300 REMINISCENCES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 
and amenities. A visit to his rooms was a treat only next in importance to the Old Curiosity 
Shop of Mr. Warren. Mr, True was a carver in wood, and his shop stood over a mill-dam, 
whose fresh and salt waters gave him media close at hand for investigation, but had spent the 
few minutes daily that he could spare from his work in watching the development and habits 
of some of our native shell-fish, both marine, fresh water, and terrestrial. Meantime he had 
collected from our beaches the many species inhabiting the neighborhood. 
At this time there were few books to be had on the subjects, and those did not treat of 
our local objects. Such men as Mr. True, however, observed for themselves, and what they 
saw was recorded, and known as facts. To the young aspirants these old men, whose 
knowledge was practical, these valuable associates, ‘‘Uncle John”? Warren, with his courtly 
ways and cultured mind, both were delightful companions. Our young friend in an especial 
manner profited by their teachings and advice. Then came Agassiz, in the homely words of 
Cuvier, ‘‘A pearl from the dirt hills of Neuchatel.” Now, a new impetus was given to the 
study of natural objects. The learned scientist found many collectors in our country, but few 
investigators. In the glorious school of Cuvier he had been taught to observe. The mere col- 
lection arranged and labelled was to him hollowness, meaningless ; what to him was the empty 
shell of the periwinkle, or the impaled carcase of a beetle, so there was no story of its life, nor 
approximation of its mysteries in death. We were fortunate in residing near his laboratory 
at Nahant. His frequent presence on the rocky shores and sandy coves and beaches induced 
a sort of talismanic power, that called up many an unfamiliar form from the vasty deep ; 
and, seemingly, all then 
“Did suffer a sea change 
Into something rich and strange.” 
The wild rocky promontory is strongly suggestive of the abode of a Prospero, and an 
Ariel, and the songs of the sea-nymphs, 
Come unto these yellow sands, 
Where the wild waves whyst,” 
are readily conjured up. Surprisingly meagre was our knowledge of the indigenous marine 
invertebrates, but how rapidly did those strange forms come to light at the master’s bidding. 
A permanent establishment at Cambridge, which afterwards grew into the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology, offered a place to work up the collections made on the shores during 
the warmer season, 
Stimpson was now an earnest student with Agassiz, one of the first who entered his labor- 
atory as such. His capacity for the study so impressed the master that he selected him as 
eminently fitted for an investigator, and recommended him, young as he was, as chief nat- 
uralist for the Wilkes United States Expedition Around the World. In a letter written at 
that time Stimpson says, most naively: ‘‘I have just been appointed .... Ishall not be 
able to go out to see you and bid you good-bye as I would like to do, but I will be back soon, 
in three years at least.’ Suggestive of the school-boy yet, he was learned, and eminently 
rapable to enter on the important duties before him. On returning, Stimpson found ample 
occupation in arranging and classifying the results of his collecting in various portions of 
the globe. 
He now visited Grand Menan, and published a valuable work, embracing the invertebrates 
of that region. THis ‘‘ Revision of the Synonomy of Gould’s Invertebrata of Massachusetts” 
contained valuable new matter, by pen and pencil. The invertebrates of our coast were now 
in fair way of being brought to light, and treated with something of the scientific as well as 
popular care that was accorded such forms in Europe. 
An interesting period in the history of our searchings for the invertebrates was when 
dredging had not been practised in deep water ; when the deep sea forms we rescued from the 
“Maw and gnif of the ravined salt sea-shark ;’? when the cod and the haddock, by courtesy 
of the kindly fishermen of Swampscott, yielded each their intestinal contents ; when the huge 
halibut, from the greater depth, responded to the call for pelagic forms; when, too, the 
