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LIFE, LETTERS, AND WORKS
OF LOUIS AGASSIZ

LDLJ i s AGAS 5 iz

LIFE, LETTERS, AND WORKS

OF

LOUIS AGASSIZ

BY

JULES MARCOU

Wl TH ILL US TRA TIONS

VOL. I

MACMILLAN AND CO.

AND LONDON

1896

All rights reserved

COPYRIGHT, 1895,
BY MACMILLAN AND CO.

NorSnooli

J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

PREFACE.

MORE than twenty years have passed since the death
of Louis Agassiz, and although many biographies were
published directly after his death, no true life of him
has yet appeared : nearly all have been too eulogistic,
while, on the other hand, some rather severe strictures
and criticisms have incidentally appeared in articles
purporting to give the life of some of his associates,
or dealing with some special questions of natural his-
tory. Agassiz occupied too large and important a place
in natural history not to have left both a certain num-
ber of critics and a larger number of enthusiastic ad-
mirers ready to see in him only faults or perfection.
Truth lies between the two. As one of the reviewers
of Agassiz's life by his wife says : " The true history
of Agassiz has not yet been written."

To meet this want, I have made during the last
twenty years a large collection of material in the form
of letters, recollections of friends and contemporaries,
and rare pamphlets, with the design of presenting to
the public the man himself ; his origin, his character,
his public life, his private life, his passions, his weak-
nesses, his faults, his errors, his genius ; what he did
and what he left undone ; above all, to put him in his

vi PREFACE.

place, in a true light, in correct perspective, with its
lights and shadows, in the field of the history of natural
science.

I have tried to speak of him uninfluenced by the dis-
cordant voices which have celebrated his merits without
discretion, or demolished his reputation without meas-
ure. His faults were small, while his genius was great.
" Son envergure immense allant d'un bout a 1'autre du
ciel scientifique," as was said also of Humboldt and
Cuvier.

I enjoyed his friendship during almost thirty years,
being one of the few men to whom Agassiz half
unbosomed himself ; and I am the last survivor of the
small band of European naturalists who came to Amer-
ica with him. My admiration of the man is not con-
cealed ; but I have had constantly in view the truth, and
have tried to be just, not only towards him, but also
towards all those who were more or less connected with
him during his scientific life.

In the thought of many, a man of genius ought to
be perfect ; and consequently when errors, mistakes,
and faults appear, it is difficult to accept them and
bear them with equanimity and indulgence. But we
must be generous, and make a fair allowance for human
weakness, even in a man of genius, and especially in
a man of genius.

Agassiz kept up all his life a very large correspond-
ence, either directly, or when too busy or in ill health,
by dictation. In Neuchatel he wrote at least five let-
ters daily, not only to naturalists, savants in general,
and to his relatives, but also to other friends, and

PREFACE. vii

even statesmen and historians like Thiers and Guizot in
France, and later to Dom Pedro II, in Brazil. The num-
ber of his letters is enormous, and until 1842 he kept
copies of them all. I know of one of his correspond-
ents who received more than one hundred letters from
him. To choose among them is not an easy task. Mrs.
Agassiz, in the life of her husband, has given a certain
number (about ninety), selecting more especially those
addressed to Agassiz's mother, father, and brother, and
to some well-known men of science, philosophers, phil-
anthropists, and politicians ; besides giving letters writ-
ten to Agassiz by naturalists like Humboldt, Cuvier,
Buckland, Sedgwick, Lyell, etc. Unwilling to repeat
what has been already so well done by Mrs. Agassiz,
my quotations are limited to letters of Agassiz,
addressed to practical naturalists, his contemporaries,
working on kindred subjects. To see and appreciate
the influence exerted by Agassiz on the progress of
palaeontology, geology, and the glacial question, it
is important to show his impressions at the very
moment when he received them in the course of his
studies.

I have received much information, and copies of let-
ters and notes, from persons or families formerly in
correspondence with Agassiz. I beg them to receive
my thanks ; and I have especially to thank my good
friend, M. Auguste Mayor, of Neuchatel, first cousin
of Agassiz. Although some years younger than Louis
Agassiz, he knew him as a very young man, and fol-
lowed closely his eventful and splendid career dur-
ing his whole life, both in Europe and in America,

viii PREFACE.

for M. Mayor lived for more than twenty years in
Brooklyn, New York, and received Agassiz at his house
when he came to the New World. Each had perfect
confidence in the other ; as cousins and friends they
loved one another without reserve. For myself, I can-
not separate Louis Agassiz from Auguste Mayor. Such
friendly and constant relations in both hemispheres
between two men are extremely rare.

I have carefully read and considered all documents,
and have made constant use of my intimate knowledge
of Agassiz. Scientifically we did not agree on all
points; but both were satisfied to accept our differences
of opinions. On the whole, our friendship was never
shadowed by a single serious disagreement.

The biography of such a man as Agassiz cannot be
given by the publication of his letters only ; because in
letters the confidences are not so free, precise, or so
full as can be desired : besides, many letters, for various
reasons, cannot be published in full. Agassiz's genius
was so spontaneous, so frankly natural, so absolutely
sincere, that his physiognomy was most attractive, show-
ing always the great mobility of his sentiments. He
was one of those very few men whose works are not
sufficient to make him entirely known ; one must meet
him face to face. Agassiz was so full of personal in-
spiration and original thought, that in order to have a
just idea of him, naturalists went to Neuchatel, and
afterward to Cambridge, only to see him, and shake his
hand. His individuality was a subject of continual
observation by all those who surrounded or approached
him. He was of an extremely rare and very complex

PREFACE. ix

type. It is impossible to group round him other natu-
ralists, and to form a special class of spirits related
to his. He surprised every one by his constant watch-
fulness, and his quickness to get at the truth of nature.
Agassiz himself was more interesting than his works.
His life is a rare study.

Until 1838, he wrote with his own hand an enormous
amount of manuscript; nothing discouraged him, and
he was always ready to use his pen, even to copy
papers or books which he was too poor to purchase, or
which it was impossible to procure otherwise. He kept
a private journal, in which he wrote with great naivete
everything which occurred to him, or came under his
eyes, when at Bienne, Lausanne, Zurich, Heidelberg,
Orbe, Munich, Concise, Paris, and during the first two
years of his life at Neuchatel. He showed me this
journal, and I had the privilege of reading in it some
of his student adventures and escapades. I do not
know what has become of the manuscript.

Agassiz, from his youth until his last illness, was over-
flowing with intellectual spirit and vitality. He is a
rare example of manly qualities and activities. His
influence on the progress and diffusion of natural his-
tory is second to none.

I have tried to bring him before the reader as I have
known him. If I do not produce an exact portrait of
the man and his life, it is due simply to my inability to
express my feeling for the man and his works. Born
at the foot of the Jura Mountains like Agassiz, and not
far from his birthplace, I passed my youth and was
educated under much the same circumstances as he,

x PREFACE.

and ought to be able to deal with the difficult task of
writing his biography, for I have had unusual opportu-
nities to know him and his surroundings in the Old
and New Worlds. I can truly say that the task of
writing his life has been a work of friendly love and
respect for the man, and of justice to the savant.

My aim has been constantly to make a judicious
blending of history, correspondence, and extracts from
his works, and of the estimation in which these are held
by others. Mrs. Agassiz's account of her husband's life
gives the character of Agassiz by means of a list of
qualities rather than a complete picture. As is very
likely to happen, her biography is rather a panegyric
than an analysis of character. I have her example con-
stantly before my eyes, in my endeavour not to fall into
the same error; as Massimo d'Azelio says: "I must
be honest, not only with the reader, but with myself ;
otherwise I should be treating the life of Agassiz like
a half-decayed peach, the spoilt part of which I should
cut out, and present only the sound portion."

Without passing over in silence the moral failings of
the man, and the inequalities of talent of the naturalist,
I have expressed all my admiration for this master of
natural history. The unity which is not to be found in
his acts or in his works will be found in his iron will ;
he had a fixed idea - - he wished to be the " first natural-
ist of his time," as he said in a letter to his father, when
he was still a student at Munich.

Although Agassiz was very ready to care for his own
interests, he never was a practical man, in the full
business sense of the word. Unable to choose suitable

PREFACE. xi

men as assistants and co-workers, he was very prompt
to make use of them, whenever they were competent.

I shall finish with a French sentence, very appropri-
ate to the Franco-Swiss savant, educated as a naturalist
in Germany, a constant admirer and pupil of Cuvier,

and finally a naturalized American. Agassiz "restera

\

une personnalite populaire et sympathique. A mesure
que ses defauts et ses faiblesses diminuent dans 1'eloigne-
ment, ses qualites maitresses apparaissent plus eclatantes
et font oublier tout le reste : il avait la foi, la vie, la
chaleur, 1'enthousiasme, la passion, et surtout ce qui le
rendait eminement sympathique, il ne connaissait pas
le fiel, 1'envie, la rancune et la haine."

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS,
March, 1895.

INTRODUCTION.

FRENCH was the native tongue of Louis Agassiz.
His remarkable and admirable mother knew neither
English nor German, but wrote French with great
purity and choice of expression. As one of the family
in Switzerland writes me, " ses lettres sont charmantes,
elle ecrivait a merveille." All the great works of
Agassiz, on which his reputation as an original natu-
ralist is based, are in the French language. The most
active part of his life, as regards great discoveries, was
spent at Neuchatel, then a small town, where French is
the only language spoken. Before he came to America,
all his correspondence with English naturalists was in
French ; so that it is almost impossible entirely to sup-
press this language in writing an accurate and true life
of him. Translations, however good, never give an
exact idea of what the author means, especially in
the case of difficult and delicate observations in natural
history.

After long consideration, I have, therefore, concluded
to give what I quote of his correspondence in the origi-
nal. All English-speaking naturalists read French now.
As the interest of such a book is limited to naturalists
and persons whose education leads them to read and

xiii

xiv INTRODUCTION.

appreciate the life of an extraordinary man, a few let-
ters and quotations in French, scattered through the
work, will present no difficulties to its readers. On the
contrary, they will be a sort of stimulant and a relish,
both scientifically and from a literary point of view.

For the same reason, an address — the most impor-
tant of the many delivered by Agassiz - - has been
reproduced in the original. It is his celebrated dis-
course of 1837, on a " Great Ice-age."

During the period from his twenty-third to his fortieth
year, Agassiz wrote many letters in German, mainly of
a private nature, addressed to members of his German
family or to a few most intimate friends. Almost all
his scientific letters were directed to his old professor
at Heidelberg, H. G. Bronn, and have been published
in the " Neues Jahrbuch fiir Mineralogie, Geologic und
Petrefaktenkunde." Although he was a perfect master
of German, speaking and writing it like a native of
Heidelberg or Munich, he never published important
papers in that language, only a few pamphlets, the
principal one being his reply to Karl Schimper's claims,
4 pp. 4to.

Agassiz's remarkable personality cannot be properly
understood without taking into account the strength of
his French nature. A Franco-Swiss he was born ; and
a Franco-Swiss he remained all his life, notwithstanding
his American naturalization and his great admiration
of the New World in general, and of the United States
in particular.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I.
1807-1827.

PAGE

Ancestry — Origin of the Name Agassiz — Coat-of-Arms — Boy-
hood — Motier-en-Vuly — Reputation of Louis's Father as a
Teacher — College of Bienne — Vintage-time at Motier — Some
Peculiarities in the Character of Louis Agassiz — College Studies
at Lausanne — His Resolution to be a Naturalist — University of
Ziirich — His First Teacher of Zoology, M. Schinz — " First at Work
and first at Play ! " — University of Heidelberg — Alexander Braun,
Karl Schimper, and Agassiz — First Visit to the Braun Family at
Carlsruhe — Typhoid Fever — His Stay at Orbe i

CHAPTER II.
1827-1831.

Journey from Carlsruhe to Munich — His Evolution from a French-
Swiss to a German Student — His Duel at Heidelberg — Univer-
sity of Munich — Doctor of Philosophy — Martius's Proposal to
publish Spix's Fishes from Brazil — Publication of his First Great
Work on Natural History — Doctor of Medicine and Surgery —
Beginning of his Researches on the " Poissons Fossiles " — His
Method of publishing his Works — His Desire to be the First
Naturalist of his Time — Visit to Vienna — Return Home with
Artist Dinkel — Life at Concise — Christinat — Opportune Help
for a Trip to Paris - - His Journey " en Zig-zag " by way of
Carlsruhe ........... 20

xv

xvi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III.
1831-1832.

PAGE

First Visit to Paris — His Relations with Cuvier — Humboldt charmed
with him — His Visit to the Seashore at Dieppe — Death of
Cuvier — Sketch of Cuvier's Life — Cuvier and Geoffrey St. Hilaire

— Their Discussion before the French Academy of Science —
Cuvier's Influence on Agassiz — Difficulty of getting an Official
Position in Paris — Appointed Professor at the Lyceum of Neu-
chatel ............ 36

CHAPTER IV.

1832-1835.

Agassiz's First Establishment at Neuchatel — Foundation of the
" Societe des Sciences Naturelles," on the 6th of December, 1832

— An Offer of a Chair at the University of Heidelberg declined —
Letter of Humboldt — Engagement of Alexander Braun with Miss
Cecile Guyot and that of Karl Schimper with Miss Emmy Braun
broken off — Marriage of Agassiz with Miss Cecile Braun — Publi-
cation of the First Part of the "Fossil Fishes" — First Visit to
England in 1834 — "Monographic des Echinodermes " — Des
Moulins's Work on the Same Subject — Criticisms of Humboldt
and von Buch — Second Visit to England in 1835 — Birth of a
Son — Four Letters to Pictet and Nicolet 50

CHAPTER V.
1836-1837.

The Wollaston Medal — First Paper of de Charpentier on the Glacial
Theory — Venetz's Observations on Large Boulders perched on
the Sides of the Alpine Valleys — Dr. Hermann Lebert, the First
Disciple and Pupil of de Charpentier and Venetz -- Extract from
de Charpentier's First Paper — Agassiz's Summer Vacation at Bex,
near the House of de Charpentier — Conversion of Agassiz to the
Glacial Theory; his Creation of the Ice-age — Karl Schimper
visits Agassiz at Bex and at Neuchatel — Discours de Neuchatel
July 24, 1837, on the Ice-age ....... 72

CONTENTS. xvii

CHAPTER VI.

1836-1837 (continued} and 1838.

PAGE

Discussion raised by Agassiz's Discourse at Neuchatel — Agassiz's
Great Reputation at the Early Age of Thirty Years — Death of his
Father — Laurillard the Assistant of Cuvier — The Establishment
of Hercule Nicolet's Lithography at Neuchatel — Dr. Vogt of
Berne sends Agassiz Edward Desor as a Secretary — Offer of a
Chair at the Academies of Geneva and Lausanne — First Visit to
the Bernese Alps — Two Letters to Jules Thurmann — A Visit to
Chamounix — The Meeting of the Geological Society of France at
Porrentruy — First Use of Lithochromy for the Plates of Fossil
Fishes — The Geologist Armand Gressly — Agassiz created a
" Bourgeois " of Neuchatel — Organization of an Academy at
Neuchatel 109

CHAPTER VII.
1839-1840.

Agassiz's Scientific Activity ; the Help rendered by his Secretary
Desor — An Interesting Business Letter to Pictet — Dispute with
Edward Charlesworth about the French and German Translation
of Sowerby's " Mineral Conchology" — Visit to the Monte Rosa
and the Matterhorn — The Geologist Voltz of Strasbourg — Stu-
der's Conversion to the Glacial Doctrine — Old Glaciers in the
Vosges — Search on the Glacier of the Aar for Hugi's Old Cabin
— Karl Vogt's Arrival as Assistant to Agassiz — The Household
and Laboratory of Agassiz at Neuchatel — The " Echinodermes
fossiles de la Suisse " — " Etudes sur les Glaciers " — The " Essai
sur les Glaciers," by de Charpentier — Letter of Agassiz to de Char-
pentier — The "Hotel des Neuchatelois " on the Aar Glacier —
Visit of Mrs. Agassiz and Alexander to the Glacier — Journey to
England — The Glacial Theory in England — Agassiz's Discovery
of Ancient Glaciers in Scotland, Ireland, and England — Letter to
Humboldt ..... ... . 137

CHAPTER VIII.
1841-1842.

Visit during the Winter to the Aar Glacier — Letters to Jules Thur-
mann and to Eugenic Sismonda — " Monographic d'Echinodermes

xviii CONTENTS.

PAGE

vivants et fossiles" — Letter to Deshayes — Another Letter to
Thurmann — Visit of James D. Forbes at the "Hotel des Neucha*-
telois" — Ascent of the Jungfrau — Other Visitors at the " Hotel
des Neuchatelois" — Forbes at Neuchatel and La Chaux-de-fonds

— Inauguration of the Academy of Neuchatel, i8th of November,
1841 — Agassiz's Letter to the Rector of the Academy — His Ap-
pointment as Rector for the Year 1842-1843 — Controversy with
James D. Forbes on the Laminated Structure of Glaciers — A New
Cabin to replace the " Hotel des Neuchatelois " — Stay at the Aar
Glacier from the Beginning of July, 1842, to the Middle of Septem-
ber — Discoveries of John Tyndall — Dispute with Karl Schimper

— Daniel Dollfus-Ausset . . . . . . . . 175

CHAPTER IX.

1843-1844.

" Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles," 1833-1843 — Review of it by
Jules Pictet de la Rive — Dr. A. Gunther's Opinion — Agassiz's
Errors with the Eocene Fossil Fishes of Claris (Switzerland) —
The Part taken by Collaborators in the " Poissons Fossiles " —
Another Visit to the Glacier of the Aar — The Meeting of the
Helvetic Society at Lausanne, July, 1843 — Agassiz's Hospitality
at Neuchatel — False Position of his Secretary, Desor, and his
Assistant, Vogt — Scientific Life in Neuchatel — " Monographies
des Poissons Fossiles du Vieux Gres Rouge," 1844 — The' Geol-
ogist and Stonecutter, Hugh Miller — " Histoire Naturelle des
Poissons d'Eau douce" — Karl Vogt leaves Agassiz — Extraordi-
nary Session of the Geological Society of France at Chambery
(Savoy) — Failure of Nicolet's Lithographic Establishment —
Dinkel leaves Neuchatel — Illness of Gressly . . . .211

CHAPTER X.

1845.

"Monographic des Myes," 1842-1845 - -The " Nomenclator Zoolo-
gicus," 1842-1845 — " Bibliographia Zoologize et Geologise"
" Iconographie des Coquilles tertiaires reputees Identiques avec les
Especes Vivantes," etc. — The Two Translations of Sowerby's
" Mineral Conchology of Great Britain " — Actual Mercantile

CONTENTS. xix

PAGE

Value of Agassiz's Publications — Agassiz's Family come to his
Help - - Great Credit due to Neuchatel and its Inhabitants —
Agassiz's Last Series of Lectures : " Notice sur la Geographic des
Animaux " — Intimate Friendship with Jules Pictet de la Rive —
Agassiz's Last Visit to the Aar Glacier — The Meeting of the
Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences at Geneva, August, 1845-
A Letter to Pictet, with Biographical Remarks — Biography of
Agassiz by Pictet — Agassiz returns all the Specimens borrowed
for his Great Pakeontological Works ...... 239

CHAPTER XI.
1846.

Departure from Neuchatel, March, 1846 — Arrival in Paris and
Sojourn at the " Hotel du Jardin du Roi " — " Nouvelles Etudes
sur les Glaciers actuels " — The Glacial Theory before the Geo-
logical Society of France, at the Meeting of the 6th of April, 1846
— Agassiz's " Catalogue Raisonne des Echinodermes " — His
Work in the " Galerie de Zoologie " and among the Private Collec-
tions of Brongniart, de France, Deshayes, d'Orbigny, de Verneuil,
etc. — Desor's Presumption, in putting his Name on the Title
Page, without Agassiz's Knowledge — Attentions paid to Agassiz
by Thiers — Indirect Offer of Official Positions at Paris declined —
Short Visit to England, to meet Charles Lyell — On a Cunard
Steamship from Liverpool to Boston ...... 258

CHAPTER XII.
1846

Arrival in America, and Reception by Mr. John A. Lowell — Condition
of Natural History in the United States — His First Visit to New
York — His Acquaintance with Dr. Samuel Morton, of Philadelphia
— Collections of Captain Wrilkes made during his Expedition
round the World, seen at Washington — Science at the Capital
of the United States — Agassiz's First Series of Lectures before
the Lowell Institute at Boston — His Success — A Course on the
Glaciers, in French — Frank de Pourtales joins him — Charles-
ton, South Carolina — His Observations on the Negroes — His Dis-

xx CONTENTS.

PAGE

approval of Slavery — Arrival at New York of his Two Assistants,
Desor and Girard - - Establishment at East Boston — Sickness of
Agassiz — His Hospitality — A Visit to Niagara Falls — On Board
the United States Coast Survey Steamer, the Bibb — Arrival of
Minister Charles Louis Philippe Christinat — First Difficulties with
his Secretary --Two letters to J. Marcou, extending an Invitation
to join him ........... 279

ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOL. I.

PORTRAIT OF Louis AGASSIZ, 1872 . . . Frontispiece
SKETCH MAP OF PART OF SWITZERLAND . 6

HOTEL DES NEUCHATELOIS, AUGUST, 1842 . . , . 201

XXI

CHAPTER I.

1807-1827.

ANCESTRY — ORIGIN OF THE NAME AGASSIZ — COAT-OF-ARMS — BOYHOOD

— MOTIER-EN-VULY — REPUTATION OF LOUIS'S FATHER AS A TEACHER

— COLLEGE OF BlENNE — VlNTAGE-TIME AT MOTIER — SOME PECULI-
ARITIES IN THE CHARACTER OF Louis AGASSIZ — COLLEGE STUDIES
AT LAUSANNE — His RESOLUTION TO BE A NATURALIST --UNIVERSITY
OF ZURICH — His FIRST TEACHER OF ZOOLOGY, M. SCHINZ — "FIRST
AT WORK AND FIRST AT PLAY!" — UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG —
ALEXANDER BRAUN, KARL SCHIMPER, AND AGASSIZ — FIRST VISIT
TO THE BRAUN FAMILY AT CARLSRUHE — TYPHOID FEVER — His
STAY AT ORBE.

THE Agassiz family came originally from Orbe and
the small village of Bavois, in the ''Jura Vaudois." A
little west of Orbe there is a small hamlet, called Agiez
or Agiz. In old French, and more especially in the
patois of the Canton de Vaud, Agiz, Agiez, Agasse,
Agassiz, and Aigasse1 mean "magpie," a bird which
was and is still very common in the country around
Orbe and La Sarraz. In low Latin, magpie is Agasia ;
in Provencal, Agazia, or Agassa, and Agasse ; while in
Burgundy and Franche-Comte it is Aiguaisse. Obvi-

1 "Agassiz ou Agasses ou Agaisse; dans toute la France ces trois noms
signifient Pie. Autrefois Agassiz s'ecrivait un pen differement Agacie.
C'etait un surnom donne jadis aux querelleurs, dit-on, et aussi aux grands
causeurs. — On salt combien la Pie est jaseuse." (See " Dictionnaire des
noms," par Loredan-Larchey, p. 4, Paris, 1880.)

B I

2 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. i.

ously the name of the family was derived from the
name of the bird ; as evidence of this, the old armoiries
or coat-of-arms of the Agassiz family is a black magpie
on a silver ground (Pic noire sur fond d ' argejit), a
drawing of which may be seen on the title-page. It is
still preserved in the family in Switzerland, which also
possesses an old seal, engraved on copper, with the
same bird in the centre. Formerly, among all French-
speaking peoples it was the custom for ennobled
burghers to adopt for their coat-of-arms what was
called " armes parlantes," and the Agassiz of Orbe
chose the magpie.

Originally, the name was doubtless given to one
inclined to talk a little too much, — as the French
proverb has it, "bavard comme une pie."

One of the most faithful correspondents and best
friends of Agassiz, Sir Philip de Grey Egerton, the
great English paleoichthyologist, an excellent French
scholar, used often to call him " Mon cher Agass " as a
reminder of his knowledge of old French and patois.

The name Agassiz is not very rare, and is found
among French people not connected in any way with
the original family of Louis Agassiz. However, a
branch of his family emigrated to London, and some
fifty or more years ago a family of bankers of the
name of Agassiz was there, who occasionally corre-
sponded with their relatives of the Canton de Vaud.
One of them published, in 1833, a book of travels under
the title, "Journey to Switzerland and Pedestrian Tours
in that Country" (London, Svo), a work which is some-
times wrongly attributed to Louis Agassiz.

1807-27.] ORIGIN OF THE NAME AGASSIZ. 3

At the beginning of this century there was in Paris
a M. Agasse, a publisher and bookseller, who published
in 1804 the third edition of "La Flore frangaise," by
Lamarck and De Candolle.

The celebrated La Fontaine, in his fable " L'Aigle et
la Pie," says : -

•• L'aigle, reine des airs, avec Margot la pie,
Differentes d'humeur, de langage, et d'esprit,

Et d'habit,

Traversaient un bout de prairie.
Le hazard les assemble en un coin detourne.
L' Agasse 1 eut peur ; mais PAigle ayant fort bien dine*,
La rassure. et lui dit : * Allons de compagnie ;
Si le maitre des dieux assez souvent s'ennuie,
Lui qui gouverne 1'univers,

J'en puis bien faire autant, moi qu'on sait qui le sers.
Entretenez-moi done, et sans ceremonie.'
Caquet-bon-bec alors de jaser au plus dru,
Sur ceci, sur cela, sur tout. L'homme d'Horace,
Disant le bien, le mal, a travers champs, iveut su
Ce qiren fait de babil y savait notre Agasse."

The name is also found in Italy, but omits the 2 at
the end.

In the Arabic or Mauresque and Saracenic language
the expression " Kol-Agassiz ' means wing-leader, a
sort of field officer occupying a position between captain
and major, called in Turkish " Bin-Bashi." So in
Arabic Agassiz means conductor, leader. The origin of
the Swiss name evidently differs from that of the
Mauresque and Saracenic word.

1 " Agasse, vieux mot qui vient de 1'italien gazza, signiliant Pie."

4 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. i.

That the Agassiz were descendants of French Hu-
guenots, and were obliged to leave France at the
revocation of the "edit de Nantes," is a tradition with-
out any solid basis of fact to rest upon. Indeed, the
name Agassiz existed as far back as the thirteenth
century in the Canton de Vaud ; but it is impossible to
trace the family, because all the papers belonging to
the Agassiz were destroyed in a fire at the parsonage
of Constantine, in the Canton de Vaud, where the
grandfather of Louis was settled as pastor, — a pro-
fession followed in the family for five generations.

Very likely an Agassiz married a French Huguenot;
for at the time of the revocation the French Protestant
exiles flocked into Switzerland, and settled in large
numbers at Orbe and in the environs ; almost com-
pletely filling the villages now known as Ballaigues,
Vallorbe, and La Vallee de Joux, and it is possible that
an Agassiz married among them ; which may account
for the tradition.

There is much to favour the belief in a connection of
the Agassiz with some French family of the Cevennes,
or of Provence ; for the extraordinary imagination of
Louis Agassiz points to a close connection with the
children of sunny Provence, so well portrayed by
Alphonse Daudet in his series of romances on Tartarin
of Tarascon.

The family features are, however, entirely Swiss, and
even Jurassic. In general, they are broad shouldered,
thickly built, bony, with fair-coloured faces, and rather
slow in their movements, — a type very frequently met
all along the foot of the mountains of the Jura, more

1807-27.] BOYHOOD. 5

especially from Bienne down to Orbe and " la perte du
Rhone."

The father of Louis was called Rodolphe Benjamin
Louis; he was born March 3, 1776, and died Sept. 6,
1837. His mother, Rose Mayor, was born July 11,
1783, and died Nov. n, 1867. Jean Louis Rodolphe
Agassiz was born May 28, 1807, at the parsonage of
Motier-en-Vuly, on the Lake of Morat, Canton of Fri-
bourg. He was the fifth child, but the four others hav-
ing died in their infancy, Louis Agassiz was the eldest
child. As is the custom among all French-speaking
people, he never used his full Christian name, but
signed himself simply Louis Agassiz.

At the beginning of this century, and before coming
to the parish of Motier, his father had been pastor at
St. Imier, then a very poor and remote valley, lost
among the mountains of the Jura. The loss of his
children, one after another, and the great isolation of
St. Imier, far away from his kindred and friends, led
him to look for a better parish, and, in 1806, he came
to Motier,1 first as a " suffragan " (assistant) of the titu-
lar minister, J. R. Martin; afterward, on Aug. 31, 1810,
he was elected "pasteur" (minister).

The parish of Motier consists of four small villages,
located at the eastern foot of Mont Vuly, on the Lake
of Morat, and containing in all five hundred inhabitants.
Singularly enough, Vuly belongs to the Roman Catho-

1 The name is sometimes spelled Metiers, and to distinguish it from
another Metiers in the Val Travers, it is called Motier-en-Vully. The
spelling varies as well for Vully as for Motier,. Metiers, or Moutiers, and is
written sometimes Vuilly, Vuly, or Vully.

6 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. i.

lie Canton of Fribourg ; but in consequence of its situa-
tion on the extreme frontier of the Canton of Berne, it
was invested with the right of com-burghership, " corn-
bourgeoisie," with Berne.

When, in 1530, the celebrated reformer, Farel, suc-
ceeded in converting the parish of Motier, the council
of Fribourg complained to Berne of his preaching in
the Vuly ; deputies were sent therefore from Berne
to meet at Morat together with four delegates from
the four principal villages of the Vuly, who concluded
to put the matter to vote under the direction of " Mes-
sieurs de Berne."1 The reform movement received the
majority of votes in the four villages of the Motier
parish, and it has ever since been Protestant, notwith-
standing the fact that it belongs to a very strong and
uncompromising Catholic canton.

The Vuly is situated at the extreme end of a prom-
ontory, surrounded by water on three sides ; on the east
by the Lake of Morat, on the north by the river La
Broye, and on the west by the Lake of Neuchatel. The
Seeland of Berne, comprised between Kersers, Treiten,
Aarberg, and Bienne, constitutes, with the lakes of
Morat, Neuchatel, and Bienne, a very extensive sheet
of water.

As soon as the young couple had left the trying cli-
mate of St. Imier, with its long and very cold winter,
and had settled in the fine agricultural district of the
Vuly, with its vineyards and orchards, prosperity and
happiness greeted them from every direction. Four

1 A name formerly used among the Swiss who speak the French lan-
guage to designate all those in authority in the Canton of Berne.

c/e Fonds

Neuchatel

Grandson
Montagny®

Ste,Qi-oix @

\
ffVallorbe

Mot!ef_, --Birthplace of Louis Ayassiz

Qrbe & Bavois_Origin of the Agasslz's family

Cuuier

,, Cuvier's

Pouutnej i Carmichael

Sketch Map of Part of Switzerland.

1807-27.] MOTIER-EN--VULY. 7

healthy children — two sons, Louis and Auguste, and
two daughters, Olympe and Cecile — were born to
them ; and although the parish was small and conse-
quently of limited means, it was most gratifying to find
themselves among relatives and friends ; for pastor
Agassiz had resided for some time at Constantine, a
village near Avranches, where his father was minister,
and it was during his stay there that he became ac-
quainted with Miss Rose Mayor, his future wife, who
was a daughter of the country physician at Cudrefin, a
village only a few miles distant from Motier. It may
be said that the inhabitants of the whole peninsula
of Vuly, Cudrefin, and Constantine, greeted pastor
Agassiz and his wife, as their own people returned.

Born and educated in such a place as Motier, sur-
rounded by water and marshes, with the Oberland
always in full view in front, and the summit of the
Jura in the rear, it is no wonder that Agassiz became
an ichthyologist and a glacialist. Everything which
met his eye, from infancy until manhood, seems to
have awaked in him a curiosity to know his surround-
ings. It was as natural for him to take to the study
of fishes and of glaciers as it is for sons of seamen to
go to sea, or for "vignerons" (vine-dressers) to go to
the vineyard, or for the " gauchos " to ride on the prai-
ries of South America, or for the Arabs to cross the
desert on camels. It might almost be said that Louis
Agassiz, as we shall see more fully by and by, was a re-
markable instance of atavism of the Swiss lake-dwellers
of prehistoric time.

Almost as soon as he was able to move alone, he

8 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. i.

took naturally to water, like a young duck. All the
fishermen became at once very fond of the little fellow,
and there was a friendly rivalry among them to get him
into their boats and show him how to catch fish. In a
relatively short time he became a great favourite, and
every one wanted to show the parson's son those neigh-
bourly attentions which are of daily occurrence, and form
a part, and an important part, of life, among all the
country people residing in such isolated places as the
Vuly.

A part of the duty of a minister in Switzerland is to
look after the schools and even to take a part, and often
not a small one, in the teaching. Parson Agassiz was
a very successful and excellent teacher ; indeed, in all
his parishes, both at St. Imier and at Metier, and after-
ward at Orbe and Concise, his reputation as a teacher
was far superior to his reputation as a preacher.

Louis was by far the best pupil of his father ; for not
only did he learn from him the elements, and lay an
excellent foundation for his future education, but he
caught from him his method of teaching, which was
based entirely on the interest he always tried to awaken
among his pupils in the subject of study. There is
no doubt this was a family inheritance, and that it
developed and attained its maximum with Louis. It
may be said that Louis Agassiz was born with a true
passion for teaching, as truly as that he was born a
naturalist. As we shall see, he remained a teacher
until the end of his life, changing his subjects of studies
quite often, and showing a rather capricious character in
many ways, except in his unalterable love of teaching.

1807-27.] COLLEGE OF BIENNE. 9

Next to his passion for teaching, but developed before
it, was his passion for collecting all sorts of objects be-
longing to natural history. As soon as he was able to
catch fish, he brought them alive and placed them in a
great stone basin of the fountain of the parsonage.1 It
is the custom in the Canton de Vaud and the neighbour-
ing Swiss cantons to use boulders for basins, either to
receive the water flowing from springs, or to hold the
fruit of the vintage when the grapes are brought from
the vineyard to be pressed and converted into wine.
These boulders are generally of Alpine granite, and are
cut into the proper shape, great care being taken not to
break them, but to keep the block one great monolith.
Such an Alpine boulder was the basin of the Motier
parsonage, used as a mvier or aquarium by our young
ichthyologist. It is not strange that, later in life, Agassiz
became such an expert in boulders transported by gla-
ciers ; and it seems specially appropriate that one of
them, transported from the Alps, should be his tomb-
stone in America.

At the age of ten years, he was sent to the College of
Bienne, to begin his classical studies ; finishing them at
the Academy of Lausanne in 1822-1824. He was a
very clever student, but never had much inclination for
mathematics and the physical and chemical sciences.
He always showed great capacity for languages, be-
coming quite proficient in Latin and Greek, and when
at Bienne, learning German and Italian, especially the

1 " Le fils d'un pasteur du Canton de Vaud, dont le pere, ne savait que
faire de ce gar$on courant toujours les champs et toutes les rives du Lac a
chercher des betes" as one of the contemporaries of his youth said.

io LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. i.

former, which he spoke like a native. Geography was
another favourite study.

His brother Auguste, younger by two years, joined
him, a year later, at the College of Bienne, and the
two brothers kept together during all their classical
studies. The distance between Motier and Bienne -
about seven leagues — was always made on foot ; and,
considering their extreme youth, it was quite a journey
for such little fellows. But they were excellent walkers;
and though at first the route was difficult, further on they
crossed over the " Seeland," or marshy country, and the
western shore of the Lake of Bienne, and reached their
destination in eight hours, not over-fatigued. I heard
both say, many years after, that it was shorter and
easier to go home from Bienne than it was to go to the
college at Bienne from home. Going home to pass
the vacations was, of course, such an attraction that the
roads seemed neither so long nor so dirty; besides, these
journeys always happened at a fine time of the year;
for college vacations then in all the Jura region were
during the fall, from the first of September to the first
of November. Louis's great strength and already
vigorous vitality are finely illustrated by two anec-
dotes : Arriving quite unexpected from Bienne with
his brother, he learned at Motier that his sisters with
their cousins Mayor were at their grandfather's house
at Cudrefin. At once he started again ; but on his
arrival at Cudrefin, he found all the young ladies
enjoying a bath in the lake, at some distance from
the shore. In order not to lose a moment, he jumped
into the water with his clothes on, that he might the

1807-27.] VINTAGE-TIME AT MOTIER. 11

more promptly greet and kiss sisters and cousins,- -the
latter especially, for with one of them he was already
in love; and to express his great admiration for this
cousin he could find nothing better to do than to have
her name tattooed on his left arm with sulphuric acid.
The result was a severe attack of fever, and two or
three weeks of forced inaction and rest for his arm,
which betrayed his act to the whole family.

The two brothers divided their vacations between
Motier and Cudrefin, where they enjoyed all the free-
dom of country life and the comforts of home and fam-
ily surroundings. Their time was passed in fishing,
rambling about with their grandfather, Dr. Mayor, in
his daily excursions as a country doctor, in gathering
in the second crop .of hay, called "regain," and in the
"vendanges." This last occupation was the most pleas-
ing ; for when the vineyards were richly laden with
grapes, the labourers of the Canton of Berne — where
there are no vineyards on account of the severity of
the climate- -gathered by troops from all around the
shores of the Lake of Neuchatel, to offer themselves
as "vendangeurs," or vintagers, during the time of the
gathering of the grapes and the process of crushing
the juice under the " pressoir." It was a true festival,
when everybody, young and old, was happy, singing
throughout the day and calling from vineyard to vine-
yard. In the evening at supper, all the " vendangeurs '
sat at the table with the proprietors, and the most pro-
ficient singers were called, one after another, to sing
popular songs, which were closed in chorus by the
whole company. Light wines were used very freely

12 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. i.

and the cups were continually filled and emptied
during these very joyous and friendly repasts. For
it must be kept in mind that the same labourers used
to come every year, and the meetings were more or less
reunions of old acquaintances, always full of reminis-
cences of preceding years.

Mingling so freely with the people round him, it
would seem that Louis must have become an expert
in horsemanship and the use of firearms, like almost
all young men raised in country places in Switzerland.
But this was not the case. Trusting to his great
powers of swimming, and led on by his love for
fish-catching, Louis was always ready to embark on
skiff or raft of any sort. But on land it was very
different. In Switzerland no one ever saw him on
horseback ; and it is doubtful if he ever tried to ride,
except once in Brazil. All his life he invariably de-
clined to mount horse or mule. As to shooting, he
never possessed firearms, and never joined a shooting
club, and probably never fired a single shot during his
life in Europe. He is a very remarkable exception among
the Swiss of the present century, for he never performed
any military service. The great "Tirs Federaux" never
attracted him, and his passion for natural history never
carried him so far as to shoot birds or animals of any
sort.

Curiously enough, when a student at the universities
of Zurich, Heidelberg, and Munich, he became a great
fencer ; and one of his contemporaries and friends
writes me that Agassiz was an excellent swordsman,
using the rapier with great dexterity, and very ready

1807-27.] COLLEGE OF LAUSANNE. 13

to make use of it when discussions degenerated into
quarrels and obliged the contestants to be called out.
At Munich especially he was well known on account of
several duels, which he fought to his credit and always
successfully.

At the age of fifteen, it was decided that he should
enter, as a clerk, the commercial house of his uncle,
Francois Mayor, at Neuchatel. But on account of his
ability as a scholar, he was allowed to finish his college
studies at Lausanne, where he studied " belles lettres '
and the humanities for two years, 1822-1824. It was
during his stay at Lausanne that he gave the first indica-
tion of the possession of the characteristics which after-
ward developed so strongly in him as a savant and as a
man. Another of his uncles, Dr. Mathias Mayor, had
great reputation as a physician, and a large practice at
Lausanne and in all Romande Switzerland ; and from
him Louis learned the elements of anatomy. At the
same time, he had his first opportunity to see a small
museum of natural history, the Cantonal Museum, di-
rected by Professor D. A. Chavannes, an entomologist of
some note. The Helvetic Society of Natural History,
founded at Geneva in 1816, had already collected a small
band of Swiss naturalists of great talent, and Agassiz,
during his stay at Lausanne, had the good fortune to
meet Jean de Charpentier, director of the salt mines of
Bex. He was much impressed by the fine face and
splendid intellect of de Charpentier ; a rare and perfect
type of savant ; and, influenced by the impression he re-
ceived from his uncle, Dr. Mayor, Jean de Charpentier,
and Professors Lardy and Chavannes, he resolved to be-

i4 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. i.

come a naturalist; and, as the only way of accomplishing
this, he asked his father to let him study medicine, his
ambition at that time being to become a country doctor,
with full time and opportunity to study the natural his-
tory of the Canton de Vaud.

