206 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



winters. This winter I am obliged to remain at home 

 owing to the serious illness of my brother-in-law, which 

 has thrown all his business on my hands. I am making 

 excellent progress here with the Museum, and next fall 

 I hope we shall be installed in our new laboratories, and 

 that hereafter I may be able to devote some of my time 

 and energy to the laboratory part of the establishment, 

 which has suffered considerably from want of proper ac- 

 commodations ; but now we shall soon catch up and with 

 the assistance of my colleagues here I hope we may 

 build up a satisfactory and effective biological school 

 here. 



I am always dreaming of going off dredging and 

 sounding in the Pacific; my mouth waters at all the 

 problems there are to be solved, but whether I shall ever 

 get off is another question. It is practically impossible 

 to get the Government to do anything, and we must de- 

 pend on private means to fit up a large steamer, for the 

 work I wish to do requires a good deal of money. Still 

 I hope I may accomplish it before I get too old to 

 enjoy it. 



TO HUXLEY 



Cambridge, Mass., April 23, 1883. 



My dear Huxley : — 



It becomes my pleasant duty to inform you that at 

 the last meeting of the National Academy of Sciences 

 held at Washington you were elected a Foreign Asso- 

 ciate. The proper diploma will be forwarded to you in 

 due time, and I hope you will not object to your Asso- 

 ciates who move in the first colored scientific circles on 

 the other side. This notice is not perhaps as formal as 

 it should be, but I trust the stiffness of the parchment 



