﻿In Memoriam — Louis Agassiz. 



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while paleontology was wedded to the study of living animals." 

 (Packard.) 



In the same year of his arrival, he accepted the Professorship of 

 Zoology and Geology in the newly-formed Lawrence Scientific 

 School at Harvard, which position he held until his death, with the 

 exception of the years 1852-3, when he occupied the Chair of Natural 

 History in the University of South Carolina, lecturing on compara- 

 tive anatomy at the Medical College of Charleston. In the mean- 

 time he made a thorough study of the marine animals of the South 

 Atlantic Coast. 



During the vacation of 1848, he projected a scientific exploration 

 of the shores of Lake Superior, where with twelve of his pupils he 

 passed the summer months. The result of the expedition he pub- 

 lished in the well-known volume, entitled " Lake Superior, " in 

 which he compares its physical character, vegetation, and animals 

 with those of other and similar regions, and fully discusses the evi- 

 dences of glacial action in the United States. 



In addition to his lectures at Harvard, he delivered lectures on 

 scientific subjects in the principal cities of the Union, and explored 

 the country from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains — from the 

 great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. He spent the winter of 1850 

 in the Straits of Florida, studying the growth of coral reefs, observ- 

 ing the phenomena of the Gulf Stream, and investigating the rich 

 and varied fauna of that region. 



For the next few years he devoted himself to the arrangement of 

 the immense amount of material collected during his many journeys 

 and explorations ; enriching the different scientific periodicals, and 

 transactions and proceedings of scientific societies with numerous 

 communications of great value ; and preparing his manuscript and 

 materials for a series of " Contributions to the Natural History of 

 the United States. " This work was planned to comprise ten superb 

 quarto volumes, in reference to which Prof. Felton says: "The 

 subscription list extends to the unexampled number of 2,500 

 names, in all parts of the United States ; a magnificent support of 

 a purely scientific undertaking, executed on a grand and expensive 

 scale ; a tribute to the worth of science, and an appreciation of the 



