Agassiz made at this time two friends, whose sympathy and cooperation in his scientific work were invaluable to him for the rest of his life. Sir Philip Egerton and Lord Cole (Earl of Enniskillen) owned two of the most valuable collections of fossil fishes in Great Britain.* (* Now the property of the British Museum.) To aid him in his researches, their most precious specimens were placed at Agassiz's disposition; his artist was allowed to work for months on their collections, and even after Agassiz came to America, they never failed to share with him, as far as possible, the advantages arising from the increase of their museums. From this time his correspondence with them, and especially with Sir Philip Egerton, is closely connected with the ever-growing interest as well as with the difficulties of his scientific career. Reluctantly, and with many a backward look, he left England in October, and returned to his lectures in Neuchatel, taking with him such specimens as were indispensable to the progress of his work. Every hour of the following winter which could be spared from his lectures was devoted to his fossil fishes. A letter of this date from Professor Silliman, of New Haven, Connecticut, marks the beginning of his relations with his future New England home, and announces his first New England subscribers. YALE COLLEGE NEW HAVEN, UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA, April 22, 1835. . . .From Boston, March 6th, I had the honor to thank you for your letter of January 5th, and for your splendid present of your great work on fossil fishes--livraison 1-22--received, with the plates. I also gave a notice of the work in the April number of the Journal* (* "The American Journal of Science and Arts".) (this present month), and republished Mr. Bakewell's account of your visit to Mr. Mantell's museum. In Boston I made some little efforts in behalf of your work, and have the pleasure of naming as follows:-- Harvard University, Cambridge (Cambridge is only four miles from Boston), by Hon. Josiah Quincy, President. Boston Athenaeum, by its Librarian. Benjamin Green, Esquire, President of the Boston Natural History Society. I shall make application to some other institutions or individuals, but do not venture to promise anything more than my best exertions . . . Agassiz little dreamed, as he read this letter, how familiar these far-off localities would become to him, or how often, in after years, he would traverse by day and by night the four miles which lay between Boston and his home in Cambridge. Agassiz still sought and received, as we see by the following letter, Humboldt's sympathy in every step of his work. HUMBOLDT TO LOUIS AGASSIZ. BERLIN, May, 1835.