Agassiz was a rather precocious young man ; and
coming to the age of manhood, he was at once a great
admirer of the fair sex. It had always been a charac-
teristic of the Agassiz family, well known among their
kin of the Canton de Vaud; and Mrs. Rose Agassiz,
who knew the family better than any one, and was
always of a practical and far-seeing turn of mind,
as far back as January, 1828, in one of her letters
to Louis, says : " The sooner you have finished your
studies, the sooner you can put up your tent, catch
your blue butterfly, and metamorphose her into a lov-
ing housewife."1 The unusual case of the old pastor
Rudolphe, the grandfather of Louis, who married a
second time at the ripe age of sixty-six years, was much
commented upon at the time in the commonwealth.

In 1824 Louis went to the University of Zurich to
pursue the medical course and prepare to become a
doctor. Zurich was an old centre of culture, and he
found there genial surroundings. The professor of
natural history, Schinz, at once saw the rare qualifica-
tions of Agassiz to become a naturalist, and gave him
every opportunity for the study of ornithology, which
was his favourite branch. At Lausanne, although a
very brilliant student, he was not so much above his

1 " Louis Agassiz," by Mrs. E. C. Agussiz, Vol. I., p. 62.

1807-27.] UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH. 15

comrades, for the Vaudois youth are almost all very
bright and remarkably intelligent ; but at Zurich it was
different. The students there were, for the most part,
German Swiss, rather slow, quiet, steady in their work,
and not apt to awaken interest of any sort. Agassiz at
once attracted the attention of all the students by his
quick perception, his witty remarks, and more especially
by his constant show of varied knowledge. One of them,
many years after, said to me, " Agassiz knew everything,
and he was always ready to demonstrate and speak on
any subject. If it was a subject which he was not famil-
iar with, he would study and rapidly master it ; and on
the next occasion, he would speak in such brilliant terms
and with such profound erudition that he was a source
of constant wonder to all of us."

At Zurich, Agassiz not only enjoyed the teaching of
the zoologist Schinz, but he also often saw the geologist
Gesner Escher, the celebrated engineer of the Linth
River, and became a great friend of his son, Arnold
Escher von der Linth; a friendship which lasted all
their lives, notwithstanding great difference of char-
acter and even of opinion, Arnold Escher being an
observer in the field, while Agassiz was more of a
laboratory, museum, and lecture-room man.

Not only did Louis Agassiz astonish his fellow-stu-
dents at Zurich by the variety of his knowledge, but he
was also a wonder to them in his capacity as a pleas-
ure-seeker. At " Kommers ' he was always first to
come and last to go, his strong constitution requiring
an absorption of food and drink which left all the
others far behind him, and won for him the reputation

16 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. i.

of being what the French call a "belle fourchette," or
one who wields a good knife and fork. From this time
he took for his motto, " First at work, and first at
play," and carried it through all his life, with rare
interruptions. Such an ambition required a Herculean
constitution, which he certainly possessed ; but notwith-
standing his strength, this burning of the candle at both
ends no doubt finally shortened his life.

In 1826, after two years at Zurich, Agassiz went to
the University of Heidelberg, where he stayed eighteen
months. There he made acquaintances which influ-
enced him as much as he could be influenced for
the rest of his life. His studies took a more decided
direction toward natural history, under the leadership of
Professors Tiedemann (in comparative anatomy), Leuc-
kart (in zoology), Bischoff (in botany), and H. G.
Bronn (in geology and palaeontology). While attend-
ing the lectures of Tiedemann and Bischoff, Agassiz
became acquainted with Alexander Braun and Karl
Schimper, two very brilliant botanical students ; and
they very soon became congenial and inseparable com-
panions, not only during their courses at Heidelberg
and afterward at Munich, but even during the first
decade after leaving the universities.

Alexander Braun was the son of the postmaster-
general of the Grand Duchy of Baden, who resided at
Carlsruhe. As Heidelberg was very near Carlsruhe,
Braun took home with him his three friends, - - Agassiz,
Schimper, and Imhoff (afterwards a distinguished
entomologist of Bale), --to pass their vacations. It
was a great time, not only for the four intimate young

1807-27.] UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG. 17

naturalists, but also for the inmates of the house of
Postmaster-general Braun. Besides a family of four
children, two sons and two daughters, there was living
in the family a young Swiss student, Arnold Guyot of
Neuchatel, then learning the German language, and
preparing for the ministry. Postmaster-general Braun
was very scientific in his tastes, and possessed one of
the best collections of minerals then existing in Ger-
many. His house, near one of the city gates, was large
enough to admit and lodge comfortably all this com-
pany of young people, who rambled through the forests
and fields, ransacking every corner where plants and
animals were to be found. They had special rooms
devoted to dissections, true laboratories ; and here they
brought their specimens, and for hours together dis-
cussed and theorized on all kinds of natural-history
subjects.

I shall, farther on, speak at length of Alexander
Braun and his younger brother Max, and also of Karl
Schimper ; but for the present I need only say that the
two daughters, Emmy and Cecilia, were both very
attractive, and soon received marked attentions, which
afterward changed into courtship, from two of the visit-
ors, Louis Agassiz and Karl Schimper. The younger,
Miss Cecilia, or " Cily," as she was familiarly called,
possessed a remarkable talent for drawing, and would
have become an artist of repute if she had devoted
her life to the fine arts. She was very sensible, affec-
tionate, and unaffected, and soon felt the influence of
Agassiz's attractive personality. Her talent for drawing
was constantly brought into demand by the specimens

1 8 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. i.

of natural history which they collected ; and when, in
the spring of 1827, Agassiz was brought back to Carls-
ruhe a convalescent, after a very severe and dangerous
illness of typhoid fever, the care bestowed on him by
the whole Braun family, and more especially by Miss
Cecilia, resulted in an engagement of marriage. Dur-
ing his sickness at Heidelberg, Alexander Braun did
not leave him until he took him to his father's house
at Carlsruhe, as soon as his convalescence allowed his
removal. Later he accompanied him to Orbe, in Switzer-
land, where Agassiz's parents were then living, and left
him only when he saw him rapidly gaining health in
the life-giving air of the " Jura Vaudois," the native
country of the Agassiz family.

As soon as he had recovered sufficiently to walk
about, Agassiz, who always was an excellent pedes-
trian, began to explore the environs of Orbe, as a nat-
uralist, collecting plants, insects, and his dear fishes ;
for he never lost sight of fishes for any length of time.
The Jura Vaudois, during the summer months, is one
of the most beautiful countries to visit, and, received as
he was with great pleasure, as a guest at the houses of
the pastors of Ballaigues, Vallorbe, Beaulmes, Ste.
Croix, and other places, he was enabled to make a
thorough exploration of Mount Suchet, 1591 metres in
height, of the Dent de Vaulion, 1486 metres, of the Ai-
guilles de Beaulmes, 1563 metres, and of the valley of
the Orbe River. At this time he first felt that love for
the Jura Mountains which lasted until the end of his life.
It was during this stay at Orbe that he wrote his first
essay in natural history, a catalogue of all the plants

1807-27.] STAY AT ORBE. 19

growing in the Jura Vaudois. I do not know that it
was ever published. I was led to think that it was,
when Agassiz, speaking many years after of the Suchet
Mountain, which he remembered with the freshness of
a young man who has just visited them, said to me,
" Do you know, it was the first work I did in natural
history — an entirely botanical one." I have been un-
able to discover the work, however, and no one of his
Swiss family has ever heard of it. It is only just to say
that he was much helped in his botanical explorations
round Orbe by the " suffragan," or assistant pastor of
his father, Marc Louis Fivaz, like Agassiz an enthusiast
in natural history. Fivaz soon abandoned all his re-
searches in natural history, however, although he held
the professorship of botany at the Academy of Lau-
sanne, and became a voluntary evangelist in the interior
of the west of New York, where he lived, in Tioga
County, until his death.

This summer of 1827, when he had just attained his
twentieth year, gave Agassiz his first real opportunity to
work as a naturalist ; and, as was always his custom in
later life, he induced those around him to help him in
collecting specimens and in making drawings. Besides
his friend Marc Fivaz, who accompanied him in all his
excursions, he put his younger sister, Cecile, to work
drawing fishes and butterflies. His first two artists of
natural history specimens, therefore, were two Ceciles,
— the first, Miss Cecilia Braun, and the second, Miss
Cecile Agassiz, his own sister, and the sister of his
friend Braun.

CHAPTER II.

1827-1831.

JOURNEY FROM CARLSRUHE TO MUNICH — His EVOLUTION FROM A
FRENCH-SWISS TO A GERMAN STUDENT — His DUEL AT HEIDELBERG

— UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH — DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY — MARTIUS'S
PROPOSAL TO PUBLISH SPIX'S FISHES FROM BRAZIL — PUBLICATION
OF His FIRST GREAT WORK ON NATURAL HISTORY — DOCTOR OF
MEDICINE AND SURGERY — BEGINNING OF His RESEARCHES ON THE
" POISSONS FOSSILES" — His METHOD OF PUBLISHING His WORKS

— His DESIRE TO BE THE FIRST NATURALIST OF His TIME — VISIT
TO VIENNA — RETURN HOME WITH ARTIST DINKEL — LIFE AT CON-
CISE— CHRISTINAT — OPPORTUNE HELP FOR A TRIP TO PARIS — His
JOURNEY "EN ZIG-ZAG" BY WAY OF CARLSRUHE.

IN the autumn, Braun wrote him about changing
their place of study from Heidelberg to Munich. The
attraction there was, that according to Dollinger, the
instruction in the natural sciences left nothing to be
desired. Accordingly, Agassiz left Orbe toward the
end of October, 1827, and joined Braun at Carlsruhe,
where he was welcomed by the whole family of the
postmaster-general of Baden, more especially by Miss
Cecilia, who had taken such good care of him when
convalescent during the previous journey, and who had
already made an excellent portrait of him, in coloured
pencil or pastel, during the vacation of 1826. 1

1 " Portrait of Louis Agassiz at the Age of Nineteen,'1 as frontispiece of
" Louis Agassiz, his Life and Correspondence," by E. C. Agassiz, Vol. I.

20

1827-31-] CARLSRUHE TO MUNICH. 21

On their way on foot to Munich they stopped first
at Stuttgart, where the Royal Museum, already quite
prominent, attracted much of the attention and even
admiration of Agassiz. A splendid North American
buffalo, and a piece of the hide of a Siberian mammoth,
with hairs still attached, excited his wonder and his
imagination ; for he thought that the mammoth's
teeth showed that it was a carnivorous animal ; but the
question that interested him most was, how this ani-
mal could have wandered so far north, and in what
manner he died, to be frozen thus, and remain intact,
perhaps for countless ages. He little realized that it
was reserved for him some day to give the explanation,
and that he was to be the god-father of the " Ice-age."

At Esslingen, Agassiz and Braun stopped to visit two
botanists, and make exchanges of specimens. As Agas-
siz had a good collection of dried plants from the Jura
Vaudois, and Braun of the Palatinate, they presented
themselves, each with a package of dried plants under
his arm, and were well received ; more especially by
Professor von Hochstetter, the father of the afterward
celebrated naturalist, Ferdinand von Hochstetter of the
" Novara " expedition round the world, and first director
of the great Natural History Museum of Vienna.

On the fourth of November, 1827, Agassiz and Braun
alighted at Munich ; and a few days afterward they
were joined by the other member of the trio of friends,
Karl Schimper, Until then Agassiz had remained a true
Swiss ; his stay at Heidelberg had not been long enough
nor successful enough, on account of his health, to make
any change in him. But as soon as he was settled at

22 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. n.

Munich, a change began in his mind, his thought, and
even his body ; and when he left Munich, three years
later, on the fourth of December, 1830, he was entirely
a German ; so much so, that his Swiss friends had
some difficulty in getting acquainted with him again.
It was his first transformation ; several others succeeded,
as we shall see by and by.

Munich was then the most celebrated university in
Germany, counting among its professors such men as
Oken, Martins, and Dollinger. It was at the house of
Dollinger that the three friends found lodging ; occupy-
ing rooms which soon became laboratories, lecture rooms,
and the rendezvous of many of their classmates.
Agassiz afterward had occasion to give a vivid descrip-
tion of their student life, in his paper, " Erwiederung
auf Dr. Karl Schimper's AngrifTe " (Neuchatel, Novem-
ber, 1842, 4to). In those days friendship reigned.
Almost everything was enjoyed in common; work,
pleasure, journeys, pipes, beer, purses, clothes, ideas
political and philosophical, or poetical, and even liter-
ary. In fact, it was a constant, enthusiastic, intellectual
life, lived at high pressure, lacking in nothing ; not even
student duels, and escapades of a more riotous nature,
after grand " Kommers."

Agassiz enjoyed among the students the reputation
of being the best fencer in the various students' clubs.
The reputation was gained in this way : When at Heidel-
berg, an insult to the Swiss clan (Burschenschaft) of
which Agassiz was the president was considered so
serious among the students, that a challenge was sent
by Agassiz to the German club. At a meeting of the

1827-31-] DUEL AT HEIDELBERG. 23

German students, a choice was made of one of their
best swordsmen to meet him. Agassiz, however, would
not accept such conditions, but said proudly, " It is not
with one of you that I want to fight, but with all, one
after another." They marched to the chosen ground,
and in a few minutes four German students had received
sword cuts on their faces ; then the others who were
to follow began to think that the affair had gone far
enough, and although invited by Agassiz to take position,
they offered honourable peace, and made an apology.
After that, Agassiz was always chosen as arbitrator and
judge at all the fencing clubs of the universities of
Heidelberg and Munich. He was so carried away by
his pleasure in fencing, that one day, without remem-
bering to put on masks, he and his future brother-in-law,
Alexander Braun, fell in with rapiers in hand, and after
a few exchanges of thrusts, Agassiz made a cut in the
face of his dear friend. Years after, when a professor
at Neuchatel, he appeared at a public fencing exhibi-
tion given by a tall and powerful negro fencing master,
with success and credit.

Schimper, who was the oldest of the three, and whose
imagination was the keenest and most original, exerted
a great influence over Agassiz and Braun. His discov-
eries in regard to the morphology of plants gave him
great advantage over the two others, who had not yet
done any original work. But Agassiz was not the man
to be long overshadowed by any one. He wanted to
occupy the first place everywhere. Happily he escaped
the danger to which Schimper succumbed, and, with
the help of Braun, whose mind was the best balanced

24 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. n.

of the three friends, Agassiz kept out of temptation,
and expended his impetuous nature in solid and difficult
work on fishes, living and fossil.

Strange to say, with an allowance of only $250 a
year, Agassiz managed constantly to keep in his pay
an artist, Dinkel, to draw fossil and living fishes ;
and, occasionally, a second artist, Mr. J. C. Weber,
to draw the Spix fishes and pieces of anatomy. They
formed a sort of fraternal association. As Agassiz
said, " They were even poorer than I, and so we man-
aged to get along together." Their fare was certainly
very simple ; bread, cheese, beer, and tobacco being the
main articles. Imagine Agassiz, with his scanty allow-
ance, providing for two artists, besides Karl Schimper,
and his younger brother, William Schimper. To be sure,
Alexander Braun helped much also. But if we sup-
pose that Braun got $300 a year from his father, six
young men between the ages of twenty and twenty-five
had to live upon less than $600 a year, out of which
also they had to pay for their studies at the univer-
sity, and provide themselves with instruments, and books,
and clothing. Agassiz got a little money from the
" Brazilian Fishes " and some other writing, with which
he purchased a microscope - - a rather expensive instru-
ment— and several books; and he received, as a gift
from Professor Dollinger, a copy of the finely illus-
trated work on living fishes, by the great French ich-
thyologist, Rondelet, of Montpellier. The editor Cotta
sent him also a certain number of expensive natural
history books.

" I cannot review my Munich life without great grati-

1827-31-] UNIVERSITY O1-" .MUNICH. 25

tude," Agassiz says. He was there a most happy and
successful young man, using all the scientific resources
existing in that large and progressive city ; drawing
round him comrades of the University, and even pro-
fessors ; and receiving visits from naturalists of renown,
including the great anatomist Meckel. His room in the
house of Db'llinger, being the largest, was used as
lecture room, assembly room, laboratory, and museum.
Some one was always coming or going ; the half-dozen
chairs were covered with books, piled one upon another,
hardly one being left for use, and visitors were fre-
quently obliged to remove books and put them on the
floor ; the bed, also, \vas used as a seat, and as a recep-
tacle for specimens, drawings, and papers. According
to Agassiz, the tobacco smoke was sometimes so thick
it might have been cut with a knife.

Agassiz was the most prominent among the students.
His acquaintance was courted by all. He was specially
considered with much pride by all the Swiss students,
and was welcome both in the rooms and yards of the
University, and at the students' clubs, " Bierbrauerei,"
and fencing rooms. He was considered a most amiable
companion, never losing his temper, always smiling and
apparently contented and happy. It is no wonder that
he remembered so vividly his student life at Munich,
and was always grateful for it. Although at Munich he
learned embryology from Dollinger, who gave him per-
sonal instructions in the use of the microscope, and
followed the lectures of the great philosopher Schelling,
as well as the fascinating teaching of Oken, with his
a priori conceptions of the relations of the three king-

26 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. n.

doms into which he divided all living beings ; he was
not instructed then either in palaeontology or in geology,
the two branches of science in which he became after-
ward preeminent. The only teacher he ever had
in those two sciences was Professor H. G. Bronn at
Heidelberg, a rather second-rate palaeontologist, but a
very industrious and prolific writer.

Although Agassiz came to Munich for the special
purpose of taking the degree of doctor of medicine,
his studies soon drifted from those of a medical student
to those of a true naturalist. This change was not
made without warnings from his father, who became
alarmed by the rather large expenses incurred by his
son,1 and more so by his neglect of his medical studies.
But Louis Agassiz was born a naturalist, and a
naturalist he must be ; and, notwithstanding all sorts of
difficulties, with the help of his mother, who always
favoured his desires, he carried through his scheme of
seeking a professorship of natural history.

His first step, in regard to graduation, was to secure not
a title of medical doctor and surgeon, but of doctor of
philosophy, which he won, in the spring of 1829, at the
University of Erlangen. The excuse for so doing was a

1 Agassiz's good heart had already, when at Heidelberg, led him to
help, pecuniarily, Karl Schimper, and as soon as established at Munich, he
sent Schimper money to pay the expense of his journey, and invited him
to join them in their lodging. Schimper not only came directly, but
brought with him his brother William. Agassiz's income was henceforth,
on this account, limited in proportion. It must now suffice for the main-
tenance of a friend; for as soon as Schimper arrived, Agassiz gave him
the key of his chest in which was his money; and, during the three years
of his stay at Munich, he, in fact, gave to Schimper the means to satisfy all
his needs — a rare example of generosity.

1827-31-] FISHES FROM BRAZIL. 27

clever one. Martius had proposed to him to publish the
fishes of Brazil collected by Spix and himself during
their explorations on the Amazon, from 1817 to 1821.
Spix having died in 1826, before finishing the publication
of the zoological part, Martius, who possessed excellent
judgment and great insight into character, saw at once
the ability of young Agassiz as a describer of species,
and proposed to him, during the summer of 1828, to
take the fishes. The offer was certainly most flat-
tering to Agassiz, then in his twenty-first year, and
before he had yet published anything to recommend
him. Martius assumed all the expenses and, of course,
all the profits ; and Agassiz received as his share only
a few copies of the book, with an atlas of beautifully
coloured fishes. Before the book was issued, Martius
told him that it was important that his name should
have the title of doctor of philosophy attached to it, and
that at the same time it would help him to get a pro-
fessorship of natural history.

However, that title would not do as a substitute for
his medical degree, and, bracing his courage, he worked
hard, and prepared his theses with great success ; for
when he received his degree of doctor of medicine and
surgery, the 3d of April, 1830, the dean said to him:
" The faculty have been very much pleased with your
answers ; they congratulate themselves on being able
to give the diploma to a young man who has already
acquired so honourable a reputation." It was nine
months after the publication of his great work on the
fishes of Brazil, a folio with ninety plates, which had
attracted the attention of all naturalists, more especially

28 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. it.

of George Cuvier, the greatest ichthyologist of his time,
who was then engaged on his celebrated work " His-
toire des Poissons." Agassiz's work, which was dedi-
cated to Cuvier, is written in Latin, and possesses the
qualities so prominent in all Agassiz's publications ;
namely, accurate descriptions of the species, and excel-
lent and even beautiful figures. It is most creditable in
every way, and it furnished a sound basis for Agassiz's
reputation as an ichthyologist of the first rank, although
he was only twenty-two years old.

This first success was much enjoyed by his family
and his friends, and prompted him to undertake a task
which was sure to place him in the front rank as a
naturalist, " hors ligne." Soon after the vacation of
1829, which was spent at Heidelberg, Carlsruhe, and
Orbe, the director of the museum at Munich offered
to Agassiz every facility to work at the collection of
fossil fishes, allowing him to carry the specimens to his
room. As the director of the Strasbourg Museum, the
mining engineer Voltz, and Professor Bronn of Heidel-
berg had made the same offer, Agassiz, seeing what a
splendid work was laid before him, did not hesitate to
undertake it, notwithstanding the great difficulties, both
material and scientific.

A few words should be said in regard to his method
of undertaking work without being sure beforehand
of the means to carry it on successfully. For example,
in the case of his " Poissons fossiles," as we shall
see, he first tried a M. Cotta, a publisher of Stutt-
gart, and when the latter failed to come to a final
agreement for want of knowledge as to his part of the

1827-31-] WORKS ON NATURAL HISTORY. 29

expense to be incurred (for Agassiz never knew before-
hand what his work would be, even approximately, as
to quantity of text and plates), he found that he could
rely upon no one, but must himself publish his rather
expensive work. Martius's work on Brazil was aided
by a large subscription from the purse of the king of
Bavaria. The only country in which it was possible to
find a publisher for a very expensive work on natural
history was France; and even there publishers required
a certain number of subscriptions from the government
before accepting the charge. " The Mineral Conchol-
ogy of Great Britain ' had involved great expense,
without proper return, and was anything but a success
in a pecuniary way. Goldfuss's " Petrefacta Germania,"
then in course of publication, 1826-44, was supported
only by the personal sacrifice of the author himself.
Even Cuvier's great work on the ".ossements f ossiles '
was not successful from a bookseller's point of view,
and without the help of the French government it
would have been impossible to publish it.

If Agassiz had been a business man, or a good man-
ager, he might have succeeded in having his work on
the fossil fishes published in Paris, with a sufficient
subscription from the Secretary of Public Instruction to
carry on the work, if not at a profit, at least without
loss on his part ; for Cuvier was then publishing his
" Histoire Naturelle des Poissons " in that way; and if
that great work, finished after the death of Cuvier
by Valenciennes, was not a pecuniary success, it en-
tailed at least no expense upon its two authors.

Agassiz always acted as if he were a very rich man ;

30 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. n.

and now, taking an excellent artist, Joseph Dinkel, into
his service, he had him draw all the fossil fishes he
could find in the different museums ; and, full of hope
and never thinking of the morrow, he began his " Pois-
sons fossiles," trusting to good luck and his power of
persuasion. He was not patient enough to wait for the
proper moment. With him time was money, and he
pushed forward without regard to consequences. He
had such self-confidence that it is almost amusing to
see him writing to his father from Munich, Feb. 14,
1829 : " I wish it may be said of Louis Agassiz that he
was the first naturalist of his time, a good citizen, and
a good son, beloved by those who knew him. I feel
within myself the strength of a whole generation to
work toward this end, and I will reach it if the means
are not wanting." Strange to say, he attained his aim ;
if not the first, he was certainly one of the first natu-
ralists of the nineteenth century ; he was a good citizen
of Switzerland and afterward of the United States, a
devoted son to his father and mother, and beloved, if
not by all, certainly by a great many of those who
knew him in Europe and in America. This intuition
of his capacity and strength, this thought that he had
concentrated in him the powers of all his ancestors to
observe and work on natural history, is something
almost wonderful in its naivete. It is not strange
that his father was often frightened for the future of
such a prodigy, for such certainly Louis Agassiz was.

During his stay in Munich, he went home only once,
spending there the two months of October and Novem-
ber, 1829. His time was passed mainly at the parson-

1 827-3 i -J VISIT TO VIENNA. 31

age of Orbe, and at Cudrefin, near his good grandfather,
Dr. Mayor, who died during Louis's visit. As soon as
he returned to Munich in December, 1829, he began his
great work on the " Poissons fossiles," pursuing at the
same time his medical studies, and, as we have seen,
successfully passing his examinations, the subjects being
anatomical, pathological, surgical, obstetrical, with in-
quiries into "materia medica," " medica forensis," and
the relation of botany to these topics, as it is printed in
his " Einladung."

As soon as his examination and the ceremony of re-
ceiving the degree from the rector of the University were
over, he started for Vienna, where he passed almost
two months. It was a great gratification to him to find
that his reputation had reached Vienna, for he was
received there, by professors and curators of museums,
as "an associate already known." He looked specially
at fossil fishes, and made memoranda of all the speci-
mens, to be used afterward in his great work. His
memory was so good, his eye so accurate, that many
years afterward, when looking at fossil fishes at Neu-
chatel, he one day said : " I have seen before another
specimen of this same species in the museum at
Vienna" ; even going so far as to indicate the drawer
in which it was stored. The director at Vienna, on
being written in regard to it, answered that he had
found the fossil fish where Agassiz had indicated that
it was, and sent it at once. It was, as Agassiz said, of
the same species.

Agassiz's last letter from Munich to his parents is
dated Nov. 26, 1830. He left Munich the 4th of De-

32 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. n.

cember, 1830, after settling all his accounts and expen-
ditures, taking with him his draughtsman, Dinkel, to
the great amazement of his father, who did not relish
the arrival of his son's friend at his new parsonage at
Concise, whither he had just removed from Orbe. His
protest, that there was no room for another person, was
of no avail. Louis wrote him that Dinkel was not in
his pay, but was provided for by his publisher, M.
Cotta, and that an agreement had been made for him
to accompany Agassiz in future wherever he should
go. Accordingly, one morning in December, 1830, he
arrived with Dinkel, who was lodged in the neighbour-
hood, and came every day to Louis's room to draw
fishes.

The parsonage of the village of Concise is beautifully
situated close to the north of the church, with a ter-
race and garden overlooking the Lake of Neuchatel, and
commanding some of the most beautiful and extensive
scenery in Switzerland. The room occupied by Louis
Agassiz was on the first story, according to the way
of counting stories in Switzerland ; the second story,
according to the American way, at the southeast corner
of the parsonage, close by the churchyard. There he
was seen constantly at the window, with his long mous-
taches, smoking, and hard at work with specimens.

The arrival of the parson's son, with his draughts-
man, both dressed more or less as German students,
with small caps on their heads, and long pipes in their
mouths, greatly excited the curiosity of the quiet vil-
lagers. On Sunday they used to row on the lake, and,
with long poles, passed their time in breaking the pot-

1827-31.] LIFE AT CONCISE. 33

tery jars, easily seen at the bottom through the trans-
parent blue water, an amusement the young men of
Concise were somewhat addicted to. How little Agassiz
then thought that he was doing the work of a true bar-
barian, destroying pottery utensils which had belonged
to his ancestors, the -lake-dwellers of prehistoric time !
After the discoveries of Keller at the Zurich Lake,
Agassiz, remembering what he did in 1831 on the Lake
of Neuchatel, exclaimed : " How foolish I was ! Dinkel
and I have in sport broken dozens of important prehis-
toric pieces of pottery."

Almost a year of good work was passed at home, with
nothing to disturb him, writing his " Poissons fossiles '
and directing Dinkel's drawings. It was a great change
after his rather boisterous student life at Munich. His
habitual audience of fifteen or twenty persons, meeting
daily in his room, and called the " Little Academy " by
common consent, by both students and professors, was
now reduced to Dinkel and his own family circle, with
a few friends, relatives, and old acquaintances, who
came in now and then, and were rather surprised, but
unable to appreciate the work in which Louis was so
deeply engaged.

Finally, the attraction of Paris proved too great, and
to Paris he resolved to go, — a determination which he
found not easy to carry into effect.

He had exhausted the paternal purse, and money
was difficult to secure. At this critical moment came
assistance, which was prompted entirely by friendly
admiration and confidence in his future. An old friend
of his father, a pastor of the Canton de Vaud, M.

D

34 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. n.

Christinat, who had always been very fond of Louis
since his childhood, came one day and simply put in
his hand a sum of money sufficient for a journey to
Paris. Helped also by his uncle Mayor of Neuchatel,
and his publisher Cotta, he was able to start on his
much-desired journey to see Cuvier and enlarge his
field of study of " poissons fossiles " in the great collec-
tions of Paris. Agassiz never forgot the generosity of
Christinat, and after the death of his father he always
considered Christinat a second father, feeling for him a
true filial love.

He took "le chemin des ecoliers " for Paris, passing
by Stuttgart, Carlsruhe, Heidelberg, and Strasbourg, " to
collect," as he says, " for my fossil fishes all the ma-
terial I still desired, and to extend my knowledge of
geology sufficiently to join, without embarrassment at
least, in conversation upon the more recent researches
in that department." To be sure, he took with him
his draughtsman Dinkel ; but the " zigzag ' journey
was made mainly in order to see the Braun family,
and more especially Miss Cecilia and his dear classmate
and friend, Alexander Braun, the best companion of his
student life. Braun was the most reasonable by far
.of the trio, Agassiz, Braun, and Schimper ; he was also
the most steady and persevering as a student. His
knowledge of geology was far superior to the knowl-
edge of Agassiz in that branch of natural history; and
Agassiz's avowed desire, as it were, to interview Alex-
ander Braun on recent researches shows the method
constantly used afterward by him for learning and keep-
ing himself informed as to the progress and condition

1827-31-] VISIT TO CARLSRUHE. 35

of geology. During all his stay in America, I was
interviewed on my return from trips to Europe, or
the interior part of the United States and Canada.
Agassiz, with his remarkable memory, his keen per-
ceptions of new discoveries, and his easy way of mar-
shalling facts and using them afterward in his lectures
or papers, would ply me with questions during two or
three hours, in regard to all I had learned during my
absence from Cambridge. It was a peculiar and rather
original way of learning the more recent researches and
the history of the progress of geology. But to make
use of the facts without too much blundering required
the splendid and rare qualities of an Agassiz.

In the letter to his mother, dated Carlsruhe, Novem-
ber, 1831, in which he speaks of his visit to the Brauns,
he says : " I have added to my work on the fossil fishes
one hundred and seventy-one pages of manuscript in
French, written between my excursions and in the
midst of other occupations." It is to be regretted that,
with such facility as a scientific writer, he gave up
almost all writing after 1837, trusting to secretaries,
assistants, and stenographers.

CHAPTER III.

1831-1832.

FIRST VISIT TO PARIS — His RELATIONS WITH CUVIER — HUMBOLDT
CHARMED WITH HlM — HlS VlSIT TO THE SEASHORE AT DIEPPE —
DEATH OF CUVIER — SKETCH OF CUVIER'S LIFE — CUVIER AND GEOF-
FROY ST. HlLAIRE — THEIR DISCUSSION BEFORE THE FRENCH ACAD-
EMY OF SCIENCE — CUVIER'S INFLUENCE ON AGASSIZ — DIFFICULTY OF
GETTING AN OFFICIAL POSITION IN PARIS — APPOINTED PROFESSOR AT
THE LYCEUM OF NEUCH^TEL.

ON the 1 6th of December, 1831, after travelling by
diligence for two days and three nights, on the road
between Strasbourg and Paris, Agassiz and Dinkel
alighted in the great crowded courtyard of the " Messa-
geries Royales," rue Montmartre, so tired that they
could hardly move hand or foot. The fatigue of these
long journeys, in diligences, can hardly be realized now.

Packed in the rotunda with six often disagreeable
neighbours, all breathing the same foul air, and jostled
and even severely shaken from the bad roads, over
which the diligence had to run, it was a great relief,
first when the paved roads were reached, eighty miles
before the arrival in Paris, and later when the great
stagecoach finally turned into the courtyard of the
" Messageries." It was an interesting sight for Agassiz
to watch the diligences, arriving or starting, with promi-

36

1831-32.] ARRIVAL IN PARIS. 37

nent names, such as Forback, Bruxelles, Dunkerque,
Calais, le Havre, Cherbourg, Brest, Nantes, Bordeaux,
Bayonne, Toulouse, Perpignan, Montpellier, Marseilles,
Lyon, Besanc^on, etc. Nearly every tongue was heard
there, and the weary look of the arriving passengers
was something not to be forgotten. He had not seen
anything approaching the scene in Southern Germany,
or even in Vienna. However, he soon found his way to
the rue Copau, on the other side of the Seine, and
alighted finally at the "Hotel du Jardin du Roi," No. 4,
just opposite the " Hospital de la Pitie," and close by
the Jardin des Plantes. This third-rate hotel has always
been a place of resort for naturalists, - - French as well
as foreign, - - on account of its proximity to the great
Museum of Natural History. The prices there were
moderate and the fare good ; a part of the old hotel,
and the most desirable, was situated between a paved
yard and a garden. It was here that Agassiz and
Dinkel got a room. Sixteen years later, I saw Agassiz
occupying the same room, quite proud to show that
nothing had been changed in the arrangement of the
furniture. There were the same shelves for books,
where he placed, as he told me, the first works offered
to him by both Cuvier and Humboldt ; the only altera-
tion being the removal of the small bedstead on which
Dinkel slept.

As soon as Cuvier heard of his arrival, he sent for
him ; and Agassiz passed his second evening in Paris
at the house of the great French naturalist. His re-
ception was cordial and friendly, although with some
reserve ; for Cuvier was not a man of many words. His

38 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. in.

politeness was dignified, his manner that of a courtier
accustomed to move among men in high office or of
great social position. But he was kindly disposed and
good hearted, his most notable characteristic being a
kindliness directed right to the point, in order that no
time might be lost. He always acted as if every hour
was extremely valuable to him, working methodically ;
each day, each hour, having its task appointed in
advance, and he was reluctant to be interrupted or
interfered with in the course of his researches or
thoughts. The first meeting was more than satisfac-
tory to Agassiz, who had not expected such a friendly
reception, which, in his own words, " more than fulfilled
his expectations." He was absolutely astounded by
the great erudition, the prodigious memory, and the
extreme facility of Cuvier in passing from one ardu-
ous subject to another. Agassiz was more than
charmed ; he was actually astonished by the immense
amount of knowledge accumulated in the brain of a
single man. This first impression was never changed ;
and the more he knew of Cuvier, the more he admired
him. Agassiz had found his master, and his leader for
life.

After a few days of intercourse, Cuvier was so satis-
fied with the author of the Brazilian fishes that he gave
him and his artist a corner in one of his laboratories, —
the one devoted to fishes ; for Cuvier possessed a lab-
oratory for each of his works, where was accumulated
everything pertaining to the subject, such as specimens,
drawings, and books, in order not to lose time. The
arrangement was a matter of wonder to Agassiz, who

1831-32.] RELATIONS WITH CUVIER. 39

tried afterward- -always in vain- -to secure the same
orderliness for himself. But later I shall give the rea-
son why Cuvier was able to organize his time and labora-
tories, and why Agassiz always failed to do so.

Agassiz's main object in coming to Paris was to col-
lect material for his " Poissons fossiles," and at the
same time to become acquainted with Cuvier and some
other French naturalists, in the hope that he might find
an official position in such a great establishment as the
Jardin des Plantes. Cuvier watched him attentively,
and was so pleased with what he saw, that he deliber-
ately decided to renounce his project of publishing, as
he had intended, a work on fossil fishes ; and with great
generosity — too rare among savants - - he placed at the
disposal of young Agassiz all the materials, drawings,
and notes which he had collected at the British Museum,
at Avignon, and elsewhere, during more than fifteen
years.

It was at one of his weekly Saturday evening recep-
tions that Cuvier delivered into Agassiz's hands the
drawings and notes, filling a large portfolio, brought
from the study by his faithful assistant Laurillard. It
filled Agassiz with greater joy than he had ever felt before
or than he ever felt again, as he said many years after.
Certainly such an acknowledgment from the greatest
naturalist then living was a most gratifying and unex-
pected reward for all Agassiz's studies and efforts. It
was most encouraging and auspicious for his future.
All that Agassiz had expected, and even this was with
grave doubts, was that, perhaps, Cuvier might be in-
duced to allow him to assist in finishing the work with

40 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. in.

him, just as he had lately allowed Valenciennes to
help him to finish his " Histoire naturelle des Poissons
vivants." Of course the gift of Cuvier was highly
appreciated by his parents on the shore of the Lake of
Neuchatel. It was most gratifying for them to see
their dear Louis so well treated. But, alas ! just at this
time the small sum of money he had brought with him
began to run very low ; and there was no immediate
prospect of replenishing his purse unless he accepted
an offer from J. Daudebard de Ferussac to take the
editorship of the zoological part of his " Bulletin des
annonces et des nouvelles scientifiques," which would
yield an additional thousand francs a year, but would
require two or three hours' work daily.

One of his first acquaintances at Paris was Alexander
von Humboldt, then a star of the first magnitude among
the numerous great French savants. If Cuvier's wel-
come was somewhat reserved and marked by formal
politeness, lacking cordiality, Humboldt's reception
took a form of indulgence and kindness which warmed
Agassiz's heart. From their first meeting at the apart-
ments of Humboldt, in his working room in the rue de
la Harpe in the Latin Quarter, a mutual attraction was
felt ; and the terrible Humboldt, the fear of all savants
and of all the great salons of Paris, took a fancy to the
young Swiss naturalist. He took him to breakfast at
his usual cafe-restaurant, the celebrated Cafe Procop,
rue de 1'Ancienne Comedie, near by ; and there, as was
his custom, hardly taking time to eat, he talked inces-
santly of his experience among the electric fishes in
Venezuela. Agassiz, who was all attention, did not

1831-32.] HE CHARMED HUMBOLDT. 41

interrupt him once,- -certainly a great mark of admira-
tion on the part of Agassiz, who was himself a great
talker,- -and after three hours together, they separated
at the door of the Mazarine Library, charmed with
each other.

To have pleased a man so sarcastic as Humboldt
was not a small triumph. He was conquered by the
juvenile enthusiasm, the extraordinary optimism, of
Agassiz. As one of the friends of Agassiz says, " Lui
(de Humboldt) qui etait si mordant de nature n'est
qu'affectueux et plein de sollicitude en ecrivant ou en
causant avec son jeune ami."

In some way Humboldt learned through the pub-
lisher, Cotta of Stuttgart, the straitened circumstances
under which Agassiz was labouring, and therefore
simply enclosed in a letter a " billet de la Banque de
France ' for one. thousand francs, begging him to
accept it. Agassiz, in his letter of thanks, dated the
27th of March, 1832, calls Humboldt his " benefactor
and friend," and confesses that his kind and helpful
hand has unexpectedly rescued him from a distressing
position, and that now he is again in hope of devoting
his whole powers to science. Humboldt was then min-
ister plenipotentiary of Prussia to the court of the
Tuileries ; and his timely help won for him an admira-
tion which ended only with the last day of Agassiz's
life. As Agassiz himself says, " I was pleased to re-
main a debtor of Humboldt, for I have never returned
the sum he bestowed at such an opportune moment."

Agassiz-like, as soon as he was recovered from his
despondency in regard to money, his buoyant spirit led

42 LOUIS AGASSrZ. [CHAP. in.

him at once on a journey to the seashore of Normandy
in company with Alexander Braun, who had joined him
in Paris six weeks after his arrival, and Dinkel. They
walked all the way from Havre to Dieppe, enjoying
to the full the spectacle, so new to them, of living
sea-animals, bringing back from that too short visit
many new ideas, cheered and stimulated by " the
great phenomena presented by the ocean in its vast
expanse."

A few weeks after his return from Normandy, Agassiz
sustained a great loss,- -a loss which affected the rest
of his life, — in the death of his master, George Cuvier.
Since Carnival and during the whole spring cholera had
been raging fearfully in Paris, greatly increasing the
death rate ; some quarters, however, like the Jardin des
Plantes, had been almost free from the terrible scourge,
but there it at last made its appearance, and one of its
most illustrious victims was Cuvier. Sunday, the 6th
of May, 1832, Agassiz, as was his custom, worked all
the day until dinner time at five o'clock in Cuvier's
study. During a conversation, Cuvier, seeing how
intense Agassiz's application to work was, said to him :
" Soyez prudent, et rappelez vous que trop de travail
tue." On the next day Baron Cuvier, who, in 1831,
had been created by King Louis Philippe a peer of
France, when about to ascend the tribune in the Cham-
ber of Peers, at the Palace of the Luxembourg, to deliver
an address, suffered paralysis. He was carried home,
and rallied, but died on Sunday, May 13, 1832, the imme-
diate cause of his death being an attack of cholera.

