NATIONAL ACADEMY BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS VOL. VII 



studying the geology and the flora and fauna along the Niagara River. 

 I recall the interest he would take in any geological specimens that we 

 would find underneath the high bank of the Niagara River. He would 

 give us his opinion promptly as to the geological age to which the speci- 

 men belonged, etc. His work at De Veaux College was most satisfac- 

 tory; he was an excellent and interesting teacher and, as 1 have inti- 

 mated, devotedly attached to scientific investigation. • 



He remained at De Veaux College for two years, and then 

 entered upon the professional course of training in zoology for 

 which he had been planning and preparing. At Harvard, 

 Louis Agassiz was at the climax of his wonderful career, and 

 many young men, who afterward became leaders in biology, 

 went there to study under this great master. In particular in 

 the summer of 1873 the establishment of Agassiz's new sea- 

 side laboratory on the island of Penikese, in Buzzards Bay, 

 attracted wide attention. This new departure, the first of the 

 summer schools, was projected by Agassiz in the preceding 

 winter; the island and a fund for the establishment of the 

 school were given by Mr. John Anderson, of New York, in 

 March, and the large buildings were hastily constructed, and 

 were scarcely ready for occupancy when the school opened 

 early in July. Between fifty and sixty teachers and investiga- 

 tors were present, and among these was Brooks. From that 

 time until his death he remained a student of marine life. The 

 sea, with its teeming multitudes of living things, always had 

 a particular charm for him, not merely because of the interest 

 and variety of its forms of life, but also because it was prob- 

 ably the scene of the earliest acts in the drama of evolution. 



From this time forward throughout almost his whole life he 

 spent a part, at least, of every summer at the shore. In 1874 

 he was again at Penikese at the last session of that famous 

 but short-lived laboratory. In 1875 he was with Alexander 

 Agassiz at his private laboratory in Newport, Rhode Island, 

 working on the embryology of Salpa, and tutoring one of 

 Mr. Agassiz's sons. In 1878 began the sessions of the Chesa- 

 peake Zoological Laboratory, which he founded and directed 

 for many years. In the summers of 1888 and 1889 he was at 

 the U. S. Fish Commission Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massa- 

 chusetts, and in later years he was frequently at the Commis- 



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