100 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



inflict on my conceit. To my question as to how the nonde- 

 script should be classified he said: "My boy, there are now 

 two of us who know that/' 



This incident of the fish made an end of my novitiate. After 

 that, with a suddenness of transition which puzzled me, Agassiz 

 became very communicative; we passed indeed into the rela- 

 tion of friends of like age and purpose, and he actually con- 

 sulted me as to what I should like to take up as a field of study. 

 Finding that I wished to devote myself to geology, he set me 

 to work on the Brachiopoda as the best group of fossils to serve 

 as data in determining the Paleozoic horizons. So far as his 

 rather limited knowledge of the matter went, he guided me in 

 the field about Cambridge, in my reading, and to acquaintances 

 of his who were concerned with earth structures. I came thus 

 to know Charles T. Jackson, Jules Marcou, and, later, the bro- 

 thers Rogers, Henry and James. At the same time I kept up 

 the study of zoology, undertaking to make myself acquainted 

 with living organic forms as a basis for a knowledge of fossils. 



Just after I entered with Agassiz, the construction of his 

 museum was begun with the small part of the now great edi- 

 fice which constitutes the end of the northern wing. There 

 were four rooms on the ground floor, each with galleries, and a 

 like number, similarly galleried, on the second floor. Early in 

 1860 the building was ready for use. Then came the work of 

 transportation of the collections stored in the laboratory and 

 elsewhere to their new domicile, and the effort to arrange them 

 in some kind of order, so as to give to the public the semblance 

 of a museum ; for from a generous public came the money and 

 placation was necessary. Into this work the students were in a 

 way impressed; so for a year I was with others occupied in 

 sorting and arranging a jumble of materials, odds and ends from 

 all over the earth. In the old storage place there was no chance 

 to exhibit any of the show specimens. So far as I can remem- 

 ber, the only thing that people came to see was a large glass 

 jar containing several heads of Chinamen, which some one had 



