This was the best entomological lesson I ever had--a lesson whose
influence has extended to the details of every subsequent study; a
legacy the Professor has left to me, as he has left it to many others,
of inestimable value, which we could not buy, with which we cannot part.

A year afterward, some of us were amusing ourselves with chalking
outlandish beasts on the Museum blackboard. We drew prancing
starfishes; frogs in mortal combat; hydra-headed worms; stately
crawfishes, standing on their tails, bearing aloft umbrellas; and
grotesque fishes with gaping mouths and staring eyes. The Professor
came in shortly after, and was as amused as any at our experiments. He
looked at the fishes.

'Haemulons, every one of them,' he said; 'Mr.---- drew them.'

True; and to this day, if I attempt a fish, I can draw nothing but
haemulons.

The fourth day, a second fish of the same group was placed beside the
first, and I was bidden to point out the resemblances and differences
between the two; another and another followed, until the entire family
lay before me, and a whole legion of jars covered the table and
surrounding shelves; the odor had become a pleasant perfume; and even
now, the sight of an old, six-inch, worm-eaten cork brings fragrant
memories.

The whole group of haemulons was thus brought in review; and, whether
engaged upon the dissection of the internal organs, the preparation and
examination of the bony frame-work, or the description of the various
parts, Agassiz's training in the method of observing facts and their