puffing his cigar. At the end of the hour's telling, he swung off and
away, saying: 'That is not right.' Here I began to think that, after
all, perhaps the rules for scanning Latin verse were not the worst
infliction in the world. Moreover, it was clear that he was playing a
game with me to find if I were capable of doing hard, continuous work
without the support of a teacher, and this stimulated me to labor. I
went at the task anew, discarded my first notes, and in another week of
ten hours a day labor I had results which astonished myself and
satisfied him. Still there was no trace of praise in words or manner.
He signified that it would do by placing before me about a half a peck
of bones, telling me to see what I could make of them, with no further
directions to guide me. I soon found that they were the skeletons of
half a dozen fishes of different species; the jaws told me so much at a
first inspection. The task evidently was to fit the separate bones
together in their proper order. Two months or more went to this task
with no other help than an occasional looking over my grouping with the
stereotyped remark: 'That is not right.' Finally, the task was done,
and I was again set upon alcoholic specimens--this time a remarkable
lot of specimens representing, perhaps, twenty species of the side
-swimmers or Pleuronectidae.

I shall never forget the sense of power in dealing with things which I
felt in beginning the more extended work on a group of animals. I had
learned the art of comparing objects, which is the basis of the
naturalist's work. At this stage I was allowed to read, and to discuss
my work with others about me. I did both eagerly, and acquired a
considerable knowledge of the literature of ichthyology, becoming
especially interested in the system of classification, then most
imperfect. I tried to follow Agassiz's scheme of division into the
order of ctenoids and ganoids, with the result that I found one of my