XIV. 



IN 1871 the Coast Survey proposed to 

 send a vessel round the Horn to Califor- 

 nia, for the purpose of deep sea dredging ; 

 and Professor Peirce, then the head of the 

 Survey, wrote to ask whether Agassiz's 

 health would allow him to go in her. 

 The iron constitution that had served so 

 well was breaking at last, strained past 

 all elasticity by a lifetime of persistent 

 overwork. We have not chronicled the 

 recurring illnesses that culminated in 

 1869, when there came a sharp and un- 

 mistakable attack that for a short time 

 affected both speech and motion. Agas- 

 siz in discouragement and depression 

 Agassiz hopeless and rebellious this 

 sounds impossible ; and to him it was in- 

 deed the impossible that had happened 

 when his brain no longer obeyed his will. 

 Longfellow's journal tells of attempts to 

 comfort Agassiz, who could only repeat, 

 "But I cannot work ! " and then cover 



