50 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



One evening at M. Cuvier's house the 

 only house where Agassiz dared go 

 without the evening dress which he 

 could not afford to own the old man 

 sent his secretary for the portfolio con- 

 taining all his notes and drawings of 

 fossil fish, and gave it unreservedly to 

 the student whom he had already made 

 free of his private library and working- 

 room. 



The stay in Paris came to an end when 

 a chair of natural history was offered 

 Agassiz at Neuchatel. The salary guar- 

 anteed him was about four hundred dol- 

 lars ; but he had strong reason to hope 

 that his collections would be purchased 

 for the city. These collections had 

 reached a very considerable money value, 

 and were extremely awkward possessions 

 for a private person and a private house, 

 so that this advantage would more than 

 compensate him for a salary very small 

 even on Agassiz 7 s modest computation, 

 and perfectly absurd according to our 

 ideas to-day. 



