researches. He was especially indebted to Professor Schinz, a man
of learning and ability, who held the chair of Natural History and
Physiology, and who showed the warmest interest in his pupil's
progress. He gave Agassiz a key to his private library, as well as
to his collection of birds. This liberality was invaluable to one
whose poverty made books an unattainable luxury. Many an hour did
the young student pass at that time in copying books which were
beyond his means, though some of them did not cost more than a
dollar a volume. His brother Auguste, still his constant companion,
shared this task, a pure labor of love with him, for the books were
more necessary to Louis's studies than to his own.

During the two years passed by Agassiz in Zurich he saw little of
society beyond the walls of the university. His brother and he had
a pleasant home in a private house, where they shared the family
life of their host and hostess. In company with them, Agassiz made
his first excursion of any importance into the Alps. They ascended
the Righi and passed the night there. At about sunset a fearful
thunder-storm gathered below them, while on the summit of the
mountain the weather remained perfectly clear and calm. Under a
blue sky they watched the lightning, and listened to the thunder in
the dark clouds, which were pouring torrents of rain upon the plain
and the Lake of Lucerne. The storm lasted long after night had
closed in, and Agassiz lingered when all his companions had retired
to rest, till at last the clouds drifted softly away, letting down
the light of moon and stars on the lake and landscape. He used to
say that in his subsequent Alpine excursions he had rarely
witnessed a scene of greater beauty.

Such of his letters from Zurich as have been preserved have only a