Obituary—Alexander Agassiz. 239 
remembered was that which, during nearly forty years, he carried 
on at his own expense in connexion with oceanography. The United 
States Government, with the greatest liberality and consideration for 
the interests of science, allowed him from time to time the use of 
their surveying vessels, the Captains of which were instructed to 
place themselves virtually under the orders of Agassiz himself. The 
naturalist, aided by a staff selected and paid by himself, carried on 
soundings and dredgings in every part of the globe, special attention 
being devoted to the study of coral reefs. Beginning in 1877 with 
the study of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic 
coast of America, Agassiz continued his work in 1880 by investigating 
the surface fauna of the Gulf Stream. Besides working out the 
details derived from the study of collections made during these 
voyages, the results of which were published in connexion with the 
Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, Agassiz wrote a well- 
illustrated account of his work, The Three Voyages of the ‘‘ Blake”’, in 
two volumes. 
In 1891 Agassiz transferred his attention to the western shores of 
the United States and Central America, investigating the seas around 
the Sandwich Islands, and paying special attention to the coral reefs 
there, between 1892 and 1894. His explorations were extended 
during 1895-6 to the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and in 1897-8 
to the Fiji Islands. In 1899 and 1900 he was able to undertake 
a cruise among the various groups of coral islands lying between San 
Francisco and Japan. In 1901-2 Agassiz commenced his study of 
the Indian Ocean, paying especial attention to the Maldive Islands 
and their surroundings; and, in order to complete the examination 
of portions of the Pacific that he had not already visited, he devoted 
the years 1904—5 to a cruise among the important island-groups of the 
eastern half of the Pacific Ocean. 
The intervals between his several voyages were occupied by Agassiz 
in the study of his enormous collections and the preparation of 
memoirs dealing with the results obtained. These were issued, 
regardless of expense as to their illustration, in the publications of 
the Boston Society’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. No fewer 
than thirty volumes of memoirs and fifty-three volumes of bulletins 
are devoted to the results obtained from the study of these collections 
by Agassiz and the various specialists who assisted him. His own 
favourite place of work was Paris, where rooms were always allotted 
to him in the Museum of Natural History, and he had the fullest 
access to scientific libraries. 
Of the value and importance of the results of these voyages it is 
impossible to speak too highly. Perhaps the most striking of the 
conclusions arrived at by him are those relating to great movements 
which have taken place in the bed of the Pacific in comparatively 
recent geological times. This is evidenced by the numerous upraised 
coral reefs which, following Dana, he described; in many of these the 
limestone rock, now at elevations of 1000 feet and upwards, has been ° 
more or less completely converted into dolomite. 
It is not necessary, in face of the above statement of facts, to add 
that Agassiz was a man of indomitable energy. He thought as little 
