To have a great and famous man as a father can be a serious handicap, especially for a son who chooses a career in his father's field. But Alexander Agassiz, son of the great natural scientist Louis Agassiz, accepted his heritage not as a deterrent but as an inspiration, and became a famous scientist in his own right.

Born in Switzerland, Alexander came to America at the age of fourteen to live with his father who was teaching at Harvard. Intrigued with the mysteries of the ocean when he vacationed at Nahant, he began to collect marine specimens which led to a lifetime absorption in marine zoology.

While Louis Agassiz was an impractical dreamer, constantly in need of financial support for his innumerable projects, Alexander was of necessity more practical and self-disciplined. Taking a degree in engineering at Harvard, he became a world-renowned industrialist, making a fortune in copper mining. His money was well spent—it enabled him to aid the cause of science; it helped support the Museum of Comparative Zoology founded by his father; and it made it possible for him to pursue the work closest to his heart: exploring the secrets of the oceans which cover three-fourths of the earth's surface.

He invented and developed machinery for dredging the ocean bottom. He collected invaluable data on the distribution of marine life, the great food cycle of the sea, coral reef formations and other subjects whose importance he was among the earliest to recognize. Scientific honors were given him, but he thought as little of them as of his fortune. Just one thing concerned him—extending the boundaries of scientific knowledge.

Alexander Agassiz was a brilliant captain of industry, a tireless curator of the great museum at Harvard, a universally respected scientist and one of the world's first great oceanographers.

From the dust jacket