The unexpected and somewhat premature death of

1831-32-] DEATH OF CUVIER. 43

Cuvier at the age of sixty-three - - for his life might
have extended ten and perhaps fifteen years longer -
had a very serious effect, which cannot be overesti-
mated, on the future of Agassiz. Cuvier was the only
man who exerted a scientific and personal influence
over Agassiz; from him, and him alone, Agassiz would
accept advice, and be guided in his work. He recog-
nized in him his master, and the young charmer of
Switzerland found in him another more powerful
than himself, and especially more practical in his life
and work. At first the formal politeness of Cuvier
chilled him, and he says, " I would gladly go away
were I not held fast by the wealth of material of which
I can avail myself for instruction." But this first im-
pression soon passed away, and an unbounded admira-
tion replaced it.

Some details are necessary to understand the course
taken by Agassiz, and the singular resolve to leave
Paris, at that time the Mecca of all naturalists and
savants, to settle as a professor, with a very small
salary, in a small town of less than six thousand
inhabitants, in a hybrid country, half Swiss, half
Prussian, lost in Central Europe.

Cuvier, son of an officer of a Swiss regiment, in the
French service, and nephew of a Protestant clergyman
of talent, was called to Paris, after the revolution of
the Qth Thermidor, by young Geoffrey, - - celebrated
since as Etienne Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, - - and attached
to the Jardin des Plantes, as substitute for the professor
of comparative anatomy. The reading of some manu-
script papers on natural history, sent by Cuvier, had

44 LOUIS AGASSrZ. [CHAP. in.

excited in the enthusiastic mind of Geoff roy such an
admiration that he wrote him, then in Normandy,
acting as tutor in a nobleman's family, " Come and
play among us the part of Linnaeus- -of another
•legislator and ruler of natural history." This was at
the beginning of 1795. Cuvier soon rose to the front
rank, and even to so high a position that, after 1817, the
year of the appearance of his " Regne animal," he was
recognized by all European naturalists as unquestion-
ably the leader. From that moment Cuvier developed
a love of power and a tyrannical spirit which surprised
and grieved some of his best friends. He became
overbearing and impatient of any opposition to such
a degree that in 1830, during the celebrated discussion
before the French Academy of Science, occasioned by
the publication of the " Principes de philosophic zoolo-
gique," in May, 1830, a rupture occurred with his life-
long friend Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Cuvier and Geoffroy
became irreconcilable antagonists, but remained person-
ally friendly, though the intimacy which had existed
between them during more than thirty years ceased, as
much through the fault of Geoffroy as of Cuvier. In
the discussion Geoffroy was very overbearing, and
assumed a role which extremely irritated Cuvier. It
is generally admitted now that Cuvier went too far,
although he refuted, with a surprising number of facts,
the arguments presented by Geoffroy on the six great
problems: (i) The pre-existence in natural history
of the genus; (2) the unity of organic composition;
(3) the value of classification; (4) the fixity of species;
(5) the final cause; and (6) the succession of organic

1831-32.] ETIENNE GEOFFROY SAINT-HILArRE. 45

life on earth. Thanks to his genius and his unrivalled
talent of exposition, Cuvier won before the Academy ;
but it was plain that the general public was against
him and in favour of Geoffrey. During the last two
years of Cuvier's life the discussion was continued, not
before the Academy, but in public lectures at the Col-
lege de France. Cuvier, with renewed vigour, assailed
the unity of organic composition and any general con-
ception in natural history. As Isidore Geoffroy says :
" Disciple, Cuvier ne pouvait 1'etre de personne, et par
les tendances propres de son esprit, moins de Geoffroy
Saint-Hilaire que de tout autre ; il devint done adver-
saire." We may say, to the credit of Geoffroy, that his
admiration of Cuvier was not diminished, and at his
tomb, with great emotion, and in words of sincerity
which had their source in his heart, he proclaimed
him "le Maitre a tous ! "

Agassiz felt strongly the influence of Cuvier ; he had
repeated occasion to see and compare Cuvier and
Geoffroy, and the superiority of Cuvier was so unde-
niable, that many years afterward, when the question of
fixity of species, descent, and succession of forms again
arose with Darwin's " Origin of Species," he did not
hesitate for one moment to oppose a doctrine so full of
hypothesis and so contrary to the teachings of his
master : " le Maitre a tous ! ' Agassiz had promptly
received the good will and protection of Cuvier, and it
is most probable that, if Cuvier's life had been spared, he
would have obtained, through his influence, a professor-
ship or some place in Paris. For Agassiz was determined
not to be a country physician, but to support himself

46 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. in.

as a naturalist. It is always very difficult in Paris to get
a scientific position, on account of the great number
of aspirants always waiting for a favouring opportunity.
After a few months, Agassiz soon realized his superi-
ority over all the young and even old naturalists, and
acknowledged only one master, - - George Cuvier ! For
Agassiz was not naturally self-distrustful ; he knew his
worth, and it was rather humiliating to him to be placed
beneath certain savants whose merits and capaci-
ties were far below his. He had to reckon with those
who held what is called in Paris " positions acquises,"
that is to say, with savants who had been gradually
promoted from very modest places to higher positions.
Cuvier's death left vacant a large number of places,
and a regular scramble to occupy all the positions he
had held began in earnest as soon as he was buried.
Not being a Frenchman by birth, Agassiz was at a
disadvantage; although an Englishman, Henri Milne-
Edwards had the good fortune to push himself forward,
and finally succeeded Cuvier. But Edwards, who was
older than Agassiz by several years, had been educated
in Paris,' and knew how to make use of influence. He
made loud claims to being a Frenchman born, because
he was accidentally born in Bruges in Belgium during
the occupation of that country by the armies of the
French Republic. Another competitor was Valen-
ciennes, also older than Agassiz, and an assistant of
Cuvier, who had begun with Cuvier the publication of
the "Histoire naturelle des Poissons vivants." To be
sure, the publisher of the work proposed to Agassiz
to join Valenciennes as a collaborator; but Humboldt,

1831-32.] APPOINTED PROFESSOR AT NEUCHATEL. 47

who had always taken a strong interest in Valenciennes'
welfare, rather discouraged the association, knowing
well that Agassiz would soon extinguish all Valen-
ciennes' future prospects. Humboldt exerted a strong
influence over Agassiz. As minister of Prussia in
France, he cunningly worked to detach Agassiz from
Paris, increasing rather than diminishing the obstacles
and difficulties Agassiz found there, acting in accord with
the Prussian governor at Neuchatel, and M. Louis de
Coulon, a rich and most benevolent Neuchatelois, who
wished in some way to attach Agassiz to the Lyceum
of Neuchatel. After the death of Cuvier, Agassiz,
with his independent character, was discouraged and
distressed by the constant intrigues going on under his
eyes in restless Paris. On the other hand, he was still
mindful of his happy days in Germany, and desired to
return there as a professor in some German university.

Humboldt, little by little, persuaded Agassiz to accept
a very modest --altogether too modest — position as pro-
fessor at the Lyceum of Neuchatel as a stepping-stone
and a preliminary position to a professorship at Berlin
or some other German university. Agassiz hesitated,
for he knew very well that Neuchatel was too small a
place, and devoid of all resources in natural history ;
and his thought was at first to settle at Lausanne, or
preferably at Geneva, then already a great scientific
centre. But Humboldt and Coulon united their efforts,
and at last secured the acceptance of Agassiz, who, in
September, 1832, left Paris, to the great joy of all the
young French naturalists of the capital ; for he was a
formidable rival taken out of the way.

48 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. in.

Agassiz always disliked intrigue ; he was frank and
very earnest, and, although inclined to authority and
adverse to divided power, he was too little French, or
more correctly too little Parisian, in character, to like
living in a society in which intrigue was as necessary as
scientific knowledge to success. He had too high an
opinion of science to make compromises and con-
stantly bargain for position, influence, and honour.

With the death of Cuvier vanished all his hopes of a
great journey beyond Europe, - - a desire which had pur-
sued him ever since he began the study of natural his-
tory at Zurich with Schink. What he heard in Paris
of the great success of Victor Jacquemont in India, and
of Alcide d'Orbigny in South America, had increased
tenfold his wish to be a travelling naturalist, and the
long account given to him by Humboldt of the equinoc-
tial regions of the New World increased, if possible, his
cherished determination to make an exploring journey.
Cuvier had told him that after the return of Jacquemont
and d'Orbigny, then daily expected, the annual appro-
priation at the disposal of the Museum would be in part
free, and might be bestowed on him. His dreams of
seeing the great Amazon River were revived, but were
not destined to be realized till more than thirty years
afterward, under other auspices, and under much more
fortunate conditions.

If Agassiz had been able to make a great exploration
into the interior of a continent, or around the world,
when he was between twenty-five and thirty-five years
of age, what a harvest of facts he would have brought

•

back with him ! It is much to be regretted, both for

1831-32.] NO GREAT EXPLORATION. 49

himself and for the progress of natural history, that
he did not enjoy that privilege.

It is useless to express regret as we see him burying
himself in such a remote place ; for wherever Agas-
siz went he carried with him the torch of science, and
obliged all the scientific world to look at him and give
close attention to what he said and did.

E

CHAPTER IV.

1832-1835.

AGASSIZ'S FIRST ESTABLISHMENT AT NEUCHATEL — FOUNDATION OF THE
"SOCIETE DES SCIENCES NATURELLES," ON THE 6ra OF DECEMBER,
1832 — AN OFFER OF A CHAIR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG
DECLINED -- LETTER OF HUMBOLDT — ENGAGEMENT OF ALEXANDER
BRAUN WITH Miss CECILE GUYOT AND THAT OF KARL SCHIMPER
WITH Miss EMMY BRAUN BROKEN OFF - - MARRIAGE OF AGASSIZ
WITH Miss CECILE BRAUN -- PUBLICATION OF THE FIRST PART OF
THE "FossiL FISHES" — FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1834 — " MON-
OGRAPHIE DES ECHINODERMES " - - DES MOULINS'S WORK ON THE
SAME SUBJECT — CRITICISMS OF HUMBOLDT AND VON BUCK — SECOND
VISIT TO ENGLAND IN 1835 — BIRTH OF A SON — FOUR LETTERS TO

PlCTET AND NlCOLET.

IN November, 1832, Agassiz was established at Neu-
chatel as professor of natural history in a small college,
at a salary of eighty louis (about $400), and with an
appointment of only three years' duration. What
tempted him greatly was the opportunity to live in
Switzerland, near his family, complete independence
in regard to his teaching, and a belief that, notwith-
standing the small salary, the expenses of living were
so much less than in large cities like Paris or Munich,
that $400, or 2000 francs, would " keep him above actual
embarrassment." Independence he got ; and indepen-
dence was a strong trait in his character, and one which
explains several of his otherwise rather peculiar deci-

5°

1832-35-] ESTABLISHMENT AT NEUCHATEL, 51

sions at different periods of his life. But insufficiency
of means, resulting from his want of business capacity,
assailed him from the first moment of his arrival in
Neuchatel. As to its being a stepping-stone to a posi-
tion at Berlin, that expectation was never realized ; all
prospects in that direction having been entirely barred,
as we shall see, by the part he took in the glacial ques-
tion five years later.

A college in a small town of five or six thousand
inhabitants, like Neuchatel in 1832, and after the
political and very grave disturbances which occurred
there in 1831, as a consequence of the French Revolu-
tion of July, 1830, was, of necessity, a very limited
institution. The number of pupils, all told, was
below one hundred ; and there were absolutely no ma-
terials for study, no collections, not even a room to be
used for the new class. Agassiz was obliged to deliver
his lectures at the City Hall, in the room of the tribunal
of the justice of the peace. With his impetuous and
optimistic spirit and his impulsive nature, he went to
work, and, without losing a minute, he undertook to
form a centre of scientific culture with the rather scanty
and rough material at his disposal. With the help of
the two Louis de Coulons, father and son, - - two of the
most devoted, and, at the same time, most modest nat-
uralists, - - Agassiz arranged a provisional museum in
the Orphans' Home, bringing there the already numer-
ous specimens of natural history collected by himself in
Germany, Switzerland, and France.

Less than a month after his arrival and the deliv-
ery of his inaugural lecture, " Upon the Relations

52 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. iv.

between the Different Branches of Natural History,"
which was given on Nov. 12, before all the edu-
cated and intelligent men Neuchatel could assemble,
his father included, -- on the 6th of December, 1832,
he founded the " Societe des Sciences Naturelles
de Neuchatel," in the parlour of M. Louis de Cou-
lon, Sr., who was elected president, while Agassiz
was made secretary. During the first six years of
its existence the society met at M. de Coulon's
private house. It was rather more a scientific club
than a true society, meeting twice a month from No-
vember until May, and monthly only during the rest
of the year. The annual subscription was moderately
placed at three francs (sixty cents). Only six persons
founded the society,- -Agassiz, Auguste de Montmol-
lin, the geologist, Louis de Coulon, Jr., and three others.
At the end of the first three years of its existence,
the number of fellows was only twenty-five, and not
more than six or eight members were often present at
the meetings. Agassiz was the leading spirit ; and he
wrote the proceedings of the sections of natural history
and medical science for the years 1833, 1834, 1835,
and 1836. His first contribution was a " General Re-
port on the Progress of Natural History during the
Last Few Years," in which he paid a tribute of admi-
ration to George Cuvier, and at the same time lamented
the recent death of "Ce heros de la science"; and
declared that the only way to success is by " the con-
scientious observation of nature."

Not satisfied with delivering a course to his class at
the college, he gathered round him a select and limited

1832-35-] PROFESSORSHIP AT HEIDELBERG. 53

audience of persons desirous to hear him on zoology,
botany, and the philosophy of nature. And when
the weather permitted, he used to take all his pupils,
young and old, on excursions into the field ; visiting,
among other places, the celebrated quarries of the
Neocomian at Hauterive, the summit of the Chaumont
Mountain, and the shores of the lake. It was a spec-
tacle worth seeing. One of those who enjoyed these
excursions said to me : " Agassiz was at his best, pass-
ing from a plant to a fossil ; from physical geography to
a fish, a snail, a bird, an insect, anything that came in
his way ; always ready to discourse for hours, and, as
usual, full of all sorts of new schemes. Time passed
only too quickly in his company."

Everything then seemed to smile on him; it was a
sort of triumphal entry into life. A few days after his
installation at Neuchatel, he received, on the 4th of
December, 1832, a proposal to present himself, if he
wished, in place of Professor Leuckart, at the Univer-
sity of Heidelberg, which he declined to do. He con-
sulted Humboldt about the call from Heidelberg, in a
letter published by Mrs. Agassiz, Vol. I., pp. 213-217;
but as Mrs. Agassiz was unable to give Humboldt's
answer, I will give it in full in French, translated from
the German by Agassiz himself for his uncle Mayor.

BERLIN, 29 decembre, 1832.
LETTRE D'ALEXANDRE DE HUMBOLDT A Louis AGASSIZ, —

Je n'ai point d'expression, mon cher Agassiz, pour vous temoigner
quel grand plaisir me procure chaque ligne que je re9ois de vous,
ainsi que les marques cTamitie que vous me donnez. Je ne puis
excuser le retard que j'ai mis a repondre a votre derniere lettre que

$4 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. iv.

par mon bras manchot et la vie penible que je mene entre Berlin
et Potsdam, ou je vais retourner dans un instant et passer quelque
jours avec le roi. Vous nVaimez assez pour ne pas vous en facher.
Ceci n'est pas non plus une lettre, mais seulement une marque de
ma gratitude et mon opinion sur la proposition si honorable qui
vous est faite d'une chaire de professeur a Heidelberg. Je reconnais,
mon cher ami, le grand sacrifice que vous ferez en refusant, mais
sans pouvoir de loin apprecier votre position a Neuchatel, et surtout
ce qu'elle peut avoir de fixe, je penche cependant pour vous engager
a y rester. Ce pays est en quelque sorte votre patrie ; on vous a
recu la, a ce qu'il me parait avec beaucoup d'empressement. II est
vrai que par ce choix, vous perdez sensiblement en argent, mais a
Neuchatel vous avez plus de temps a vous, et vous vivez dans une
ville riche, ou certainment, en consideration du sacrifice que vous
faites, on aidera peut-etre plus qu'ailleurs, soit par reconnoissance,
soit par un sentiment d'honneur ou meme de vanite de vous pos-
seder (le patriotisme prend toutes ces tournures) dans la publication
de vos deux grands ouvrages qui doivent etre le but essentiel de
votre vie. Un homme de votre talent et de votre savoir, lorsqu'il
aura public ces deux ouvrages, sera place si haut que de telles offres
par des universites allemandes ne sauraient manquer d'etre renou-
velees. II est vrai que je prefererais Heidelberg a toute autre, meme
a Berlin, ou maintenant Tetude des sciences naturelles est assez ne-
gligee. Cependant je desirerais qu'il fut bien connu par les feuilles
publiques que vous avez eu cet appel et que (sans menacer indeli-
catement) yous missiez a profit votre refus pour fixer votre position
a Neuchatel, pour accelerer 1'achat de votre collection et pour obtenir
la promesse de quelques souscriptions considerables pour vos ou-
vrages. Je ferai tout ce qui dependra de moi aupres de M. Ancillon
et suis bien certain de ne rencontrer ici aucun obstacle, mais je
crains qu'a Neuchatel meme on ne soit un pen intimide par une
depense de 600 louis, au moins a present. En Allemagne, il est
maintenant tres difficile d'obtenir quelques cents louis d'un gouverne-
ment pour quoique ce soit. On pretexte toujours les probabilites
d'une guerre, a laquelle du reste personne ne croit. L'essentiel
maintenant me parait (et je vois avec plaisir que vous y visez con-

1832-35-] LETTER OF HUMBOLDT. 55

stamment) que vous fassiez voir au monde, meme avec des figures
moins soignees, ce que vous avez si admirablement bien examine, et
si vous ne pouvez pas publier en meme temps ces deux ouvrages,
donnez la preference aux fossiles. Vous le pouvez d'autant mieux
que vous avez si heureusement decouvert les rapports qui existent
entre votre classification des poissons et la succession des forma-
tions geologiques. Je suis bien impatient de la connaitre dans tous
ses details. Ne negligez pas de consulter sur les fossiles en ge-
neral la traduction du manuscrit de de la Beche par Dechen ; c'est
lui qui, a mon avis, rend le mieux compte de Tetat actuel de la
geologic. Cest aussi Topinion de de Buch.

Si vous ne pouvez pas commencer promptement la publication
de votre ouvrage, il faudrait necessairement pour ne pas etre vole,
publier de suite sous vos yeux un memoire en frangais dans lequel
vous rendriez compte de vos idees generales sur la classification des
poissons, leur distribution geographique et geologique, etc. Afin
que votre ouvrage produise tout Teffet qu'il doit faire, restreignez
vous aux poissons et ne donnez que quelques indications generales
sur les autres organismes.

Je vous embrasse tendrement, mon cher Agassiz ; assurez votre

bonne mere de toute mon estime.

Votre A. HUMBOLDT.

This letter is, perhaps, the most important and affec-
tionate one from Humboldt to his young friend Agassiz.

Thanks to Humboldt's personal application to the
Prussian government, and the initiative subscriptions
taken by Louis de Coulon at Neuchatel, a sufficient
sum of money was obtained to purchase, for the newly
created Museum of Neuchatel, the collections of Agassiz.
He received the round sum of 600 louis, or almost
$3000.

With his optimism, always ready to go beyond all
reasonable bounds, he thought that in coming to Neu-
chatel he had made his fortune ; and his first desire

56 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. iv.

was to get married. As is often the case with stu-
dents, the trio, Agassiz, Braun, and Schimper, had
promptly fallen in love. They were surrounded by too
many young sisters and friends' sisters not to succumb.
Agassiz's choice was Cecile Braun ; Schimper became
engaged to her older sister Emmy, and Braun himself
was soon enamoured of a sister of Arnold Guyot, also
called Cecile. As shown by the result, it would seem
that it would have been well if the three engagements
had been broken off. Alexander Braun, the most rea-
sonable and practical of the three, had the good sense
not to go too far. His regard for Cecile Guyot of Hau-
terive, near Neuchatel, soon took the form of friend-
ship. No public engagement was announced, prudence
on both sides keeping the matter rather quiet, until, by
common consent, Mademoiselle Cecile Guyot, instead
of a " mariage d'inclination," considered by her very
practical family as a great " imprudence," agreed to a
"mariage de convenance ' at Neuchatel, - -a " parti
fort avantageux," according to Arnold Guyot,- -and,
instead of becoming Madame Braun, was contented to
call her old sweetheart "son bon frere Alex." :

Although Alexander Braun was a great admirer of
the botanical genius of Karl Schimper, he soon saw the
weak point of his character. After waiting several
years from the time of the engagement in 1832, Miss
Emmy Braun realized too well the unfitness of Schimper,
and, with the help of her brother, broke the engage-

1 See " Alexander Braun's Leben," by Mrs. C. Mettenius, where are
many details of the whole affair, even including letters of Braun to Cecile
Guyot.

1832-35-] FIRST MARRIAGE. 57

ment in 1840. Miss Emmy Braun was born in January,
1807, and was as gifted as her younger sister Cecile,
being an excellent musician. In the spring of 1841
she married Mr. Eichhorn, Hofmuziker at Carlsruhe.
All four of the Braun children were talented.

As for the engagement of Agassiz and Miss Cecile
Braun, although Alexander and his mother were not
very enthusiastic in regard to it, - - for both saw how
fully Louis was engrossed in his studies and in himself,
and realized his tendency to fly from one subject to
another, and his want of steadiness and of business
capacity, -- nevertheless during the vacation of 1833,
it became " un fait accompli " ; and in October Agassiz
brought his wife home to Neuchatel, to a small apart-
ment " au faubourg du Lac," No. 21.

Mrs. Cecile Agassiz, born at Carlsruhe the 2Qth of
July, 1809, was a lady with regular and fine features,
slender, and of very dark complexion, so much so that
she looked more like an Italian or Spaniard than a
German. She possessed rare artistic talents, being a
pupil of an artist of some repute, Marie Ellenrieder of
the Nazarean school, after the style of Fra Angelico.
Before her marriage she made many aquarelles of fossil
and fresh-water fishes for her " fiance," remarkably
exact and well executed, which rivalled those made by
the painter Dinkel. She also painted specimens of
plants for her brother Alexander. Besides this, she
was well acquainted with German literature, and was
generally an accomplished young lady. She was a
great favourite in her family, and was widely acquainted
in Carlsruhe. She was greatly disappointed in Neu-

58 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. iv.

chatel ; everything was so different from her delightful
home at Carlsruhe. She did not speak French fluently,
and possessing to a high degree the German placidity
which borders on complete indifference, she was not
well impressed by what she saw, and from the first
disliked all Agassiz's friends and acquaintances. Ac-
customed to the beautiful green fields and forests of
the vicinity of Carlsruhe, -she found herself enclosed
by dusty or muddy roads, by high vineyard walls, and
the rather inhospitable aspect of the houses : all this,
with the reserve and rather cold manners of the inhabi-
tants, disposed to copy the formality of the Prussian
court, displeased her so much that she soon greatly dis-
liked the " Neuchatelois," Neuchatel, and even Switzer-
land. For her, Carlsruhe was paradise on earth, and
her only wish was to return and live there.

Agassiz, during the first three years of his married
life, showed more than at any other period the brilliancy
of his rare intellect, the deepness of his devotion to the
progress of natural history, and the greatness of the
effort he was able to make to place himself among
the foremost naturalists of the time.

During the spring of 1834, the first number of the
" Poissons fossiles " came out, and made a great sensa-
tion among geologists and zoologists. The subject had
until then baffled all palaeontologists, no one having
ventured to go deeply into it, on account of osteologic
difficulties and the material obstacle of drawings. The
most difficult to please declared the work remarkably
executed, and Agassiz received approbation and con-
gratulations from every quarter. Undoubtedly the first

1832-35-] FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND. 59

" livraison ' fully deserved such a reception. Agassiz
never surpassed, perhaps never equalled, that first
number of the " Fossil Fishes." It is the work of a
great master.

A few days after, in May, 1834, another memoir,
also very remarkable, was read before the Natural
History Society of Neuchatel on " Quelques Especes
de Cyprins du lac de Neuchatel " (" Memoires Soc. Sc.
nat. de Neuchatel," Vol. I., p. 33). In this Agassiz
shows his tendency to create new genera and his admi-
rable talent for description of species and for classifica-
tion.

In August, 1834, Agassiz made a long-desired visit
to England. Buckland, Lyell, and others received him
with open arms. His visit coincided with Frangois
Arago's journey to collect material for his academic
eulogy of Watts, and as he had become well acquainted
with Arago during his sojourn at Paris in 1832, they
were much together, meeting at Oxford at the hos-
pitable home of Buckland, and travelling together to
Edinburgh, and back to Paris.

Agassiz found such a wealth of fossil fishes that he
wrote at once to his artist, Dinkel, to come over. One
of the rooms of the Geological Society, then at the
Somerset House, was generously placed at his disposal
by the society, and as soon as he had collected there
some two thousand specimens, he began in earnest his
studies of comparison, determination, and classification,
and directed Dinkel to draw all specimens worthy of
being reproduced for his great monograph, or even
such as might prove useful afterward for general

60 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. iv.

description. Dinkel remained in England for several
years, either in London, or at the country seat of
Philip Egerton, near Chester, and at Enniskillen in Ire-
land, and made one of the best and most valuable
collections of drawings of fossil fishes, which was after-
ward purchased by the subscriptions of English geolo-
gists, and presented to the British Museum.

On the 3d of December, 1834, at a meeting of the
Neuchatel Society of Natural History, Agassiz deliv-
ered a lecture on the present state of natural science
in England, on the splendid collections of fossils and
living animals there, and more particularly on the great
progress and extraordinary enlargement of the Zoologi-
cal Garden of London.

The echinoderms had already attracted much of his
attention. The peculiar beauties of these fossils, their
great numbers around Neuchatel and in the Jura. Moun-
tains, and the ease of identifying them, even from
fragments, led him to undertake a " Monographic des
Echinodermes." At the meeting of the Neuchatel
Society, Jan. 10, 1834, he made a communication, in
abstract, of the main discoveries already arrived at
by his researches, and his memoir entitled, " Notice
sur les fossiles du terrain cretace du Jura Neuchate-
lois" ("Memoire Soc. Sc. nat. de Neuchatel," Vol. I.,
p. 126, 1835) began his series of publications on " Echi-
nides." He describes twelve species found in the cre-
taceous rocks of Neuchatel, eight of which were entirely
new. The paper is marked by great originality of
classification, clearness of description, and exactness of

1832-35-] PRODROME DES ECHINODERMES. 61

drawing. It succeeded better than any other publica-
tion in showing that the cretaceous strata of Neuchatel
were a special formation, differing from the Green
Sand and Gault of England, and, at the same time,
younger than the Portland stone of the Jurassic sys-
tem. At that time, the name Neocomian, to designate
the Neuchatel strata of the Lower Cretaceous had not
yet been used by Thurmann, who offered it at a meet-
ing of Jurassian geologists at Besangon, in September,

1835.
The " Prodrome d'une monographic des Radiaires ou

Echinodermes," read also before the Neuchatel Society
on the loth of January, 1834, was published in 1835, at
page 1 68 of the first volume of the memoirs of that
society ; it is the starting-point of all the publications
on the echinoderms, according to the principles of
classification of Cuvier. Agassiz followed the method
of his master ; and in the first twelve pages he gives a
most remarkable exposition of their zoological charac-
ters, and of his views on the classification and deter-
mination of the genera of that class of marine animals.
Curiously enough, a year and a half later, in August, 1835,
Charles Des Moulins, an able zoologist of Bordeaux,
without any knowledge of the works of Agassiz, pub-

t

lished his "Etudes sur les Echinides," in three papers;
Bordeaux, 1835-1837. The first two, published in August
and December, 1835, contain no reference to Agassiz's
researches; but the third paper, dated September, 1837,
contests the priority of some of the genera created by
Agassiz. As a whole, the two memoirs by Agassiz and

62 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. iv.

Des Moulins contain many similar results, and their coin-
cidence of publication and of result, due to a mere
accident, is very honourable to both. Des Moulins pre-
sented more facts and observations on the living and
Tertiary echinoderms, while Agassiz brought forward
more new forms and new genera from the secondary
(Cretaceous and Jurassic) echinoderms, and also a
better bibliographical knowledge of the subject.

The "Tableaux synonymiques des Echinides " of Des
Moulins, is another " Prodrome," corrected and finished,
according to Des Moulins himself, in April, 1837, more
than a year after the publication of Agassiz's " Pro-
drome." Des Moulins says that when, on the point of
finishing the manuscript of his " Tableaux synony-
miques," he received from Agassiz a copy of his " Pro-
drome," and that he was thus enabled to interpolate all
Agassiz's synonymy, including also the names of species
described in works by several writers which Des Mou-
lins did not possess and had never seen. The question
of priority was settled by Des Moulins, in favour of
Agassiz ; Des Moulins's claims to priority being lim-
ited to two genera : Colly rites instead of Disaster of
Agassiz, and EcJiinocidaris instead of Arbacia of Gray ;
a detail simply in Agassiz's classification of the great
family of Echinoderms.

The winter of 1834-1835 and all the spring of 1835
were devoted to his great work on fossil fishes, the echi-
noderm studies being considered by Agassiz as a sort of
relaxation and recreation. New numbers of the " Pois-
sons fossiles ' were issued, the text not corresponding

1 832-35-] SECOND VISIT TO ENGLAND. 63

with the atlas of plates, which at the time rendered rather
difficult and confusing the task of those who wanted
to follow him. His two friends of Berlin, Leopold von
Buch and Alexander von Humboldt, complained of this,
and von Buch went so far as to call his method of issu-
ing text in fragments from different volumes diabolical.
Humboldt, although calling Agassiz, in his letter of the
loth of May, 1835, "a great and profound naturalist,"
and speaking of his "admiration of your eminent
works," adds : " I also complain a little, though in all
humility ; but I suppose it to be due to the difficulty of
concluding any one family of (fossil fishes), when new
materials are daily accumulating on your hands. Con-
tinue then as before. In my judgment, M. Agassiz
never does wrong." To any one who knows how
sarcastic and sharp Humboldt was, it is surprising
to see him treating Agassiz so tenderly, using circum-
locution in admonishing him, and placing the burden
of sharpest criticism on his friend von Buch.

The isolation of Agassiz in a small town, beyond
direct intercourse with other naturalists and savants in
general, had already begun to tell. If he had been
exposed to daily friction with his fellow-naturalists, he
would have avoided many mistakes and false steps.

In July, 1835, Agassiz took his young wife on a visit
to her parents at Carlsruhe, and left her there while he
went a second time to England, where he remained until
the end of October, working hard at descriptions of all
the fossil fishes he had collected the previous year, and
revising and directing the work of his two artists ; for

64 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. iv.

besides Dinkel, he now had a second draughtsman, M.
Weber, another of his Munich friends. The expenses
had grown so large that he began to think that he had
" committed an imprudence in throwing myself into an
enterprise so vast in proportion to my means as my
' Poissons fossiles.' His publisher, Cotta of Stuttgart,
had abandoned the undertaking as being too expensive
and attended with too many aieas, and Agassiz bravely
resolved to be his own publisher, — a very rash decision
on his part, taking into account his complete lack of
business capacity ; but as he says : " Having begun it, I
have no alternative ; my only safety is in success. I
have a firm conviction that I shall bring my work to
a happy issue, though often in the evening I hardly
know how the mill is to be turned to-morrow."

At the meeting of the British Association for the
advancement of science in Dublin, which Agassiz at-
tended, another appropriation of one hundred guineas,
similar to the one voted the preceding year toward the
facilitating of researches upon English fossil fishes, was
granted him, which allowed him to pay his two artists.
His presence in England and Ireland greatly helped
the subscriptions to his work. English savants acted
generously, and Agassiz's reputation grew rapidly
among them. But, nevertheless, English enthusiasm
never went so far as to offer him a single official posi-
tion during his whole life.

In France the number of subscriptions was far below
what it was in England, only fifteen copies being dis-
posed of. Again, at this time, the loss of Cuvier was

I832-35-] BRITISH ASSOCIATION AT DUBLIN. 65

felt ; for he alone would have had the power to get a
subscription for fifty or sixty copies from the govern-
ment, as he did for his " Poissons vivants," which would
have placed Agassiz at ease. Properly engineered,
Agassiz might have succeeded in getting the French
government interested in his great work, but for some
reason he withdrew from the undertaking, and did not
even make an attempt in that direction during his stay
in Paris.

An incident occurred at Dublin, during the meeting
of the British Association, which was recorded in a
letter from Adam Sedgwick to Lyell, dated Sept. 20,
1835. Sedgwick says: " Agassiz joined us at Dub-
lin, and read a long paper to our section (the Geo-
logical Section). But what think you ? Instead of
teaching us what we wanted to know, and giving us of
the overflowing of his abundant ichthyological wealth,
he read a long, stupid, hypothetical dissertation on
geology, drawn from the depths of his ignorance. And,
among other marvels, he told us that each formation
(e.g., the lias and the chalk) was formed at one moment
by a catastrophe, and that the fossils were by such
catastrophes brought from some unknown region, and
deposited where we find them. When he sat down, I
brought him up again, by some specific questions about
his ichthyological system, and then he both instructed
and amused us. I hope we shall, before long, be able
to get this moonshine out of his he*ad, or at least pre-
vent him from publishing it. His great work is going
on admirably well. I think it is by far the most impor-

66 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. iv.

tant work now on hand in the geological world " (" Life
and Letters of Sedgwick," Vol. I., p. 447, Cambridge,
1890). Agassiz wisely withdrew his very objectionable
paper. It was one of the weak points of his disposition
to indulge in wild suppositions on subjects of which he
knew very little, and to plunge into speculation abso-
lutely out of his range of research.

It was on this occasion, at a festival at Florence
Court, the seat of Lord Enniskillen, that Enniskillen,
as it was related by his son, Lord Cole, to Lyell, was
put "in great good humour," for long time after, by
the perfect coolness with which Agassiz made " Murchi-
son and some other guest glorious, and Sedgwick com-
fortable" * Such a jolly set of hammer-bearers Lord
Enniskillen had never seen before, and Murchison
acknowledged that he had found in Agassiz his master.
At the hospitable table of Lord Enniskillen the old
Munich student proved a match for the old trooper of
the Peninsula War.

Not long after his return to Neuchatel, a son, Alex-
ander, so named in honour of Agassiz's best friend, Alex-
ander Braun, was born on the ist of December, 1835.
For more than one reason it was a great event in the
family, for from that moment Mrs. Agassiz, who showed
herself at once an excellent and most careful mother,
entirely abandoned pencil and books, and devoted all
her time and strength to her son, and afterward to her
two daughters,- -one Ida, born Aug. 8, 1837; and tne
other, Pauline, born Feb. 8, 1841.

1 " Life of Sir Charles Lyell," Vol. I., p. 457, and also " Life and Let-
ters of Sedgwick," Vol. I., p. 445.

1832-35.] LETTER TO PICTET. 67

Indeed, with the scanty means at her disposal, Mrs.
Agassiz had her hands full, and even more than full,
as we shall see by and by ; and it is not surprising that
she could no longer manifest active interest in her hus-
band's scientific work. It would have been beyond
human power to continue her work of drawing fossil
fishes and helping at manuscripts.

But we must not anticipate: let us return to Agassiz's
various and constantly increasing work at Neuchatel.
Four letters written at this time to two naturalists, who
were counted among his best and most trusted friends,
Jules Pictet of Geneva and Celestin Nicolet of La
Chaux-de-fonds, will give an intimate view of his
scientific activity.

NEUCHATEL, 24 novembre, 1833.
MONSIEUR JULES PICTET,
a Geneve.

Monsieur, — Je viens de recevoir votre lettre et je m'empresse
d'y repondre, dans Tespoir d'obtenir le plus vite possible les objets
que vous voulez bien offrir a notre Musee. J'espere que des a
present, nous*pourrons entrer en relations d'echanges suivies. M.
Coulon et moi sommes dans ce moment occupes a ranger, et a deter-
miner les collections, pour en mettre les doubles k notre disposition,
ce qui facilitera beaucoup nos echanges. . . . En echange nous
pouvons vous offrir en general surtout des Poissons surtout plu-
sieurs especes d'eau douce nouvelles et inedites, des Mollusques
en esprit de vin et des coquilles d'especes vivantes, des coquilles
fossiles surtout du Lias et des etages jurassiques inferieurs du
Wiirtemberg, des Zoophytes en esprit de vin et des fossiles ; des
roches, surtout des series completes du Gres Bigare, du Muschelkalk,
du Keuper et des terrains jurassiques ; les fossiles et les roches de la
Craie des environs de Neuchatel qui sont tres nombreux. Nous
avons aussi beaucoup de doubles des plantes d'Allemagne. Voila

68 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. iv.

done assez de materiaux pour faire de nombreux echanges ; veuillez
seulement, s'il vous plait preciser davantage ce que vous desirez
recevoir d'abord, et puisque vous voulez bien nous faire le premier
envoi ne pas trop tarder a le faire. Si vous aviez, des Dicer as et en
general des fossiles de la Montague des Fis (Savoie), vous nous
obligeriez beaucoup de nous en envoyer, nous voudrions pouvoir les
comparer avec notre Craie. Si vous avez des especes de poissons
du Bresil qui ne soient pas mentionnees dans mon ouvrage, elles
seraient aussi bien venues pour notre Musee.

Je fais maintenant imprimer la 2eme Hvraison des " Poissons fos-
siles," qui contiendra la description des genres Platysomus, Tetra-
gonolepis, Dapedium^ Lemionotus, et Lepidot2is, et une partie de
FOsteologie generale des poissons. II est facheux que les publica-
tions periodiques obligent les auteurs a morceler leurs sujets ; mais
enfin avec le temps on finit par les rendre complets.

Puisqu'enfm vous voulez bien m'offrir votre appui dans mes
recherches sur les objets qui vous entourent de plus pres, oserai-je
vous prier de bien vouloir m'adresser par la Messagerie, un jour
qull fera froid ; un exemplaire de votre Gravanche, et une ou deux
de Fera, de differentes dimensions. Je vous offre en echange les
Coregones du lac de Constance, de Baviere et de Neuchatel. Je
crois avoir vide la question des Salmones d'Europe, ce n'est plus
qu'a la synonymie que je dois donner encore quelques soins ; aussi
je cherche a receuillir tous les noms de province. Cuvier dans
la 2eme edition du " Regne Animal " a admis beaucoup trop
d'especes.

Agreez, Monsieur, Tassurance de mon devouement, et de ma con-

sideration distinguee.

Ls. AGASSIZ.

1832-35-] LETTER TO PICTET. 69

NEUCH^TEL, 22 avril, 1835.
MONSIEUR JULES PICTET,
a Geneve.

Monsieur, — Depuis que j'ai eu le plaisir de correspondre avec vous
pour notre premier echange, Tarrangement de nos poissons s'est tres
avance et une grande partie de la collection est trie'e, et les doubles
sont mis a part. II nous est done maintenant bien plus facile d'ef-
fectuer les echanges que precedemment ; cependant nos catalogues
ne sont point encore faits. Cest pour cette raison, Monsieur, que
tout en acceptant avec reconnaissance Toffre que vous me faites pour
notre Musee, je vous prierais si cela pouvait vous convenir, de bien
vouloir nous envoyer un exemplaire de toutes les especes de poissons
exotiques que vous possedez ; en revanche, je vous adresserai tout ce
que vous n'avez pas encore de mes poissons d'eau douce, et si cela ne
suffit pas, j'ai encore quelques exemplaires de poissons des grandes
rivieres du Bresil. Enfin j'ai rapporte d'Angleterre une telle masse
de fossiles, que je ne serais pas embarrasse de vous transmettre Tequi-
valent des poissons que vous me feriez parvenir. Si parmi vos especes
il s'en trouvait que nous eussions, ce dont je doute, je pourrais vous
les renvoyer avec les notres.

S'il vous manque beaucoup de poissons de la Mediterranee, je
pourrais vous en fournir beaucoup. Je desirerais egalement beau-
coup connaitre les poissons du lac de Lugano, du moins les especes
des genres critiques.

