WfthXtfe /Compliments of the Author. 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
OF 
LOUIS FRANCOIS DE POURTALES. 
c 
BY 
ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. 
[Reprinted from the Proceedings of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences.] 
CAMBRIDGE: 
UNIVERSITY PRESS: JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
1881. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
OP 
LOUIS FRANCOIS I)E POURTALES. 
BY 
ALEXANDER AGASSIZ. 
[Reprinted from the Proceedings of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences.] 
CAMBRIDGE: 
UNIVERSITY PRESS: JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
1881. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
Louis F. de Pourtales was bora in Neuchatel on the 4th of 
March, 1824, and died at Beverly Farms, on the 17th of July, 1880, 
in the fifty-seventh year of his age, sinking after a severe illness under 
an internal malady. The blow fell the more heavily upon his family 
and friends and upon his scientific colleagues, because his fine constitu- 
tion, combined with a manly vigor of body and mind, had seemed to 
defy disease and to promise years of activity. 
Educated as an engineer, he showed from boyhood a predilection 
for natural history. He was a favorite student of Professor Agassiz, 
and when only a lad of seventeen had shared his labors on the glacier 
of the Aar, being one of the party of Alpine explorers who, in 1840, 
made their home under the famous boulder known as the Hotel des 
Neuchatelois. When his friend and teacher came to America in 1847, 
he accompanied him, and remained for some time with the little band 
of naturalists who, first at East Boston and subsequently at Cambridge, 
shared his labors. In 1848 Pourtales entered the United States 
Coast Survey, where his ability and indefatigable industry were at 
once recognized, and he remained attached to that branch of our 
public service for many years. 
In 1851 he was engaged as assistant on the triangulation of the 
Florida Reef. While there he collected a number of Gephyreans and 
Ilolothurians which he described in the Proceedings of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, together with a number 
of species observed by him while living at East Boston and assisting 
Professor Agassiz in the preparation of his text-book on Zoology, 
afterwards published by him in conjunction with Dr. Gould. For 
this text-book Pourtales prepared the greater number of the draw- 
ings. These descriptions and those of Dr. Gould and Dr. Stimpson 4 
formed for a long time the only literature of the large number of 
Annelids and Holothurians, now so well known through the investiga- 
tions of the Fish Commission along the Atlantic coast of the United 
States. 
Thus prepared, Pourtales became deeply interested in everything 
relating to the study of the bed of the ocean. Thanks to the 
enlightened support of the then Superintendent of the Coast Survey, 
Professor Bache, and of his successors, Professor Peirce and Captain 
Patterson, he was enabled to devote his talents and industry, to the 
comparatively new field of “ Thalassography ” and the biological 
investigations related to it. So interesting and valuable were the 
results obtained, not only as an aid to navigation, but in their wider 
bearing on the history of the Gulf Stream and on the distribution of 
animal life at great depths, that in 18G6 he w'as sent out by Professor 
Peirce, then Superintendent of the Coast Survey, to continue these 
investigations on a larger scale. The large collections of samples of 
sea-bottom accumulated by the different hydrographic expeditions of 
the United States Coast Survey were carefully examined by him; and 
the results, accompanied by a chart of the sea-bottom on the east 
coast of the United States, were published in Petermann’s “ Mittheil- 
ungen,” in advance of their appearance in the Coast Survey Reports. 
From 1854 until his resignation as Assistant in the United States 
Coast Survey, Mr. Pourtales had charge of the field and office work 
of the Tidal Division. His reports to the Superintendent of the 
United States Coast Survey, incorporated in the annual Reports, short 
as they are, show the amount and value of his work. In addition to 
this tidal work, he was also at times assigned to special duty, as, for 
instance, at the magnetic station at Eastport. Previously to taking 
charge of the Tidal Division, he had been acting under the more direct 
supervision of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey, either in con- 
nection with the tidal work or the calculation of longitudes. 
