LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE BOY AGASSIZ. 



Birthplace of Agassiz — Boyhood Pastimes — Early Love for Nature — 

 Collections — First Collection of Fishes — The Aquarium — Manly 

 Traits — Inventive and Imitative Faculties — Descendant of a Line 

 of Clergymen — An Ancient Family— Influence of His Mother. 



AN Louis Rudolphe 

 Agassiz was born May 

 28, 1807, in the little vil- 

 lage of Motier by the 

 borders of Lake Morat — 

 a placid sheet of water 

 nestled among the foot- 

 hills of the Bermese Alps. 

 The locality of his birth 

 was one of sharp con- 

 trast: the lake clear and 

 unruffled, the rich green 

 slopes of the hills, the 

 vineyards with their grape-laden vines, gardens of 

 flowers, valleys deep in varied colours, while not far 



I 



