CALEB COOKE MEMORIAL TABLET. 15 



until his decease, taking a deep interest in its objects and 

 in the natural sciences, and for more than twenty-one 

 years of this period held some official position, or a place 

 on some important committee. 



Caleb Cooke was the son of William and Mary (Fogg) 

 Cooke, and was born in Salem Feb. 5, 1836. His father 

 was a mariner and for several years was an officer on 

 board of vessels engaged in the West African trade and 

 died in California when the son was in his boyhood. He 

 was educated in our public schools, and commenced active 

 life as a clerk in the bookstore of Henry Whipple & Son, 

 continuing in this position only for a short time when he 

 left. After spending about one year with George F. 

 Read in the study of the languages, especially the Latin, 

 he devoted himself principally to the pursuit of natural 

 history, which had long been his inclination. 



To this end he went to Cambridge and pursued his 

 studies under Prof. L. Agassiz, the great teacher, who 

 during his residence in this country had done so much to 

 stimulate the study of nature and a spirit of scientific 

 investigation, commenced the formation of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, and gathered a class of pupils, 

 many of whom have contributed much to advance his plans 

 and have become distinguished. They hold or have held 

 many prominent positions, professorships in our various 

 seats of learning, the charge of museums, conducting scien- 

 tific explorations, or preparing communications to the 

 publications of learned societies or the journals of the day, 

 or separate treatises on their respective specialties. Such 

 were his associates during his connection with Agassiz. 



In 1859, at the request of Professor Agassiz, he went 

 to Para, Brazil, to collect specimens for the Museum, and 

 in 1860 he went to Zanzibar on a like mission, sailing 



7 O 



from Salem in the bark Persia on the fifth of November of 