Je pense ne plus renvoyer d'un an, la publication de mes " Pois-
sons d'eau douce " ; la 5em Hvraison des (Poissons) fossiles paraitra
dans six semaines.

Agreez, Monsieur, 1'assurance de ma consideration distinguee, et
de mon entier devouement.

Ls. AGASSIZ.

70 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. iv.

NEUCHATEL, le 4 Mars, 1834.
MONSIEUR CELESTIN NICOLET,

a La Chaux-de-fonds.

Monsieur,-- J'ai re£u il y a 15 jours et lu le meme soir a notre
societe la notice detaillee que vous nous avez adressee sur le calcaire
lithographique des Montagues (de Neuchatel) . Votre communica-
tion a excite Tinteret qu'elle merite et tous les membres de la soci-
ete vous feliciteront de votre zele si vous parvenez a decouvrir
quelque localite oil Ton puisse lever des plaques assez grandes pour
executer les travaux lithographiques.

II se rattache une question geologique a vos recherches qui me
parait importante sous le point de vue scientifique, c'est Fapprecia-
tion rigoureuse des rapports de position qui existe entre votre
calcaire lithographique et celui de Sohlenhofen. En Baviere le
calcaire est stratifie en couches horizontales et c'est surement de
la que vient la beaute des pierres de Sohlenhofen ; tandisque dans
la chaine du Jura tous les calcaires ont ete disloques pas des sou-
levements posterieurs a leur deposition et sont par consequent tres
fendilles. II serait bien interessant d'avoir une collection un peu
etendue des fossiles de votre calcaire afm de pouvoir les comparer
avec le grand nombre de ceux que Ton trouve a Sohlenhofen ; ce
serait un moyen de plus de determiner les relations geologiques
de ces depots. Si vous avez occasion d'en receuillir, ne le negligez
pas ; ce serait un grand service que vous nous rendriez de nous en
adresser le plus dMchantillons possibles.

Agreez, Monsieur, Tassurance de ma consideration distinguee.

Ls. AGASSIZ.

NEUCHATEL, le 19 Mars, 1835.
MONSIEUR CELESTIN NICOLET,

a La Chaux-de-fonds.

Monsieur, — La Societe des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchatel
ayant decide d'imprimer ses memoires a nomme un comite pour en
faire un choix et soigner Pimpression. Ce comite desirant voir vos
observations geologiques figurer dans son receuil m'a charge de
vous demander Tautorisation de faire imprimer votre notice sur

1832-35-] LETTER TO C. NICOLET. 71

la pierre lithographique des montagnes,1 en vous priant d1y ajouter
d'abord vos nouvelles observations sur les gisement de ces couches,
sur leur age geologique, et sur les fossiles qu'elles contiennent.
Vous nous obligerez infiniment en repondant bientot a notre appel.
Deja les premieres feuilles de nos Memoires sont imprimees.

J'ai beaucoup regrette de ne nVetre pas trouve a Neuchatel
lorsque vous vous y etes reunis avec Messieurs Voltz, Thurmann et
Thirria ; mais j'espere avoir bientot le plaisir de faire votre con-
noissance, M. Ladame m'ayant propose il y a deja quelques temps
de faire une course avec lui a la Chaux-de-fonds.

Agreez, Monsieur, 1'assurance de ma consideration tres distinguee.

Ls. AGASSIZ.

1 " Essai sur le calcaire lithographique des environs de La Chaux-de-
fonds " (" Memoires de la Soc. Sc. nat. de Neuchatel," Vol. I., p. 66, 1835).

CHAPTER V.

1836-1837.

THE WOLLASTON MEDAL — FIRST PAPER OF DE CHARPENTIER ON THE
GLACIAL THEORY — VENETZ'S OBSERVATIONS ON LARGE BOULDERS
PERCHED ON THE SlDES OF THE ALPINE VALLEYS — DR. HERMANN
LEBERT, THE FIRST DISCIPLE AND PUPIL OF DE CHARPENTIER AND
VENETZ — EXTRACT FROM DE CHARPENTIER'S FIRST PAPER — AGAS-
siz's SUMMER VACATION AT BEX, NEAR THE HOUSE OF DE CHAR-
PENTIER— CONVERSION OF AGASSIZ TO THE GLACIAL THEORY; His
CREATION OF THE ICE-AGE — KARL SCHIMPER VISITS AGASSIZ AT BEX
AND AT NEUCHATEL — DISCOURS DE NEUCHATEL JULY 24, 1837, ON
THE ICE-AGE.

i

THE year 1836 was happily inaugurated by the
reception of the Wollaston Medal, awarded to Agassiz
by the Geological Society of London, at its annual
meeting on February 19. The President, Charles
Lyell, a life-long friend of Agassiz, in presenting
the medal, said : —

On a former occasion we presented the proceeds of the Donation
Fund l for one year to the same distinguished naturalist, to assist
him in the publication of the early part of his great work, the
importance of which was then only beginning to be known to
the scientific world. It will ever be a subject of gratification to us
to have learned that this small pecuniary aid was not without its
influence in accelerating the publication of his " Researches on

1 The sum of thirty guineas, or ,£31, ios. sterling.

72

1836-37-] WOLLASTON MEDAL. 73

Fossil Fish,11 arriving as it did opportunely at a moment when the
funds which could be appropriated for the undertaking were nearly
exhausted. Mr. Agassiz acknowledged at the time his obligation
to us for a mark of sympathy and regard which he received so
unexpectedly from a foreign country, and which cheered and ani-
mated him to fresh exertions. The Council, in now awarding the
Medal to him, are desirous that he should possess a lasting testi-
mony of their esteem and of the high sense which they entertain of
the merit of his scientific labours.

It was a well-deserved reward, received when quite a
young man, — in his thirtieth year only, - - which did
honour to the Geological Society of London as well as
to the recipient. Never since has the Wollaston Medal
been bestowed on so young a naturalist ; his is a unique
case, and as such is recorded on the List of Awards
of the Wollaston Medal.

In 1834, at the meeting of the Helvetic Society of
Naturalists, at Lucerne, Jean de Charpentier, Director
of the Salt Works at Bex, Canton de Vaud, had read a
short paper entitled, " Notice sur la cause probable du
transport des blocs erratiques de la Suisse." Seldom, if
ever, has such a small memoir so deeply excited the
scientific world. It was received at first with incredulity
and even scorn and mockery, Agassiz being among
its opponents. Its publication, however, a year later,
and again eighteen months later, in the " Annales des
Mines" of Paris, Vol. VIII., p. 219, and in the " Biblio-
, theque universelle ' of Geneva, Vol. IV., p. I, with a
German translation by Julius Froebel and Oswald
Heer, in " Mittheil. aus dem gebiete der theoret.
erdkunde," p. 482, Zurich, attracted much attention,
and the smile of incredulity with which it was received

74 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

when read at Lucerne soon changed into a desire to
know more about it.

A mountaineer, Perraudin, of the Bagnes valley, at
the foot of the St. Bernard, in Valais, told de Charpentier,
as far back as 1815, that the large boulders perched on
the sides of the Alpine valleys were carried and left
there by glaciers. De Charpentier thought the hypoth-
esis so extraordinary and extravagant that it was not
worth examining or even considering. Fourteen years
later, in 1829, at the meeting of the Swiss naturalists
at the Grand St. Bernard's Hospital, his good and
most esteemed friend, the engineer of the "Fonts et
Chaussees " of the Valais Canton, M. Venetz, not only
supported the view advanced by Perraudin, but told
the Society that his observations led him to believe that
the whole Valais has been formerly covered by an
immense glacier, and that it even extended outside of
the canton, covering all the "Canton de Vaud" as far
as the Jura Mountains, carrying all the boulders and
erratic materials, which are now scattered all over the
large Swiss valley. In 1821 the extremely modest
Venetz had read before the Swiss naturalists a paper
entitled, " Memoire sur les variations de la temperature
des Alpes de la Suisse." In some way the memoir was
left entirely unnoticed, and the manuscript put aside.
De Charpentier, as soon as he was convinced of the
correctness of the Venetz theory, hunted up the man-
uscript, which was buried under the dust of the archives
of the Helvetic Society of Naturalists, and had it finally
printed and published, in 1833,- — twelve years after it
was written,- -in " Erstern Bandes zweyte abtheilung,"

1836-37-] OLD GLACIERS TN VALAIS. 75

of the " Denkschiften der allgemeine Schweizerischen
Gesellschaft fiir die gesammten Naturwissenchaften."

As this initial memoir on the glacial epoch is
extremely rare, I will quote the conclusions and one
paragraph : -

Monsieur Perraudin, conseiller de la commune de Bagnes, habile
chasseur de chamois, et amateur de ces sortes d'observations [on
old moraines], nous a assure que les glaciers de Severen, de Loui,
et de la Chaux-de-Sarayer, tous dans la vallee de Bagnes, ont des
moraines fort reconnaissables, qui sont environ a une lieue de la
glace actuelle. . . .

Nous sommes done en quelques manieres autorises a croire : -

i) Que les moraines qui se trouvent a une distance considerable
des glaciers, datent d\me epoque qui se perd dans les units des
temps. . . .

6) One les glaciers parviendront difficilement a la hauteur gigan-
tesque, dont nous trouvons tant de vestiges. . . .

Civil Engineer Venetz was not educated as a scientific
man, and he did not understand the scientific method of
marshalling and classifying facts and observations. But
he found in his friend de Charpentier the best possible
man to systematize and construct a new science. If it
was Venetz who developed and sustained the hypothesis
of the chamois hunter, Perraudin, and awaked de Char-
pentier's interest in the question, it was de Charpentier,
who by his scientific method of observation, his clear
and logical reasoning, accumulated and classified on
truly scientific bases all the material proofs, such as the
moraines^ the roclies moutonnces polies et strifes, the
cailloux strie's, the bone glaciaire, etc., and to de Char-
pentier is due the glacial doctrine and the glacial theory.

As early as 1833, de Charpentier had gathered round

76 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

him at Bex, pupils and believers in the new science,
including among the first ones O. Heer, afterward so
celebrated for his researches in fossil botany and fossil
entomology, E. Thomas, the botanist, and the learned
Dr. H. Lebert. The latter, a brilliant German political
refugee from Breslau, an enthusiastic friend and great
admirer of de Charpentier, who justly compared the
splendid and characteristic profile of de Charpentier to
that of Keppler and of Galileo, and pronounced his
head as typical of a savant, came to Bex in August,
1833, and was there convinced of the soundness of the
views of Venetz and de Charpentier. For him the beau-
tiful demonstrations of de Charpentier were conclusive,
and left no doubt; so much so that in 1834, on the
occasion of his receiving his degree of Doctor of Medi-
cine at Zurich, and before de Charpentier had read
his paper at Lucerne, he gave a public lecture on
the glacial theory.

The just and honest Heer, in his " Le Monde primi-
tif de la Suisse," has nobly upheld the claims of de
Charpentier, saying : " C'est Jean de Charpentier qui
le premier donna une base scientifique a cette hypothese
par une serie de recherches consciencieuses et par une
rigoureuse combinaison des faits connus." And he
further says : " Jean de Charpentier est le fondateur
de la theorie des glaciers."

The short paper of de Charpentier contains some of
the fundamental principles on which the glacial theory
is based, and is so important that some extracts will be
acceptable to all those who like to follow the history of
a great discovery from its infancy.

1836-37-] DE CHARPENTIER^S FIRST PAPER. 77

Extracts from NOTICE SUR LA CAUSE PROBABLE DU

TRANSPORT DES BLOCS ERRATIQUES DE LA SUISSE; par

M. J. de Charpentier, Directeur des mines du canton de

Vaitd. (Extrait du Tome VIII des" Annales des Mines"

pp. 20. Paris, 1835.)

M. Venetz, en etudiant les glaciers, a ete conduit a s'occuper des
blocs erratiques transported par la vallee du Rhone, et Texamen
qu'il a fait de ces blocs, et des diverses circonstances qui les accom-
pagnent, Ta convaincu que leur transport n'a pas pu s'effectuer par
le moyen de 1'eau, quelque enormes qu'on suppose son volume et sa
vitesse, et quelque puissante que soit son action. . . .

Les depots des blocs erratiques presentent constamment un
melange informe de fragmens de toutes les dimensions, depuis celle
d'un grain de sable jusqu'a celle de plusieurs milliers de pieds cubes.
On trouve sur le Jura des blocs aussi volumineux que dans les val-
lees des Alpes. II n'existe done point de triage selon les volumes
et les poids relatifs des blocs, ce qui necessairement aurait du avoir
lieu s'ils avaient ete entraines et amenes par 1'eau ; car, dans ce
cas? les plus gros blocs devraient se trouver les plus voisins du lieu
d'ou la debacle et le courant les auraient enleves, et ces fragmens
devraient diminuer de volume a mesure qu'ils en sont plus eloignes,
de maniere que les blocs qu'on trouve sur les pentes du Jura
devraient etre en general sensiblement plus petits que ceux qu^n
rencontre au pied et dans les vallees des Alpes. Mais, nous le
repetons, un pareil arrangement ne s'observe nulle part. . . .

Quoique la plupart des blocs erratiques presentent une forme
arrondie evidemment par frottement, on en trouve neanmoins qui
sont non-seulement aplatis, mais qui sont restes presque intacts,
ayant a peine leurs angles et leurs aretes ecornees ou emoussees.
Si leur deplacement avait eu lieu par un courant, on ne saurait pas
concevoir comment ils auraient pu etre roules jusques au pied du
Jura et pousses sur son faite, sans porter des marques violentes de
frottement.

Les depots de ces roches transporters presentent ordinairement
une forme alongee, semblable a celle d'une digue ou d'un rempart,

78 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

ou bien ils forment quelquefois des monticules coniques, isoles ou
disposes en file. Ils ne se rencontrent jamais en forme de nappe
ou de plateau. Ces digues sont placees horizontalement au pied
et sur la pente des montagnes, ordinairement les unes derriere les
autres, et espacees a des distances inegales : elles sont paralleles
entre elles et a la direction de la vallee. Quelquefois deux ou plu-
sieurs de ces digues se trouvent tellement rapprochees les unes des
autres, qu'elles se confondent en une seule, terminee par une ou
plusieurs aretes. La plus grande elevation a laquelle on les trouve
sur la pente des montagnes qui bordent la vallee du Rhone, est
d?environ i.ioo a 1.200 pieds au-dessus de ce fleuve, dans les
environs de Bex, et de 2.400 pieds dans ceux de Sion. Le sol sur
lequel ils reposent n'est jamais forme d'atterrissemens ou d'eboule-
mens, mais c'est toujours du roc en place.

La disposition et la configuration exterieure de ces depots sont
inexplicables par la theorie d\m transport par le moyen d\m courant
d^au ; car 1'eau les aurait deposes en forme de nappes, surtout dans
les plaines des vallees et dans celles qui se trouvent au pied des
Alpes ; cette theorie n'explique pas non plus comment ces blocs
auraient pu franchir, sans les combler, les lacs qui se trouvent a
Textremite inferieure de la plupart de nos grandes vallees, ni la
singuliere position de ces enormes blocs qu'on trouve isoles dans
la plaine ou sur la pente des montagnes, plantes verticalement sur
le sol, et quelquefois brises ou fendus du bas en haut dans toute
leur longueur, ce qui semble indiquer qu'ils sont tombes a peu pres
verticalement sur la place meme ou ils se trouvent encore, et qu'ils
se sont fendus ou brises par leur chute.

On remarque en outre que les blocs sortis d'une vallee laterale ne
se melent point ou tres imparfaitement avec ceux de la grande vallee,
ou avec ceux qui sont sortis d\me vallee opposee. Ainsi les pierres
feldspathiques ou talqueuses de la vallee d'Herens, formant des de-
pots considerables pres de Sion, ne se melent point avec les blocs
calcaires qui proviennent des vallees de la Sionne et de la Lierne,
qui toutes les deux prennent naissance aupres de Rawyl, et se termi-
nent a la grande vallee du Rhone, a peu pres vis-a-vis de la vallee
d'Herens. Les digues ou remparts qu'imitent les de'pots de blocs
de chacune de ces vallees sont parfaitement separes et distincts.

1836-37-] DE CHARPENTIER^S FIRST PAPER. 79

Feu M. Escher de la Linth avait deja remarque ce meme fait par
rapport aux grandes vallees de la Suisse, c'est-a-dire que les blocs
erratiques de la vallee du Rhone ne se melaient point avec ceux qui
etaient sortis de la vallee de PAar ; que ces derniers restaient separes
et distincts des depots de blocs venus de la vallee de la Reuss, etc.
En adniettant un courant d'eau ou une debacle qui ait en lieu instan-
tanement et a la fois dans ces di verses vallees, on ne comprend pas
pourquoi et comment les pierres entrainees ne se melaient pas dans
les endroits oil ces courans venaient se toucher et se joindre, et
surtout la oil ils frappaient centre le Jura, ce qui aurait du produire
une sorte de remou ou de refoulement, qui loin d'empecher le melange
des materiaux que ces courans amenaient avec eux, 1'aurait au con-
traire singulierement favorise.

Un autre phenomene qu1on observe dans les vallces de toutes les
chaines de montagnes qui ont fourni des blocs erratiques, ce sont
les surfaces lisses que presentent les rochers qui n'ont pas ete de-
grades par la decomposition ou par des eboulemens. Ces surfaces
sont evidemment le resultat d'un frottement, et comme on sait que
les eaux courantes qui charrient du sable et des pierres, usent et
polissent les rochers avec lesquels elles viennent en contact, on a
cm que les surfaces lisses et usees des rochers de nos grandes vallees
etaient dues a la debacle on an grand courant qiTon supposait avoir
transporte les blocs erratiques, qui, en quelque sorte, auraient fait
office de Te'iiieril. Pour donner plus de probabilite a cette explica-
tion, on alleguait le fait incontestable que ces surfaces polies ne se
rencontrent pas audessus du niveau que les blocs transported ont
atteint de chaque cote de la vallee, et qu'au-dessus de ce niveau les
rochers iVoffrent que des surfaces raboteuses, de veritables cassures.
La supposition (Tune debacle ou d'un courant n'explique pas
d\me maniere satisfaisante ce phenomene ; car comment concevoir
qu'une si immense quantite de blocs de toutes les dimensions, mise
en mouvement par une enorme masse d'eau, ait pu unir et rendre
lisses des surfaces verticales et cPune grande etendue? Loin de les
polir, elle n'aurait fait que les ecorner et les ebrecher. Comment
des blocs entraines par Teau auraient-ils pu frotter et user des sur-
faces qui surplombent, qui forment ces sortes de voutes que nos
rnontagnards designent par le nom de barmes ou de balines .- Com-

8o LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

ment expliquer, par cette supposition, la formation de surfaces polies,
derriere des rochers qui font saillie, et qui, par ce fait meme, auraient
du les preserver du courant, et les proteger contre le choc et le
frottement des corps solides charries par 1'eau?

Mais laissons de cote ces difficultes et admettons pour un moment
que ces surfaces lisses avaient ete produites par un courant d'eau ;
dans ce cas elles devraient etre plus marquees vers 1'extremite
inferieure des vallees que dans leur partie superieure ou vers leur
naissance, et elles devraient etre absolument nulles sur les cote* des
Alpes. Eh bien, c'est precisement le contraire ; ces surfaces lisses
et polies se recontrent depuis le pied jusqu'au faite des Alpes, et
plus on s'eleve, mieux on les trouve prononcees ; elles sont ex-
tremement distinctes sur le Saint-Bernard, le Simplon, le Saint-
Gothard, le Grimsel, la Gemmi, le Sanetsch, le col d'Enzeindaz,
etc. . . .

Je pourrais citer encore d'autres faits plus ou moins contraires a
la theorie d'un courant d'eau, si ceux que je viens d'indiquer ne me
paraissaient pas suffire pour faire soupconner que 1'agent qui a tran-
sporte les blocs erratiques a ete tout autre qu'une debacle ou une
masse d'eau en mouvement.

M. Venetz croit que des glaciers ont ete cet agent, et que ces
depots de blocs erratiques ne sont autre chose que des moraines.

Je sens fort bien tout ce qu'une pareille hypothese offre au pre-
mier abord d'invraisemblable, de choquant, d'extravagant meme.
En efFet, comment admettre, comment se persuader que jadis toutes
nos grandes vallees fussent occupees dans toute leur longueur par
de vastes glaciers, qui, a leur debouche dans la plaine au pied des
Alpes, se seraient etendus en forme de nappes ou d'enormes even-
tails pour couvrir presque toute la contree jusqu'au Jura, et remonter
cette chaine en nombre d'endroits jusques a son faite, et le depasser
meme ? Comment concilier une semblable hypothese avec la masse
de faits cfui prouvent que jadis la temperature de nos climats a ete
bien plus elevee qu'elle ne 1'est maintenant? . . .

J'avoue que toutes ces objections et beaucoup d'autres se pre-
senterent a moi lorsque M. Venetz. il y a environ cinq ans, me fit
part de son opinion. Je restai dans le doute, jusqu'a ce que les faits
que j'avais mis tant de soin a rechercher et a examiner pour com-

1836-37-] DE CHARPENTIER^S FIRST PAPER. Si

battre cette hypothese, m'eussent conduit a un resultat tout oppose
a celui auquel je nVetais attendu. . . .

Les glaciers et leurs moraines se pla9ant devant 1'entree de quel-
que petite vallee laterale, y forment une sorte de barre, qui, empe-
chant 1'ecoulement des eaux, change le vallon en lac, dans lequel les
torrens amenent des pierres, des sables et des Unions, et les deposent
par lits. II n'est done pas surprenant de rencontrer quelquefois
aupres des depots des blocs erratiques de petits amas de materiaux
evidemment stratifies et deposes par 1'eau.

Ouoique la plupart des blocs charries par les glaciers soient
arrondis, ou aient au moins leurs angles et leurs aretes emousses
ou ecornes par le frottement qu:ils eprouvent les uns contre les
autres, neanmoins on trouve quelquefois sur le dos des glaciers de
gros blocs isoles qui arrivent sans frottement, et par consequent
bien conserves jusqu'au pied du glacier. Ce fait explique la maniere
dont quelques-uns des blocs erratiques ont pu etre transported a de
fort grandes distances sans avoir eprouve de frottement, et sans que
leurs angles et leurs aretes aient ete sensiblement endommages.

o o

La forme des moraines est celle d'une digue ou d\m rempart,
termine par une ou plusieurs aretes. Dans certains cas elle est
conique, ou bien elle presente une foule de monticules coniques.
Lorsqu\m glacier, comme il arrive le plus souvent, a plusieurs
moraines, elles sont toujours paralleles entre elles, et placees a des
distances inegales. La configuration interieure et exterieure des
moraines, et leur disposition mutuelle sont done exactement les
memes que celles des depots des blocs erratiques.

Les glaciers ne produisent jamais, comme les torrens et les
rivieres, de depots en forme de lits ou de nappes, parce qu'ils creu-
sent toujours le terrain jusqu'au roc vif, poussant devant eux toutes
les terres, graviers et blocs qu'ils rencontrent sur leur passage, phe-
nomene connu de tous ceux qui out observe: des glaciers dans le
temps ou ils sont en progression, et qui s'explique tres bien par la
maniere dont les glaciers augmentent et avancent. Puisque les
glaciers en s'avancant deblaient le terrain jusqirau roc vif, nou;
pouvons facilement concevoir pourquoi nos lacs n'ont pas ete com-
bles par la quantite immense de blocs, de gravier et de sable qui
ont du les traverser, ou plus exactement, qui ont du passer par

82 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

dessus, et qui, S'ils avaient ete amenes par de Teau, rfauraient pas
manque de les remplir. . . .

Depuis les travaux de M. de Saussure, tout le monde sait que
deux glaciers, lorsqirils viennent a s'atteindre et a se joindre sous
un angle aigu, ne melent et ne confondent point leurs moraines.
Ce fait explique parfaitement pourquoi les blocs erratiques d\me de
nos grandes vallees ne sont point meles avec ceux de la vallee
voisine, phenomene duquel on ne saurait se rendre compte par la
supposition que le transport de ces blocs cut ete opere par le moyen
de Teau. . . .

On sait que les glaciers frottent, usent et polissent les rochers
avec lesquels ils sont en contact. Cherchant a s?etendre, ils suivent
toutes les sinuosites, et se pressent et se moulent en quelque sorte
dans tous les creux et toutes les excavations qu'ils peuvent atteindre,
et en polissent les surfaces, meme celles qui surplombent, ce qu'un
courant d'eau charriant des pierres ne pourrait effectuer.

Comme les glaciers prennent naissance sur le faite des Alpes,
leur action destructive doit avoir dure beaucoup plus long-temps
dans les regions superieures que dans les basses vallees et a leur
pied. II i^est done pas etonnant de rencontrer dans les hautes
vallees et sur les cols des Alpes des marques de frottement beau-
coup plus considerables et mieux prononcees que vers leur pied, ce
qui devrait etre precisement Pinverse si ce frottement avait ete
opere par un courant ou une debacle. Enfin Tobservateur qui part
du faite du Jura dans la direction meme ou les blocs erratiques y
sont arrives, en suivant constamment leur trace, se trouve conduit
jusqu'au fond des hautes vallees des Alpes, et jusqu'aux glaciers
qui les dominent, ou il voit enfin ces depots devenir de veritables
moraines. . . .

Je termine cette notice en exprimant le voeu qu'elle puisse attirer
Tattention des naturalistes sur le travail que prepare M. Venetz ;
qu'elle puisse les engager a etudier derechef le grand phenomene
des blocs erratiques.

Agassiz resolved to pass his summer vacation of
1836 in a healthy locality among the Alps. At that

1836-37-] HIS FIRST VISIT AT BEX. 83

time resorts were few, and there were none at all in
the centre of the Alps. At about the time of his mar-
riage, in 1833, de Charpentier had invited him to visit
him at his beautiful home "aux Devens," near Bex. De
Charpentier, the classmate, at the Freiberg School of
Mines, of Alexander von Humboldt and Leopold von
Buch, the author of the best geological description of
the Pyrenees then existing, had a European reputation
which brought to his house savants from every country ;
in addition, he enjoyed the reputation of a charming
and most hospitable companion, and was the possessor
of rich collections of natural history. De Charpentier
had married, in 1828, a young German lady of noble
family, Miss von Gablenz of Dresden ; and as Mrs.
Agassiz was not particularly fond of Swiss ladies,
Agassiz thought that an acquaintance with Mrs. de
Charpentier, a German lady of culture and refinement,
might be agreeable to his wife.

It is a mistake to think that Agassiz was attracted to
Bex by a desire to study the glacial question. He was
adverse to the hypothesis, and did not believe in the
great extension of glaciers and their transportation of
boulders, but, on the contrary, was a partisan of Lyell's
theory of transport by icebergs and ice-cakes. His main
object was to pass an agreeable vacation with his
wife and child, at the foot of the Dent du Midi, and
near a family of savants as social and friendly as were
de Charpentier and wife. In all this he was not disap-
pointed ; but from being an adversary of the glacial
theory, he returned to Neuchatel an enthusiastic convert
to the views and observations of Venetz and de Char-

84 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

pentier. Agassiz found lodgings in the neighbourhood
of " des Devens," at " la Sallaz," a suburb of the small
town of Bex, and daily visited de Charpentier. The
site, just north of Bex, on rising ground, among fine
orchards and vineyards, is truly magnificent ; with lux-
uriant vegetation, and in full view of the opening
of the great valley of the Valais, and at the foot of the
Dent du Midi. Mrs. Agassiz, with her little boy Alex-
ander, was delighted with the place, and with Mr. and
Mrs. de Charpentier, as well as their only child, a
charming girl of seven years, time passed quickly,
and Agassiz found in more intimate acquaintance with
de Charpentier, another charmer of men, not like himself
in many points, but very similar in some. For instance,
de Charpentier was a delightful talker, very hospitable,
and, like Agassiz, enjoyed hearing the " chime at mid-
night." The evenings passed like dreams, in endless
conversations on scientific subjects. For the greater
comfort of the guests collected round his table, - - for
besides Agassiz there were Dr. Lebert, Em. Thomas,
Venetz, Albert Mousson, Escher von der Linth, and
Lardy, - - de Charpentier ordered the best wine of his
cellar, and although moderation prevailed, the conver-
sation was often enlivened, and' hour after hour passed
so quickly that the company frequently did not separate
until a late hour ; sometimes not before daybreak. It
was a fruitful and genial time for all those who were
fortunate enough to be present. Agassiz was soon con-
verted into a glacialist by the arguments, and more espe-
cially by the evidences shown him by de Charpentier
and Venetz, all round Bex, and in several excursions

1836-37-] CONVERSION- TO GLACIAL THEORY. 85

to the Valais. With his power of quiek perception,
his unmatched memory, his perspicacity and acuteness,
his way of classifying, judging, and marshalling facts,
Agassiz promptly learned the whole mass of irresistible
arguments collected patiently during seven years by
de Charpentier and Venetz, and with his insatiable
appetite and that faculty of assimilation which he pos-
sessed in such a wonderful degree, he digested the
whole doctrine of the glaciers in a few weeks.

Agassiz saw also that de Charpentier was a true
" scientific epicurean ' in the best and most elevated
sense of the word, as he had been characterized by
Dr. Lebert, not only without ambition for fame, but
even indifferent as to the diffusion of his discoveries
among scientific men. Lebert calls de Charpentier
" une Belle au bois dormant " ; and it was for Agassiz
to play the role of the prince in awaking him, and
obliging him to publish his researches ; which he finally
did in October, 1840, under the title of " Essai sur les
Glaciers."

Agassiz, with his extraordinary imagination, saw that
the phenomenon of the extension of old glaciers had not
been confined to the Rhone valley, but must have been
general, and formed a special period in the history of
the earth, during which cold prevailed all over the
world. In a word, Agassiz's sojourn at Bex, under the
teaching of de Charpentier, had taught him, with his
far-reaching thoughts, to add an entirely unexpected,
and, at that time generally very unacceptable, stage to
the various periods which the earth had passed through ;
namely, the Ice-age.

86 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

On his return to Neuchatel, Agassiz began to exam-
ine attentively, with the new tool he had obtained at
Bex, all the vicinity of Neuchatel and Bienne, finding
everywhere the most unmistakable proofs of glacial
action, and of the extension of the glacier of the Rhone
to the Chaumont, with its " Pierre a Bot," and far away
north towards Soleure.

During his stay at Bex, Agassiz, as a good friend,
wished to share the great pleasure afforded to him by
his stay near de Charpentier, and he kindly invited Karl
Schimper to visit him. As Agassiz said in 1842, in his
defence against the attacks of Schimper, " Through the
highly interesting works of Venetz and de Charpentier
upon glaciers, my attention was called to these phe-
nomena. In the autumn of 1836 I went to Bex, where
I spent several months, and under the guidance of M.
de Charpentier gradually learned to understand these
remarkable phenomena." These plain words cannot
leave any doubt as to the fact that Agassiz became
converted to the glacial theory by the teaching of de
Charpentier. Schimper, who did not leave Bex with
Agassiz at the beginning of November, but accepted
the hospitality tendered to him by de Charpentier, was
not with Agassiz when he made his observations on
the polished and scratched rocks and boulders round
Neuchatel. After lingering several weeks at de Charpen-
tier's hospitable and generous house, Schimper rejoined
Agassiz at Neuchatel as his guest, as he had been at Bex
and formerly at Munich. Of course, being constantly
together, Agassiz and Schimper carried on a continual
exchange of views on the Ice-age. During the winter

1 836-37-] KARL SCHIMPER. 87

of 1836-37, Agassiz gave a public lecture at Neuchatel
on the subject. He was continually haunted by his
thoughts on old glaciers ; and when the Helvetic Soci-
ety of Natural Sciences, of which he had been elected
president, met at Neuchatel on the 24th of July, 1837, ne
wrote during the night previous his famous " Discours
d'ouverture." In it Agassiz most frankly acknowledges
that his explanation of the glacial epoch " est le resul-
tat de la combinaison de mes idees et de celles de
M. Schimper." All these explanations are necessary,
in order to show exactly how Schimper became involved
in the question, and how unjust are the accusations
of plagiarism launched against Agassiz by Schimper
himself and by Dr. Otto Vogel, in the " Allgemeine
Zeitung ' of Augsburg. Agassiz's good heart and
constant readiness to give impulse to new ideas were
interpreted in a manner not exactly creditable.

But before we come to the delivery of his " Discours,"
let us see how friendly he was to Schimper. As soon
as Schimper became a guest in Agassiz's apartment
at Neuchatel, Agassiz introduced him to everybody
and made the most of him. At the meetings of the
Neuchatel Society of Natural Sciences, Schimper com-
municated in February, March, and April, 1837, his
observations on the morphology of plants, showing the
laws of development of leaves round the axes ; and also
his new ideas on the development of the animal king-
dom before the appearance of man. During the five
years which had passed since their last meeting at
Carlsruhe in 1832, Schimper had undergone changes
which were not to his advantage. He had failed to

LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

draw a line sharply separating his student life from his
life as privatdocent and instructor at the Munich Uni-
versity. His appetite, on the contrary, had greatly de-
veloped, and was almost beyond his control. However,
the society of de Charpentier at Bex and of Agassiz
at Bex and Neuchatel was beneficial to him ; and he
never was so brilliant and attractive.

On the 1 5th of February, 1837, which was the anniver-
sary of his birth, Schimper was in particularly excellent
spirits. That evening he first made two verbal communi-
cations before the Natural History Society on botanic
morphology, promising to write them for the "Bulletin,"
— a promise which, by the way, was never carried
into effect, like all Schimper's promises,- -and then he
distributed to Agassiz and all the friends there a small
piece of poetry, half-scientific, half-humorous, in which,
for the first time, the word Eiszeit (glacial epoch), so
celebrated since, was printed. Schimper had the honour
to be the god-father of a great geologic period, for it
was certainly he who first coined and used the word.
Agassiz always acknowledged his priority ; and on the
25th of July, before the geological section of the Hel-
vetic Society, he read a letter from Schimper, addressed
to him under the title of " Ueber die Eiszeit," in which
the word Eiszeit is written in italics, and so printed on
p. 38 of the " Actes de la Societe Helvetique," Neuchatel,

1837-

But poor Schimper soon fell again into bad habits

after leaving Agassiz, and the brilliant spirit, the rare
genius, - - for a man of genius Schimper certainly was,
— became more and more obscured, until he disap-

1836-37-] DISCOURS DE NEUCHATEL. 89

peared entirely, without leaving even a good manuscript
account of his great discovery on the morphology of
plants.

The " Discours de Neuchatel ' is the starting-point
of all that has been written on the " Ice-age." Quoted
often, it is, however, very little known, because it never
was printed separately and also because the number of
copies of the small volume of the " Actes de la Societe
Helvetique reunie a Neuchatel ' was extremely limited.
As it occupies such an important place in the history of
the progress of geology, and also in the life of Agassiz,
I think it is proper to reproduce it in extenso and in
French, as it was delivered.

Discours prononce a V ouverture des seances de la
Societe Helvetique des sciences naturelles, a Ncucliatel,
le 24 Juillet, 1837, par L.* Agassiz, President.

Messieurs, tres chers amis et confederes :

Depuis longtemps les membres de la section neuchateloise de
notre societe desiraient avec impatience voir arriver le moment ou
ils pourraient inviter leurs confreres de toute la Suisse a se reunir
chez eux. Des circonstances independantes de leur volonte, et
particulierement la construction du nouvel edifice dans lequel nous
sommes reunis et qui devait recevoir tout ce que la ville possede de
collections scientifiques, les ont forces a decliner Phonneur d'acceuil-
lir a Neuchatel la Societe Helvetique des sciences naturelles, jus-
qu'a ce qu'ils pussent le faire convenablement et mettre sous ses
yeux au moins une partie des collections. Encore aujourd'hui,
malgre toute Tactivite qu'y a mise Tinfatigable Directeur de notre
Musee, il n^y a qu'une faible partie des collections qui soient
rangees ; c'est meme a la hate qu'elles ont ete deposees dans le
local qui doit les recevoir et que les ouvriers n'ont pas encore quitte.
Nous reclamons done toute votre indulgence pour ce que vous ver-
rez. Mais du moins, comptez sur le plaisir que nous avons a vous

90 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

recevoir ici, et soyez persuades que nous attachons un grand prix a
vous voir chez nous. Cest du fond du coeur que je vous dis a tous :
Soyez les bien-venus.

A pareil jour tout nous invite a rechercher quel est le lien qui
unit les sciences dont s'occupe notre Societe. Je ne crois pas me
tromper en affirmant qu'une grande pensee domine tous les travaux
qui tendent aujourd'hui a en etendre les limites. C'est Tidee d\m
developpement progressif dans tout ce qui existe, d'une metamor-
phose a travers differens etats dependant les uns des autres, lidee
d'une creation intelligible, dont notre tache est de saisir la liaison
dans tous ses phenomenes.1 Ainsi voyez I1 Astronomic, qui s'occupe
maintenant de la formation des corps celestes ; la Chimie, qui etudie
les differens modes d'action des corps les uns sur les autres ; la
Physique, qui veut approfondir la nature des forces dont elle connait
Faction ; THistoire Naturelle, qui poursuit les phases de la vie de
chaque etre ; la Geologic enfin, qui se hasarde a embrasser Thistoire
de la terre, a en dechiffrer meme les pages les plus anciennes, et
a la representer comme un grand tout, dont les revolutions ont
toujours tendu vers le meme but. »

De tous ces progres, sans doute, il sortira un jour quelque chose
de grand, de vraiment humain, qui fera rentrer Tetude des sciences
naturelles bien plus directement dans le domaine de la vie habituelle
de Thomme, que les avantages memes fournis a llndustrie et aux
arts par les resultats obtenus dans les sciences, quelques im menses
qu'aient etc ces derniers.

Notre Societe n'est point restee etrangere a ce grand mouve-
ment ; les noms de ses membres figurent honorablement a cote des
coryphees de la science qui ont daigne s'associer a nos travaux. La
reunion d'aujourd'hui, mieux qu'aucune autre peut-etre, prouverait
que mon assertion n'est point exageree. Vous le savez, Messieurs,
c'est notre petite societe qui a servi de modele a ces vastes associa-
tions dont rAllemagne, PAngleterre, et la France se glorifient a

1 If Agassiz had replaced the words "developpement progressif" and
"metamorphose " by evolution, what a splendid Darwinian paragraph he
would have given there, in 1837, twenty-two years before the publication
of the " Origin of Species." — J. M.

I836-37-] DISCOURS DE NEUCHATEL. gi

tant de litres ; et si les travaux qu'elle a enterpris ont paru moins
brillans, a cote de ceux de societes plus vastes, elle n'en a pas
moins donne Pelan, a plus d\me reprise.

Tout recemment encore, deux de nos collegues ont souleve' par
leurs recherches des discussions d'une haute portee, et dont les
suites auront du retentissement. La nature de la localite ou nous
sommes reunis m'engage a vous entretenir de nouveau d'un sujet qui,
je crois, trouve sa solution dans Pexamen des pentes de notre Jura.
Je veux parler des glaciers, des moraines, et des blocs erratiques.

Tout le monde, en Suisse, connait les glaciers et sait que leurs
bords sont entoures de digues de blocs arrondis qu'on appelle des
moraines, et qui sont continuellement poussees en avant ou abandon-
nees par les glaciers a mesure qulls avancent ou qu'ils se retirent.
Les habitans du Jura surtout sont familiers avec un autre pheno-
mene qui est tres frappant dans nos montagnes, je veux parler des
blocs erratiques ou de ces masses de granit et d'autres roches primi-
tives qui sont eparses principalement sur les pentes de notre Jura.
Ce que tout le monde ne sait cependant pas, c'est qu'il existe encore
d'autres moraines que celles qui cernent de nos jours les glaciers.
Ce sont MM. Venetz et de Charpentier, qui les ont fait connaitre
les premiers. On les observe principalement dans les vallees infe-
rieures des Alpes. Mais il est un cote de cette question qui doit etre
conteste, c'est la liaison que Ton a cherche a etablir entre les blocs
erratiques et les glaciers que cernaient les grandes moraines dont on
retrouve encore des traces sur les rives septentrionales du lac de
Geneve. C'est de ce dernier point que j'ai Pintention de vous entre-
tenir en particulier.

Les faits observes par MM. Venetz et de Charpentier sont cepen-
dant definitivement acquis a la science ; aussi importe-t-il d'en pro-
clamer hautement Pexactitude ; car de la depend naturellement la
validite de toutes les consequences que Ton peut en tirer.1

A des distances plus ou moins considerables des glaciers actuels,
on remarque en effet a differentes hauteurs des moraines parfaite-
ment semblables a celles qui cernent encore les glaciers. Elles sont

1 It is impossible to say more clearly, or with more force, that Messrs.
Venetz and de Charpentier founded the glacial doctrine. J. M.

