204 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



for carriages in an office, the rear of which is a shrine 

 for the Virgin Mary, with a magnificent wax doll and 

 burning candles, before which some of the faithful are 

 going through their ordeal." 



Writing to Mrs. Agassiz a few days later he says : — 



" I am gaining little by little and am able to do a good 

 deal more than when I came to Mexico ; still I get very 

 easily tired, and a stage journey finishing with a horse- 

 back journey is out of the question. It 's intensely stupid 

 here in the hotel ; were I on the seashore I could do 

 something, but here in the midst of a great city I am at 

 a loss for occupation. I only dare to make very short 

 excursions in horse-cars to surrounding country." 



He returned to Cambridge late in February, for the 

 state of his health prevented not only his trip with King, 

 but also any further travelling. 



TO SIR JOHN MURRAY 



Cambridge, March 10, 1882. 



I was thunderstruck this morning to see the notice of 

 Thomson's death in the papers. I had no idea he was 

 so near his end from anything you said or I had heard, 

 though from your last letter I greatly feared he never 

 would be able to finish his Challenger narrative. It is a 

 great loss to science, and it will be next to impossible 

 for anybody to write that narrative. His experience and 

 all he had thought and written on the subject cannot 

 be found combined in any one man, and it will be long 

 before we have one who knows so much and says what 

 he knows in such a charming way. I shall feel his loss 