While in Florida his attention was drawn to the habits of the Fo- 
raminifera, then little known, and his first papers on this subject were 
read at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science for 1850. They at once attracted attention, and after the 
death of Professor Baily of West Point the larger series of samples 
from the sea-bottoms, collected by the officers of the Coast Survey, 
were submitted to him for examination. At that time the opinion of 
Forbes, that the depths of the sea were absolutely barren of life, was 5 
still generally accepted. Sharing this view with other naturalists, 
Pourtales was nevertheless led to reconsider it in connection with his 
observations on his Foraminifera, many of which had been brought up 
from depths far below that considered by Forbes to be the limit of 
life. Did they belong there, or was their natural habitat, like that 
of others of their kind,* nearer the surface; and had they simply 
dropped to the bottom after death, or been gradually washed down 
from the reefs bv the current ? This question is discussed with much 
keenness of observation in his report on the Foraminifera collected 
by Craven and Maffitt. He inclined to believe that they actually lived 
where they were found, because the greater number of individuals in 
these specimens are brought up in perfect condition, notwithstanding 
the extreme delicacy of their shells. The faint pink color of the 
Globigerinae, for instance, could scarcely be preserved had the speci- 
mens been transported from a distance, and the best argument in favor 
of their deeper habitat is found in the fact that the same species are 
found uninjured (and at great depths) as far north as New Jersey. It 
is, however, still most perplexing that the same species are also found 
living near Cuba and elsewhere in the West Indies under very differ- 
ent conditions of light and temperature. 
He clearly saw that our ideas of the bathymetrical distribution of 
the higher Invertebrates were to be greatly modified; for he says in one 
part of the report: “ There are some delicate shells of mollusks from 
depths beyond five hundred fathoms where they were certainly living.” 
He also called attention to the existence of green sand as one of the 
characteristic deep-sea formations of the present day. “ A mixture in 
about equal proportions of Globigerinae and black sand — probably 
green sand.” In concluding he called attention to the importance for 
geologists of a knowledge of the habitat and distribution of Forami- 
nifera, on account of their large share in the formation of rocks, at least 
in the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. 
While examining the samples of bottom collected by Commander 
Sands, he made the discovery that many specimens of Orbulina con- 
tained a young Globigerina, more or less developed, so that the two 
genera must be considered as probably two stages of alternate genera- 
tion. He was also able, in some of the specimens collected by Com- 
mander Sands, to trace the successive changes of the Foraminifera 
* Mr. Pourtales, in 1867, observed a species of Globigerina floating on the 
surface off Havana. 6 
into green sand, from the most fresh-looking Foraminifera of various 
species until all trace of their origin was apparently lost. 
In 1858 he gave a general report of his work on the Foraminifera 
of the bottoms collected by the various Gulf Stream expeditions up 
to that time. This was by no meaus the close of his studies in this 
direction, for he continued as a part of his duties of Assistant on the 
Coast Survey to have charge of the collection of bottom deposits. 
The general results of his studies he published in Petermann’s “ Geogra- 
pliische Mittheilungen ” for 1871, with a map showing the geographical 
and bathymetrical distribution of the different bottoms on the east 
coast of the Atlautic. Fitted as he was both by taste and early train- 
ing for zoological studies, it was natural that the Coast Survey should 
look to him for an expansion of its biological work, and in 1867 he 
was assigned to the Coast Survey steamer Corwin in order to make 
such biological collections as would tend to elucidate the fauua of the 
bottom of the Gulf Stream between the Florida Keys and Cuba. 
The breaking out of yellow-fever on board the steamer after a few 
casts had been taken put a stop to all further work for that season. 
But early in 1868 the campaign was opened again with such success, 
Acting Master Platt, U. S. N., commanding the Coast Survey steamer 
Corwin, that Mr. Pourtales induced Professor Agassiz, who had be- 
come greatly interested in the extraordinary results of the second 
expedition, to join him in the Bibb for the third cruise in 1869. The 
second expedition, from the brilliant results obtained, may be said to 
have awakened general interest in the subject of the bathymetrical 
distribution of animal life. The discovery alone of the great range in 
depth of Rhizocrinus from the Straits of Florida to the Loffoden Islands 
opened a field of investigation, dimly foreshadowed, it is true, by the 
earlier dredgings of the older and younger Sars, and the wider bearing 
of which Loven had anticipated in a paper read before a meeting of 
the Scandinavian naturalists as early as 1863. 