92 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

e'galement concentriques et forment des digues qui suivent les ine-
galites des flancs des vallees. On en voit partout plusieurs etages,
dont les plus eleves se trouvent a quelques cents pieds au-dessus du
fond des vallees superieures des Alpes ou il n'y a plus de glaciers.
Mais en descendant dans les vallees infirieures, on en trouve succes-
sivement a douze ou quinze cents pieds et meme a plus de dix-huit
cents pieds de hauteur ; il y en a encore d'assez distinctes a deux
mille pieds au-dessus du lit du Rhone, dans les environs de St.
Maurice en Valais. On peut les poursuivre jusque sur les rives du
lac de Geneve. II en existe encore de tres-elevees au-dessus de
Vevey et dans les environs de Lausanne, qui correspondent a celles
de la rive meridionale du lac.

Si on ne les a generalement pas remarquees, c'est qu'elles sont beau-
coup au-dessus des routes frequentees, et que celles des parties infe-
rieures des vallees ont generalement etc disloquees par les torrens.

II est toujours facile de distinguer ces anciennes moraines des
digues formees par le debordement des eaux et des talus plus ou
moins etendus, resultant des avalanches. Les digues sont tres-irre-
gulieres et s'etendent a de petites distances, en s'aplanissant ; les
talus sont en forme de cones tres-aplatis, debouchant des vallees et
se perdant dans la plaine ; tandis que les moraines sont des digues
triangulaires continues et parallel es le long des deux flancs des val-
lees, formees de blocs arrondis e'videmment tritures, pour ainsi dire
en place, les uns centre les autres, comme cela a lieu sur le bord des
glaciers actuels, qui s'etendent dans de longues vallees etroites. Les
blocs des avalanches, au contraire, sont anguleux ; ceux des digues,
charries par les eaux, peuvent etre arrondis, il est vrai, lorsqu'ils pro-
viennent de moraines disloquees, mais alors ils s'etendent en nappes
irregulieres, et lorsqu'ils proviennent d'avalanches recentes, ils sont
egalement anguleux, a moins qu'ils ne rencontrent dans leur trajet
d'anciennes moraines quails entrainent et avec lesquelles ils se
confondent.

Pour se convaincre de Inexactitude de ces faits, il suffit de par-
courir la vallee de Chamouni, en suivant les moraines les plus rap-
prochees des glaciers, ou de s'elever perpendiculairement sur les
flancs de la vallee du Rhone entre St. Maurice et Martigny, sur la
rive gauche du Rhone, au-dessus de la Pissevache pres du hameau

1836-37-] DISCOURS DE NEUCHATEL. 93

appelce Chaux-Fleurie (Tsau-fria), ou vis-a-vis en montant au village
de Morales depuis les bains de Lavey. Les decombres des dernieres
debacles de la Dent du Midi, les grandes avalanches dont on voit
partout des traces et les nombreuses digues formees par le Rhone,
feront d'ailleurs apprecier justement la difference qu'il y a entre ces
divers accidens prodtiits par des causes si differentes.

Les vallees laterales presentent les memes phenomenes, comme
on peut le voir en remontant le cours de FAvencon, jusqu'au glacier
de Paneyrossaz.

En parcourant ces vallees, je ivai pas etc moins frappe de
Tapparence polie que presentent les rochers sur lesquels les glaciers
se sont mus ; apparence que Ton remarque egalement dans toutes
les vallees dont les flancs sont couronnes d'anciennes moraines, a
quelque distance des glaciers actuels qu'elles se trouvent. Cest
ainsi que les flancs de la vallee du Rhone sont entierement polis
j usque sur les bords du lac de Geneve a plus d'une journee des
glaciers, partout ou la roche est assez dure pour avoir resiste aux
influences atmospheriques.

D explication que M. de Charpentier a donnee de ces faits, evidem-
ment produits par de grandes masses de glaces, qui remplissaient
jadis le fond de toutes les vallees alpines, ne me semble cependant
pas embrasser toute la question, et le Jura presente une serie de
phenomenes qui la menent plus loin.

v Pour mettre plus de liaison dans ce que j'ai a vous dire la-dessus,
je vous entretiendrai d'abord des surfaces polies que Ton remarque
sur toute la pente meridionale du Jura et que nos montagnards
appellent des laves, comme nous Pa appris M. Leopold de Buch, celui
de tous les geologues qui le premier a le mieux etuclie le Jura
Neuchatelois et a qui sont dus les plus grands travaux sur le sujet
qui nous occupe.

La pente meridionale du Jura, qui est en face des Alpes, presente
de ces laves jusque sur ses plus hautes sommites, depuis les bords
du lac de Bienne jusqu'au dela d'Orbe ; limites dans lesquelles j'ai
constate leur existence.1 Ce sont des surfaces polies, completement

1 Elle s'etendent cependant bien au-delil, comme nous 1'apprend une lettre
de M. Schimper, recue le 25 Juillet et inseree a la page 38 de ces Actes.

94 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

independantes de la stratification des couches et de la direction
de la chaine du Jura ; elles s'e'tendent sur toute la surface du sol,
suivant ses ondulations, passant egalement par dessus le terrain
neocomien et le terrain jurassique, penetrant dans les depressions
qui forment de petites vallees, en s'elevant sur les cretes les plus
isolees et presentant un poli aussi uni que la surface d'un miroir,
partout ou la roche a etc mise recemment a decouvert, c'est-a-dire,
debarrassee de la terre, du gravier et du sable qui la recouvrent
generalement. Ces surfaces sont tantot planes, tantot ondulees,
souvent meme traversees de sillons plus ou moins profonds et
sinueux, ou de bosses longitudinales tres-arrondies, mais qui ne
sont jamais diriges dans le sens de la pente de la montagne ; au
contraire, comme les gibbosites, ces sillons sont obliques et longi-
tudinaux ; direction qui exclut tout idee d?un courant d'eau comme
cause de ces erosions. Un fait tres-curieux, que Ton ne saurait
non plus concilier avec 1'action de 1'eau, c'est que ces polis sont
uniformes, alors meme que la roche se compose de fragmens de
differente durete, et les coquilles qu'elle contient sont tranchees
comme dans des plaques de marbre polies artificiellement. On
remarque, en outre, sur les surfaces tres-bien conservees de fines
lignes semblables aux traits que pourrait produire une pointe de dia-
mant sur du verre, et qui suivent en general la direction des sillons
obliques. Les localites les plus interessantes ou Ton peut les
observer dans les environs de Neuchatel, sont le Mail, du cote du
lac, a la surface du terrain neocomien, et le Plan, a Pendroit ou
1'ancienne route joint la nouvelle. Les plus remarquables sont
cependant a quelque distance de la ville, par example, au-dessus
du Landeron, a la surface du portlandien sur la lisiere des vignes
et de la foret, dans les environs de St. Aubin et au-dessus de Con-
cise. Dans quelques localites on remarque de larges excavations
et meme des especes de puits qui ne peuvent avoir ete produits
que par des cascades tombant entre les fentes de la glace. Pour
quiconque a examine dans les Alpes le fond des anciens glaciers, il
est evident que c'est la glace qui a produit ces polis, comme ceux
de la vallee du Rhone dont il a deja ete question. II est digne
de remarque que ces polis ne se retrouvent nulle part dans le fond
des petites vallees longitudinales formees par les abruptes des dif-

1836-37-] DISCOURS DE NEUCHATEL. 95

ferentes ceintures des couches dont se composent nos chaines, ni
sur Tescarpement meme de ceux de ces abruptes qui sont tournes
vers la montagne, tandisque j'en ai remarque sur plusieurs
abruptes tournes vers les Alpes, par exemple, le long de la route
neuve entre St. Aubin et le chateau de Vauxmarcus. II importe
egalement de signaler les differences qui existent entre ces laves et
d'autres surfaces polies avec lesquelles on ne saurait cependant les
confondre, mais qui peuvent leur ressembler dans quelques circon-
stances. Je veux parler des surfaces polies produites par les failles
ou par le glissement des couches les unes sur les autres. Les
premieres penetrant verticalement ou obliquement a travers plu-
sieurs couches, ne sont a decouvert que la ou Tun des cotes de la
roche en rupture s'est enfonce ; elles ne sont jamais a decouvert
sur de grandes surfaces comme les laves ; les secondes presentent
quelquefois des surfaces assez etendues, lorsque les couches supe-
rieures au glissement out ete enlevees ; mais alors les rainures ou
les sillons produits par le glissement, sont dans le sens de la pente,
ce qui ne se voit nulle part a la surface des laves. Les surfaces
polies par Faction des eaux out egalement un caractere particulier,
soit qu'elles aient ete produites par des eaux courantes ou par des
masses d'eau plus considerables contenues dans un bassin. Dans
le premier cas, ce sont des sillons sinueux descendant toujours, tan-
disque les sillons et les gibbosites des laves montent et descendent
suivant les accidens de la roche polie. Dans le second cas, les
eaux mues sur les rivages par les vents, et poussees au-dela de leur
niveau habituel, rentrant toujours en e'quilibre, ferment des sillons
inegaux plus ou moms profonds, qui suivent generalement la ligne
de plus grande pente, a moins que des accidens locaux ne leur
donnent une direction particuliere. II en est de meme lors de la
hausse et de la baisse du lac au printemps et en automne. On peut
etudier toutes ces differences dans les environs de la ville, en compa-
rant les surfaces polies du Mail avec les erosions produites par le lac
dans le prolongement des memes couches, ou avec les sinuosites
qui ont ete produites par le Seyon dans ses gorges. D'ailleurs les sur-
faces polies par Faction de Teau ne sont jamais aussi lisses que les
laves ou que les surfaces polies par les glaciers. Que Teau charrie
du sable et du limon ou non, les effets sont les memes, seulement

96 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

ils sont plus lents dans ce dernier cas. Je n'ai pas encore eu occa-
sion d'etudier particulierement les effets des grandes masses d'eau
charriant des glaces ; je ne pense cependant pas qu^elles produisent
des effets differens de ceux de 1'eau liquide. Ce qifil y a de certain,
c'est que dans les lits de nos rivieres et sur les bords de nos lacs ces
effets se confondent ; et puis il est evident que la glace flottante ne
saurait avoir d'action sur le fond de Peau qui la porte. II n'y a done
que les grandes masses de glaces se mouvant immediatement sur
des masses solides qui puissent produire des effets semblables au
poli que Ton remarque sur les bords des glaciers en retraite. Ce
dernier phenomena est du reste parfaitement semblable a celui
que presentent les laves du Jura.

Par cette ressemblance seule on pourrait deja etre porte a penser
que des causes semblables ont produit des effets aussi semblables
entr'eux. Mais il est d'autres considerations qui nous permettent
de Her plus directement ces deux phenomenes, et qui forceront, meme
ceux qui voudraient y voir des agens differens, a. les envisager sous
un seul et meme point de vue.

Nous avons vu des moraines jusques sur les bords du lac de Geneve,
sur les deux rives a la meme hauteur ; nous avons par-la la certitude
qu'il fut un temps ou le lac de Geneve etait gele jusqu'au fond, et
ou cette glace s'elevait a une hauteur tres-considerable au-dessus de
son niveau actuel.

Mais nous savons egalement que toutes les moraines qui restent
en place sont celles que les glaciers laissent sur leurs bords en se
retirant. Depuis Tepoque done que je viens de signaler et ou les
glaciers debouchaient encore dans les vallees inferieures de la Suisse,
ils sont alles en diminuant et en se retirant dans des vallees de plus
en plus elevees.

Ici une question se presente tout naturellement. Ceux de ces glaci-
ers qui ont eu la plus grande extension, sont-ils descendus du sommet
des Alpes ? ou bien y aurait-il eu un moment ou les glaces se seraient
formees naturellement au-dela des limites que nous venous de leur re-
connaitre, s'etendant peut-etre une fois jusqu'au Jura et meme au-dela?

Le niveau des moraines des bords du lac Leman, qui sont a 2500
pieds au-dessus de la mer, et la nature des surfaces polies du Jura
semblent rindiqtier; il suffit meme de marquer sur une carte de

1836-37-] DISCOURS DE NEUCHATEL. 97

nivellement les hauteurs des moraines debouchant dans les differentes
parties de la chaine des Alpes, pour se convaincre que les glaces ont
une fois recouvert toute la plaine de la Suisse et atteint la pente
du Jura.1

En effet, la difference de niveau entre 1'elevation des moraines des
bords du lac de Geneve aux environs de Vevey et sur la cote de
Savoie, et celle des surfaces polies que Ton observe au-dessus des
rivages du lac de Neuchatel jusque sur le sommet de Chaumont, est
telle que la nappe de glace qui remplissait Pespace compris dans ces
limites, a pu avoir une certaine inclinaison, puisque le niveau du lac
de Neuchatel n/est que de 1344 pieds au-dessus de la mer, celui de
la zone de Pierre-a-Bot, le long de laquelle on trouve le plus grand
nombre de blocs, de 2150 pieds ; le sommet meme de Chaumont n:a
que 3619 pieds.

Cela etant, nous sommes non-seulement en droit d'attribuer a
Faction des glaces toutes ces surfaces polies de la pente du Jura,
mais encore de les envisager com me un indice assure de Petendue
plus considerable qu'ont eue les glaces a une epoque plus reculee,
tant dans le Jura que dans les Alpes.

M. de Charpentier pense que ces glaces etaint des glaciers qui se
sont formes sur le sommet des Alpes et qui sont descendus dans
la plaine pour s'elever jusqu1^ la hauteur ou on en trouve des indices,
poussant devant eux les blocs qui sont sur le Jura. Mais un fait bien
frappant s'oppose a cette explication •, c'est que les blocs du Jura
sont generalement moins arrondis et meme plus grands que ceux

1 M. Rod. Blanchet, qui s'est aussi occupe de cette question, a fait des
lors la remarque que le sommet du Pelerin (montagne qui domine Vevey
en face de 1'ouverture du Valais, elevee de 3301 pieds de France au-dessus
de la mer), compose de poudingue a gros grain, est poli sur sa pente,
dans un endroit ou il n'y a pas d'eau capable de former un petit ruisseau,
ni de sender, ni aucune des causes polissantes que Ton pourrait mettre
en avant.

C'est done a 3300 pieds au moins que Ton peut porter le niveau des
glaces qui remplissaient le bassin du lac de Geneve, dont la surface
n'est maintenant qu'a 1145 pieds. Sur le sommet du Felerin c'est le
fond de la grace dont le niveau etait de 3300 pieds au-dessus de la mer ;
mais rien ne nous indique quelle etait son epaisseur dans ce point.
H

98 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

que Ton trouve dans les moraines du bord des glaciers actuels.1 Si
nos blocs avaient etc roules ainsi au bord d'un glacier depuis les
Alpes jusqiTau Jura, ils seraient generalement plus ronds, et plus
petits, et il y aurait d'immenses moraines adossees au Jura, ce qui
n'est pas.2

L'opinion generalement re£ue attribue le transport de ces blocs a
d'immenses courans d'eau ou a des glaces flottantes.

Les plus grandes difficultes que presente cette manic-re de voir,
pour n'en indiquer que quelques-unes, sont d'abord d'expliquer
Torigine de ces courans et de la vitesse qu'on doit leur attribuer
pour qu'ils aient pu transporter des masses aussi enormes, si toute-
fois Ton admet qu'ils ont e'te charries apres le soulevement des
Alpes, comme tout semble Tindiquer. Car dans ce cas, ces courans
auraient du partir des cretes qui separent les vallees, puisque le
phenomene des blocs se presente dans toutes les vallees alpines et
sur les deux versans de la chaine, c'est-a-dire que pour sum" re aux
exigences des faits, ils auraient du jaillir de toutes ces cretes3 avec
assez d'impetuosite pour ne plus laisser tomber les blocs au-dessous
du niveau ou ils se trouvent dans le Jura et dans les vallees alpines
ou ils n'y a plus de glaciers, puis qu'on nie meme encore Texistence

1 Ces faits ne s'accordent point du tout avec ceux que M. Elie de Beau-
mont a decrits pour la vallee de la Durance.

2 Je ne me suis point attache a decrire la distribution des blocs erratiques
sur les pentes du Jura, parce qu'elle est assez connue depuis la publication
des recherches de MM. Leop. de Buch, Escher de la Linth, de Luc, sur ce
sujet. Je ferai seulement remarquer que leur accumulation sur differens
points ne s'accorde pas avec les theories que Ton a avancees pour expli-
quer leur transport. Ainsi les plus grandes accumulations que j'en con-
naisse se trouvent a peu de distance 1'une de 1'autre pres du sommet du
mont Auber, et dans le fond de Noiraigue, a des niveaux tres-differens, et
qui ne sont point sur une ligne ascendante dont le sommet serait a Chas-
seron. Au contraire, c'est en general sur le bord des differens gradins du
Jura qu'on en voit le plus, et en particulier sur la lisiere que forme tout le
long du Jura Neuchatelois, la depression des couches superieures du port-
landien, entre le chateau de la Neuveville, Fontaine-Andre, Pierre-a-Bot,
Troirod, Chatillon, Fresens, Mutruz, etc.

3 Les systemes de barrage et de debacles que Ton pourrait imaginer,
n'expliqueraient jamais des faits qommuns a tant de vallees a la fois.

1836-37-] DISCOURS DE NEUCHATEL. 99

des grandes moraines, pour attribuer aussi la deposition de ces
blocs aux memes courans. Mais comment des cours d'eau ayant
a peine quelques lieues de long (je parle ici des vallees laterales
debouchant dans les vallees principales) auraient-ils maintenu de
grands blocs a plus de mille pieds de hauteur? D'ailleurs le fait
que les blocs des differentes vallees ne sont pas les memes et qu:ils se
repandent en cventail a tine certaine distance des Alpes, exclut cette
idee d'une extreme vitesse qu'on a voulu accorder aux courans,
uniquement pour expliquer le transport des blocs, sans penser qu'ils
auraient du produire en meme temps d'autres eflfets dont on ne
retrouve aucune trace. Ce fait exclut a plus forte raison Tidee d'-un
grand courant diluvien passant sur toute la Suisse, quelque direc-
tion qu'on veuille lui assigner. Si c'est avant le soulevement des
Alpes qu^n suppose que le phenomene a eu lieu, je demande com-
ment il se fait que les lignes que ces blocs ferment dans les Alpes
n'ont pas ete disloquees par le soulevement? car dans ce cas les
digues continues et paralleles de blocs que Ton voit sur les deux
flancs de toutes les vallees alpines et qui en suivent tons les acci-
dens, quelles que soient leur direction et leurs sinuosites, restent
inexplicables, Peau suivant un cours rectiligne dans les differentes
anfractuosites du lit qu'elle parcourt, tandis que la glace seule
agit avec la meme energie sur tons les points des bassins qu'elle
remplit.

Les objections que Ton pent faire centre la theorie des courans
sont toutes applicables jusqu'a un certain point a la theorie de M.
Lyell, d'un charriage par des glaces flottantes. On pent bien faire
arriver par des radeaux de glaces des blocs anguleux jusque sur le
Jura; mais les autres particularites de ce grand phenomene ne
s'expliquent pas plus par la, qu?a Taide des courans, dut-on meme
admettre avec M. Elie de Beaumont que leur eau provenait de la
fonte des glaciers.

Une autre objection d'un tres -grand poids faite a cette theorie
par AI. Schimper, c'est Tetat actuel des lacs et de la grande valle'e
suisses. Si les blocs ont ete charries par des courans depuis les
Alpes an Jura, ces courans ont naturellement passe par desstis les
lacs et les valle'es longitudinales et transversales qui se trouvent
entre deux. Comment se fait-il alors que ces lacs et ces valle'es

ioo LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

n'ont point etc combles? et comment expliquer les escarpemens
anguleux de leurs bords ?

Ouelque violens, quelque rapides, quelque profonds que Ton sup-
pose ces courans, eussent-ils meme, contre toutes les lois de la
physique, porte des blocs de granit d'environ 50,000 pieds cubes,
comme celui de Pierre-a-Bot, ils ont du se ralentir une fois, et alors
les dernieres trainees auraient encore du combler quelques-unes de ces
inegalites. Cependant on voit peu de blocs entre les Alpes et le Jura.

Si dans une autre hypothese on les fait marcher lentement sur
des masses de limon et de decombres assez epaisses pour les porter,
comment se fait-il que ces masses du moins n'ont pas comble toutes
les inegalites de la Suisse? Les blocs seuls se seraient-ils peut-etre
deposes apres etre arrives sur le Jura, et les masses qui avaient pu
les apporter jusques la se seraient-elles alors ecoulees pour les laisser
en place?

D'autres considerations s'opposent encore a radmission de tous
ces courans.

Les blocs erratiques du Jura reposent partout sur des surfaces
polies, a moins qu'ils n'aient ete' pousses au-dela des cretes de nos
montagnes, et qu'ils ne soient tombes dans le fond des vallees longi-
tudinales, comme on le voit dans toute la vallee du Creux-du-Vent.
Mais ce n'est pas imni&diatement sur les surfaces polies qu'ils sont
gisant. Partout ou les cailloux roules qui accompagnent les grands
blocs n'ont pas ete remarries par des influences posterieures, on
remarque que les petits blocs, des galets de differente grandeur,
forment une couche de quelques pouces et quelquefois meme de
plusieurs pieds, sur laquelle les grands blocs anguleux reposent.
Ces cailloux sont de plus tres-arrondis, meme polis et entasses de
maniere a ce que les plus gros soient dessus les plus petits qui
passent souvent a un fin sable au fond, immediatement sur les
surfaces polies. Get ordre de superposition, qui est constant,
suppose a toute idee d'un charriage par des courans ; car dans ce
dernier cas, 1'ordre de superposition des cailloux arrondis serait
inverse. La presence dim fin sable a la surface des- roches polies,
prouve en outre qu'aucune cause puissante n'a agi, ou qu'aucune
catastrophe importante n'a atteint la surface du Jura, depuis 1'epoque
du transport de ces roches alpines, ou en d'autres termes, que les

1836-37-] DISCOURS DE NEUCHATEL. 101

surfaces polies lors clu transport cles blocs n'ont pas c'te disloquees
depuis. Mais comme ces surfaces forment en grande partie la rive
septentrionale des lacs de Neuchatel et de Bienne, elles prouvent,
pour eux du moins, que les lacs suisses existaient deja ; et la con-
tinuite des moraines sur les deux rives du lac de Geneve, prouve que
ce bassin aussi est anterieur au transport des blocs, puisqu'il a pre-
cede la formation des moraines, comme on le verra bientot.

En considerant la liaison intime des differens faits qut viennent
d'etre decrits, il est evident que toute explication qui ne rendra pas
compte en meme temps du poli de la surface du sol, de la superposi-
tion et de la forme arrondie des cailloux et du sable qui reposent
immediatement au-dessus des surfaces lisses, et de la forme angu-
leuse des grands blocs superficiels, est une explication inadmis-
sible pour les blocs erratiques du Jura ; et c'est le cas de toutes
les hypotheses sur le transport des blocs que je connais.

Voici quelle est Texplication de tons ces phenomenes que je crois
maintenant la plus plausible. Elle est le resultat de la combinaison
de mes idees et de celles de M. Schimper sur ce sujet. En effleurant
plusieurs questions generates qui s'y rattachent, pour chercher a
Tetablir, je n'ai point 1'intention de les traiter a fond maintenant.
Je veux simplement faire voir par la que le sujet qui nous occupe
touche aux plus grandes questions de la geologic.

L'etude des fossiles porte depuis quelque temps des fruits bien
inattendus, surtout depuis qu'elle a pris un caractere physiologique,
c'est-a-dire depuis que Ton a entrevu qu'il existe un developpement
progressif dans Pensemble des etres organises qui ont vecu sur la
terre, et que Ton a reconnu des epoques de renouvellement dans leur
ensemble. Ceux qui ont compris ce progres ne doivent pas craindre
maintenant d'en poursuivre les consequences jusques dans leurs
dernieres limites. et 1'idee d'une diminution uniforme et constante
de la temperature de la terre, telle qu'elle est admise, est tellement
contraire a toute notion physiologique, qu'il faut la repousser haute-
ment pour faire place a celle d'une diminution de temperature acci-
dentee en rapport avec le developpement des etres organises qui
ont paru et disparu les uns a. la suite des autres a des epoques
determinees, se maintenant a une moyenne particuliere pendant
une dpoque donnee, et diminuant a des epoques fixes.

102 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

Comme le developpement de la vie individuelle est toujours accom-
pagne de celui de la chaleur, que sa duree etablit un certain equilibre
plus ou moins durable, et que sa fin produit un froid glacial, je ne
crois done pas sortir des consequences que les fails permettent de
deduire, en admettant que sur la terre les choses se sont passees de
la meme maniere : que la terre, en se formant, a acquis line certaine
temperature tres-elevee, qui est allee en diminuant a travers les
differentes formations geologiques ; que pendant la duree de chacune
d'elles, la temperature n'a pas ete plus variable que celle de notre
globe depuis qu?il est habite par les etres qui s'y trouvent, mais que
c'est aux epoques de disparition, de ses habitans qua eu lieu la
chute de la temperature, et que cette chute a ete au-dessous de la
temperature qui signale Tepoque suivante et qui s'est relevee avec le
developpement des etres apparaissant nouvellement.

Si cette maniere de voir est vraie, et la facilite avec laquelle elle
explique tant de phenomenes inexplicables jusqu'ici me fait penser
qu'elle Test ; si cette maniere de voir, dis-je, est vraie, il faut qu'il y
ait eu a Tepoque qui a precede le soulevement des Alpes et Tappari-
tion des etres vivant maintenant, une chute de la temperature bien au-
dessous de ce qu'elle est de nos jours. Et c'est a cette chute de la
temperature quil faut attribuer la formation des immenses masses
de glace qui out du recouvrir la terre partout ou Ton trouve des
blocs erratiques avec des roches polies comme les notres. C'est
sans doute aussi ce grand froid qui a enseveli les Mammouths de
Siberie dans les glaces, congele tous nos lacs, et entasse de la glace
jusqu'au niveau des faites de notre Jura qui existaient avant le
soulevement des Alpes.

Cette accumulation de glace au-dessus de tous les bassins hydro-
graphiques de la Suisse se congoit aisement quand on pense que les
lacs une fois geles jusqu'au niveau de leurs debouches, les eaux
courantes ne s'ecoulant plus, et celles du ciel accrues par les vapeurs
des regions meridionales qui, dans des circonstances pareilles
devaient se precipiter abondamment vers le Nord, en out rapide-
ment augmente Tetendue et rehausse le niveau jusqu'a la hauteur
qui a ete constatee par les faits deja enonces. L'hiver de la Siberie
s'etait etabli pour un temps sur une terre jadis couverte d'une riche
vegetation et peuplee de grands mammiferes, dont les semblables

1836-37-] DISCOURS DE NEUCHATEL, 103

habitent de nos jours les chaudes regions de Plnde et de TAfrique.
La mort avait enveloppe toute la nature dans un linceul, et le froid
arrive a son plus haut degre, donnait a cette masse de glace, au
maximum de tension, la plus grande durete qu'elle puisse acquerir.
Lorsqu'on a ete frequemment temoin de la congelation d\m lac, on
sait combien la glace est resistante dans cet etat, et a quelle immense
distance des corps durs jetes a sa surface peuvent y glisser par suite
meme d'une faible impulsion.

L'apparition des Alpes, resultat du plus grand des cataclysmes
qui out modifie le relief de notre terre, a done trouve sa surface
couverte de glace, au moins depuis le pole Nord, jusque vers les
bords de la Mediterrannee et de la mer Caspienne. Ce soulevement,
*n rehaussant, brisant, fendillant de mille manieres les roches dont
se compose le massif qui forme maintenant les Alpes, a egalement
souleve les glaces qui le recouvraient ; et les debris detaches de
tant de fractures et de ruptures profondes se repandant naturelle-
ment sur la surface inclinee de la masse de glace appuyee centre
elles, ont glisse sur sa pente jusqu'aux points ou ils se sont arretes,
sans s'arrondir, puis qu'ils n'eprouvaient aucun frottement les uns
contre les autres et qu'en se heurtant ils se repoussaient facilement
sur une pente aussi lisse ; ou bien, apres s'etre arretes, ils ont ete
portes jusques sur les bords ou dans les fentes de cette grande nappe
de glace, par Faction particuliere et les mouvemens propres a Teau
congelee, lorsqu'elle subit les efFets des changemens de temperature,
de la meme maniere que les blocs de rocher tombes sur des glaciers
sont pousses sur leurs bords, par suite des mouvemens continueis
qu'eprouve leur glace en se ramollissant et en se congelant alterna-
tivement aux differentes heures de la journee et dans les differentes
saisons. Ces efFets devraient etre decrits en detail, mais comme ils
sont en partie connus, je ne m?y arrete pas.1 Je me borne a dire
que la puissance d'action qui en resulte pour la glace est immense ;
car ces masses se mouvant continuellement sur elles-memes et sur
le sol, broient et arrondissent tout ce qui y est mobile, et poiissent
les surfaces solides sur lesquelles elles reposent, en meme temps

1 M. Schimper a fait un beau travail sur les effets de la glace, auquel je
renverrais mes lecteurs s'il etait public.

104 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

que leurs bords poussent devant eux tout ce qifils rencontrent. avec
une force irresistible. Cest a ces mouvemens qu'il faut attribuer la
superposition etrange des cailloux roules et du sable, qui reposent
immediatement sur les surfaces polies ; et c'est sans doute a la pres-
sion de ce sable sur les surfaces polies que sont dues les fines lignes
qui s'y trouvent gravees, et qui n'existeraient pas si le sable avait
ete mu par un courant d?eau : car ni nos torrens, ni Teau fortement
agitee de nos lacs, ne produisent rien de semblables sur les memes
roches. Quant a la direction longitudinale de ces fines lignes et
des sillons que Ton remarque sur les surfaces polies, je ferai observer
qu'elle a du resulter de la plus grande facilite que devait avoir la
glace a se dilater dans le sens de la grande vallee suisse, plutot que
transversalement, encaissee comme elle Tetait entre le Jura et les
Alpes ; ce phenomene n'ayant du commencer qu'avec le retrait de ia
glace, a une epoque ou les Alpes etaient deja debout. Je ne mets
pas en doute, que la plupart des phenomenes attribues a de grands
courans diluviens, et en particulier ceux que M. Seefstrom a fait
connaitre recemment, n?aient ete produits par les glaces.

Lors du soulevement des Alpes, la surface de la terre s'est rechauffee
de nouveau, et la chaleur degagee de toutes parts a des-lors com-
mence a faire fondre ces masses de glaces, qui se sont successivement
retirees jusques dans leurs limites actuelles. Des crevasses se sont
formees d'abord dans les endroits ou la glace etait le plus mince, c'est-
a-dire sur le sommet des montagnes et des collines qui en etaient
recouvertes, puis le long des points les plus saillans de la plaine ;
des vallees d'erosion ont alors ete creusees au fond de ces crevasses,
dans des localites ou aucun courant d'eau ne pourrait couler sans
etre encaisse dans des parois congelees ; et quand la glace eut com-
pletement disparu, les grands blocs anguleux qui couvraient sa sur-
face, ou qui etaient tombes dans ses fentes, se sont trouves sur un
lit de petits cailloux arrondis, sous lesquels on trouve encore ordi-
nairement un sable plus fin. En baissant de niveau, la glace a
necessairement du occuper plus longtemps les depressions du sol,
les petites vallees longitudinales formees par les differentes ceintures
des couches du Jura et le fond des lacs ; et c'est sans doute a ce
fait qu'il faut attribuer la position bizarre de tant de blocs perches a
peine en equilibre sur les pointes les plus eminentes des rochers, et

1836-37-] DfSCOURS DE NEUCHATEL. 105

leur absence constante dans les enfoncemens, ou on n'en trouve du
moins que la oil de nouvelles dilatations momentanees de la glace
en retraite a pu les y precipiter.

Aussi longtemps que le niveau des glaces dans le Jura ne fut pas
tombe au-dessous de la ligne de Pierre-a-Bot, les blocs qui etaient
encore repandus sur toute sa surface, purent continuer a etre pousses
contre le Jura ; mais bientot apres les glaces devenant fort minces
sur toute la plaine suisse, durent en disparaitre promptement et ne
plus laisser que des taches dans les vallees profondes et dans les
bassins des lacs, cest-a-dire, qirelles se trouverent bientot resserrees
dans les vallees inferieures des Alpes.

En reflechissant a ce qui a du se passer pendant cette retraite des
glaces, on est naturellement porte a penser que le transport des
cailloux roules de la vallee du Rhin et la deposition du Loss en out
ete un des premiers effets, d'autant plus que ces cailloux sont les
memes que ceux qui se trouvent avec nos blocs, et que le Loss est
evidemment le resultat du detritus de la molasse. De frequentes
debacles out pu alors seulement charrier aussi des blocs sur des
radeaux de glaces a de tres-grandes distances, ou meme en entrainer
quelques-uns plus loin dans leur courant.

La fonte et la maceration des glaces et leur congelation reiteree
dans les jours froids, ont produit beaucoup d'autres effets geologiques
difficiles a expliquer par d'autres causes. Sans rappeler les vallees
d'erosion, je pourrais citer ces sillons profonds qui ne sont pas des
fissures et qui sont domines par de grandes etendues de plaines ; ou
bien ces petits lacs qui se forment quelquefois sur le bord des glaciers,
et qui remanient les roches menues accumulees sur leurs bords, de
maniere a leur donner une apparence stratifiee ; ou bien les phe-
nomenes analogues que Ton observe sur les limites des differentes
stations ou les grandes nappes de glace ont du s'arreter successive-
ment dans leurs retraites, ou bien la dispersion des os des mammi-
feres de Tepoque diluvienne, sans quils soient ni roules, ni brises,
etc., ou encore une foule d'autres particularites qui ne peu-
vent avoir d'interet que lorsqu'on a embrasse Tensemble de la
question.

Des ce moment la surface de la terre a du etre soumise de nouveau
aux influences du cours regulier des saisons ; ce fut alors le premier

106 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

printemps des animaux et des plantes qui vivent de nos jours ; les
glaces s'etaient retirees jusqifaux pieds des Alpes, du sommet des-
quelles il commenyait a leur venir de nouveaux renforts. Mais
bientot elles subirent leurs dernieres retraites en oscillant toujours,
gagnant tantot en etendue et poussant des blocs devant elles, tantot

N

se retirant dans des limites de plus en plus etroites. A chaque pied de
terrain qu'elles abandonnaient, elles laissaient derriere elles, comme
les glaciers actuels en retraite, quelques-imes de ces longues digues
de blocs qui dominent encore les vallees alpines. Bientot les lacs
se degelerent aussi, les eaux prirent leur cours actuel, les vallees des
Alpes furent balayees, et il ne resta plus de glace des frimats passes
que sur les sommets de nos blanches montagnes.

Ce serait done une grave erreur de confondre les glaciers qui de-
scendent du sommet des Alpes, avec les phenomenes de 1'epoque
des grandes glaces qui out precede leur existence.

Le phenomene de la dispersion des blocs erratiques ne doit
done plus etre envisage que comme un des accidens qui ont
accompagne les vastes changemens occasionnes par la chute de
la temperature de notre globe avant le commencement de notre
epoque.

Admettre une epoque d\m froid assez intense pour recouvrir toute
la terre a de tres-grandes distances des poles d'une masse de glace
aussi considerable que celle dont je viens de parler, est une suppo-
sition qui parait en contradiction directe avec les faits si connus
qui demontrent un refroidissement considerable de la terre depuis
les temps les plus recules. Rien cependant ne nous a prouve jus-
qu'ici que ce refroidissement ait ete continual, et qu'il se soit opere
sans oscillations ; au contraire, quiconque a 1'habitude d'etudier
la nature sous un point de vue physiologique, sera bien plus dispose
a admettre que la temperature de la terre s'est maintenue sans oscil-
lations considerables a un certain degre, pendant toute la duree
d'une epoque geologique, comme cela a lieu pendant notre epoque,
puis qu:elle a diminuee subitement et considerablement a la fin de
chaque epoque, avec la disparition des etres organises qui la carac-
terisent, pour se relever avec Papparition d'une nouvelle creation au
commencement de Tepoque suivante, bien qu'a un degre inferieur a
la temperature moyenne de Tepoque precedente ; en sorte que la

1836-37-] DISCOURS DE NEUCHATEL. 107

diminution de la temperature du globe pourrait etre exprimee par la

ligne suivante :

lr

Ainsi Tepoque de grand froid qui a precede la creation actuelle,
n'a etc qu'une oscillation passagere de la temperature du globe,
plus considerable que les refroidissemens seculaires auxquels les
vallees de nos Alpes sont sujettes. Elle a accompagne la dispari-
tion des animaux de Pepoque diluvienne des geologues, comme les
Mammouths de Siberie Tattestent encore, et precede le soulevement
des Alpes et Tapparition des etres vivans de nos jours, comme le
prouvent les moraines et la presence des poissons dans nos lacs.
II y a done scission complete entre la creation actuelle et celles qui
Pont precedee ; et si les especes vivantes ressemblent quelquefois
a s'y meprendre a celles qui sont enfouies dans les entrailles de la
terre, on ne saurait cependant affirmer qu'elles en descendent directe-
ment par voie de progeniture, ou, ce qui est la meme chose, que ce
sont des especes identiques.

Partant de ce qui precede, on parviendra aussi un jour a determiner
quelle est Pepoque geologique a laquelle le soleil a commence a exercer
une influence assez considerable sur la surface de la terre, pour y pro-
duire les differences qui existent entre ses zones, sans que ces effets
fussent neutralises par Faction de la chaleur interieure, a laquelle la
terre a du pour un temps une temperature tres-uniforme sur toute sa
surface.

Cette maniere de voir, je le crains, ne sera pas partagee par un
grande nombre de nos geologues qui ont sur ce sujet des opinions
arretees ; mais il en sera de cette question comme de toutes celles
qui viennent heurter des idees recues depuis longtemps. Ouelque
opposition qu'on puisse lui faire, toujours est-il que les nombreux
faits nouveaux relatifs an transport des blocs que je viens de
signaler, et que Ton peut etudier si facilement dans la vallee du
Rhone et aux environs de Neuchatel, ont amene la question sur
un autre terrain que celui sur lequel elle a ete debattue jusqu1^
present.

Ouand M. de Buch affirma pour la premiere fois, en face de
Tecole formidable de Werner, que le granit est d'origine plutonique,

io8 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v.

et que les montagnes se sont elevees, que dirent les Nepttmistes?-
II fut d'abord seul a soutenir sa these, et ce n'est qu'en la defendant
avec la conviction du genie qu'il Pa fait prevaloir. Heureusement
que dans les questions scientiliques, les majorites numeriques n'ont
jamais decide de prime abord aucune question.

La forme que j'ai donne'e aux observations que je viens de pre-
senter, eloignera, je Tespere, d'ici toute discussion sur ce sujet, a
moins qu'on ne reclame qu'il en soit autrement. Cependant, comme
je ne saurais esperer d'avoir convaincu de la verite de ces vues ceux
qui viennent de les entendre pour la premiere fois, je pense que la
section de Geologie sera la reunion la plus convenable pour discuter
ces questions, s'il y a lieu. La je me ferai un devoir de repondre a
toutes les objections que Ton voudra bien me faire, et que je solli-
cite meme vivement dans Tinteret de la verite.

P.S. Cette exposition a e'te accompagnee de demonstrations
graphiques qui ne peuvent etre reproduites ici, mais que je publierai
ailleurs. — They are placed at the end of the Atlas accompanying
"fetudes sur les glaciers/' published three years later, as plates 15,
16, 17, and 18, Neuchatel, 1840.

CHAPTER VI.

1836-1837 (continued} and 1838.

DISCUSSION RAISED BY AGASSIZ'S DISCOURSE AT NEUCHATEL — AGAS-

siz's GREAT REPUTATION AT THE EARLY AGE OF THIRTY YEARS —
DEATH OF HIS FATHER - - LAURILLARD THE ASSISTANT OF CUVIER
— THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HERCULE NICOLET'S LITHOGRAPHY AT
NEUCHA'TEL — DR. VOGT OF BERNE SENDS AGASSIZ EDWARD DESOR
AS A SECRETARY — OFFER OF A CHAIR AT THE ACADEMIES OF
GENEVA AND LAUSANNE — FIRST VISIT TO THE BERNESE ALPS —
Two LETTERS TO JULES THURMANN — A VISIT TO CHAMOUNIX —
THE MEETING OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF FRANCE AT PORREN-
TRUY — FIRST USE OF LITHOCHROMY FOR THE PLATES OF FOSSIL
FISHES — THE GEOLOGIST ARMAND GRESSLY — AGASSIZ CREATED A
"BOURGEOIS" OF NEUCHATEL — ORGANIZATION OF AN ACADEMY AT
NEUCHA'TEL.

