary in trav- 

 elling and collating material. A more 

 sober judgment would have shrunk from 

 attempting the task; and the world may 



