FIRST YEARS IN AMERICA 25 



school many of the girls appeared wearing black ribbons 

 on their arms, and for once, as he walked to his desk, 

 the young master gave them a smile. 



He always disliked teaching, and as by 1859 the 

 school was firmly established, he began to look about 

 for some other means of earning a livelihood. Warned 

 by his father's example of the dangers that beset the 

 path of a scientific enthusiast of slender means, Agassiz 

 had at this time no intention of embracing the career 

 of a naturalist. For he had fallen in love with one of his 

 pupils, and was anxious to place himself in a position to 

 be able to marry. 



Naturally turning to the profession of engineer, for 

 which he had fitted himself, he obtained the position of 

 aid on the Coast Survey, through his father's friendship 

 for Professor Bache, then its superintendent. At once 

 he left for San Francisco to report to Mr. Lawton on 

 board the Fauntleroy, destined to spend the summer in 

 the Gulf of Georgia and survey the boundary between 

 the United States and British Columbia. After his de- 

 parture it was noticed that the young lady, who later 

 became his wife, adopted a very frugal method of life, 

 as if fitting herself to be the companion of a poor man. 



He reached Colon on one of the wretched and dirty 

 little steamers of the Vanderbilt line, and crossed the 

 Isthmus of Panama, a region that later became familiar 

 through frequent visits, where he got his first view of 

 the splendor of a tropical forest, — an impression that 

 he never forgot. 



While waiting in San Francisco for the Fauntleroy, 

 he went up on a coast steamer to Crescent City to sur- 

 vey the bay. Here the Fauntleroy picked up the party 

 and they had a wretched passage to the Straits of Fucca. 



