university; saying also that I deserved distinction. I do not tell
you this from ostentation, but only that you may not think I lose
my time, even though I occupy myself chiefly with the natural
sciences. I hope yet to prove to you that with a brevet of Doctor
as a guarantee, Natural History may be a man's bread-winner as well
as the delight of his life. . ."

In September Agassiz allowed himself a short interruption of his
work. The next letter gives some account of this second vacation
trip.

TO HIS PARENTS.

MUNICH, September 26, 1828.

. . .The instruction for the academic year closed at the end of
August, and our professors had hardly completed their lectures when
I began my Alpine excursion. Braun, impatient to leave Munich, had
already started the preceding day, promising to wait for me on the
Salzburg road at the first spot which pleased him enough for a
halt. That I might not keep him waiting, I begged a friend to drive
me a good day's journey, thinking to overtake Braun the first day
on the pleasant banks of the Lake of Chiem. My traveling companions
were the younger Schimper [Wilhelm], of whom I have spoken to you
(and who made a botanical journey in the south of France and the
Pyrenees two years ago), and Mahir, who drove us, with whom I am
very intimate; he is a medical student, and also a very
enthusiastic physicist. He gave me private lessons in mathematics
all winter, and was a member of our philomathic meetings. Braun had
not set out alone either, and his two traveling companions were