In the Coast Survey Reports for 1867 and 1868 are to be found 
Pourtales’s first reports on the fauna of the Gulf Stream in the 
Straits of Florida. These reports were published with greater 
biological detail in the first volume of the Bulletins of the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology for 1867 and 1868. 
The large and valuable collections made by Mr. Pourtales in the 
Gulf Stream, as well as those made under his direction on board the 
Ilassler, were deposited at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 7 
Cambridge, and thence distributed as rapidly as possible to be worked 
up by specialists throughout the scientific world. To these were after- 
ward added the results of the three Blake expeditions, which were 
indeed the natural continuation of the work initiated by Pourtales. 
The collections thus sown broadcast have already borne a rich harvest 
in special reports upon Echinoderms, Corals, Crinoids, Foraminifera, 
Sponges, Annelids, Hydroids, Bryozoa, Mollusks, and Crustacea, pre- 
pared by the most eminent investigators of America and Europe, and 
published principally in the Bulletins of the Museum. They form 
a part of that series of international monographs to which Sir Wyville 
Thomson, following the liberal policy adopted and advised by the 
Director of the Museum, is making such generous contributions 
through the collections of the Challenger. 
An examination of the characteristic deep-sea Flchinoderms, Sponges, 
and Corals showed at once the ancient characters of the types; while 
the similarity of the genera of Echini to those of the chalk, the dis- 
covery of representatives of the Infulasteridae (Pourtalesia),* of 
Salenia, of Hemipedina, Conoclypus, and others, led the way to the 
theories of Thomson regarding the great antiquity of these forms and 
to the modern theories as to the formation of the chalk. The old 
view of Guyot and of Dana upon the great antiquity of continents 
and of oceanic basins received also a strong support from the data 
obtained in Mr. Pourtales’s dredgings. The specimens of bottom 
showed conclusively that we had not had, in former geological times, 
any deposits strictly corresponding to those now forming at the bot- 
tom of the ocean in great depths. 
Mr. Pourtales was indeed the pioneer of deep-sea dredging in 
America, and he lived long enough to see that these earlier expeditions 
had paved the way not only for similar English, French, and Scan- 
dinavian researches, but had led in this country to the Ilassler and 
finally to the Blake expeditions under the auspices of the lion. 
Carlile Patterson, the present Superintendent of our Coast Survey. 
On the Hassler Expedition, from Massachusetts Bay through the 
Straits of Magellan to California, he had entire charge of the dredging 
operations. Owing to circumstances beyond his control, the deep-sea 
explorations of that expedition were not as successful as he antici- 
pated. 
* This genus is the representative of the most interesting family of Echini 
brought to light by deep-sea dredging: it was named in honor of Pourtales in 
1869. 8 
At the death of his father, Mr. Pourtales was left in an independent 
position, which allowed him to devote himself more completely than 
ever to his zoological studies. lie resigned his official connection with 
the Coast Survey, and returned to Cambridge, where he became 
thenceforth identified with the progress of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology. To Professor Agassiz his presence there was invaluable. 
In youth one of his favorite pupils, throughout life his friend and col- 
league, he now became the support of his failing strength. 
Mr. Pourtales reserved to himself the corals, Ilalcyonarians, IIolo- 
thurians, and Crinoids, of the different deep-sea dredging expeditious 
with which he was connected. A number of his papers on the deep- 
sea corals of Florida, of the Caribbean Sea, and of the Gulf of 
Mexico, have appeared in the Museum publications. The Crinoid 
memoirs published by him relate to a few new species of Comatulae, 
and to the interesting genera Rhizocrinus and IIolopus. 
At the time of his death Mr. Pourtales was engaged in the study 
of the Holothurians and the magnificent collection of Ilalcyonarians 
of the Blake. Unfortunately he had not advanced far enough in 
his preliminary work to make its completion possible; so that the 
Holothurians of the Blake will now be worked up with those of 
the Challenger, while the Ilalcyonarians must be left undetermined 
for the present, the Antipatharia alone having been finished. 
