Bache, one of America's most distinguished scientific men, and chief of the Coast Survey, offered the Professor the use of vessels in which he could travel, free of expense, along the whole coast of the United States. Agassiz was so much pleased with this offer, and the kind reception he had met with, that he determined to remain the rest of his days in America. He asked an honorable dismission of the King of Prussia, which was granted, and ever since then he has been with us, laboring for American science. During the war he made himself an American citizen.

I have no space in this little article to describe in detail the events of his life in America. It has been one of constant and severe toil. After spending some time in studying the marine animals of the coast in the Coast Survey vessels, he became Professor of Zoology and Geology in Harvard University, where he is at present. Many years ago he accepted a professorship in the medical college of Charleston, South Carolina; but his health suffered from the climate, and he soon returned to Cambridge. At Harvard he has been engaged during term time in teaching, delivering public lectures, in arranging his enormous collections, and in studying the animals of America. During his vacation he has travelled all over the country east of the Rocky Mountains, from Canada to Florida. On one of his excursions he took a class with him to Lake Superior, and the story of the trip forms a large book, entitled "Lake Superior."

He also has made an expedition to Brazil. Indeed, ever since Agassiz had written the work on the fishes of Brazil, he had desired to explore that empire, and this desire grew stronger after receiving an invitation from the Emperor to visit the country. In 1865 he was beginning to feel the effects of his great labors, and the need of rest; but there was no such thing as rest for him, except in a change of work. He determined, therefore, to visit Brazil. Mr. Nathaniel Thayer, of Boston, generously furnished him with a large sum of money, to fit out a regular expedition. Agassiz went, taking with him an artist, several assistants, and his wife, his most efficient aid, who accompanied him during his whole journey, and who, on their return, wrote a charming book entitled a "Journey in Brazil." I must refer my young readers to that work for the description of the kind reception which the Emperor gave his illustrious guest, for the assistance he offered him, for the story of the travels of the Professor and his little party, and the wonderful results which he reached. The Professor collected an almost incredible number of species of fishes on the Amazons, but the most interesting result of the expedition was the discovery of tokens which revealed the former existence of glaciers within the tropics!

During Professor Agassiz's residence in America he has published several volumes relating to natural history. A grand work on the Natural History of the United States, to comprise ten volumes, was begun several years ago. Four volumes have appeared, and he is busy with others. This summer, in less than two months, the Professor wrote, on Radiate Animals, a volume of several hundred pages!

If I were to give a list of the writings of Agassiz, comprising, be

sides his books, only the more important of the articles he has contributed to the various scientific journals and magazines, I should need more space than this article has occupied; but, much as he has written, this is only a small part of the work he has actually done. Agassiz organized, about fifteen years ago, the Museum of Comparative Zoology in connection with Harvard University, -a Museum which has few equals anywhere. It consists of a large four-story brick building, which is so packed with specimens of animals of all kinds, fossil and recent, that only a small part of the collections can be placed on exhibition. The building, we are happy to say, is soon to be enlarged. This Museum is, of course, open to everybody, free. It is not for show, but for instruction. Here the Professor and his assistants are engaged in arranging and classifying collections, and in making investigations which, from time to time, are published. The Professor receives into the Museum, without charge, students who wish to study geology and natural history thoroughly. Some of them are ladies, and he delivers courses of lectures before them. A considerable number of the young naturalists of America have been educated in this Museum, and they all feel that they owe to their illustrious teacher much of their success in life.

Agassiz is one of the best teachers in America. He does not pour information into his student; he shows him how to get it for himself; and that is the true way to teach.

A student presents himself to Professor Agassiz, wishing to acquaint himself with natural history. Agassiz gives him half a dozen shells, and tells him to look at them. The student turns them over and over, hardly knowing what he is about. Next day Agassiz makes his appearance and says, "Well, sir, what have you seen?" The student has very little to say; he has seen the shells, but he has observed little or nothing. Now there is a great difference between seeing and observing. Every one knows that gentlemen see bonnets, and perhaps admire some of them, but, for the life of them, they could not describe one, simply because they have not observed how it is made. Ladies observe them and can describe them. To teach the student how to observe, he is kept, perhaps a fortnight, over his specimens, making drawings of them, and examining them with the greatest care; then he compares them to see in what they agree and disagree. The Professor tells him next to nothing, but every day he comes round with his question, "Well, sir, what have you seen to-day?" and all the time he keeps suggesting points that he should look for. So the student learns how to compare specimens, and how to observe correctly. Then the Professor gives him a larger collection of animals of some one group to study. No matter how well they may have been described, the student treats them as if no one had ever seen them before, and examines everything for himself as carefully as possible, comparing his own observations with those made by others, and he is always rewarded by discovering something new.

Agassiz himself sees everything about an animal at a glance, and while another naturalist is beginning to suspect that a certain investigation will

lead to discovery, Agassiz has worked it all out. He seems to remember everything he has seen or read. He thinks of everything, and there is not a group in the animal kingdom that he does not know something about. He thinks rapidly and accurately, and he can do more thinking in a week than most men do in a year.

Some of my readers will want to know how Professor Agassiz looks. Well, he is rather short, but heavily built and very broad-shouldered. His head is large, with long dark hair falling down over his neck. His forehead is high and broad, his face large, with well-chiselled features and a brilliant eye. His face varies with his feelings in the most remarkable manner. Sometimes it wears a tired, troubled expression. But when he speaks, or is engaged in conversation, his eyes flash, and his face is exceedingly handsome. You cannot help loving him, — you give him your heart at once. He has been twice married. His first wife died before he came to America. He brought with him a son and two daughters. The son, Mr. Alexander Agassiz, is an excellent naturalist, and has a wide reputation. now in Europe.

He is

My young readers are already acquainted with the present Mrs. Agassiz, who is just the modest, motherly woman that one would take her to be from her charming articles in "Our Young Folks." These are always read and corrected for the press by Professor Agassiz.

Mrs. Agassiz is a very great aid to her husband; and she has a reputation of her own as an author.

THIS

OUR PICTURES.

HIS New Year's number of "Our Young Folks" brings its readers five full-page engravings, - a larger number, of course, than will usually appear in the magazine, — but each worthy of special attention.

The fine portrait of Professor Agassiz will doubtless be welcomed by all. It is a pleasure to look upon the face of a man whose heart is in his work, and perhaps no one has ever done so much to make people love scientific studies as Professor Agassiz.

"A Cent's Worth of Shine" tells its own story; but it needed an Eytinge to see that there was a story to tell. Even bootblacks and newsboys do not find their life "all work and no play." They manage to get a little fun of their own out of it; and there is now and then an artist who appreciates the fun, and can reproduce for us bits of sidewalk comedy, like this. But such a gift is by no means common.

There is always something of grim pathos about a dancing bear, the forlorn exile from the woods, to whom good society is a wilderness. Held by a keeper at his chain's length, there is little of his forest-grandeur left.