21 



the upper side. Now when I showed all these forms to Professor 

 Agassiz (who was previously unacquainted with them) and referred 

 to the distinctions in their colors and patterns of marking, he at 

 once asked me where I had found each kind. Upon being told 

 that they were taken from the salt-marshes and adjoining beach, he 

 immediately remarked that they represented different areas of dis- 

 tribution, and that each variety of color would be found to corres- 

 pond with the color of the soil. I need hardly say that this latter 

 fact had already been established before the specimens were shown 

 to him. 



Such little incidents of slight importance in themselves, will suf- 

 fice to show the quick insight of the master naturalist, and the ripe 

 experience which he brought to the solution of new problems of 

 natural history. 



To me, Professor Agassiz was always a kind, instructive master, 

 delighting to communicate his impressions with regard to any 

 question that was selected for study, and ever ready with a word 

 of encouragement when the problem seemed too obscure and diffi- 

 cult to solve. His fertility in devices for securing a hypothesis by 

 which to test facts was to me a frequent surprise ; and a desire to 

 reach truthful results in every pursuit of knowledge, was persist- 

 ently present in his methods. With all his great craving for the 

 best and most of everything that contributed to a knowledge of 

 natural laws, he was ever ready to help with counsel and personal 

 influence, and sometimes entangled himself in embarrassing en- 

 gagements to aid in carrying out some broadly conceived plan of 

 investigation. But on the other hand he hated dishonesty of word 

 or action, and while he was keenly sensitive to indifference or neg- 

 lect of duty, he punished peculation by the prompt dismissal of 

 the peculator. 



Three years of study and labor, frequently beneath the eye of 

 this great instructor, taught me the grandeur and loftiness, as well 

 as the fine texture of his manly nature. The friendship which he 

 felt for those who were earnestly committed to the development 

 of his life's object — a museum which should display to the eye the 

 order of creation and reveal the thoughts of the Creator as therein 

 expressed — was deep and lasting. 