THE general impression, after the address was deliv-
ered, was astonishment mingled with much incredulity.
It was like a pistol shot fired into the midst of the
assembly. The majority were at first disagreeably
impressed by this disturbance of the peace. Von Buch
particularly was horrified, and with his hands raised
towards the sky, and his head bowed to the distant
Bernese Alps, exclaimed : —

" O Sancte de Saussure, or a pro nobis ! "

In general, almost all the practical stratigraphists
present were either opposed to it or indifferent. Even

109

no LOUIS AGASSrZ. [CHAP. vi.

de Charpentier was not gratified to see his glacial
question mixed up with rather uncalled-for biological
problems, the connection of which with the glacial age
was more than problematic.

The first part of the address presented in a clear way
all the facts first observed by Venetz and de Charpen-
tier, with additional observations made by Agassiz on
the Jura in the vicinity of Orbe, Neuchatel, and Bienne.
The only opinion expressed by Agassiz which was
opposed to de Charpentier's glacial theory, that the ice
covering all the country as far as the Jura did not come
from glaciers of the Alps, was an error on his part.
The second part presented by Agassiz, a combina-
tion of his ideas with those of Schimper, was fully
as erroneous as the theory of water and mud currents

X

defended by de Luc, von Buch, and Elie de Beaumont.
It is not surprising that de Charpentier shook his
head and was sorry to see his glacial theory used as a
vehicle for such biological dreams and fantastic expla-
nations of the " role " played by the upheaval of the Alps.
The only rational and just conception presented in the
second part is, that immense masses of ice covered the
earth wherever boulders and polished rocks exist, and
that the earth was covered by ice at least from the
north pole to the Mediterranean and Caspian seas; in a
word, that there was an " Ice-age," or " Eiszeit," accord-
ing to the name coined by Schimper.

The idea of an Ice-age was a stroke of genius due to
Agassiz ; l Schimper tried to explain it by means of

1 Many years after, \\hen the question of an Ice-age had been recog-
nized as settled according to the views of Agassiz, I received a letter from

1836-37-] KARL SCHIMPER. in

biological phenomena, which according to his views
were the causes of the fall of temperature (la chute dc
la temperature}. Schimper exhibits a curious combina-
tion of a dreaming philosophy and mathematical spirit
with a great deal of poetical inspiration, -- a most
attractive man. From the first he made use of mathe-
matical drawings in his explanations of the morphology
and phyllotaxy of plants ; and during his stay at Neu-
chatel in 1837, he constructed, with the help of Agassiz,
a synoptical table, showing the disposition, the history,
and classification of the animal kingdom, which has
since been published under the title of " Crust of the
Earth as related to Zoology," as a frontispiece to
" Principles of Zoology," by Agassiz and Gould, Bos-
ton, 1848. Shortly after, during the same year, Schim-
per constructed a table showing the different systems
of upheaval, as imagined by Elie de Beaumont, by
means of concentric circles, with a wheel in the centre
showing the directions. Applying his mathematical
bent to the fall of the temperature due, according
to him, to the complete extinction of life at the end of
each geological period, he drew the little figure which
was inserted by Agassiz in his address.

Two features characteristic of the style of this
celebrated discourse must occur with force to any

him, dated Cambridge, March 13, 1868, in which he said: " Ce n'etait pas
petite chose de se poser en adversaire de Leopold de Buch, en 1837, e^
d'avoir conquis sur ce sujet 1'assentiment de tous les geologues, a 1'excep-
tion d'Elie de Beaumont; car Tan dernier Murchison lui-meme m'ecrivait
qu'il se rendait entin a 1'evidence. Vous savez que la part de Charpentier
se reduit a avoir demontre la grande extension du glacier du Rhone. C'est
moi qui ai pose la question d'une epoque glaciaire et qui 1'ai fait prevaloir."

ii2 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

reader who is a French scholar. First, it is astonish-
ing to see so great a number of words italicized. In no
one of his papers, before or since, did Agassiz use
this mode of attracting attention to special points. It
shows how excited he was, and how desirous to impress
on his listeners and readers several points, considered
by him of paramount importance in the glacial question.
As a rule, Agassiz shunned such a way of securing
attention. He was a good writer, and made excellent
use of French, which remained his favourite language
until the end of his life. However, it is easy to detect
in this address of Neuchatel a certain number of Ger-
manisms, due to his long residences in southern Germany.
Discussions of great earnestness followed, in which
all the naturalists present joined; and although Agassiz
displayed a rare talent for exposition, he succeeded
only in attracting attention to the practical part of his
address. With his keen eyes, he immediately perceived
the bad impression made by his theoretical views, and
if he did not drop them at once, it was only because it
was so hard for him to admit a mistake ; having once
proclaimed his views and opinions on any subject, he
was always most persistent in maintaining them. How-
ever, in this case he recalls his theory only once, at the

/

end of his volume " Etudes sur les glaciers," p. 328,
1840, and never mentions it again in any of his papers
or addresses.

r

Elie de Beaumont, who arrived the day after the
meeting was over, joined von Btich in his opposition,
and the two, with their Italian friend, de Collegno, were
much excited and painfully affected. . Von Buch, who

1836-37-] GREAT REPUTATION'. 113

was before very favourable to Agassiz, became an oppo-
nent, and there is no doubt that Agassiz's very fair
prospect of an offer of a professorship at the Berlin
University was absolutely ruined from that day.

The great value of Agassiz's address lies in his more
graphic description of the action of glaciers on rocks,
than that given before by de Charpentier, in his paper
of 1834, and in the idea of the universality of the glacial
action over half a hemisphere. Besides, it drew atten-
tion more vividly to the question, and in a^way which
obliged every one opposed to the view of glacial action
to give his reasons.

There is no other example of such a rapid rise to
great scientific reputation as Agassiz enjoyed in his
thirtieth year. At the age of twenty-one, when he
was still a student, he laid the foundation by his pub-
lication in 1828 of Spix's Brazilian fishes; and the
first numbers or " livraisons ' of his " Fossil Fishes '
attracted the attention of naturalists the world over.
Everything he published from 1828 to 1837 is remark-
able, showing a rare power of description and classifica-
tion, and a facility in handling the most difficult problem
of natural history. His memoirs are entirely his own
work, except the illustrations ; and any one who reads
them will see a difference between them and similar
work produced after 1837. His power of classifying
fossils and his success in reducing to order thousands of
specimens of fishes, a great many of which were perfect
puzzles to every one, were simply marvellous ; and he
worked at his herculean task as no man but a man of
genius could have done.

ii4 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

Up to that time, he had worked entirely alone. The
only collaboration he had ever had was in his Neu-
chatel address before the Swiss naturalists, when he
combined, as he said, his views with those of Karl
Schimper, on the explanation of the great ice cover-
ing, which, according to his view, had extended from
the north pole as far at least as the Mediterranean
Sea. It was not a success, as he had occasion at once
to see before the meeting was adjourned ; for " Schimp-
erizing ' — - as it was familiarly called among Agassiz's
friends --was anything but congenial to his audience.
It is true that he abandoned, little by little, all the ideas
put forward so boldly and rashly, retaining only the
word "Ice-period" (Eisnetz)\ and he returned quietly to
the teaching he had received so liberally from de Char-
pentier and Venetz. But the difficulties which arose
from this collaboration, and which broke out soon after,
as we shall see, were a hint that collaboration was not
suited to him, and a warning to him to be on his guard
in future against scientific help and associates. Instead
of heeding the warning, Agassiz, on the contrary, from
that time until almost the end of his life, accepted col-
laboration of some sort, and entered into a succession
of very serious difficulties, from which he was never
able entirely to extricate himself, falling from one into
another, and suffering greatly through his own fault.

It is pleasant to say that until 1837 Agassiz had
really committed no fault of any consequence. At the
early age of thirty years he had attained the zenith of
his reputation, entirely by his own exertion and his un-
aided works. The address of 1837, on the glacial ques-

1836-37-] DEATH OF HIS FATHER. 115

tion, may be considered as the climax of his scientific
life, as far as originality of research is concerned : it was
his apogee. It is not that Agassiz's publications since
that time are devoid of originality ; not by any means.
But after 1837 he always made too much use of others
in the work of writing and too often of observation ; and
it is easy to detect the lack of unity, and at the same
time the inequality of value in all his publications after
1837. To be .sure, Agassiz published a great deal more
after 1837 than he did before, but the quantity did not
compensate for the quality.

His good father- -a true, practical, and business man
- died a few weeks after the meeting of the Swiss nat-
uralists at Neuchatel. He much enjoyed seeing his son,
still so young, the president of an assembly of savants
collected not only from all the cantons of Switzerland,
but even from Berlin, Paris, Strasbourg, and Frankfort.
Rodolphe Benjamin Louis Agassiz was born the 3d of
March, 1776, and died on the 6th of September, 1837,
at Concise, in the parsonage of that beautiful village,
at the age of sixty-one years. We may say of him,
what we said previously of Cuvier : had he lived ten
years longer, it would have been to the advantage of
Louis, who so much needed good advice and restraint
in his already too great expenses.

During his stay in Paris, in 1832, Agassiz was the
witness of the great help afforded to Cuvier by his
principal assistant naturalist, M. Charles L. Laurillard.
In the laboratory, in his library, or in his cabinet,
Cuvier always found everything in perfect order, and
ready for the special work he was engaged in. Lau-

ii6 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

rillard, born at Montbeliard, like Cuvier, possessed a
great heart, a rare modesty, profound knowledge of
many questions of natural history, was devoted body
and soul to his great master, and was completely de-
void of any ambition, except to receive and always
deserve the approbation of Cuvier. Ever since that
time, Agassiz's ambition had been to get, as soon as
his means would allow it, his own Laurillard. He tried
again and again, and always failed. It is true that men
like Laurillard are very rare ; but Agassiz never pos-
sessed the art of properly managing his assistants ; an
art which Cuvier always had. Cuvier treated Lauril-
lard with dignity, never with familiarity, much less in
a spirit of comradery and companionship. From the
first day of the arrival of Laurillard in the laboratory
of Cuvier, he received a regular salary. He often
accompanied Cuvier in his journeys ; but he had the
great tact to remain in his subordinate position of
assistant, taking care to keep himself always in the
background.

With Agassiz it was very different ; he never knew
how to keep his assistants at a distance. They very
soon became intimate with him, or were allowed privi-
leges not proper to their subordinate position. In
addition, the question of compensation was a constant
difficulty, either through the lack of complete under-
standing, or through the small amount of the salaries.
In a word, Agassiz was a very bad manager of men,
while Cuvier, on the contrary, was a capital and rare
director of everything relating to scientific work and
scientific assistants. Years after the death of Cuvier, I

1836-37-] HJS LITHOGRAPHY. 117

have heard Laurillard speak of him with the same
respect as if Cuvier had been in the room. With
Agassiz, all his assistants became so familiar and so
much on an equality, as to raise the question who was
truly the master and director.

Finding constant difficulties in regard to the execution
and correction of the plates for his " Poissons fossiles,"
it was natural that Agassiz should desire to have a good
lithography established at Neuchatel. But such an
establishment in so small a town as Neuchatel then was,
was a very hazardous undertaking ; for it was certain
from the beginning that the only customer of any con-
sequence for a great lithography would be Agassiz, and,
with his small salary, although raised from $400 to $600,
it was almost an act of folly to establish a lithography;
more especially since he was also obliged to pay fqr
all his printing. The man chosen was a Neuchatelois
from La-Chaux-de-Fond, named Hercule Nicolet; a good
lithographer, or artist rather, but as devoid of business
capacities as Agassiz. The lithography was established
at the end of 1836, aux Sablons, above the city of
Neuchatel, just at the place where the railroad station
now stands. The establishment soon increased, about
twenty persons being employed there, and turned out
perfect work. But, from the beginning, it was evi-
dent that other publications with plates, besides the
"Poissons fossiles," the " Echinodermes," and the
" Poissons d'eau douce," must be undertaken to keep
such a large establishment in work. And Agassiz, un-
practical as he was, resolved to publish a German and
French edition of " Sowerby's Mineral Conchology of

ii$ LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

Great Britain," a very expensive work. The first part,
or " livraison ' is entitled, " Sowerby-Mineral-Conchol-
ogie Grossbritanniens ; deutsche Bearbeitung, heraus-
gegebenvon H. Nicolet, durchgesehen von Dr. Agassiz,"
and was offered by the editor to the library of the
Helvetic Society of Naturalists, at the meeting of July,
1837, at Neuchatel.

Perceiving that he had too many irons in the fire,
Agassiz longed for a secretary; and, in a visit to Berne,
during the fall of 1837, he asked Dr. Vogt, the father of
Karl Vogt, if he knew any young man able- to write
well, with some knowledge of natural history, and
acquainted with the French language, because his pub-
lications must be in that language. And he added, " If
you can find for me somebody of that sort, Papa Vogt,
I shall bless the day which has brought me here."
Karl Vogt, then a young university student, who was
present at the visit of Agassiz, and has recalled the
whole conversation in his biography of Edward Desor,
says, " Desor had gone to Hofwyl to offer his services
at the great educational establishment of von Fellen-
berg,1 with the hope of being accepted. But after two
days passed there, he returned to Berne absolutely
crushed by his failure to obtain a position, having re-
ceived the discouraging answer from Herr Fellenberg

1 The Hofwyl College, placed by von Fellenberg in his chateau, was a
philanthropic institution created as a normal school of agriculture and a
model farm. There was besides a great school for secondary and superior
education. It was very expensive to von Fellenberg, who was obliged to
appoint too many professors of an inferior quality and who were poorly
paid, and who did not stay long. They were recruited mainly in Germany
among students who had just left universities.

1836-37-] ARRIVAL OF E. DESOR. 119

that all the places he was able to dispose of had been
already filled." The house of Dr. Vogt was a sort of
refuge, always open to all German political refugees, as
Desor was. At supper Dr. Vogt said, " What do you
think, Desor, of going to-morrow to Neuchatel where
Agassiz is now ; he wants a secretary. It seems to me
that it may be a good thing for you. I will give you a
few lines of introduction to him." At those words
Desor jumped with joy, and, next morning, started on
foot. He arrived a day later at Neuchatel, and with
his traveller's stick in his hand, a cap on his head, a
gray blouse on his back, and very few pennies in his
pocket, called at Agassiz's apartment and delivered the
letter of introduction and recommendation of Dr. Vogt.
He was accepted by Agassiz, but without any regular
pay. Agassiz gave him a room in his own apartment,
and paid his board at Professor Ladame's " table de
pension," and as to pecuniary remuneration, it was
simply understood that when he wanted money, if Agas-
siz had any, he would give him some; if Agassiz had
none, he would have to wait until Agassiz's purse was
replenished in some way. As Karl Vogt says, "When
Agassiz had money, he gave what was wanted,"
a singularly unbusiness-like arrangement.

/

P. J. Edouard Desor, born February, 1811, near
Frankfort, was a law student at the University of
Heidelberg, when a revolution took place in southern
Germany, about 1832, in which he participated, like
many other students ; and he was obliged to fly to
France for safety, and went to Paris, where he lived
four years in poverty, giving a few lessons as a private

120 LOUIS AGASS/Z. [CHAP. vi.

teacher, and helping in the translation into French, and
in collaboration with E. Duret, of one volume of Karl
Ritter's Geography on Africa, and of a small memoir
by A. de Klipstein and J. J. Kaup on the Dinotheritim
giganteum. His knowledge of natural history was
very limited, and consisted only of what any student
who followed lectures at Heidelberg and Paris would
pick up. He had studied law, and had received no
proper education to become a naturalist. He offered
himself at the Hofwyl Institut, near Berthoud, directed
by the celebrated Fellenberg, as a teacher of modern
languages, more especially of French, for which he
had fitted himself during his four years' stay in Paris.
Agassiz saw at once that his natural history knowledge
was most elementary ; but as he was able to make good
translations into French and German, and was intelli-
gent and ready to undertake anything to get his living,
Agassiz engaged him.

It must not be supposed that Desor was taken by
Agassiz as collaborator and assistant in natural history.
He was taken only as a secretary ; for, as we have said,
until then the natural sciences were almost completely
unknown to him. His only duties at first were to write
letters under Agassiz's dictation, to keep the accounts,
to oversee what was going on at the lithography and at
the printing-press. During the first two years of his
stay at Neuchatel, he took only the scientific title of
geographer. But he followed Agassiz's public lectures,
and quickly apprehended everything said by Agassiz,
learning natural history with great facility. He had a
good memory, and was a hard worker,- - "infatigable,"

1836-37-] EDOUARD DESOR. 121

as Vogt says. In fact, Desor entered Agassiz's house,
with the smallest possible amount of natural history
knowledge ; and in two years he became a tolerably
good assistant in natural history, being the best pupil
Agassiz had during his stay in Europe.

It is important to remark that at the time of Desor's
arrival at Neuchatel as Agassiz's secretary, nine parts,
or "livraisons," of the eighteen composing the whole
work of " Les Poissons fossiles," had already been
issued ; that is, half of the work had been published.
The tenth " livraison ' was on the point of being dis-
tributed, and was officially issued at the beginning of
1838. Eight plates of echinoderms, for the " Echino-
dermes fossiles de la Suisse," were already printed, as
well as a certain number of plates of "Trigonia" and
"Mya."

As soon as he was established in Agassiz's house,
Desor was put at work on the translation into German
and into French of Sowerby's great work on the fossils
of Great Britain, and afterward at the translation into
German of Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise on Geol-
ogy, all of which were almost useless, not one ever
having paid the expenses of printing and lithography.
If Agassiz had had millions at his disposal, it would
have been very well ; but even then he might have
used the money with more profit to science. For if up
to this time Agassiz had experienced great difficulties
and stringency in money matters in keeping his two
draughtsmen, and publishing his " Poissons fossiles,"
he had at least succeeded in keeping free of heavy
debts. His new undertakings were regarded with

122 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

apprehension by all his family and his best friends.
But it was useless to oppose Agassiz ; he would listen
to nothing and to no one. Science was paramount with
him ; everything else was of little consequence. He
was born to give great impetus to natural history ; and
all his life he was absolutely devoted to it. Desor saw
this very quickly, and took advantage of it. Science
and friends working in the same field were everything.
" Agassiz et ses amis," or "Agassiz et ses compagnons
de voyages," became supreme. It was an unfortunate
day for the future of Agassiz when Desor entered his
service. From that time until he left Neuchatel, in
1846, during nine years, expenses increased, until a
complete collapse came as the inevitable consequence.
Instead of being encouraged to expend more and more,
Agassiz, on the contrary, ought to have been constantly
restrained, on account of his too great propensity to
throw money in all directions, even when it was not
absolutely necessary. It was difficult to stop him, it is
true ; but repeated representations, accompanied by the
warnings constantly poured into his ears by all the
members of his family, Alexander Braun included, and
all his best friends, might have resulted in restriction
instead of constant expansion.

The Academy of Lausanne, after conferring on Agas-
siz the title of honorary professor, offered him, in 1838,
a chair of active professor. Pressure was exerted by
some of Agassiz's kindred, all Vaudois, - - for the Can-
ton de Vaud is the \x\\o. patria (fatherland) of the Agas-
siz, — but in vain. He had cast in his lot with Neu-

1836-38.] ACADEMY OF LAUSANNE. 123

chatel, and remained faithful to the place which first
gave him an official position. To reward his attach-
ment, the citizens of his adopted city wrote him a letter
of thanks, announcing at the same time that his salary
had been increased by 2000 francs ($400) for three
years. A few weeks before the offer of the Lausanne
Academy was made, Agassiz was approached by the
already celebrated physician, Auguste de la Rive, on
the subject of a chair at the Geneva Academy. In a
letter dated May, 1838, de la Rive stated frankly how
the matter stood ; and that he himself and everybody
at Geneva thought that Agassiz was the one indis-
pensable man. But Agassiz was already too strongly
bound by his lithographic establishment and printing
works to break his connection with Neuchatel ; at least,
he thought so, and declined the friendly offers of de la
Rive. It was doubtless a mistake ; for Geneva would
have given him more support and income than he was
able to get at Neuchatel. As de la Rive told him, " at
Geneva you would be a second de Saussure."

After a short journey to Paris, during July, 1838, in
connection with his work on the " Poissons fossiles,"
and to examine more carefully than he had done before
the method of the laboratory at the Jardin des Plantes
for moulding fossil animals, he started for the Hassli
in the Oberland of Berne, studying carefully all glacial
marks round the village of ^Guttannen, the Handeck, at
the Grimsel, and at the glacier of Rosenlaui. Agassiz
took with him five persons, making a party of six, - - his
brother-in-law Max Braun, a mining engineer just re-

124 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

turned from Algeria, his draughtsman Dinkel, who had
returned from his three years' stay in England, his sec-
retary Desor, and two students or amateurs of glaciers
and high alpine region.

It was Agassiz's first excursion to the Bernese Alps,
and everything enchanted him ; from Thun to Inter-
laken, Meyringen, and Helleplatte, where the granite
is so finely polished and striated by old glaciers that it
looks like polished marble. Dinkel made an exact
drawing of it, which was published afterward by Agas-

/

siz in the beautiful atlas accompanying his " Etudes sur
les glaciers." Agassiz was particularly impressed by
the Grimsel and its environs, and at this time made his
first visit to the glacier of the Aar, which afterward
became his great station for glacial observations. The
excursion lasted only ten days, and they were again at
Neuchatel on the 24th of August.

The following letter addressed to the great Jurassic
geologist, Thurmann, on the occasion of the approach-
ing meeting of the Geological Society of France in
Switzerland, is interesting ; for it was written on the
same day he returned from the Oberland.

NEUCHATEL, le 24 aout, 1838.
MONSIEUR JULES THURMANN,
a Porrentruy.

Monsieur, - - J'arrive en ce moment a Neuchatel d'une tournee
dans les Alpes bernoises, ou j'etais alle inspecter cette partie de la
serie de nos glaciers, desirant remettre sur le tapis la question des
roches polies, des moraines, des blocs erratiques, etc., qui est si
evidente et sur laquelle la plupart de nos geologues out si peu de

1836-38.] LETTER TO THURMANN. 125

faits a leur connoissance. Tout ce que j'ai enonce precedemment sur
cette grave question se trouve confirme sur un nouveau terrain ou
j'ai meme rencontre un collaborateur intelligent, avec lequel je n'ai
pas eu de peine a m'entendre, car il avait vu (ce collaborateur etait
Arnold Guyot). Cest la une condition sine qua non. Je suis bien
rejoui que vous avez songe a faire passer la course (de la Societe
Geologique) par le Landeron, la, il y a de quoi voir, tout ce qui
dans la question concerne le Jura ; mais malheureusement nous
n'avons les Alpes qu'a rhorizon et non pas sous nos pieds pour les
comparer.

Cependant j'apporterai quelques echantillons, qui suppleront du
moins, aux yeux de ceux qui n'auront pas pris d'avance le parti de
ne pas vouloir voir. Je suis decide a ne parler que de faits, les

\

comprendra qui pourra. A moins qu'on ne veuille pas prendre Ten-
gagement de ne pas discuter sur des suppositions gratuites et nier
pour cela, Texistence des faits que Ton pourrait aller constater dans
quelques journees. J'ai trop a me plaindre de la maniere dont on a
traite des observations consciencieuses pour vouloir prendre part
une seconde Ibis a un pareil scandal (cela se rapporte aux critiques

r

injustes et assez acerbes de von Buch et Elie de Beaumont a Neu-
chatel Pannee precedente).

D'ailleurs soyez persuade, Monsieur, que je me fais une fete d'aller
a Porrentruy, et que je compte m^y trouver des le 4 (septembre) au
soir. Notre ami Gressly est gravement indispose, je crains bien
qu'il ne puisse pas etre des notres (Gressly n?a pu se rendre a la
reunion).

J'espere beaucoup de notre visite au Landeron pour Texamen
de la question des anciens glaciers et des grandes nappes de glace
ante-alpines.

Agreez, Monsieur, Tassurance de ma consideration distinguee.

Ls. AGASSIZ.

126 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

A preceding letter to Thurmann, dated Neuchatel, 27
January, 1836, after Agassiz's return from England,
contains the following judicious remarks : -

C'est peu de jours avant mon depart pour TAngleterre que j'ai
recu Tinteressant envoi de fossiles que vous m'avez adresses. Main-
tenant je vais irfoccuper de les examiner. Ces objets sont d'autant
plus precieux que j'en ai vu de semblables dans les terrains juras-
siques d'Angleterre, et que nous avons des termes de comparaison
precis pour les gisements. J'ai regrette que mon absence, nVa
privee du plaisir d'assister a la reunion de la Societe geologique du
Jura, societe qui sera d'une grande utilite pour eclaircir les questions
geologiques de notre pays. [The meeting of this society, founded
by Thurmann at Neuchatel in 1834, was at Besan9on, in September,
1835, and it was during the session of Besan9on that Thurmann pro-
posed to give the name Neoconiian to the lower part of the Creta-
ceous rocks.] Les questions de mode de depositions des roches,
du role des polypiers, des equivalents geologiques, de la succession
des fossiles, de leur apparition et de leur disparition sur la terre, des
soulevements, etc., ne se presentent nulle part d\me manic-re aussi
engageante que chez nous. Je compte assister a votre prochaine
reunion [that society never met again, after the Besancon meeting
of 1835], et je me rejouis de penser que vous avez deja donne une
face nouvelle a Petude du Jura.

Farther on he adds : —

La clef des Alpes est dans le Jura me repete M. Voltz, et il ne
parait plus douteux a ce dernier que les assises calcaires superieures
des Alpes [then called Alpine limestone] sont la continuation imme-
diate de notre terrain cretace, et s'il en est ainsi, on pourra paralleliser
toutes les couches des Alpes avec les affleurements des diiferens
soulevements jurassiques.

1836-38.] VISIT TO CHAMOUNIX. 127

On the day after his return from the Oberland, he
again left Neuchatel en route for Chamounix, taking
with him, besides his first companions, several artists
and a young doctor, making a company of ten persons.
Their first halt was at Bex, the Mecca of glacialists, to
visit de Charpentier ; who, with his usual generous hos-
pitality and good nature, received the whole party and
showed all the glacial remains, and even the stratig-
raphy of the salt mines, giving most clear and impor-
tant explanations. From Bex Agassiz and his party
visited, on foot, the valley of the Rhone between Bex
and St. Maurice, the traces of the landslide of the Dent-
du-Midi, and all the places most remarkable for glacial
action shown to Agassiz two years previously by Venetz
and de Charpentier. Crossing from the Valais by Valor-
sine to the valley of Chamounix, they visited the " Gla-
cier des Bois," Montanvert, and "la mer de glace,"
whence they returned by the Col de Balme to Bex,
visiting on the way the "Glacier du Trient."

As soon as they had returned to Neuchatel, after a
week's absence, they started again, but this time to go
to the meeting of the Geological Society of France, at
Porrentruy, the 5th of September. The meeting, pre-
sided over by Thurmann, was largely attended and
most important. The glacial question was debated in
the most spirited way ; for de Charpentier was there,
and Agassiz, excited by his presence, surpassed himself
in trying to convert to the new theory every one pres-
ent, and gave a vivid exposition of what he had just
seen in the Bernese Oberland and at Chamounix. This

128 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

time he was more successful than at the meeting of
Neuchatel, the year preceding. His celebrated address
of 1837 had excited the curiosity of many geologists;
and some, like Captain Leblanc of Montbeliard, had
gone so far as to find undeniable proofs of the existence
of ancient glaciers among the Vosges Mountains, proofs
which were presented before the society as new facts
to be added to those of Venetz, de Charpentier, and
Agassiz, observed in the Alps and the Jura. One of
the first converts to the glacial theory was the cele-
brated d'Omalius d'Halloy, who acted during the meet-
ing as vice-president ; and Bernard Studer, already well
known as the geologist best informed in regard to the
Bernese Alps, as well as the Molasse of Switzerland,
and until then a most stout opponent, was compelled
by Agassiz's explanations and enthusiasm to moderate
gradually his opposition. As he afterwards said to me,
Agassiz was almost irresistible in all his explanations,
having a ready answer to all objections. Agassiz pre-
sented to the society, the 6th of September, his " Obser-
vations sur les glaciers," in which, though attacked by
Studer, he was sustained by de Charpentier, Hugi, Max
Braun, Leblanc, Guyot, and Renoir. The paper is one
of Agassiz's best ; it was published first in the " Biblio-
theque Universelle de Geneve," Tome XX., p. 382,
December, 1839, more than a year after its delivery
before the French Geological Society, and again in
1840, in the "Bulletin Soc. Geol. France," Vol. IX.,
p. 407. In it he quotes the observations of Max Braun
and A, Guyot on surfaces polished by ancient glaciers

1836-38.] VISIT TO FREIBURG. 129

near the Lake of Thun and at Oberwald, in the upper
part of the Valais. Guyot had added some new facts
(considerations) to the observations of Agassiz ; but he
did not write a note of what he said after Agassiz had
spoken. Agassiz's secretary was at the meeting ; for
we find in the list of persons present not belonging to
the society " M. Desor, geographe a Neuchatel."

In an excursion of the society from Soleure to
Bienne, following the foot of the Weissenstein, and at
la Neuveville, Agassiz showed numerous boulders and
rocks polished by glaciers. De Charpentier agreed
entirely with Agassiz, and the majority of the fellows
of the Geological Society accepted the new view and
the glacial theory as the only possible explanation of
the phenomena.

Directly after the meeting of the Geological Society
of France at Porrentruy, Agassiz left for Germany to
attend the meeting of the Association of German Natu-
ralists at Freiburg-im-Breisgau in the Grand Duchy of
Baden. During the sessions, which lasted from the
1 8th to the 24th of September, 1838, Agassiz had occa-
sion to repeat, with great force, all the arguments relat-
ing to glaciers, the glacial doctrine, and the existence of
old glaciers in the Jura, the Vosges, and the Schwarz-
wald. On the 25th, accompanied by Prince Charles
Lucien Bonaparte, and Professor and Mrs. Buckland,
he left Freiburg for Neuchatel.

At Neuchatel, Agassiz had his hands more than full.
The lithography he had established, under the direction
of H. Nicolet, turned out splendid plates of fossil fishes,

K

1 30 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

by a new process of printing in various tints on different
stones ; what has since been termed chromolithography
or lithochromy. Nicolet had engaged at Paris a French
artist of great ability, Auguste Sonrel, who managed
admirably with large plates, and succeeded in printing
folio plates with a remarkable uniformity of colouring,
as may be seen in the atlas of the " Poissons fossiles."

The studio for moulding, under the direction of Stahl,
a most skilful moulder, was actively at work making
casts of the inside of shells and of echinoderms, and
also of topographical reliefs of the Jura Mountains, by
Gressly, to show their geological structure.

We must at this time mention an addition to the staff
of employes under Agassiz. There was at the meeting
of the Swiss naturalists at Neuchatel, in 1837, a verv
odd kind of antediluvian or primordial man, so anti-
quated that he seemed as if he belonged to the Jurassic
period and not to our time ; very awkward, timid, ex-
tremely modest, and yet so learned in practical geology
that no part of the geology and palaeontology of the Jura
had escaped his researches. He knew every topograph-
ical feature of the Jura, every group of strata, and almost
every kind of fossil remains. With great embarrass-
ment he presented to Agassiz a letter of introduction
from Jules Thurmann, the great Jurassic geologist of
the Bernese Jura, by which Agassiz was informed that
the name of the young geologist before him was Armand
Gressly. Gressly, in the hurry of the meeting, did not
dare to take from one of his large pockets the manu-
script of his " Observations geologiques sur le Jura

1836-38.] ARM AND GRESSLY. 131

Soleurois," but waited until after the session was over
to call at Agassiz's home and present it for publication
in the " Memoires de la Societe Helvetique des Sciences
Naturelles." After reading the first twenty pages, Agas-
siz promptly saw that it was a paper of the first order,
containing a quantity not only of new materials, but
also of new ideas. In it Gressly proposed the theory
of fades or " aspect des terrains," as he called it, an
expression which has been constantly used the world
over to explain the different association of species of
fossil form, according to the deposits in which they are
buried, or more exactly according to the character of
the sea-bottom on which these animals had lived and
associated.

Not only was the long memoir of Gressly, with a
quantity of coloured sections and panoramic geological
views, accepted by the committee of publication of the
Swiss Society, of which Agassiz was the president, but
Gressly was also closely interrogated and, as it were,
interviewed by Agassiz. Although Agassiz had already
met all the leaders of geology and palaeontology, and
a great number of practical collectors of fossils, he
had never met such a curiously original observer.
Gressly possessed in a rare degree precisely what
Agassiz wanted, — the ability to observe the stratig-
raphy and to classify the different groups of rocks of
a formation. Agassiz saw at once all the service he
would get from such a rare practical geologist, and
he offered to purchase his collection for the young
Neuchatel Museum, just organized, and proposed to

132 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

him to go into the field for fossils and bring back all he
could collect, arranging the specimens by strata, clean-
ing them, and further to revise the practical geology of
all his publications on fossils. No regular pay was to
be given, for Agassiz's money was already engaged to
defray more than it could reasonably provide for ; but
Agassiz promised to provide his lodging and board, to
pay his travelling expenses, and to give him money when
wanted for his personal needs, if at such times Agassiz
had any. In a word, it was the same unbusiness-like
arrangement which Agassiz used almost all his life, and
which was a constant source of difficulty with all his
assistants. With Gressly the arrangement was perfectly
satisfactory, and, strange to say, he was the only one
who never gave any trouble to Agassiz. But Gressly
was so easily contented, so timid, and had so few wants,
that he was the cheapest savant imaginable to support.

A few details will give an idea of the man and his
very limited requirements. Agassiz had to pay for his
lodging, which consisted of a small bedroom, poorly
furnished, and which soon became a true pandemonium
of the most sordid kind. He boarded when in Neu-
chatel at a third-rate inn called Le Poisson, kept by the
sister of the artist Jacques Burkhardt. When travelling

- always on foot - - there was even less expense ; for
Gressly entered the first farm on his road, and asked for
food and lodging. He had already roamed all over the
Swiss Jura Mountains to make the observations which
had resulted in his excellent " Observations geologiques
sur le Jura Soleurois," and was well known personally
or by reputation by almost all the country people, who

1836-38.] ARM AND GRESSLY. 133

always received him kindly, giving him a place at their
table and a bed to sleep in- -or more exactly on; for he
slept with his clothes on, even with his shoes on. The
farmers liked Gressly extremely, because he not only
told good stories, but also gave good advice for finding
springs, digging wells, and he indicated good places
for marls and clays used in agriculture, and for stone
quarries. Like a child, as he was all his life, he played
with the children, making cocks and boats and dancing
frogs out of pieces of old almanacs or newspapers.
As an example of his cheap way of travelling, he
once started with a small sum of money in his pocket,
then he forgot that he had any money, and remained
two or even three months without spending a penny,
going from farm to farm, and returned loaded with
the most splendid and rare fossils. And when asked
why he had stayed so long without writing, -
"Why!" said he, "you forgot to give me any money,
and I was obliged to do as well as I could with my
friends the pay sans, who generously gave me board and
lodging as I went along; a slow process," he added,
"which took much of my time." "But, Gressly, I gave
you some money before you started, and I saw you, if
I remember rightly, put it in that pocket," indicating
the pocket. Gressly put his hand in his pocket, and
brought out the gold pieces which had been there, for-
gotten, ever since he started two months before.

As to clothes and linen, he was even more indiffer-
ent ; with the exception of two pairs of strong shoes,
a knapsack to put his specimens in, and a medium-
sized geological hammer, everything was of the cheapest

i34 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

kind. He carried no change of clothing, but added
shirt upon shirt, whenever he received a new one ; and
instead of appearing the rather slender man that he
was, he gradually assumed the appearance of a very
large and bulky workman. Indeed, he was constantly
taken for a quarryman or a mason.

It was Gressly who collected all the materials for
Agassiz's Monograph of the Mya and Trigonia, and
also the majority of species of fossil echinoderms used
by Agassiz in his works on that family of sea-urchins,
and he also collected almost all the Jurassic and Neo-
comian fossil fishes.

Agassiz was not a business man, but he had found in
Gressly one even less able to care for money matters,
so they lived in perfect harmony. But sickness came
to Gressly, who, after rallying, ended his life prema-
turely, at the age of fifty-one, in an insane asylum at
the Waldau, near Berne. Gressly's admiration and
respect for Agassiz lasted as long as his mind was
not obscured.

It has been said that Desor wrote a large part of
the " Observations geologiques sur le Jura Soleurois,"
and that Gressly was a pupil of Agassiz ; but this is
altogether a mistake. The manuscript of Gressly was
written during 1836 and 1837, in the library of Thur-
mann at Porrentruy. Thurmann was constantly asked
for help, which was always readily given, and read over
and corrected all the rather numerous Germanisms in
the French of Gressly. When Gressly started from
Porrentruy to go to Neuchatel, he carried with him his
manuscript, which was delivered into the hands of

1836-38.] BOURGEOIS DE NEUCHATEL. 135

Agassiz in July, 1837, three months before Desor came
to Neuchatel, and before the name of Desor had been
heard "by either Gressly or Agassiz. To be sure, Gressly
did learn some palaeontology during his stay with Agas-
siz, and felt his influence ; but Gressly above all was a
practical geologist and a practical palaeontologist, who
learned all he knew of those two sciences, as he him-
self told me, from Professor Voltz of Strasbourg, and
more especially from Thurmann ; and he always called
himself the pupil of Thurmann.

In 1838, two events of interest to Agassiz happened
in Neuchatel : first, his unanimous election by the coun-
sellors of the city as " Bourgeois de Neuchatel," and
the second, the foundation of the Academy. We read
in the Manuals of the Council of Neuchatel, kept at the
City Hall, the following deliberation, April, 1838: "M.
le maitre bourgeois en chef rappelle les services consi-
derables que M. Jean-Rodolphe-Louis Agassiz, originaire
d'Orbe et de Bavois, canton de Vaud, professeur d'his-
toire naturelle, rend a la Bourgeoisie et au Pays en
general par 1'application qu'il fait de ses vastes connais-
sances a I'enseignement public et par le lustre que sa
reputation universelle repand sur notre patrie et sur la
ville de Neuchatel en particulier, a laquelle il donne des
preuves du plus sincere attachement, ayant refuse des
offres avantageuses et reiterees de places dans les can-
tons voisins et dans les premieres universites de 1'Eu-
rope. Des merites aussi distingues ont determine^ MM.
les Quatre-Ministraux a proposer au Conseil de faire
attribuer a ce savant, que deja le Gouvernement a natu-

r

ralise sujet de cet Etat, la qualite de Bourgeois de Neu-

136 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi.

chdtel, et cela a titre gratuit. Sur quoi par deliberation
consultative, le Conseil a unanimement approuve la pro-
position, et a la meme unanimite il a confirme cette de-
liberation au scrutin pour etre soumise a la ratification
de la communaute." The title of " Bourgeois de Neu-
chatel ' was more than merely honorary, for it carried
with it pecuniary benefits, and is very seldom conferred
gratuitously.

The king of Prussia, Frederick William, by an order
to his Secretary of State, dated Berlin, March 17, 1838,
gave for ten years ten thousand louis to develop public
instruction in Neuchatel, and Agassiz was confirmed as
professor of natural history; he did not receive his di-
ploma, however, until 1840, for two years passed before
the Academy was finally organized. Arnold Guyot was
invited to deliver a course of lectures on geography, a
year later, 1839-1840, and Dubois de Montperreux, the
Caucase traveller, also delivered lectures on archaeology.
For a small town and small canton, as Neuchatel was
then, the creation of an academy was a great occurrence,
and did honour both to the prince of Neuchatel, king
of Prussia, and to the City Council of Neuchatel.

CHAPTER VII.

1839-1840.