His largest and most important work is his monograph on the deep- 
sea corals, published as one of the illustrated catalogues of.the Mu- 
seum of Comparative Zoology. This was published in 1871, and in 
it he describes the corals he collected in the years 1867—1869, while 
on the Coast Survey expeditions to explore the Gulf Stream. As an 
introduction to the memoir, we find a short resume of the conditions of 
the floor of the Gulf Stream between Cuba, the Bahamas, and the 
Florida Keys, and a map with sections and other details showing the 
ground covered by the dredgings of Mr. Pourtales. Throughout 
the memoir there are scattered most important general remarks on 
the affinities of the different families, the most interesting of which 
are those on the Rugosa and the Stylasteridm. He also wrote for 
Appleton’s Cyclopaedia a number of articles on the Atlantic, Indian, 
and Pacific Oceans, on the Polar Seas, the Galapagos, the Straits of 
Magellan, Juan Fernandez, and Deep-sea Dredging. 
The titles of his memoirs indicate the range of his learning and his 
untiring industry. His devotion to science was boundless. A model 9 
worker, so quiet that his enthusiasm was known only to those who 
watched his steadfast labor, he toiled on year after year without a 
thought of self, wholly engrossed in his search after truth. He never 
entered into a single scientific controversy, nor even asserted or de- 
fended his claims to discoveries of his own which had escaped atten- 
tion. But while modest to a fault, and absolutely careless of his own 
position, he could rebuke in a peculiarly effective though always cour- 
teous manner ignorant pretensions or an assumption of infallibility. 
Appointed keeper of the Museum of Comparative Zoology after the 
death of Professor Agassiz, he devoted a large part of his time to the 
administration of the Museum affairs. Always at his post, he passed 
from his original investigations to practical details, carrying out plans 
which he had himself helped to initiate for the growth of the institu- 
tion. As he had been the devoted friend of Professor Agassiz, he 
became to his son a wise and affectionate counsellor, without whose 
help in the last ten years the Museum could not have taken the place 
it now occupies. 
If he did not live to see the realization of his scientific hopes, he 
lived at least long enough to feel that their fulfilment is only a matter 
of time. He has followed Wyman and Agassiz, and like them has 
left his fairest monument in the work he has accomplished and the 
example he leaves to his successors. 
Cambridge, Mass., February, 1881. 
The following are the principal publications of Mr. Pourtales : — 
1850. On the Distribution of Foraminifera on the Coast of New Jersey, as shown 
by the Off-shore Soundings of the Coast Survey. Proc. Amer. Assoc, 
for Adv. of Sc., Charleston meeting, 1850. 
On the Order of Succession of Parts in Foraminifera. Proc. Amer. Assoc, 
for Adv. of Sc., Charleston meeting, 1850. Also Amer. Journ. of Sc. 
and Arts, 2d series, Vol. II. 1851. 
1851. On the Holothuridae of the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Proc. 
Amer. Assoc, for Adv. of Sc., 1851, p. 8. 
A paper read in 1847 at meeting of Assoc, of Amer. Geol. and Nat. 
at Boston. 
1851. On the Gephyrea of the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Proc. 
Amer. Assoc, for Adv. of Sc., 1851, p. 39. 10 
1853. Extract from Letters of L. F. Pourtaliis, Assistant in the Coast Survey 
to the Superintendent upon the Examination of Specimens of Bottom 
obtained in the Exploration of the Gulf Stream by Lieutenants-Com- 
manding T. A. M. Craven and J. N. Maffitt, U. S. N. Coast Survey 
Report for 1853, and Proc. Amer. Assoc, for Adv. of Sc., Cleveland 
meeting, 1853. 
1854. Tidal Reports. 
1858. Report of Assistant L. F. Pourtales on the Progress made in the Micro- 
scopical Examination of Specimens of Bottom from Deep-Sea Sound- 
ings. Coast Survey Report for 1858. 
1858. On the Genera Orbulina and Globigerina. By L. F. Pourtales. Amer. 
Journ. of Sc. and Arts, 2d series, Vol. XXXVI. 1858. 
1867. Report on the Fauna of the Gulf Stream in the Straits of Florida. By 
L. F. Pourtales. Coast Survey Report for 1867. 
Contributions to the Fauna of the Gulf Stream at great Depths. By L. 
