146 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



superb. I shall attack them soon I hope." (Cambridge, October 24, 

 1873.) 



The scene, the outlook on life, was suddenly changed. His father, 

 Louis Agassiz, died on the 14th December, 1873. His beloved wife, 

 Anna Russell, who had tenderly nursed and watched at the bed-side 

 of her father-in-law during his last illness, caught cold from exposure 

 on the night of his death, and died from pneumonia within ten days 

 thereafter. 



This was a terrible blow to Alexander Agassiz. The light and 

 brightness of his life had suddenly been extinguished. A cloud fell 

 upon him which nothing on this earth could completely clear away. 

 His mental attitude towards the future is plainly stated in a letter 

 written from Peru in March, 1875 and received on board the " Chal- 

 lenger" when we were voyaging in the Pacific. It evoked the deep 

 sympathy of the "Challenger" naturalists. He says: — "I hear of 

 your whereabouts through the papers occasionally, though lately 

 I have not seen anything concerning your movements, as I have been 

 wandering about in Chili and Peru, out of the way of all newspapers. 

 I could not stand the associations of my house after the terrible ordeal 

 I had to pass through, and for about five months I have been listlessly 

 running from place to place trying to wake up an interest in outside 

 matters. It is all well enough as long as I am on the move, and there 

 is the excitement of constantly seeing new things and new people, 

 but when I am settled down for any length of time, and attempt to 

 do any continuous- work, it is impossible for me to throw off my^ troubles, 

 and life seems unendurable. Yet I cannot deny that I have had a 

 great deal of pleasure on my trip to South America, and under ordinary 

 circumstances it would have been to me a great store of future enjoy- 

 ment. As it is I look upon it as so much time passed, and really 

 dread the moment when I shall reach home, or rather my house, for 

 no place can henceforth be a home to me." 



Even here, however, what I have called the dominant note of his 

 life — the desire to get new knowledge — rings out strongly, for the 

 rest of this distressful letter is taken up with a detailed description of 

 his exploration of Lake Titicaca. He had taken his Museum Assist- 

 ant with him to help in making collections for the Museum at Cam- 

 bridge; he had chartered the only available vessel, had taken water, 

 and air temperatures, had dredged and tow-netted and constructed 

 a bathymetrical chart of this elevated lake, 12,500 feet above sea 

 level — altogether a most interesting description from all points of 

 view. 



