CHAPTER XVIII 



LATER YEARS 



In later years Agassiz spent but little time at Cam- 

 bridge, for in the winter when not on an exploring 

 expedition he took his work with him to Europe, which 

 he always felt offered a much more congenial atmo- 

 sphere for a man of science, or he made a journey to 

 some milder climate. In spring and fall he paid his 

 regular visits of inspection to Calumet, while his sum- 

 mers were passed on his place at " Castle Hill." As the 

 years went by, he spent more and more of his time at 

 Newport. The climate agreed with him, he was devotedly 

 attached to his place, and seemed to get a contentment 

 and peace there that he did not find elsewhere. As the 

 span of his life drew toward its close, he lived there 

 somewhat less strenuously, and delighted, with the free- 

 masonry that exists between the young and the old, in 

 the companionship of his two little grand-daughters who 

 paid him long visits. 



His mornings were spent in attending to any business 

 matter that might turn up, and in working on the reports 

 of his expeditions. In the latter part of his life he rarely 

 worked much in the afternoon when at Newport. Until 

 the trouble with his knee prevented it, he usually went 

 out on horseback ; when he was obliged to give up this 

 exercise, he took to golfing on a little course that he had 

 set out on the place. He often spent an hour or two prun- 

 ing his trees, in which he took much interest, for he had 

 transformed the bare little peninsula into a miniature 



