means within their reach.* (* The material for this account of the
student life of the two friends at Heidelberg and of their teachers
was chiefly furnished by Alexander Braun himself at the close of
his own life, after the death of Agassiz. The later sketches of the
Professors at Munich in 1832 were drawn in great part from the same
source.)

As the distance and expense made it impossible for Agassiz to spend
his vacations with his family in Switzerland, it soon became the
habit for him to pass the holidays with his new friend at
Carlsruhe. For a young man of his tastes and acquirements a more
charming home-life than the one to which he was here introduced can
hardly be imagined. The whole atmosphere was in harmony with the
pursuits of the students. The house was simple in its appointments,
but rich in books, music, and in all things stimulating to the
thought and imagination. It stood near one of the city gates which
opened into an extensive oak forest, in itself an admirable
collecting ground for the naturalist. At the back certain rooms,
sheltered by the spacious garden from the noise of the street, were
devoted to science. In the first of these rooms the father's rich
collection of minerals was arranged, and beyond this were the
laboratories of his sons and their friends, where specimens of all
sorts, dried and living plants, microscopes and books of reference,
covered the working tables. Here they brought their treasures; here
they drew, studied, dissected, arranged their specimens; here they
discussed the theories, with which their young brains were teeming,
about the growth, structure, and relations of animals and plants.*
(* See "Biographical Memoir of Louis Agassiz" by Arnold Guyuot, in
the "Proceedings of U.S. National Academy".)