LOUIS AGASSIZ 87 



tells of his wife's calling in terror 

 from her dressing-room, " There's a 

 snake in my shoe!" and of Agassiz' s 

 prompt answer, horrified in his turn, 

 "One snake ! but where zen are ze other 

 six?" 



For several years there is mention, 

 growing less and less frequent, of his 

 expected return to Europe. Perhaps it 

 would have been hard for Agassiz him- 

 self to say just when he recognised that 

 he had given up returning, and had cast 

 in his lot, for better, for worse, with the 

 United States. One biographer evidently 

 thinks the determination was made at 

 first sight of Niagara Falls. In 1848 

 the wave of revolution which broke 

 against half the thrones of Europe swept 

 Neuch&tel away from Prussia, and 

 Agassiz was honourably discharged from 

 the royal service. Almost at the same 

 time the Lawrence Scientific School was 

 founded in Harvard University, and the 

 chair of zoology and geology was ac- 



