94 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



gations where you get long Memoirs about animals 

 which have never been seen living or in state of nature 

 by the author. 



In writing to Professor von Siebold, his old teacher 

 of natural history in Freiburg, Agassiz says of the wind- 

 fall to the Museum : — 



" The whole of this is to be spent in three years, so 

 that with our present means we shall be enabled to do 

 a great deal towards arranging our large accumulated 

 material. Our energies will be particularly concentrated 

 on our Fish collection which, since the Brazilian acces- 

 sion, must now be the largest in existence, to judge at 

 least from Giinther's catalogues. I should say we had 

 at least twice as many species on the average as the 

 British Museum. We are increasing fast and, as far as 

 Radiates and Mollusca are concerned, we must not be 

 far behind any one. Our great deficiencies are in Birds 

 and Mammals, which are things however more easily ob- 

 tained than the rest." 



While at Calumet, Agassiz's attention had been called 

 to the habits of the beaver, and even in the midst of 

 his arduous work there he managed to find time to study 

 these interesting animals. But just as he was preparing 

 an article on the subject he found himself forestalled. 



TO LEWIS H. MORGAN 



Cambridge, Dec. 14, 1868. 



Having been a resident nearly two years of Calumet, 

 on Keweenaw Peninsula, Lake Superior, I have had from 

 the explorations I was making repeated opportunities to 



