214 L. Agassiz on 
Oppressed, however, by gloomy presentiments, on the 
evening of the 1st of May he left his modest mansion in the 
Museum, saying that he would very soon return; he only 
wished, he said, to breathe his native air, and look again 
upon the spring and sunshine lightening the beautiful plains 
of Normandy. 
This wish was not accomplished. Scarcely had he taken 
his place in the waggon that was to convey him, when he was 
suddenly seized with illness, and this great man was no more. 
The authority which watches over the humblest citizens could 
alone guard his last moments, and restore to his friends and 
colleagues the mortal remains of a man so worthy of 
respect, and by whom the nothingness of life had never been 
forgotten. 
Extraordinary Fishes from California, constituting a new 
Family, Described by L. AGAssiZ, Professor of Zoology 
and Geology in the Lawrence Scientific School at Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts. 
About fifteen months ago, I received a letter from A. C. 
Jackson, Esq., soon after his return from San Francisco, 
California, informing me that while fishing in San Salita Bay, 
he had caught with a hook and line, a fish of the perch family, 
containing living young. The statement seemed so extra- 
ordinary, that though an outline of the specimen observed 
was enclosed, I suspected some mistake, and requested Mr 
Jacksou to furnish me further information upon what he had 
actually seen, and if possible specimens of the fish preserved 
in alcohol. To this inquiry, I received the following an- 
swer :— 
“T regret much that the information which I sent you avails 
so little, without the actual specimens of the fish and young ; 
these, however, I have already taken active measures to obtain, 
and trust before many months to be able to send you at least 
specimens of the female, if not of the young. I should at the 
time I caught the fish have preserved them in alcohol, but at 
that time I was attached to the Navy Yard Commission, and 
