Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/179

 asT.32.] AGASSIZ TO THOREAU. 155

winter such a heavy tax upon my health, that I wish for the present to make no engagements ; as I have some hope of making my living this year by other efforts, and beyond the neces sity of my wants, both domestic and scientific, I am determined not to exert myself ; as all the time I can thus secure to myself must be exclu sively devoted to science. My only business is my intercourse with nature ; and could I do with out draughtsmen, lithographers, etc., I would live still more retired. This will satisfy you that whenever you come this way, I shall be delighted to see you, since I have also heard something of your mode of living.&quot;

Agassiz had reason indeed to remember the collections made by Thoreau, since (from the letters of Mr. Cabot) they aided him much in his comparison of the American with the Eu ropean fishes. When the first firkin of Concord fish arrived in Boston, where Agassiz was then working, &quot; he was highly delighted, and began immediately to spread them out and arrange them for his draughtsman. Some of the species he had seen before, but never in so fresh con dition ; others, as the breams and the pout, he had seen only in spirits, and the little tortoise he knew only from the books. I am sure you would have felt fully repaid for your trouble,&quot; adds