In a picturesque parsonage on the shore of the Swiss Lake of Morat, there was born on May 28, 1807, a child who was baptized Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz. His mother recognized early in his life the peculiar attraction of her son to Nature's creatures. His intuitive understanding of animals and fishes she carefully nurtured. With his younger brother, Auguste, the small Louis delighted to catch the finny inhabitants of Lake Morat by dexterous methods of his own invention. He was taught until he was ten by his father, a clergyman, and his mother, a woman of excellent taste and education. At fourteen, when he was graduated from a boys' school at Bienne, he defined his aims in this mature fashion: "I wish to advance in the sciences. I have resolved, as far as I am allowed to do so, to become a man of letters." In later years he wrote, "At that age, namely, about fifteen, I spent most of the time I could spare from classical and mathematical studies in hunting the neighboring woods and meadows for birds, insects, and land and fresh-water shells. My room became a little menagerie, while the stone basin under the fountain in our yard was my reservoir for all the fishes I could catch." At his eager request, Louis was permitted to spend two years at the College of Lausanne, Switzerland, where he pursued with enthusiasm the study of Nature. He afterwards attended the University of Zurich and the University of Heidelberg. At the latter famous seat of learning the young Swiss naturalist, who intended to become a physician, pursued the study of anatomy, and passed hours collecting, arranging and analyzing plant and mineral specimens. At the age of twenty he became a student at the University of Munich, where he found of the highest interest the study of the natural history of the fresh-water fishes of Europe, while continuing his courses in medicine. The first work that gave his name distinction was a description, written in Latin, of a collection of Brazilian fishes that had been brought back from South America by the noted scientists, Martius and Spix. His profits consisted of only a few copies of the book, but the results were gratifying, as his work brought him to the favorable notice of Cuvier (coo-vee-ay), the renowned French naturalist, who consulted the descriptions of Agassiz in writing his own "History of Fishes." In 1830, Agassiz went to Paris, where he enlisted the friendly help of Cuvier and the great Alexander Humboldt. It was his habit to work fifteen hours a day at the Museum of Natural History. He had only a small allowance from his father, and he was often hampered by poverty.