HOW AGASSIZ TAUGHT 



It seemed hard to be denied the chance to make 

 my parade; but I afterward saw what this 

 meant — that he did not intend to let me begin 

 my tasks by posing as a naturalist. The be- 

 ginning was indeed quite different, and, as will 

 be seen, in a manner that quickly evaporated 

 my conceit. It was made and continued in a 

 way I will now recount. 

 . Agassiz's laboratory was then in a rather 

 small two-storied building, looking much like a 

 square dwelling-house, which stood where the 

 College Gymnasium now stands. . . . Agassiz 

 had recently moved into it from a shed on the 

 marsh near Brighton bridge, the original 

 tenants, the engineers, having come to riches 

 in the shape of the brick structure now known 

 as the Lawrence Building. In this primitive 

 establishment Agassiz's laboratory, as dis- 

 tinguished from the storerooms where the col- 

 lections were crammed, occupied one room 

 about thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide — 

 what is now the west room on the lower floor 

 of the edifice. In this place, already packed, 

 I had assigned to me a small pine table with a 



rusty tin pan upon it 



[21] 



