438 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



in two years, where he proposes to put on exhibition 

 everything pertaining to marine life, etc., and to have 

 laboratories for studying the ocean in all its aspects. 

 We then went on board his yacht, the Princesse Alice, a 

 boat of somewhat larger size than the Albatross, about 

 two hundred tons more. She is a splendid boat and 

 admirably equipped for all the kind of work I have been 

 doing. Her only defect is she is not a twin screw and 

 that too much space has been taken for the Prince's 

 quarters and servants, at the cost of coal space and labo- 

 ratory quarters. But she is just the kind of vessel I 

 ought to have built in '79 when I came back from my 

 second Blake Expedition. I think it would have paid 

 me to have been absolutely independent for twenty-five 

 years and not to have been obliged to use the Albatross, 

 though I had her on admirable terms, and to charter 

 tramps and keep transferring my equipment from one 

 boat to another. However, I 've done my share of work 

 of that kind and somebody can go ahead now. The 

 Prince had arranged to make a short cruise with me to 

 Marseilles and let me see the working of the ship ; unfor- 

 tunately he had to give it up, as part of his necessary 

 equipment had not got on board and was side-tracked 

 somewhere on the way. 



Feeling that he would like to visit the West Indies 

 again, Agassiz chartered the steam yacht Virginia for 

 the winter of 1907. After his study of coral reefs in the 

 Indian Ocean and the Pacific, he wished to see some- 

 thing more of this region and to check some of the geo- 

 logical work that had been done for him there. Two of 

 his sons, a daughter-in-law, and the wife of one of his 

 assistants were included in the party, so that the expedi- 



