School Days. 



ties which would have daunted many an older man, 

 entered upon the life of his choice. 



Agassiz was about fifteen years of age when he 

 entered the college of Lausanne. Here he devoted 

 himself more and more to the sciences, in which he 

 was aided and encouraged by scientific men, among 

 whom was Professor Chavannes, Director of the 

 Cantonal Museum, who was the possessor of a collec- 

 tion that delighted the young student and who gave 

 him privileges he had never dreamed of. All the 

 time he could spare from his studies was spent in the 

 woods and fields searching for favourite specimens, or 

 studying their habits. Insects were obtained from 

 the bark of trees and old refuse ; every stream and 

 pond was made to deliver up its finny treasures, 

 which were bred and studied, while the transforma- 

 tions of his cocoons into butterflies, was a constant 

 delight. At home, during his vacations, the house 

 was turned into a veritable museum, while his rooms 

 at college were laden with the results of forages in 

 field and stream. What I know of the habits of the 

 fresh-water fishes of Central Europe,'* he says, ^^I 

 mosJ;ly learned at that time.'* 



It was while at Lausanne, in 1823, that Agassiz 

 listened to his first course of lectures on zoology, 

 which he describes, with just a suspicion of sarcasm, 

 as consisting chiefly of extracts from Lamarck and 

 Cuvier. Brief and unsatisfactory as may have been 

 these lectures, they resulted in imparting a new 

 zest to his studies and in pointing out the false stand- 

 ard he had raised. He now found that to name an 

 animal correctly was a very unimportant matter, and 



