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appointment after my father's death as Keeper of the Museum, 

 he has not only taken charge of his own department, but on him 

 has devolved, during my frequent and prolonged absences, the 

 management of the Museum and the execution of plans requiring 

 for their success entire sympathy with the spirit in which they 

 were conceived. I can never replace the friend who has thus, for 

 nearly ten years, been my other self in the administration of the 

 Museum, and the Institution would indeed be fortunate should it 

 find in his successor the learning, the modesty, the industry, or 

 the executive ability which, combined with his rare scientific 

 attainments, made him invaluable in his post at Cambridge. 



This is not the place to enter into any details regarding his 

 scientific career. I may, however, recall the great influence his 

 investigations have had upon Marine Zoology. Following Bailey 

 in his microscopic investigations upon the nature of the sea- 

 bottom on the East Coast of the United States, he extended like 

 researches little by little, until under the enlightened support of 

 the then Superintendent of the Coast Survey, Professor Bache, 

 he became through his extensive dredging operations in the deep 

 waters of the Straits of Florida (1866, 1867, 1868) the pioneer 

 of deep-sea zoological explorations in America. His publications 

 on this subject are to be found mainly in the Reports of the 

 United States Coast Survey, in Silliman's Journal and in the 

 Memoirs and Bulletins of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 

 The former were published while he was still an assistant in the 

 Coast Survey. His later publications, under the auspices of the 

 Museum, were chiefly devoted to the deep-sea corals, crinoids and 

 polyps of the " Bibb," " Hassler " and " Blake " expeditions 

 after he became attached to the Museum. They bear witness not 

 only to the range of his learning but to the breadth of view 

 which he brought to all his investigations. 



ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. 



Cambridge, September 1, 1880. 



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