THE TROPICAL PACIFIC 347 



Kimberley he was most interested in the ingenious skip 

 and bin for rapid hoisting, devised by Mr. Williams, in 

 charge of the great diamond mine there. This process 

 was afterwards successfully applied in several of the 

 copper mines in northern Michigan ; and Agassiz's let- 

 ter files show that suggestions of his own have since 

 been used with success in the African mines. 



Owing to the community of ownership of most of 

 the mines, nothing is projected or carried out without 

 being discussed fully by all the managers; a custom 

 resulting in a unity of action which Agassiz found a 

 great contrast to the constant haggling among the 

 superintendents of some of the small Lake Superior 

 mines. At one of these meetings he was amused to find 

 that the managers were discussing the possibility of 

 mining and hoisting from a greater depth than three 

 thousand feet vertical. At last, when he was asked for 

 his opinion on the subject, he told them, much to their 

 amazement, that at Calumet they had already reached 

 a depth of five thousand feet vertical ! 



In walking about underground Agassiz unluckily 

 wrenched his knee and brought on a trouble which, 

 from time to time, greatly bothered him for the rest of 

 his life. It is believed that he thought these attacks 

 were gout. They were, however, due to his defective 

 circulation, which showed itself in this weak spot when- 

 ever he got out of condition, and set up a dangerous 

 and painful swelling that greatly alarmed his family. 



Ever since his return from the Fijis, Agassiz had 

 been planning for an extended voyage through the is- 

 lands of the South Seas, to include practically all the 

 coral reef regions of the Pacific which he had not yet vis- 

 ited. On his return from South Africa he found that the 