AGASSIZ'S SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY ; THE HELP RENDERED BY HIS SECRETARY
DESOR — AN INTERESTING BUSINESS LETTER TO PICTET — DISPUTE WITH
EDWARD CHARLESWORTH ABOUT THE FRENCH AND GERMAN TRANSLA-
TION OF SOWERBY'S " MINERAL CONCHOLOGY" — VISIT TO THE MONTE
ROSA AND THE MATTERHORN - -THE GEOLOGIST VOLTZ OF STRASBOURG
— STUDER'S CONVERSION TO THE GLACIAL DOCTRINE — OLD GLACIERS
IN THE VOSGES — SEARCH ON THE GLACIER OF THE AAR FOR HUGl'S
OLD CABIN — KARL VOGT'S ARRIVAL AS ASSISTANT TO AGASSIZ — THE
HOUSEHOLD AND LABORATORY OF AGASSIZ AT NEUCHATEL — THE
" ECHINODERMES FOSSILES DE LA SUISSE " — " ETUDES SUR LES GLA-
CIERS " — THE " ESSAI SUR LES GLACIERS," BY DE CHARPENTIER —
LETTER OF AGASSIZ TO DE CHARPENTIER — THE "HOTEL DES NEU-
CHATELOIS" ON THE AAR GLACIER — VlSIT OF MRS. AGASSIZ AND
ALEXANDER TO THE GLACIER — JOURNEY TO ENGLAND — THE GLACIAL
THEORY IN ENGLAND — AGASSIZ'S DISCOVERY OF ANCIENT GLACIERS
IN SCOTLAND, IRELAND, AND ENGLAND — LETTER TO HUMBOLDT.

THE scientific activity of Agassiz during 1839 was
something unique in the history of natural history
researches. His secretary, Desor, had made such
progress under the direction and teaching of Agassiz,
that he began to be useful in original scientific observa-
tions. With a remarkable capacity and a marvellous
elasticity of mind, Desor, in less than two years, had
learned enough of all the branches of natural history
cultivated by Agassiz to be already helpful, not only

138 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vii.

in writing under the dictation of Agassiz, but also in
using his own gifts in description of species and notes
on the glacial question. As Vogt says : " Desor jusqu'a
son arrivee chez Agassiz, ignorait et etait presque com>
pletement etranger a toutes les branches d'histoire
naturelle. Infatigable au travail, Desor etait en meme
temps un compagnon aimable et devoue, ayant toujours
le mot pour rire et maniant avec bonhommie la plai-

santerie et meme 1'ironie gracieuse." 1

/

The notes to be used in preparing the " Etudes sur
les glaciers ' were put in order by Desor ; in addition,
he corrected all the proofs of the " Poissons fossiles,"
the " Echinodermes de la Suisse," the " Memoire sur
les Trigonies," and the " Observations geologiques sur
le Jura Soleurois," and began work on the " Catalogue
of all Books, Tracts, and Memoirs on Zoology and
Geology," the " Catalogus systematicus ectyporum
Echinodermatum fossilium Musei neocomensis," and
finally at the " Nomenclator Zoologicus."

Agassiz gave all his assistants so much to do that it
was impossible to keep pace with his eager desire and
ardour for scientific publication. When we remember
that it was in a small town of six thousand inhabitants
that such publications were all started simultaneously by
the invincible will of one man, and that all these great
undertakings required not only steady and hard work but
also time and money, — for Agassiz from that day pub-
lished everything, with very few exceptions, " aux frais de
1'auteur," -it is almost incredible. We have no exam-

1 " Discours a 1'Institut National Genevois," le 23 Mai, 1882.

1839-40-] LETTER TO PICTET. 139

pie of such impulse given to natural history anywhere,
even in such great scientific centres as Paris or London.
His generous spirit can be understood by reading the
following extract from a letter to his friend, Jules Pictet
de la Rive, dated Neuchatel, March 10, 1839:-

Je suis egalement bien rcjoui de pouvoir vous montrer que
quoiqu'editeur force de mes publications, c'est uniquement le desir
d'etre utile qui me guide vis-a-vis de mes collegues qui desirent
acquerir mes ouvrages. Pour les Poissons fossiles, je vous les
cederai volontiers au tiers au-dessous du prix que les libraires y
mettent, c'est-a-dire a 24 francs la livraison, au lieu de 36, ce qui
est a pen pres le prix auquel elle me revient. Veuillez des lors me
faire savoir si je dois vous en adresser un exemplaire. Des que
j'aurai calcule exactement le cout des " Poissons d'eau douce," je
vous ferai savoir aussi qufelle remise je pourrai vous faire sur cet
ouvrage. II va sans dire que ce n?est qu'aux savants, qui me de-
mandent mes livres pour eux-memes que je peux et que je veux
faire le sacrifice de toutes les peines que reclament des publications
de ce genre.

Generosity in this case was certainly not well placed ;
for Pictet was a well-to-do man in a pecuniary posi-
tion far superior to Agassiz's, and might easily have
afforded to subscribe at the full price. But Agassiz
did not know how to discriminate between those who
deserved to be helped and those whose means were
such that a subscription to a costly work was not a
" sacrifice," but simply a scientific duty.

About this time occurred, for the first time, a dis-
agreeable difficulty which confronted Agassiz more than
once during his life. Without asking permission, or even
making his intention known, he had begun a French and
a German translation of the " Mineral Conchology of

140 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vii.

Great Britain." The Sowerby brothers, who were the
authors and publishers of this costly work, thought the
proceeding a little too high-handed ; and the editor of
" The Magazine of Natural History," Edward Charles-
worth, published a rather sharp article in the May num-
ber (Vol. III., p. 254, London, 1839), 'm which he calls it
a " piracy upon the literary production of English natu-
ralists," and adds, " Agassiz has met with the most cordial
support on all sides, and in various ways, from the culti-
vators of science in this country ; and, although it may
appear harsh thus to express ourselves, we do not hesi-
tate openly to declare our conviction that in editing a
transcript in the French language of the * Mineral Con-
chology of Great Britain,' its author cannot be said to
have really promoted the objects of science, still less to
have added to his own reputation."

Agassiz promptly answered, in an autograph letter
addressed to all his correspondents and subscribers, and
reproduced in French and also in English in No. 31 of
the " Magazine of Natural History" (Vol. III., p. 356),
entitled, " Lettre ecrite par M. Ls. Agassiz a M. Ed.
Charlesworth, en reponse a une article insere dans le No.
29 du 'Magazine of Natural History.' In this Agassiz
says, " The assertions and insinuations of the article are
altogether malicious and without foundation. . . . The
knowledge which I possess of the most important
European scientific publications has assured me that a
French or German edition of the work, published at
lower price (one-fourth the cost of the original work),
would be rendering a real service to science, without in
any way proving injurious to the original edition, for

1839-40-] DISPUTE WITH CHARLESWORTH. 141

which the principal demand is in England. Would it
then not be unfair to represent such a publication as a
systematic piracy; as though translations of scientific
works were not being made every day with the consent
of the authors ? ' Yes ; but unfortunately Agassiz had
failed to get that consent from Sowerby's sons, the col-
laborators and finishers of the " Mineral Conchology."
There lay the mistake. Agassiz adds : " I affirm that
the insinuation of my having entered upon this under-
taking with a view to pecuniary emolument, to be alto-
gether unfounded. On the contrary, only three hundred
copies have been struck off, and I agreed with the editor,
as the price of my participation in it, that the work
should not be sold at a sum above that necessary to
cover the expense of its publication." In regard to
his own " Poissons fossiles," he says, " I shall esteem
myself fortunate to see the work translated in whatever
shape it may appear." Charlesworth rejoined, reiter-
ating all his previous criticisms, and adding others ;
and finally, James De Carle Sowerby wrote a letter, the
27th July, 1839, also inserted in the " Magazine of
Natural History," Vol. III., p. 418, in which he ap-
proved the strictness of Charlesworth, and suggested
that some protection be afforded, at least by their
brother authors, to those who make original and costly
publications. It seems from his letter that the " sale
of the 'Mineral Conchology' has only been about four
hundred copies, above one-fourth of which number
have been sent abroad. The encouragement, there-
fore, for carrying on the work has hitherto been not
very great."

142 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vn.

Agassiz, from the start of his lithographic establish-
ment, under the direction of H. Nicolet, was very
anxious to procure works sufficient to keep it running all
the time, without too great pecuniary loss. His inten-
tion was good, and he began the two translations in
French and German with the hope of helping that
numerous class of observers of limited means on the
continent of Europe, to whom Sowerby's original Eng-
lish edition was inaccessible on account of its great cost.
I myself saw a few years after, when Agassiz's transla-
tions were hardly finished, how useful they were to
French and German geologists, and they really helped
the progress of science in Central Europe. The only
error, and it was inexcusable, was his undertaking the
work without having previously obtained permission
from the two sons of Sowerby, who wrote the principal
part of the text, and finally engraved also the plates,
after the death of their father in 1822. Pecuniarily the
enterprise was a great loss to Agassiz, for after a few
years, Nicolet failed, and Agassiz had to take the whole
business into his own hands. Neither of the transla-
tions sold well, and other more important works on the
palaeontology of France and Germany soon appeared
and blocked the way. Among these were the " Paleon-
tologie frangaise," by Alcide d'Orbigny, and the " Petre-
factenkunde von Deutsland," by Quenstedt, which not
only attracted attention, but from the start were pay-
ing works, - - a mark of success which was never to be
granted to Agassiz during his stay in Europe. After-
wards Agassiz very seldom referred to these two trans-
lations; it was a painful subject, and he confessed that

1839-40-] EDWARD FORBES. 143

it was an error which cost him time, money, and, what
is of more value, reputation among some of the English
naturalists. However, he retained the friendship of all
the leaders in England, and it is refreshing to read such
remarks as the following : " His [Agassiz's] knowledge
of natural history surprises me the more I know of him,
and he has that love of imparting it, and that power of
doing it with clearness, which makes one feel one is
getting on, and that one has caught his enthusiasm '
(Life of Charles Lyell, Vol. I., p. 457). "We are great
friends," Edward Forbes wrote, after the conclusion of
the meeting of the British Association at Glasgow, "and
were together all the Association week. I expect him
here on the 2ist October; he is to work over my species
with me, so as to avoid useless synonyms. . . . We
worked over the synonyms, freely telling all he [Agas-
siz] knew, and confessing all he did not know. . . . He
also gave in to my classification of the Echinodermata,
admitting the Ophiuridae as a group equivalent to the
starfishes, and granting that the Sipunculidae are Radi-
ata " (Memoir of Edward Forbes, pp. 263, 264).

At the beginning of August, 1839, Agassiz went to
the annual meeting of the Helvetic Society of Natural
Sciences at Berne, where discussion on the glacial ques-
tion continued to attract attention. Studer, who pre-
sided over the society that year, proposed to Agassiz to
go with him to see the glaciers of Monte Rosa and the
Matterhorn in Valais. The party, composed of seven
persons, six naturalists and an artist, Bettannier, started
from Berne the 9th of August, 1839, passing by Kander-
steg to see its beautiful old moraine, already celebrated,

144 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vii.

through the agency of Professor G. Bischoff of Bonn,
who had announced its peculiarity, and by the Gemmi
Pass to the bath of Loueche. Here they met the great
geologist, Professor Voltz of Strasbourg, and a most
delightful evening was passed in his company. With
such savants as Agassiz, Studer, Lardy of Lausanne,
Nicolet of La Chaux-de-Fonds, and Voltz, it is easy to
imagine the interest of the geological subjects which
they debated until almost daybreak. Studer and Lardy
had been at work for several years on the geology of
the Grand St. Bernard, and other Valaisan localities
of the vicinity, and Voltz, who was second only to Alex-
andre Brongniart, the founder of correlation of strata,
by means of the fossils, had worked hard at the age of
several groups of rather puzzling Alpine strata, more
especially the enigmatic " Poudingue de Valorsine," and
his works on the Vosges, the Alsace, and the Jura
Mountains laid the basis of all that has been done there
since. He was the teacher of such great geologists as
Thirria, Thurmann, and Gressly, and the creator of the
Palaeontological Museum at Strasbourg- -at that time
one of the richest in Central Europe. He was, beside, a
most interesting talker, full of all the socialistic theories
of the time, Saint Simonian and Phalansterian, as well
as an ardent republican and a friend of all political
refugees, from whatever nation they came. Alas ! it
was for Voltz one of his last opportunities to meet the
geological friends who were so congenial to him, for he
died a few months after,1 regretted by all who had the

1 Philippe Louis Voltz, born in Strasbourg the I4th August, 1784; died
in Paris the I5th January, 1840.

1839-40.] STUDER AT ZERMATT. 145

good fortune to know him, and by none more than by
Agassiz.

From Loueche to Zermatt, " roches moutonnees '
and polished boulders and moraines were met in abun-
dance, more especially near Zermatt. At that time
there was no hotel of any kind at Zermatt, and the
party found lodging and board at the house of the
physician of the St. Nicolas valley. Tourists had
not yet discovered Zermatt, and with the exception of
a few botanists and zoologists, no one ever came to
these remote parts of the Valaisan Alps. When on
the Riffel, Studer, who until then had opposed the
glacial theory and had explained every erratic phenom-
enon by mud currents, was at last convinced ; his
only remaining objection, after admitting ancient glac-
iers, being that he feared the consequences. See-
ing a vertical wall of serpentine finely polished, he
asked the guide to what that phenomenon was due.
The guide, who had not the smallest interest in the
glacial question, answered with great naivete, that in
the country (le pays) everybody thought that it was
made by the glacier, adding : " It is true that no
inhabitant of the village remembers to have seen the
glacier in this place, but it was there formerly, for it
is always in this way that the glaciers wear away the
rocks." With great honesty Bernard Studer, who had
been one of the stoutest opponents of the views of
Venetz, de Charpentier, and Agassiz, confessed his
errors in a " Notice sur quelques phenomenes de
1'epoque diluvienne ' (" Bull. Soc. Geol. France," Vol.
XI., p. 49. Meeting of the 2d December, 1839, Paris).

146 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vn.

This conversion of such a prominent alpine geologist
induced many other Swiss geologists, who, until then,
had hesitated to adopt the glacial theory as proposed
by Venetz and de Charpentier, — a theory which was
extended by Agassiz to embrace almost the whole of
the Northern Hemisphere. It was a great gain, due
mainly to Agassiz ; and from that day no more serious
objections were made in Switzerland.

Curiously enough, directly after the reading of
Studer's paper, Renoir of Belfort published a most
important paper on the glaciers of the southern part
of the Vosges. In it he declared that when Captain
Le Blanc of the French Engineer Corps, at the meet-
ing of the society at Porrentruy in 1838, announced
the existence of old moraines in the Vosges, he dis-
believed him ; but started at once for the valley of St.
Amarin as soon as the meeting was over, and to his
astonishment found there proofs of all the glacial phe-
nomena as established by Venetz, de Charpentier, and
Agassiz.1

The proofs given by Professor Renoir, as well as the
argument advanced by Captain Le Blanc, left no further
doubt as to the existence of glaciers during the Quater-
nary period in the Vosges, and Professor Fargeaud of
Strasbourg had extended his observations on ancient
glaciers even to the Black Forest of Baden, and to the
Pyrenees. So promptly did Agassiz's prophecy in
the address at Neuchatel in 1837 receive confirma-

1 Note sur les glaciers qui ont reconvert anciennement la partie meri-
dionale de la chaine des Vosges (" Bull. Soc. Geol. France," Vol. XI., p. 53,
Paris).

1839-40.] HUGPS CABIN. 147

tion beyond the Alps. After leaving Zermatt, and on
an excursion to Mont Cervin, Agassiz and his party
visited the glacier of Aletsch, the greatest of all the
Alps, with its Merjelen (Meril) lake, unique in Switzer-
land ; then the glacier of the Rhone, and afterward
the Grimsel again. Agassiz, desirous to see the place
where the monk Hugi of Soleure, some years previ-
ously, had established a cabin on the glacier of the Aar,
took a guide at the Grimsel and ascended the valley of
the Ober-Aar. After a rather exhausting walk over
the glacier for three hours, the guide showed a well-
preserved cabin on the median moraine close by an
enormous granite boulder. In this they found a bottle
containing several papers, one of which informed them
that, in 1827, Hugi constructed a dry-walled cabin with
a floor of hay, and from a second paper, also written by
Hugi, they learned that he had visited his cabin again
the 22d . of August, 1836, and found that it had
descended the glacier 2028 feet since it was built in
1827. Agassiz was much impressed by this discovery
of Hugi's cabin and its motion, and he then resolved
to return the next year and imitate Hugi in order to
continue his researches on glaciers.

During the excursion Joseph Bettannier, who was
a good landscape artist, made several very exact draw-
ings of the glaciers round Zermatt, Monte Rosa, Viesch,
Finelen, Aletsch with its lake, St. Theodule, and Aar
with Hugi's cabin, to be used for an atlas to accompany
the "Etudes sur les glaciers."

Agassiz returned to Neuchatel at the end of August.
Soon after, an important change was made in the house-

148 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vn.

hold involving an important addition to it. Young Karl
Vogt, just graduated doctor from a German university,
arrived on the last day of August, as had been agreed
two years previously in October, 1837, when Agassiz
was visiting his father at Berne. Karl was to help Agas-
siz in his publication and researches touching fossil and
living fishes, and new arrangements became necessary
to meet the increase of expenses. Never practical, and
becoming more and more accustomed to gather round
him as many assistants and social companions as he
could, Agassiz could find no better way to diminish his
expenses than to give Desor and Vogt their board at
his own table; Desor already had a room in the house,
and another near by was taken for Vogt. In this way
Vogt and Desor became members of his family, their
board and lodging being entirely at Agassiz's expense.
As to salary, nothing was stipulated; but when they
wanted money they had to ask for it, and if Agassiz
had any, which was more and more rare, he gave them
some. At first the new arrangement worked very well.
Agassiz had company at his meals, which was always
a' great pleasure to him, for he was delighted to be
surrounded by brilliant and intelligent, especially
scientific people. Agassiz's mother, who was visiting
him at this time while his wife was in Carlsruhe, was
a capital housekeeper, with much dignity of manner,
and accustomed to keep every one in his place with-
out allowing the slightest encroachment or too much
familiarity.

Karl Vogt in his twenties was a character seldom

1839-40-] KARL VOGT. 149

met with. Tall and very corpulent for his age, his
movements were rather heavy and somewhat awk-
ward. He was inclined to see the comical side of
everything, and his remarks were all tinged with rid-
icule. As soon as he entered Neuchatel, he was saluted
by the nickname "Le Moutz': (Mutz in the dialect
of Berne), a popular character well known all over
Switzerland, and personifying the Bernese bear; and
the name clung to him during his five years' stay at
Neuchatel.

Vogt's "bon mots" soon became proverbial, and
his laughter was very infectious; so much so that he
would have started a Quaker meeting into uproarious
merriment, and obliged a community of Trappists
to break their vows of eternal seriousness and self-
control.

The reverse of the medal will appear by and by. For
the present Vogt made himself as amiable and accept-
able as possible. Desor, who was always imitating
some one or something, adopted the same attitude, and
pushed his desire to please so far, that he even accom-
panied Agassiz's mother to the place of worship, —
quite an event for a proclaimed atheist. The German
language was used exclusively at table and in the
laboratory ; and to a visitor Agassiz's establishment at
this time of his life seemed a German settlement trans-
ferred into French Switzerland.

Vogt describes his first meeting with Gressly in the
following manner: "During the fall (1839) Gressly
came. Great was my astonishment when I heard

150 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vn.

Desor apostrophize the little vagabond1 as soon as
he entered into the laboratory : ' But, Gressly, go out
directly and get washed ; after that I will make you
acquainted with Vogt. ' Gressly with his sympathetic
nature, his good temper, his many eccentricities, was
the constant target and object of fun for both Desor
and Vogt. What he suffered, during the six winters he
passed with them, is difficult to imagine. He accepted
always with a smile the most cruel practical joke, work-
ing quietly at his manuscripts, and cleaning his fossils
with his tongue. As soon as the spring was begun,
Gressly escaped his martyrdom in the laboratory by
going into the field for eight or nine months. There
the poor tramp was at least free from the sarcasms of
his two persecutors. It must in justice be said that
years after, when both Desor and Vogt had attained
reputation and social position, they were kind to Gressly.
Vogt took him as a companion during a journey to
Iceland ; and Desor gave him a room in his house at
Neuchatel and at his country house at Combe-Varin,
until he was too ill to be taken care of outside of an
asylum.

But Gressly was too much absorbed in geology to be
made use of as a clerk. Desor soon found out that if
Gressly was ready to be treated as a funny man, he
had too much independence and was too learned to be
a ' saute-ruisseau," as small clerks in French notary

JThe word is most unjust and inexact, showing that Vogt is not and
never was a practical geologist. Gressly was a very steady and persistent
observer, and all his explorations were always systematically carried on.

1839-40-] CHARLES GIRARD. 151

offices or bureaus are called ; so he hired the young
son of a peasant, named Girard, of Concise, the for-
mer parish of Agassiz's father, to be his Jack at all
trades. Intelligent and desirous to become a naturalist,
Charles Girard submitted to the continual and rather
severe exactions of Desor ; for he not only had to write
under Desor's dictation, but he was constantly running
between the laboratory, Agassiz's lodging, the lecture-
room, the lithographic establishment, and the printing-
press; besides, he was the bootblack for the whole
establishment. Desor kept him very close, and pun-
ished him remorselessly by sharp reprimands, which
were always accepted without a word of retort, for
Desor was the head man, and not an easy one to
please.

As Vogt says, during the last six years of Agassiz's
life at Neuchatel, it was a kind of scientific factory,
producing more than was wanted, and glutting the
market with publications, without profit to anybody.
Indeed, several of the works issued might have been
dispensed with, both as regards cleverness and timeli-
ness, to say nothing of the pecuniary expense, which
was always rather great, notwithstanding the cheapness
of living in Neuchatel.

However open to just criticism several of Agassiz's
undertakings may be, they furnished an example of mar-
vellous initiative and of extraordinary impulse. Every
one under Agassiz's direction worked hard and well ;
there was a sort of rivalry as to who would do best and
most. The first part of the " Description des Echino-

152 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vii.

dermes fossiles de la Suisse," containing spatangoids and
clypeastroids, appeared during the autumn of 1839, in
the " Nouveaux Memoires de la Societe Helvetique."
Until then no publication on echinoderms of such impor-
tance in regard to classification, correctness of localities,
and stratigraphical position, had appeared. Gressly had
had a great share in it, having found the majority of the
specimens used, and having helped Agassiz in his descrip-
tions and other details of each species. A special artist,
Dickmann, was trained by Agassiz to draw Echinidae, and
the accompanying plates are excellent. The memoir was
made use of at once, with great advantage, by all geolo-
gists studying the Jurassic and Neocomian series ; and
seldom has such an important and timely contribution
to palaeontology been made. The second part, " Cida-
rides," soon followed, in June, 1840; and the whole
work is one of Agassiz's best, being remarkably clear,
with excellent classification, good genera and species ;
all of which have been accepted and used since, in all
the works on fossil echinoderms.

At the beginning of the winter Agassiz wrote a very

r

interesting letter on the glaciers to Elie de Beaumont,
asking him to communicate it to the Academy of Science.
But de Beaumont was a rather unfair opponent in
everything relating to the glacial question, and he did
not read the letter to the Academy, as he was requested
to do. As it is important, and allows every one to see
the opposition at that time constantly made against the
doctrine of the action of glaciers in the Alps, I give it
almost in full, suppressing only local details relating to

1839-40-] LETTER TO DE BEAUMONT. 153

the glaciers around Zermatt and Mont Cervin. Besides,
this letter had the advantage of giving, before the publi-
cation of " Etudes sur les glaciers," advertised to appear
the following year, explanations of some of the plates
prepared for the folio atlas to accompany that work.

NEUCHATEL, 16 decembre, 1839.
Louis AGASSIZ

t

a Elie de Beaumont.

Je venais cTemballer les premieres epreuves de mes planches de
glaciers pour vous les envoyer lorsque je recus votre lettre a laquelle
je m'empresse de repondre. J'espere pouvoir vous adresser d'ici au
printemps le cahier complet des planches que je fais faire sur les
phdnomenes que presentent les glaciers ; celles que je vous adresse
aujourd'hui ne sont relatives qu'a la formation et a la marche des
moraines et a Faction des glaciers sur le fond sur lequel ils reposent.
Tout ce qui concerne la structure, intime des glaciers et la plus grande
extension qu'ils avaient autrefois ainsi que les moraines anciennes
sera figure plus tard. J'ai voulu rester d'abord dans des limites oil je
suis sure de ne rencontrer aucune opposition. Ce sera je Fespere le
meilleur moyen de preparer un acceuil favorable aux phenomenes
trop contestes dont j'ai deja parle ailleurs. Je crois que je parvien-
drai a les faire adopter lorsque je serai parvenu a demontrer avec
le meme respect qui vous anime pour les lois generates concernant
notre globe, que des oscillations de temperature un peu plus grandes
ou un peu plus faibles ne sortent pas plus du cadre des lois invariables
de la physique que des phenomenes de soulevement poussant un
ilot a fleur d'eau, ou soulevant la chaine des Alpes. D'ailleurs
Petude comparative que j'ai faite d'une part de PefFet de Peau cou-
rante, ou de grandes masses d'eau mues par les vents, d'autre part
des effets produits par le mouvement des glaciers, me permet main-
tenant de les distinguer a quelque distance de leur source premiere
que je les rencontre.

Mais revenons aux glaciers tels qu'ils se presentent dans leur

154 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vn.

limites actuelles. Les Planches i et 2 (de 1' Atlas de 32 planches des
Etiides sur les Glaciers, qui a paru en 1840), que Ton peut joindre,
offrent un panorama des principales sommites du Mont-Rose vues
depuis le Riffelhorn. . . . Je ferai d'abord remarquer que sur la
droite de la Planche No. I, on voit distinctement une grande moraine
formee autour du rocher saillant qui horde le glacier du Mont-Rose,
et qui est refoulee sur le glacier principal par les glaces descendant
du Lyskamm, c'est la moraine que j?appelle la grande moraine du
Mont-Rose pour la distinguer d'une autre moraine moins consi-
derable qui se forme par les eboulements, de quelques aretes nues du
Mont-Rose et qui descend a peu pres sur le milieu du grand massif
de glace qui separe le Mont-Rose du Gornerhorn et qui apres s'etre
repliee sur le milieu du grand glacier marche parallelement avec la
premiere. De Tangle inferieure du Gornerhorn, on voit surgir une
troisieme moraine separee de la petite moraine du Mont-Rose par
une serie d'entonnoirs d'abord peu distincts, mais qui grandissent
en face du Lyskamm et du Breithorn, pour disparaitre entierement
plus bas. Je lui ai donne le nom de moraine du Gornerhorn.
Enfin sur le devant de la planche on remarque une quatrieme
moraine qui descend du milieu de la Porte-Blanche et qui tend a se
confondre avec la moraine du Gornerhorn (La Porte-Blanche est
Parrete qui domine la vallee de Macugnaga au nord du Gorner-
horn). Lorsqu'on descend au pied du Riffel on remarque une
cinquieme grande moraine au bord du glacier, mais elle reste in-
apei'9ue sur cette planche a cause de la saillie que forment les
rochers d'ou le panorama est dessine. . . .

La planche 3 represente le glacier de Zermatt au point ou apres
avoir recu les affluents de tous les pics il commence a descendre
dans la vallee en s'engageant entre le Riffelhorn et les rochers ap-
pele's Auf-Platten. ... La planche 4 est la continuation de la
planche 3 ; le glacier est deja considerablement descendu entre le
Riffelhorn et Auf-Platten. Cette vue est prise vis-a-vis du Riffel-
horn au bord d'une cascade qui descend du glacier de Furke en
montant a Auf-Platten, tandisque les trois autres planches sont
dessinees depuis le Riffelhorn. ... En general a 1'extre'mite du

1839-40-] LETTER TO DE BEAUMONT. 155

glacier les moraines se dispersent tellement qu'il est fort difficile de
les distinguer les unes des autres. On ne les reconnoit guere qu'a la
nature de leurs roches. La marche de toutes ces moraines com-
pletement distinctes dans la partie superieure du glacier, plus ou
moins confondues clans sa partie inferieure prouve que les affluents
de glace qui descendent des pics superieures comme autant de massif
distincts se reunissent plus bas en un massif homogene semblable a
un grand fleuve qui vers son embouchure roule d\me maniere uni-
forme des flots longtemps distincts, mais enfin confondus dans leur
marche. . . .

Les planches 6 et 7 doivent donner une idee de Taction qu1exer-
cent les glaciers sur le fond sur lequel ils se meuvent. . . . En
penetrant sous le glacier, entre ses crevasses, a plusieurs metres de
profondeur j'ai pu me convaincre que le poll des roches et les stries
(burinees clessus les serpentines) existent uniformement sous le
glacier comme sur ses flancs, et la direction des stries que j'ai ob-
servee le long du glacier depuis le pied de la Porte-Blanche jus-
qu'a la source de la Viege qui sort de la voute inferieure du glacier,
la direction de ces stries, dis-je, qui suivent toutes les inflections du
glacier, qui sont rectilignes partout ou le glacier se meut en droite
ligne, qui se courbent et prennent meme une direction ascendantes
la ou le glacier passe pardessus des aretes saillantes de rochers ;
cette direction ne laisse aucun doute sur la liaison qui existe entre
ces stries et le glacier lui-meme. On ne saurait douter non plus
quand on a poursuivi ce phenomene sur une aussi grande etendue,
que les grains de quartz provenant des granites tritures dans les
moraines marginales ne soient Temen au moyen duquel ie glacier
en se mouvant polit et raie le fond sur lequel il marche ; il me parait
impossible de supposer que ces surfaces polies et ces stries aient
existe anterieurement a la formation des glaciers, et que les glaciers
aient pu se mouvoir a leur surface sans les efTacer. Ces surfaces
polies et ces stries sont si constantes autour des glaciers, si fraiches
dessous leurs masses, si bien conservees partout ou les glaciers
existent encore que les habitants de la contree les ont remarquees
et les attribuent au mouvement des glaces meme la ou le glacier a

156 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vn.

disparu. Leur direction presqu'horizontale tout le long du bassin
du glacier de Zermatt, sur les flancs et parois du Riffel et d'Auf-
Platten suppose a toute idee d'avalanche, comme cause de ces
stries, car a raison de la configuration des lieux, toutes les avalanches
qui pourraint se former, couperaient necessairement a angle droit
la direction des stries telle qu'on Fobserve ; en un mot les faits sont
de telle nature dans toute Fetendue du cours des glaciers que je viens
de decrire, qu'il est impossible de ne pas reconnaitre que c'est le
glacier qui a poli ses bords au-dessus du niveau qu1]! occupe main-
tenant et qu'il continue a polir les rochers sur les quels il repose
encore. Les faits sont si parlants que M. Studer qui a fait une fois
la course du Riffel avec moi s'est rendu a Fevidence quoiqu'il eut
nie jusqu?alors la liaison des surfaces polies et des stries avec les
glaciers. Une autre circonstance qui parle hautement en faveur de
cette liaison c'est que les surfaces polies et les stries sont d'autant
moins distinctes qu1on les observe sur des surfaces abandonnees
depuis plus longtemps des glaciers et ou ils ont cependant existe
de memoire d'homme, comme c'est par exemple le cas au-dessous
de Fextremite actuelle du glacier de Viesch, que les registres de la
paroisse d'Aunen constatent s'etre etendu jusque pres du village de
Viesch, c'est-a-dire une lieue plus bas que maintenant.

La vallee de Viesch est une des plus interessantes que je con-
naisse pour Fetude comparative de Faction des eaux et des glaces
sur le fond de leur lit ; et quelque soit la cause a laquelle on attribue
les surfaces polies et les stries, toujours est-il que dans chaque vallee
ou on les observe, elles suivent en somme la direction de la vallee,
c'est-a-dire, que pour prendre des exemples precis, les stries de la
vallee de Viesch s'inclinent du Nord au Sud vers le Rhone, tandis-
que celles qui accompagnent le glacier du Rhone sont dirigees de
FEst a FOuest et celles qui accompagnent le glacier de FAar de F'Ouest
a FEst jusqu'a Fhospice du Grimsel, puis du Sud au Nord du
Grimsel a la Handeck ou il est certain que ces stries existent sur les
flancs du glacier de FAar jusqu'au niveau du col qui separe FOber-
land bernois du Valais. Pour pouvoir attribuer ces stries a des
courants il faudrait done (abstraction faite de tous les faits que j'ai
deja cites et qui prouvent une liaison intime entre les stries et les
glaciers) imaginer des courants remplissant jusqu'a les combler ces

1839-40-] LETTER TO DE BEAUMONT. 157

hautes vallees et diriges Tun du Finsteraarhorn a PEst jusqu'au
Grimsel en sens inverse d^n autre courant parallele dirige des
sommites des glaciers du Rhone vers la Mayenwand, c'est-a-dire, de
TEst a TOuest et se precipitant dans la vallee du Rhone pour y
rencontrer im troisieme courant, tout aussi puissant dirige directement
du Nord au Sud de la vallee de Viesch ; et tous ces courants devraient
naitre sur la crete si etroite qui separe ces trois vallees ; car comme
vous Tavez tres bien observe, les surfaces polies nous prouvent que
le relief du centre de 1'Europe iva subi aucun changement notable
depuis qu'il est sous Tinfluence des causes actuelles. Or revenons
a la vallee de Viesch dont la partie superieure est occupee par un
glacier et dans le fond de laquelle coule un torrent rapide dont le
cours n'est pas beaucoup plus court que ne serait le grand courant
auquel on voudrait attribuer les surfaces polies et les stries de cette
vallee, si jamais pareil courant avait pu naitre sur les cretes du
Viescherhorn, et voyons bien qu'elle influence le glacier actuel et le
torrent actuel exercent sur le fond de leur lit.

Les roches au bord du glacier et sous le glacier sont polies
et strides dans toute Pe'tendue que recouvre maintenant le glacier.
Partout ou Ton pent penetrer sous la glace ou deblayer la grande
moraine qui Tentoure, les stries et les surfaces polies sont fraiches et
la direction des stries ne laisse aucun doute sur la cause qui les a
produites, ici encore elles sont dues aux glaciers II est vrai que le
torrent qui corrode le fond de cette vallee y creuse des sillons sinueux
et polit les cotes de son lit, mais ces polis effectues par 1'eau ont
un aspect tout different, ils sont mats, creux, souvent meme incrustes ;
ce sont des coups de gouge plus ou moins allonges, limites par des
aretes saillantes ; jamais ils ne sont stries ; jamais ils ne presentent
de surfaces un pen etendues, tandisque les surfaces polies par le
glacier sont bosselees en relief, les parties saillantes sont surtout
strides et les parties dans la roche ne font jamais saillie. Les sur-
faces polies qui sont encore maintenant sous le glacier dans cette
vallee sont la continuation directe de celles sur lesquelles le glacier
ne repose plus, mais sur lesquelles on sait qu'il a repose jadis. Ces
surfaces polies denudees que Ton voit sur les cotes du cours du tor-
rent sont striees dans le meme sens que celles que Ton voit encore
sous le glacier ; elles different completernent des surfaces corrodees

158 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vii.

par Peau du torrent, mais elles sont identiques avec les parois de la
vallee qui ont conserve leur poll. Mais com me on ne voit aucune
trace analogue a celle du torrent dans la partie superieure de la
vallee, tandisque ses parois sont striees et polies a de grandes
hauteurs absolument comme sous le glacier, il me parait dime bonne
logique de conclure que la cause qui a agi plus puissament autrefois
que maintenant, etait un glacier plus etendu et non pas un grand
torrent. Je n'entrerai pas ici dans le detail des differences tres
notables que presentent les roches de differente nature sous Pinflu-
ence des glaciers et sous celle des courants, vous Pavez sans doute
deja remarque. Je me bornerai a dire que les serpentines de la
vallee de Zermatt et du Riffelhorn presentent le plus beau poli que
je connoisse ; que les granites des parois du glacier de PAar ne le
cede en rien aux serpentines la oil ils n'ont pas ete encore exposes a
Paction de Pair, mais que Patmosphere les rend facilement mdes au
toucher ; que les gneiss ne conservent guere de traces de stries et
de polis, que lorsque les glaciers ont agi sur les tranches de leurs
couches ; que les calcaires, tout en prenant facilement un tres beau
poli ne le conservent pas facilement lorsqu'ils ne restent pas re-
couverts par le limon des moraines apres avoir ete polis. Cela est
si vrai, que dans les Alpes ce n'est guere que sous les glaciers memes
que les calcaires alpins conservent les traces de leurs stries ; ces
faits sont une nouvelle preuve bien puissante de mon assertion, que
les surfaces polies et les stries sont reellement dues aux glaciers et
ne peuvent point avoir ete simplement conserves sous les glaciers.

Dans Pexpose de ces faits je me suis restreint aux phenomenes
tels quails se presentent dans les Alpes, afin de ne point revefller les
objections qui n'atteignent que leur extension dans des regions oil
les glaciers n'existent plus ; plus tard je reviendrai sur les glaciers du
Jura, lorsque Pensemble de mes observations sera aussi concluant
pour ces contrees qu'elles le sont pour les Alpes. Je dirai seulement
que mes courses de cet automne nvont fourni de nouvelles preuves de
la liaison qui existe entre les blocs erratiques du Jura et les glaciers.
J'y ai acquis en meme temps la conviction qu'il a existe dans Pinte-
rieur du Jura des glaciers inclependants de ceux des Alpes. Les
physiciens s?arrangeront de ces faits comme ils le pourront, mais je
ne crois pas qu'il y ait quelque chose de plus contraire aux lois de la

1839-40-] LETTER TO DE BEAUMONT. 159

physique dans les phenomenes qui nous demontrent Texistence d'une
creation (de faune et de flore) tropicale en Suisse, que dans ceux
qui lui assignent a une autre epoque un climat boreal.

En vous adressant prochainement les autres planches de mon
livre je les accompagnerai de quelques observations sur la marche
des glaciers, sur leur formation et sur leur structure intime. Une
troisieme notice sera relative aux phenomenes eloignes des Alpes qui
je crois se rattachent a ceux dont je viens de vous entretenir. Avant
de les publier je desirerais vous les soumettre dans leur ensemble.

Vous m'obligeriez infiniment en nVexposant d'une maniere precise
les objections que vous avez a faire a ces considerations. Quoique
j'aie deja fait de nombreuses observations thermometriques sur les
eaux courantes et sur les petits lacs et les mares des glaciers et sur
les glaces memes, je fais de nouveaux preparatifs pour aller etudier
Pete prochain les profondeurs des glaciers en faisant des sondages
pour traverser tout le massif des glaciers et penetrer jusque dans le
sol sous-jacent. Si vous aviez quelques observations a me proposer,
je les ferais avec le plus grand plaisir , je serais egalement fort
redevable a M. Arago sil voulait bien me faire part de ses desiderata
relativement aux glaciers. Je compte passer Pete prochain plusieurs
semaines dans le cceur des Alpes.

J'ai visite cet ete tous les abords de la grande mer de glace qui
s'etend entre le Valais et TOberland afin de m'orienter prealablement,
et mon intention est de la traverser dans tous les sens si le temps m'est
favorable J'ai deja penetre par le glacier de TAar jusqu'au pied
du Finsteraarhorn, et par le glacier d'Aletsch jusqu'au pied des
Viescherhorner, derriere la Jungfrau, et passe de la au glacier de
Viesch. Mon projet serait de traverser de Grindelwald an Grimsel
par Farete d'Ashchwung.

Si vous pensez que ces observations puissent interesser 1'Academie
des sciences (de Plnstitut de France), vous m'obligeriez en lui en com-
muniquant succinctement le contenu. Ne jugez pas trop severement
mes dessins, mais pensez a la difficulte qu'il y avait a encadrer dans
des dimensions donnees, des vues privees de toute vegetation,, ne
representant que des rochers nus, des glaces, et des neiges, ou Ton
rencontre a peine des etres vivants, par ci par la seulement quelques
Pyrrhocorax, quelques Gelinottes, rarement des marmottes, plus

160 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vir.

rarement encore des chamois et cTou les habitations des hommes
se voient dans le lointain, au fond des vallees, comme dans Tabyme.
J-e vais faire copier mes croquis du Jura pour vous les envoyer
immediatement. Je ne tarderai pas non plus a vous envoyer ma
notice sur vos Echinodermes.