F. Pourtales, Assistant U. S. Coast Survey. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 
Vol. I. No. 6. Cambridge, 1867. pp. 18. 
1868. Contributions to the Fauna of the Gulf Stream at Great Depths (2d 
series). By L. F. Pourtalhs, Assistant U. S. Coast Survey. Bull. Mus. 
Comp. Zool., Vol. I. No. 7. Cambridge, 1868. pp. 22.. 
1868. Report of Assistant L. F. Pourtales on Dredgings made in the Sea near 
the Florida Reef. Coast Survey Report for 1868. 
1869. The Gulf Stream. Characteristics of the Atlantic Sea-Bottom off the 
Coast of the United States. By L. F. Pourtales. Coast Survey Report 
for 1869. 
1869. List of the Crinoids obtained on the Coasts of Florida and Cuba by the 
U. S. Coast Survey Gulf Stream Expeditions in 1867, 1868, and 1869. 
By L. F. Pourtales, Assistant U. S. Coast Survey. Bull. Mus. Comp. 
Zool., Vol. I. No. 11. Cambridge, 1869. pp. 4. '■ 
1869. List of Holothuridas from the Deep-Sea Dredgings of the United States 
Coast Survey. By L. F. Pourtales, Assistant U. S. Coast Survey. 
Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Vol. I. No. 12. Cambridge, 1869. pp. 3. 
1870. Der Boden des Golfstromes und der Atlantischen Kiiste Nord Amerika’s. 
Von L. F. Pourtales. Petermann’s Geograpli. Mittheilungen, 1870. 
Heft XI. pp. 5. 1 map. 
1871. Deep-Sea Corals. By L. F. Pourtalhs, Assistant U. S. Coast Survey. 
Illustrated Catalogue of the Mus. Comp. Zool., Vol. II. No. 4. (Me- 
moirs, Vol. II. No. 4.) Cambridge, 1871. pp. 93. Pis. 8. 
1874. The Zoological Results of the Hassler Expedition. I. Echini, Crinoids, 
and Corals. By Alexander Agassiz and L. F. Pourtales. pp. 54. 15 
woodcuts. Pis. 10. II. Ophiuridae and Astrophytidae, including those 
dredged by the late Dr. Stimpson. By Theodore Lyman. Ulust. Cat. 
Mus. Comp. Zool., No. 8. (Memoirs, Vol. IV.) Cambridge, 1874. 
pp. 34. 4 woodcuts. Pis. 5. 
1875. Corals at the Galapagos Islands. By L. F. Pourtales. Amer. Journ. 
of Sc. and Arts, 3d series. Vol. X. 1875. 11 
1876. Recent Corals from Tilibiche, Peru. By Alexander Agassiz and L. F. 
Pourtales. pp. 4. 1 plate. March, 1876. 
1878 Reports on the Dredging Operations U. S. Coast Survey Steamer 
“ Blake.” II. Echini. By A. Agassiz. — Corals and Crinoids. By 
L. F. Pourtales. — Opliiurans. By T. Lyman. — pp. 58. 11 plates. 
December, 14, 1878. 
1880. Report on the Results of Dredging, etc. VI. Report on the Corals 
and Antipatliaria. By L. F. Pourtales. pp. 26. 3 plates. February, 
1880. 
1880. Report on the Florida Reefs. By Louis Agassiz. Accompanied by 
Illustrations of Florida Corals, from drawings by A. Sonrel, Burkhardt, 
A. Agassiz, and Roetter. With an Explanation of the Plates, by L. 
F. Pourtales. Published by permission of A. D. Bache and Carlile 
P. Patterson, Superintendent of the U. S. Coast Survey, pp. 61. 
23 plates. May, 1880. 
In Appleton’s Encyclopedia the following articles : — 
Atlantic Ocean, Vol. II. — Dredging (Deep-Sea), Vol. VI. — Galapagos, Vol. 
VII. — Indian Ocean, Vol. IX.—Juan Fernandez, Vol. IX. — Magel- 
lan, Straits of, Vol. X. — Mediterranean Sea, Vol. XI. — Pacific Ocean, 
Vol. XII.— Polar Seas (geography), Vol. XIII.