Life in Cambridge. 



117 



and followed his example. And if, to-day in almost 

 any part of the United States, a man may pursue 

 living creatures otherwise than for sport, and talk of 

 them for another object than passing an idle hour, 

 and nevertheless retain the respect of the com- 

 munity ; if, in short, the occupations of natural his- 

 tory collecting and teaching are now honourable and 

 at least more lucrative than before, it is to Agassiz 

 more than any other one man that the change must 

 be ascribed/' 



Agassiz had many opportunities to materially 

 increase his income ; he had but to turn aside from 

 his scientific work. To all these suggestions, how- 

 ever, he was obdurate. He declined a very advan- 

 tageous offer to write a text-book on the ground 

 that he did not believe in text-book teaching ; indeed 

 it was inimical to his methods. To another offer to 

 lend himself to a legitimate and tempting financial 

 scheme he replied, I have no time to make money.'' 

 Vacation in the ordinary sense was unknown to 

 Agassiz. Every trip had some significance to the 

 scientific world, every ^^rest" a new line of investi- 

 gation, from which he returned freighted with 

 collections and facts. In the fall of 1864 he under- 

 took an elaborate study of the glacial phenomena on 

 the Maine islands, the results of which are graphi- 

 cally given in one of his most interesting works, 

 Geological Sketches. 



