232 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



He spent the winter of 1888-89 in northern Africa, 

 accompanied by his second son Maximilian, who, having 

 just left Harvard, went with his father on most of his 

 later wanderings. The two made ideal travelling com- 

 panions, the calm placidity of the son acting as an ex- 

 cellent foil to the occasional nervous impetuosity of the 

 father. 



Agassiz's letters of this winter cover what is now 

 such well-worn ground that, except for a few extracts, 

 they would be out of place here ; writing from Constan- 

 tine, he says : " The scenery so far, from Tunis to Con- 

 stantine, is pretty, but tame and not worth seeing to 

 one who has travelled as much as I have ; were I alone 

 I should give up the whole thing at once and go home, 

 — it 's not worth the journey. But Max enjoys it im- 

 mensely and he is first-rate company travelling, always 

 cheerful and pleased and satisfied." 



The following may be interesting as showing a scien- 

 tific man's impression of the desert : — 



Biskra, Feb. 7, 1889. 

 "My visit to this place has been most satisfactory and 

 I think I have found out what has been the former con- 

 ditions of the desert, much to my satisfaction at least. 

 I never liked greatly the various explanations which 

 had been given of the formation of the desert, and I 

 think I have seen the whole thing and can explain most 

 naturally what now exists on the Sahara from what I 

 saw along the line of the railroad, on the high plateaus, 

 the Hondas, as they are called, on the way to Biskra. 

 I drove this day about twenty miles into the desert to 

 an oasis called Sidi Ocka, and on the way there got all 

 the evidence I wanted that my explanation was at least 



