THE TROPICAL PACIFIC 373 



War, not many months before, the U.S.S. Charleston, 

 so the story goes, appeared from the unknown world 

 and fired upon this bulwark of defense. The Spanish 

 Governor, mistaking the attack for a salute, sent out a 

 boat to apologize for not returning it, as he was out of 

 powder. 



"The [present] Governor is Captain , of the 



Navy, who is a half -religious crank and keeps issuing 

 proclamations which I fancy are all illegal, as he under- 

 takes to do a lot of things which Congress has most 

 distinctly forbidden in any part of the United States." 



On their arrival in Japan on March 4, 1900, Agassiz 

 and his party were most hospitably entertained by the late 

 Professor Mitsukuri, of the Imperial University of Tokyo, 

 who worked on some of Agassiz's collections. After 

 giving an address at the Japanese Geographical Society, 

 and being the guest of honor at a Japanese dinner at 

 the famous Maple Club in Tokyo, Agassiz sailed for 

 San Francisco, where he arrived early in April. 



He was now approaching sixty-five, and the pace was 

 telling. "I am beginning to realize," he writes, "that I 

 am too old to go on such expeditions as this — it 's too 

 hard for me to have such a long pull — a couple of 

 months' work in the field is all I can carry now, and I 

 ought to have started on these expeditions fully ten 

 years ago when I was younger and stronger and had 

 more go to me than I can possibly expect to have here- 

 after. It 's too late ! " 



This chapter would be incomplete without a short 

 summary of the conclusions that Agassiz reached, after 

 the tremendous labor of examining the almost endless 

 groups of atolls and islands through which the Alba- 

 tross threaded her way. In the Paumotus he was able 



