THE VOYAGE OF THE HASSLER 129 
He got a most characteristic and complete collection 
from the river of great scientific value. Among other 
things there was the egg of some shell (Agassiz thinks 
of a large Voluta). It was about the size of a small 
hen’s egg, quite transparent, the egg itself being about 
the hardness and consistency of isinglass, and con- 
tained a number of young, which Agassiz examined. 
The whole thing was entirely new to him and of great 
interest. Then, there were quantities of beautiful 
shells of various kinds of starfishes (some quite rare) 
and so forth. It is very interesting to see these beau- 
tiful living shells, which we only associate with shells 
in collections, with the animals all expanded and ac- 
tive, walking about. One little shell I saw, a perfect 
little beauty, had its mantle all spread out, and folding 
the sides upward it used them just like wings, flapping 
them with the greatest rapidity and flying through 
the water like an arrow. How little after all we know 
of the life and enjoyments of these creatures which 
we see preserved in Museums. 
The next day, March 1, was simply heavenly — 
like the purest of our September days, without taint 
or blemish, — one of the days when even I can say 
that life at sea under such circumstances is delightful. 
At about two o’clock we had another dredging, now 
in open sea, if you are particular about localities and 
depths, to the northeast of Cape Corrientes in about 
forty-five fathoms. This time we found things that 
made Agassiz ready to jump overboard with joy. If 
he had not thought the dredge would do it better, I 
verily believe he would have gone down himself to 