The winter of 1839-1840 was employed in writing, be-
sides the continuation of the " Fossils Fishes," a volume
on the glaciers, and two monographs on the echino-
derms, and on the Trigonia ; and Vogt translated the

/

manuscript of the ' Etudes sur les glaciers ' ' into Ger-
man, in order to have the French and German edition
issued at the same time. The book appeared in Sep-
tember, 1840, with a splendid folio atlas of eighteen
beautifully executed plates. In it Agassiz very frankly
gives an account of his five months' companionship in
1836 with de Charpentier, who taught him the glacial
doctrine, and of his returning with several of his friends :
among them, Karl Schimper, Francillon of Lausanne,
who became his brother-in-law, Max Braun, Dinkel, and
his secretary, to visit again the classical localities first
shown to him by de Charpentier. The historical part
on the glaciers is very full and just to every observer
who had entered the field before him. The work is
dedicated to " M. Venetz, Ingenieur des Fonts et
Chaussees au Canton de Vaud, et a M. J. de Charpen-
tier, Directeur des Mines de Bex." Notwithstanding
all these precautions, the work displeased Venetz, de
Charpentier, and Hugi, his three predecessors in the
study of the alpine glaciers of Switzerland. De Char-
pentier was at work on his volume "Essai sur les
glaciers," which was then passing, through the press,

1839-40-] "ETUDES SUR LES GLACIERS." 161

and he thought that his pupil Agassiz might have
waited until he himself had given to the world his
researches, before printing what he had learned from
him. It was a question of politeness, which de Char-
pentier emphasized perhaps too strongly, for Agassiz
did not intend to wound him ; on the contrary, he pro-
claimed the priority of Venetz's and de Charpentier's
discoveries. But the method used by Agassiz shows a
want of courtesy in his eagerness to propagate and
make known the new doctrine. A few words are neces-
sary to explain the estrangement of friendly relations
between Agassiz and de Charpentier. Agassiz, with
his insatiable appetite, and his great faculty of assimi-
lation, digested the whole doctrine of the glaciers, and
made use of it, as it was almost his own. He did not
want to wrong de Charpentier in any way, but he was
so ardent, so impulsive, that he appeared in the eyes of
de Charpentier and his friends to be too eager in taking
the wind from the sails of others. De Charpentier's
manuscript was finished the 3ist of October, 1840, and

/

he received Agassiz's ' Etudes sur les glaciers ' only
three days before, on the 28th of October, and thus had
time only to look it over and notice it in his Introduc-
tion, pp. vii and viii. As Agassiz continued in his work
to maintain his fanciful theory of transportation of
boulders, by sliding over the ice-sheet, de Charpentier's
objections, pp. 232-241, were timely and to the point.
The " Essai sur les glaciers" appeared a few months
later, in February, 1841. Of that work the biographer
of de Charpentier says : " The work will remain a
classic. Unhappily the modesty of the author induced
M

162 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vii.

him to publish it at Lausanne, which explains why it
was so little kncwn in France, in Germany, and other
countries, when, if it had been published in Paris, with
a simultaneous German edition in a great city of Ger-
many, it would have been one of the most important
and at the same time popular books of the time. I
cannot better express my admiration for the work than
to say that it is impossible to be truly a geologist
without having read and studied it ' (Dr. H. Lebert,
"Biography of Jean de Charpentier ").

The following letter from Agassiz to de Charpentier
explains the impression made on both by the publica-
tion of their two works on the glaciers and the trans-
portation of boulders : -

NEUCHATEL, 28 juin, 1841.
a M. J. DE CHARPENTIER,

Directeur des Mines, a Bex.

Mon Cher Monsieur, — Apres beaucoup de demarches inutiles
j'ai enfin pu me procurer votre ouvrage sur les glaciers, etc. Je Pai
lu avec avidite et j'y ai trouve beaucoup de faits d'un grand interet.
Je me suis convaincu de nouveau que nous avons tous encore beau-
coup a apprendre sur ce sujet. Je regrette une seule chose c'est
que vous ayez si peu mis a profit mes observations, vous auriez pu
par la completer plusieurs points de votre travail et vous donner
le merite de fondre tout ce que Ton sait maintenant de positif sur
la question des glaciers, d'harmbniser les denominations divergentes
que vous avez employees, d'etablir la synonymic des votres avec les
miennes, etc. Puisque vous n?y avez pas songe je m'en chargerai
et malgre le mauvais vouloir que vous avez mis partout en me citant,
vous n'aurez pas trop a vous plaindre de moi, car je tiens avant tout
aux progres de la science sans acception de personnes. J'ai d'ailleurs
une masse d'observations nouvelles a publier, recueillies dans les
montagnes des Isles Britanniques Pautomne dernier et au commence-
ment du mois de Mars de cette anne'e sur le glacier inferieur de
TAar que j'ai parcouru jusqu'a 1'Abschwung.

1839-40.] LETTER TO DE CHARPENTIER. 163

L'affection que je vous ai toujours conserve me fait regretter pour
vous que vous vous soyez clonne le tort de critiquer des bagatelles
de mes planches et de mon livre, sans citer aucun fait instructif,
excepte la temperature du glacier. Cette reserve est tellement frap-
pante que deja deux de mes amis liven ont exprime leur etonnement.
Mais cela s'oubliera pespere.

Au revoir a Zurich si vous y allez, si non j'espere sur votre terri-
toire un pen plus tard. Mes respects a Mademoiselle de Charpen-
tier. Agreez Passurance, etc., etc.

Louis AGASSIZ.

This letter ended the friendly relations between two
unusually congenial men of genius, who ought to have
remained friends, as workers in the same field and as
neighbours. If left to himself, Agassiz would have
bridged the chasm ; but he was already too much in-
fluenced by his secretary and by some others of his
collaborators, more or less interested in keeping matters
embroiled. After repeatedly hearing Agassiz, and once
hearing de Charpentier, I do not hesitate to say that,
but for the objectionable surroundings in which Agassiz
lived from 1839 until he left Switzerland, the wound
would have been promptly healed and friendship re-
newed.

On the 5th of August, 1840, Agassiz left Neuchatel
for the Grimsel. There he took into his service two of
the best Oberland guides, Jacob Leuthold and Jean
Wahren, the latter a mason by trade, and started at
once for the lower part of the glacier of the Aar. The
plan was to establish a station on the glacier itself, and
for that purpose to make use of Hugi's cabin, found
by Agassiz in the preceding year, in a very good
state of preservation, as already reported. But to his

1 64 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. viz.

astonishment the cabin had disappeared, and it was
with some difficulty that Agassiz at last found some of
the debris, two hundred feet below the place occupied
by the cabin in 1839. After consultation with the
guides, who gave the very practicable advice to build
a cabin on the rock bordering the left side of the
glacier, Agassiz, who was resolved to imitate Hugi,
gave all sorts of reasons for establishing the cabin on
the median moraine, and finally an enormous block of
micaceous slate was selected. A part of the block pro-
jected in a sort of roof, under which a wall was built
by the mason. Four porters, lent by the housekeeper
of the Grimsel's hospice, to carry provisions and bed-
ding, helped in the construction of the cabin, which
was inhabited the same evening. The opening of the
cabin was toward the south, and a good sketch of it
has been published in the " Excursions aux Alpes," by
Desor, p. 157. During the night the cabin was chris-
tened by the name " Hotel des Neuchatelois," which
was engraved by the mason in big letters on the block,
and the names of the first six occupants were a few
days after added. They were Louis Agassiz, Charles
Vogt, Ed. Desor, Celestin Nicolet, Henri Coulon,
Frangois de Pourtales, the last two being students at
the Neuchatel Academy.

Observations were begun at once on every point
pertaining to glaciers, including structure, motion,
tables, moraines, neves, climate and meteorology, red
snow, crevasses, etc. Visitors from the Grimsel came
now and then ; and, to the great joy of Agassiz, one
day he saw wending their ways with some difficulty

1839-40-] HOTEL DES NEUCHATELOIS. 165

over the glacier to reach his " Hotel des Neuchatelois,"
his wife, her sister, Fraulein Emmy Braun, and his son
Alex., the latter borne on the shoulders of the guide
Jacob. That day the dinner on the glacier was par-
ticularly luxurious, fresh provisions having come with
the visitors, and the pleasure of the unexpected meet-
ing enlivened the otherwise rather rough establishment,
with its numerous discomforts.

Af-ter a visit to the top of the Strahleck, the party
left the " Hotel des Neuchatelois," after a stay of only
six days, from the loth to the i6th of August, 1840.
Before returning to Neuchatel, Agassiz traversed the
Scheideck, and made observations on the glaciers of
Grindelwald, of Schwartzwald, and of Rosenlaui ; he
visited also the upper part of the glacier of the Aar,
and passed a night on the Siedelhorn.

Directly after returning to Neuchatel, Agassiz left
for England. During the meeting of the British Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, in September,
at Glasgow, he had an opportunity to see how little
progress the glacial question had made among English
naturalists : it was almost unknown. Buckland alone,
during a protracted visit to Switzerland in 1838, and
after resisting as long as he could all the facts concern-
ing glacial action, was at last converted by Agassiz to
the new theory. But his conversion had no other effect
on English geologists than to bring forward a semi-
caricature drawn by Thomas Sopwith, which was largely
circulated as a portrait of Buckland dressed in " cos-
tume of the glaciers," and which has been reproduced
since in " Memoir of Sir Roderick Murchison," by A.

1 66 LOUTS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vii.

Geikie, Vol. I., p. 309. The reproduction by Archibald
Geikie is not, however, a complete one ; all the devices
and explanations written on the big roller of maps and
under the scratched stones have been omitted, and even
the title of the semi-caricature has been altered. It is
easy to see the reasons for these suppressions and alter-
ations. The mining engineer, Thomas Sopwith, has
stated the objections made against the glacial theory in
such childish and ridiculous words, that to repeat them
was considered by Geikie as reflecting little credit on all
those who made fun of the glacial epoch, with Murchi-
son as their leader.1

1 Here is the exact description of the semi-caricature. Buckland,
equipped as a glacialist, stands on a flat bit of rock covered with scratches,
with the following explanation : " The rectilinear course of these grooves
corresponds with the motions of an immense body, the momentum of which
does not allow it to change its course upon slight resistance." On the
polished rocks is written : " Prodigious glacial scratches"; and in order to
add to the value of the opposition made by anti-glacialists, the author has
engraved, just under the last sentence, " Scratched by T. Sopwith." The
title of the drawing is : " COSTUME OF THE GLACIERS." Under his right
arm Buckland holds a rather large and long roller, with the inscription on
it : " Maps of ancient glaciers." At his feet, on his right side, are drawn :
" Specimen No. I, scratched by a glacier thirty-three thousand three hun-
dred and thirty-three years before the Creation "; and just below, another
specimen of a " cailloux strie," marked : " Scratched by a cart-wheel on
Waterloo Bridge the day before yesterday." It is now almost incredible
that such objections should have been able to elicit anything more than a
smile at the ignorance of plain facts.

Philip Duncan was better inspired, when he wrote in his poetic " Dia-
logue between Dr. Buckland and a Rocky Boulder " : —

Boulder, respondit.

• ••••••••

" And many a rock, indented with sharp force,
And still-seen striae, shows my ancient course :
And if you doubt it, go with friend Agassiz
And view the signs in Scotland and Swiss passes."

1839-40-] MURCHISON OPPOSITION. 167

Murchison, in a letter dated Sept. 26, 1840, in speak-
ing of the Glasgow meeting says : " Agassiz gave us a
great field-day on Glaciers, and I think we shall end in
having a compromise between himself and us of the
floating icebergs ! I spoke against the general applica-
tion of his theory." This was precisely what was to be
expected from the English geologists, who are always
strongly disinclined to accept any new truth, if dis-
covered by foreigners. Even the Uniformitarians, at
that time already very numerous in England, with
Charles Lyell as their leader, did not see the splendid
opportunity to add a new crown of laurels to Uniformi-
tarianism, or the doctrine of existing causes, and they
persisted in getting entangled among masses of floating
iceberg.

In company with Murchison, Agassiz visited the
North of Scotland to see the Old Red Sandstone and
its fishes. During the journey Agassiz found a great
number of traces of ancient glaciers, and in vain
showed them to Murchison, who, on the 29th of
October, wrote to Sir Philip Egerton : " If you have
not been frost-bitten by Buckland, you have, at all
events, had plenty of friction, scratching, and polishing,
before now, and next year you may give us a paper on
the glacier of Wyvis and the ' moraines ' on which you
sport ! I intend to make fight." On a question in regard
to which he knew next to nothing.

However, Murchison's " fight ' amounted to the old
rehearsal of the floating iceberg theory and mud cur-
rents, two exploded doctrines, rather antiquated even in
England after Agassiz's visit of 1840.

i68 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vii.

On the 4th of November, 1840, Agassiz read before
the Geological Society of London his paper " On
Glaciers, and the Evidence of their having once existed
in Scotland, Ireland, and England " (" Proceed. Geol.
Soc. London," Vol. III., pp. 327-332). This memoir -
a masterly one- -opened a new chapter in the geology
of the British Isles. In the " Life of Murchison," by
Archibald Geikie, we find the biographer saying (p. 309,
Vol. I.) that " the remarkable series of observations by
Agassiz among the glaciers of the Alps, and the exten-
sion of them to Scotland by Buckland, Lyell, and Agassiz
himself," - a sentence which seems to imply that Agassiz
came after Buckland and Lyell. The man who with great
difficulty, and after a stout and protracted resistance,
during a prolonged visit to Switzerland, in 1838, taught
Buckland how to recognize traces of ancient glaciers, is
represented as occupying only a third place in the
discovery of the evidence of the existence of glaciers in
Scotland. The truth is, that Buckland, after being
converted to the new doctrine, informed Agassiz that
he had noticed similar phenomena in Scotland, but had
attributed them to diluvial action. He waited until
Agassiz came to Scotland, and it was when in his com-
pany that Agassiz said, as they approached the castle
of the Duke of Argyll, " Here we shall find our first
traces of glaciers"; and surely enough, the carriage
as it entered the valley rode over an ancient terminal
moraine. Then, and not until then, Buckland was made
sure that his indications were well based. It is impor-
tant to add that Buckland did not claim any priority.
On the contrary, he read his memoir " On the Evidences

1839-40-] LETTER TO HUMBOLDT. 169

of Glaciers in Scotland and the North of England," after
Agassiz's paper, and to sustain him by what he had
learned in his company during the fall and afterwards.
At present, to make amends for their slowness in
recognizing old glaciers, the Scotch geologists, with
James Geikie at their head, are claiming that they had
found evidences of the existence of no less than five
glacial periods during the Quaternary epoch.

Agassiz's three-months visit in the British Isles dur-
ing .the autumn of 1840 may be counted as his most
successful period of happy and important discoveries,
and he returned with the great satisfaction of having
extended the glacial doctrine to Scotland, the North of
England, and Ireland, and having first explained the
complicated organization of the fossil flying-fishes of
the Old Red Sandstone. The following letter to
Humboldt gives an excellent resume of his three

months' exploration : -

NEUCHATEL, 27 dec., 1840.

a SON EXCELLENCE M. A. DE HUMBOLDT.

Moil Cher et Excellent Ami, - - Je suis de retour a Neuchatel
depuis huit jours et deja je me suis remis au travail. J'ai pris la
ferme resolution de ne rien faire cet hiver que des " Poissons fos-
siles " et ^espere achever mon ouvrage avant 1'ete. Pour y parvenir
je ne publierai pour le moment que les mille especes les plus inte-
ressantes de maniere a en faire un corps cTouvrage lie et je don-
nerai plus tard dans un Supplement 6 a 700 especes que je n'ai pas
encore complement etudiees. Mon dernier voyage en Angleterre
nVa fait faire des progres reels en Ichthyologie fossile ; j'ai surtout
etendu mes observations sur les especes siluriennes, devoniennes
et houilleres. Les genres de T •• Old Red11 sont surtout tres
remarquables. Le pretendu Coleoptere gigantesque de Fifeshire :

1 " History of the County of Fife," by J. Anderson, 4to, Edinburgh.

170 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vn.

est un poisson Pterichthys 1 J?ai cTautres types tout aussi extraordi-
naires Coccosteus. Ce qu1!! y a de tres curieux c'est que tous ces
poissons ont des tetes disproportionnees, egalant. depassant meme
le tronc en longueur et toujours de beaucoup plus larges, dans le
style des Torpiles, mais a charpente osseuse et couverts de larges
ecussons emailles On m'a communique en somme environ 250
especes nouvelles. J'ai egalement examine un nombre immense
d'Echinodermes. Heureusement que j-1ai obtenu des . exemplaires
de la plupart des especes., car mon temps n^urait pas suffi pour les
decrire en detail.

Cependant je vous avouerai que ce qui m'a fait le plus de plaisir
c'est d'avoir decouvert des traces indubitables de glaciers sur une
tres grande echelle. Les marques de leur presence sont si frappantes
que tous les geoloques qui les ont vues sont restes convaincus du
fait. Depuis que j'ai rendu compte de mes observations a la Societe
geologique (de Londres), les memoires sur ce sujet se succedent.
Buckland a decrit ceux qu'il a observe au centre de PEcosse et au
Nord-Ouest de PAngleterre ; Lyell ceux du Forfarshire. Pour moi je
nVetais surtout applique a demontrer quails ont reellement existe dans
les Isles Britanniques, apres en avoir suivi les traces presque dans
toute I'Ecosse, au Nord. a POuest au Centre et au Sud de PIrlande
et dans tout le Nord de PAngleterre. J'ai retrouve les memes sur-
faces polies qu'en Suisse, les memes moraines laterales et terminates,
la meme disposition rayonnante du centre des chaines de montagnes
vers la plaine, les lacs partout egalement proteges contre le remplis-
sage par les glaciers qui en occupaient le fond.

Je me suis assure que toutes les routes paralleles de Glen Roy et de
Glen Spear ont etc produits par des lacs flottant des glaces et barres
par de grands glaciers dont on voit encore la direction aux traces
qu'ils ont laisses au fond des vallees, comme si les glaciers d'Argen-
tiere et des Bossons barraient la vallee de Chamounix au-dessus
et au-dessous du Prieure de maniere a transformer la vallee en un
lac. Le fond de Glen Spear est strie transfer salement. Le fait
le plus extraordinaire, Pabsence des deux routes paralleles superi-
eures dans la partie orientale de Glen Spear se trouve maintenant
expliquee !

J'ai accumule tant de preuves que personne en Angleterre ne

1839-40-] LETTER TO HUMBOLDT. 171

doute maintenant que les glaciers n?y aient existe, et ceux la qui en
ont le plus vu ont ete convaincu les premiers : Sabine, Sir George
Mackensie. Je n'ai trouve cTopposition que centre Textension que
je leur attribue, encore cette opposition ne s'appuie-t-elle deja plus
que sur 1'invraisemblance, quelques uns disent Timpossibilite phy-
sique d'un refroidissement temporaire assez considerable pour avoir
couvert 1'Europe d'une calotte de glace. Cependant j'ai observe
mes surfaces polies et stries jnsqifau niveau de la mer sur toute
la plaine qui s'abaisse d'Enniskillen vers Dublin ; la les stries sont
dirigees du N. O au S. E., puis sur la cote occidentale d'Ecosse ou
je les ai meme vu plonger sous la mer, elles vont du N. E. au S. O.
dans certaines vallees et du S. E. au N. O. dans d'autres ; sur la
cote orientale d'Ecosse elles vont de TOuest a 1'Est le plus souvent.
Dans 1'interieur j'en ai vu qui etaient dirigees du Nord au Sud, et
ailleurs d'autres marchant du Sud au Nord. Notez bien que par-
tout la direction des stries et des moraines indique une marche cen-
trifuge, et nulle part un refoulement allant des cotes de la mer a
1'interieur des terres. Impossible des lors de songer a des courants.
Si Ton pouvait penser a un rehaussement du sol, les lacs et les routes
paralleles s'y opposeraient, et pour cela d'ailleurs il faudrait un sou-
levement simultane des montagnes partout ou le phenomene a ete
observe, ce que la geologic dement.

Les observations paleontologiques de Mr. James Smith de Lar-
denhill ne contribueront pas peu a etablir ma theorie. II vient de
decouvrir une faune arctigne, sur les bords de la Clyde, dans les
limons superposes aux detritus des glaciers, a 40, 50, 80 pieds au-
dessus du niveau de la mer. Les especes sont identiques avec celles
qui vivent maintenant au detroit de Behring, et different complete-
ment de celles qui vivent sur les cotes d'Ecosse.

Les observations d^erschel sur les etoiles variables et perio-
diques pouront peut-etre rendre un jour compte de ce refroidisse-
ment.

Je suis desole d'etre oblige de m'occuper maintenant de Poissons
fossiles et de devoir laisser vieillir toutes les observations que j'ai
faites sur ce sujet, tant pendant ma course dans les Alpes au mois
d'Aout que dans mon voyage en Angleterre, mais je ne cederai pas
a la tentation et les " Poissons fossiles " s'acheveront avant que je

172 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vn.

retourne aux glaciers, sauf une apparition que je compte y faire au
plus fort de Thiver pour verifier quelques signaux. Un heureux
evenement m'a un pen remonte du decouragement sous Pinfluence
duquel je vous ecrivis de Glasgow. J'ai vendu les dessins origi-
naux de mes Poissons Fossiles,1 en sorte que j 'aurai quelques mois
exempts dlnquietudes.

/•

J'espere que vous avez regu mes " Etudes sur les Glaciers " ; ne
les jugez pas trop severement comme livre ; je suis trop peu au
courant de ce qui s'est fait en physique pour avoir pu tenir compte
de tout ce que Ton sait et eviter les redites ; mais du moins j *ai
observe avec tout le soin dont j'etais capable et j'ai la conscience
d'avoir eloignee toute idee systematique dans Texposition des faits
pour etre plus libre de me donner carriere dans le dernier chapitre.
Vous me rendriez un grand service en m'ecrivant bien franchement
ce que vous en pensez quant au fond ; j'ai pris Thabitude de profiter
des critiques et quand elles viennent d\m ami comme vous, ce sont
de veritables bienfaits.

Je vous adresserai par la premiere occasion les Comptes Rendus
des seances de la Societe Geologique de Londres, que Buckland m'a
remis pour vous et ou vous trouverez quelques autres detailes sur la
question des glaciers.

/

II parait qu'Elie de Beaumont veut s'obstiner a nier meme les
faits les plus evidents. Cest ainsi qu'il nvaffirmait Tautre jour a
Paris que les roches polies et striees qui se trouvent sons les glaciers
memes et dont la direction coincide avec le mouvement actuel des
glaciers avaient deja la meme apparence avant la formation des
glaciers. Des masses dim pareil poids ont done pu se mouvoir
pendant des milliers d'annees sur un calcaire aussi mou que celui
de la vallee de Rosenlaui sans deranger un atome de matiere! ! Puis
c'est le courant de 1'Ober Hassli qui en bondissant de Meyringen
a creuse le lac de Brienz et d'un second coup celui de Thun!! Ou
done naissaient tons ces courants alpins pour se verser a la fois au
Sud, a TEst et au Nord avec une velocite suffisante pour lancer sur
le Jura des blocs de 60,000 pieds cubes! M. de Beaumont pretend

1 Lord Francis Egerton, a relative of Sir Philip Egerton, made the pur-
chase and generously presented them to the British Museum.

1839-40.] LETTER TO HUMBOLDT. 173

que ce sont des debacles de glaciers ; mais alors ce devraient etre
des glaciers plus considerables que maintenant et il devait y avoir
des glaciers partout ou le phenomena des blocs erratiques se pre-
sente avec les memes caracteres qu'en Suisse. Au lieu de refuter
ma theorie ; celle de M. de Beaumont la suppose comme antece-
dent, c'est-a-dire qu'elle n'embrasse qu'une petite partie du phe-
nomene, celle du retrait successif des glaciers.

Peu s'en est fallu que Murchison ne nVait devance dans la de-
couverte des glaciers en Ecosse. Dans son systeme Silurien il
suppose qu'il a du exister de grandes etendues de glaces qui auraient
charrie les graviers et les blocs soit-disant diluviens, mais il n'a pas
songe a en chercher les traces. Et chose curieuse, durant nos dis-
cussions personne ne s'est oppose plus obstinement que lui a Texis-
tence des glaciers, qu'il a cependant fini par admettre aussi.1

Au moment ou j'ai quitte Londres, Buckland partait pour le pays
de Galles ou je n'ai pu aller et ou il trouvera certainement des choses
curieuses. Mais j'oublie que 1'hiver approche et que deja vous devez
avoir a Berlin plus de glaces que vous n'en voulez sans celles dont
je viens de vous charger a profusion. Je n'ose rien vous dire pour
M. de Buch quoique je 1'aime toujours de tout mon coeur, on nfa dit
qu'a Erlangen (Societe Allemande des naturalistes) il s'etait fache
tout rouge centre moi parce que je fais les glaciers assez grands
pour fournir de 1'eau necessaire a ses courants.

Adieu, mon bien cher ami, ecrivez moi bientot quelques lignes,
vos lettres sont toujours pour moi des tresors, car elles me donnent

t

1 It seems that Murchison, a short time afterward, again changed his
views, and returned to the floating iceberg and mud current theory; for in
his " Geology of Russia," 1845, ne rejected "the glacier theory," explain-
ing the Scandinavian drift and erratic blocks in Russia by trainees under
the sea, made by " moistened masses of drift, under powerful causes of
translation " ; and in his address at the anniversary meeting of the Geo-
logical Society of London, 1842, he says: "The existence of glaciers in
Scotland and England is not, at all events, established to the satisfaction
of what I believe to be by far the greater number of British geologists."
It was not until more than twenty years after Agassiz's visit of 1840, that
at last, in 1862, Murchison wrote him that he was wrong in opposing as
he did the glacial period. He took time to consider!

174 LOUIS AGASSIZ, [CHAP. vn.

ce courage et ce contentement d'esprit sans lesquels on ne fait rien
de bon. Ce qui me fait surtout croire que j'ai bien vu en Ecosse,
c'est que c'est a vous que je rendais compte mentalement de mes
observations.

Votre tout devoue pour la vie,

Louis AGASSIZ.

CHAPTER VIII.

1841-1842.

VISIT DURING THE WINTER TO THE AAR GLACIER — LETTERS to JULES
THURMANN AND TO EUGENIO SISMONDA — "MONOGRAPHIE D'ECHINO-
DERMES VIVANTS ET FOSSILES " - -LETTER TO DESHAYES — ANOTHER
LETTER TO THURMANN — VISIT OF JAMES D. FORBES AT THE "HOTEL
DES NEUCH^TELOIS " — ASCENT OF THE JUNGFRAU — OTHER VISITORS
AT THE " HOTEL DES NEUCHATELOIS"-- FORBES AT NEUCHATEL AND
LA CHAUX-DE-FONDS — INAUGURATION OF THE ACADEMY OF NEU-
CHATEL, i8TH OF NOVEMBER, 1841 -- AGASSIZ'S LETTER TO THE REC-
TOR OF THE ACADEMY — His APPOINTMENT AS RECTOR FOR THE
YEAR 1842-1843 — CONTROVERSY WITH JAMES D. FORBES ON THE
LAMINATED STRUCTURE OF GLACIERS — A NEW CABIN TO REPLACE
THE " HOTEL DES NEUCH^TELOIS " — STAY AT THE AAR GLACIER FROM
THE BEGINNING OF JULY, 1842, TO THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER —
DISCOVERIES OF JOHN TYNDALL — DISPUTE WITH KARL SCHIMPER —
DANIEL DOLLFUS-AUSSET.

THE winter of 1841 was so rainy at Neuchatel, and
in consequence so much fresh snow fell on the Ober-
land Alps, that Agassiz was obliged to postpone his
proposed visit to the " Hotel des Neuchatelois ' until
the 8th of March. On that day he left Neuchatel with
his secretary, reaching the Grimsel three days later,
without very great difficulty. An hour before their
arrival, the guardian of the hospice was advised by the
movements of his dog, a fine and very large Newfound-
land, that some one was approaching. As is often the
case in the Alps and mountainous country, the temper-

'75

176 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

ature was higher at the Grimsel than at Interlaken.
The amount of snow was enormous ; the hospice was
buried in it; and when the travellers, after a rather
exhausting walk, reached the place where the " Hotel
des Neuchatelois " should have been, they were greatly
surprised to see nothing of it but a sort of hump on the
crest of snow which covered the moraine. However,
after forcing their way around this hump, they found
on one side a few feet of the big boulder. It was
impossible to enter it without clearing away an enor-
mous mass of snow ; so Agassiz contented himself with
lying down on the snow, and enjoying the marvellous
spectacle around him. The weather was perfect ; the
air so clear that every topographical feature of the
Finsteraarhorn and other peaks was seen with a dis-
tinctness unknown during the summer season. The
travellers went as far as the Abschwung, then returned
to the place of the " Hotel des Neuchatelois," where
they saw the tops of two very high stakes placed there
in the preceding August in holes bored into the ice.
Agassiz remained behind with one guide to make sev-
eral observations with a thermometrograph, and finally
returned to the Grimsel, after a journey of twelve hours,
from 4 o'clock A.M. to 4 o'clock P.M., somewhat tired,
but very happy in his success ; for he was certainly
the first visitor to the Aar Glacier in the winter season.
From the Grimsel Agassiz crossed by Meyringen to
Rosenlaui, where he visited the glacier to examine the
polishing of the rocks in contact with the ice, and also
to determine the quantity of water arising from the
glacier. And in regard to the latter point, like de Saus-

1841-42-] LETTER TO THURMANN. 177

sure at the glacier des Bois at Chamounix, he concluded
that during the winter the glacier yielded only spring
water. A week after leaving Neuchatel they returned
home rather sunburned by their exposure to the intense
sunlight on the snow-field they had travelled over.

We have seen in the last letter to Humboldt that
Agassiz gathered a large collection of fossil echino-
derms during his stay in England in 1840. He had
done the same in passing through Paris, and was very
diligent in getting specimens from every geologist liv-
ing among the Jura Mountains, -- as Thurmann of
Porrentruy, d'Udressier and Parandier of Besangon,
and Merian of Bale. The following letter to Jules
Thurmann gives some rather curious details : -

LE 7, 1840 or 1841 ? (date not distinct).
Monsieur, — Voici la premiere livraison de mes Echinodermes,

/

j'y joins la premiere des Etudes critiques sur les Mollusques, quoique
le texte ne soit pas encore pret, dans Pespoir que vous aurez peut-
etre a me communiquer quelques Trigonies ou Myes que je n'ai pas
et que je pourrais encore aj outer a mes planches. Le prix des
Echinodermes est de 10 francs, je reclamerai celui des Mollusques
en vous envoyant le texte.

Je viens de faire demander a M. Nicolet les deux premieres
livraisons de Sowerby, la 3ieme est tres avance'e ; le prix de la livraison
coioriee est de 10 francs. M. Nicolet vous enverra lui-meme par
occasions les livraisons.

Je pense que vous apprendrez avec plaisir que Gressly a repris son
activite d'autrefois ; j'ai recu depuis pen plusieurs bonnes lettres de
lui. Excusez-moi de tant tarder de vous envoyer mes moules ; j'ai
encore eu des chagrins de famille cet hiver qui m'ont fait passer
plusieurs semaines en Allemagne et singulierement derange mes
affaires ; des que je le pourrai je reparerai mes torts.

Votre tres devoue serviteur,

AGASSIZ.

N

1 78 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vin.

The following is another letter written about the same
time : -

MONSIEUR EUGENE SISMONDA,

assistant au Musee royal de Mineral ogie, Turin.

Monsieur et tres honor e collegue,--'De retour cTAngleterre apres
une absence de pres de quatre mois j'ai le plaisir de recevoir votre
aimable lettre. Je suis charme d'entrer en relation directe avec vous,
qui par vos beaux travaux geologiques avez si puissament contribue
a 1'avancement de la science. II y aura tout profit pour moi a sou-
tenir une correspondance suivie avec vous. J'accepte avec plaisir
votre proposition d^change ; je puis vous remettre au moms 600
moules d'Echinides fossiles accompagnes dim catalogue syste-
matique et d\me caracteristique des genres nouveaux que j'ai etablis.
Je recevrai volontiers en echange des coquilles, des Zoophites et des
Echinides de tous vos terrains d'ltalie, meme les especes les plus
communes. Je desire beaucoup obtenir des series d'exemplaires de
differents ages.

Dans des echanges de ce genre j'ai generalement demande un
fossile contre un moule a raison des frais considerables que leur
execution m'a occasionne, sans compter jamais rigoureusement,
comme cela convient entre gens qui doivent avoir en vue les interets
de la science plutot que la depense qui en resulte pour eux. Outre
ces moules d'oursins fen possede beaucoup de Mollusques, de
Poissons, de Mamiferes et 5 a 600 especes de Mollusques des
terrains secondaires en nature, dont je puis disposer pour echanges.
Cest assez vous dire que fai d'amples materiaux pour des envois
considerables et j'attends seulement pour vous expedier une pre-
miere caisse qui pent etre prete dans trois jours, que vous vouliez bien
me dire quel nombre d'exemplaires vous avez de disponible, ou plu-
tot quelle etendue vous desirez que je donne a mon premier envoi.

Je suis tres flatte de la dedicace que vous me faites d'un de vos
Echinides et je me rejouis a 1'avance d'apprendre a le connaitre.
Agreez, Monsieur, Tassurance de ma consideration, tres dis-

tinguee.

Ls. AGASSIZ.
NEUCH^TEL EN SUISSE,

le 24 decembre, 1840.

1841-42.] MONOGRAPHIE DBS ECHINODERMES. 179

We have in these two letters a glimpse of Agassiz's
method of collecting specimens, making exchanges, and
disposing of his publications.

The success of the " Fossiles du terrain cretace du
Jura Neuchatelois," of the " Prodrome d'une Mono-
graphic des Echinodermes," and of " Echinodermes fos-
siles de la Suisse," all published at the expense of the
Societe des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchatel and of
the Societe Helvetique des Sciences Naturelles, led
Agassiz to undertake, at his own expense, the publica-

r

tion of " Monographies d' Echinodermes vivants et fos-
siles," with many beautifully executed plates. It was
an unfortunate undertaking, very expensive on account
of the great number of plates, and without proper pat-
ronage from naturalists to make it profitable. Only four
monographs or " livraisons " were issued between 1838
and 1842. The first, on "Salenies," 1838, shows good
work, and is very creditable in all respects, and worthy
of the name which signs it ; the second, on " Scutelles '
(July, 1841), although containing many new facts and
an interesting history of the progress of the natural
history of the echinoderms, besides twenty-seven most
exact and beautiful plates, did not attract much at-
tention ; while the third " livraison," containing the
"Galerites" and " Dysaster " (1842), is by E. Desor.
Agassiz helped in the revision of the proof-sheets ;
but, on the whole, the work shows a noticeable inferi-
ority to all the previous publications on the echino-
derms.

The fourth "livraison' (1842), the manuscript of
which was written in German and translated into

i8o LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vin.

French, treats the anatomy of the genus Echinus, and is
by Professor G. Valentin of Berne ; and its nine plates,
several of them double, are remarkably well drawn by
Dickmann. After the issue of the fourth "livraison," the
publication was stopped and never resumed. This fine
work, forming a large 4to volume, is dedicated to " M.
Valenciennes, Professeur de Zoologie au Jardin des
Plantes et a M. Paul Deshayes, Professeur de Conchyli-
ologie a Paris." In this way Agassiz tried to conciliate
two naturalists, who had nothing in common except a
disagreement in regard to an appointment obtained by
pure favour for Valenciennes, against all justice and the
right claim of Deshayes. For, through the influence of
Humboldt and the help of Agassiz, Valenciennes was
elected professor of conchology and zoophytology at
the Jardin des Plantes, - - a most unfortunate choice, for
he knew next to nothing of these two difficult branches
of invertebrate zoology, having only a knowledge of liv-
ing fishes, obtained as an assistant of George Cuvier ;
while Deshayes, on the other hand, was regarded by
every naturalist, not only in France, but also in other
countries, as the ablest conchologist of his time.1 Agas-
siz, hoping to mend matters and to help in healing the
wound inflicted on Deshayes, conceived the strange
notion of uniting in a dedication the two names of
Valenciennes and Deshayes, placing Valenciennes
before Deshayes. He very well knew that he was

1 Thirty years later, in 1869, Deshayes was at last appointed Professor
of Conchology at the Jardin des Plantes, at the ripe old age of seventy-
two years, an act of justice due to M. V. Duruy, then Secretary of Public
Instruction.

1841-42.] LETTER TO DES HAYES. 181

treading on dangerous ground, as the following letter

to M. Deshayes shows : -

NEUCH&TEL, le 27 fevrier, 1839.

Monsieur, — Desirant vous donner un temoignage public de ma
reconnaissance pour les communications importantes que vous
m'avez faites sur les oursins fossiles, j1ai pris la liberte de vous
dedier conjointment a M. Valenciennes a qui je dois egalement
des communications dime haute valeur, Touvrage sur cette classe
d'animaux, dont je viens de publier la premiere livraison.

J'espere, Monsieur, que vous daignerez accepter cette marque de
mon estime et de mon amitie. La science vous doit de si importants
travaux, trop peu recompenses, dans Tatmosphere ou vous vivez,
pour que je ne puisse pas esperer trouver de la sympathie chez un
homme qui poursuit ces recherches avec un tel desinteressement.
La deuxieme livraison, qui est tres avancee, contiendra les Scutelles.
Je profiterai de toutes les occasions que j:aurai pour Paris pour vous
retourner vos exemplaires au fur et a mesure qu'ils seront dessines,
j'y joindrai les monies des especes que vous n?avez pas et si vous le
desirez de celles des votres que j'ai pu faire mouler sans risque de
les endommager. Us pourraient vous servir a faire des echanges.
Veuillez me dire si vous desirez que je vous en fasse couler des
epreuves,

Je vous adresse egalement la premiere livraison encore inachevee
d\m ouvrage que je prepare depuis longtemps sur les Mollusques
fossiles de la Suisse principalement, dans lequel je me propose de
traiter aussi differentes questions generales de Conchyliologie et sur-
tout celle de la delimitation des genres et de Tanalogie des especes
fossiles avec les especes vivants. Quoiqu'envisageant, comme vous
le savez ces questions un peu differemment de vous, la base sur
laquelle j'ai travaille n'en est pas moins la meme et c'est la un point
de ralliement infaillible Tetude consciencieuse et comparative des
faits. Qu'apres cela il me paraisse plus utile de grouper les especes
d'apres leurs caracteres plus restreints en petites groupes, que de les
reunir d'apres des caracteres plus generaux en grands genres, c'est
une question a debattre ulterieurement et le resultat auquel on
s'arretera ne changera en rien la valeur des observations speciales.

1 82 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

La definition et la circonscription des especes touche deja de plus pres
a Timportance actuelle que Ton attache a ce genre de travail. II me
parait a cet egard que la facilite de distinguer telle ou telle serie de
formes diverses ne peut pas etre un motif absolu pour les reunir ou
les separer et qu'il importe de rassembler les materiaux les plus com-
plets sur la genealogie de chaque type avant de pouvoir se prononcer
d'une maniere invariable. C'est ainsi que la possibilite de ratta-
cher a une souche primitive les generations actuelles souvent diverses
de telle ou telle espece fait que nous ne les separons pas comme autant
d'especes distinctes, bien que souvent les individus que nous reunis-
sons ainsi different d'avantage entre eux que ceux d'autres types que
nous separons a cause de la fixite de leurs caracteres. Ces principes
de la zoologie actuelle me paraissent devoir influer ulterieurement
sur notre maniere d'envisager Tanalogie des especes fossiles avec
les vivantes. Je crois par exemple que s'il pouvait etre demontre
geologiquement que certaines especes fossiles que nous envisageons
comme identiques avec les vivantes, out cesse d'exister dans des
circonstances telles qu'il serait impossible, qu'elles aient pu se repro-
duire par voie de generation dans Tepoque suivante, il faudrait alors
envisager ces analogues d'une autre epoque comme des especes par-
ticulieres procreez dans d1autres temps alors meme que leur ressem-
blance exterieure rendrait leur distinction tres difficile. II me
semble qu1en pareil cas le fait que les extremes des varietes d'un
type fossile se lient aussi etroitement aux extremes dim type
vivant que leurs varietes entr'elles n'emporte pas la necessite de
la reunion des deux types en une seule espece. Quoique cette
maniere de voir ne s'accorde pas en tous points avec certains prin-
cipes que vous avez etablis sur la determination des especes, ils ne
me paraissent infirmer en aucune fa9on Pimportance des faits innom-
brables que vous avez receuillis sur Tanalogie des especes fossiles
avec les vivantes, puisque vous avez toujours signale les particu-
larites qui distinguent toutes les varietes que vous avez reunies
dans le meme type specifique. Je pense des lors que vous ne re-
pugnerez pas a faire part vous meme occasion ellement de ces obser-
vations a la Societe Geologique (de France).

f

La premiere livraison de mes " Etudes critiques " paraitra dans
le courant de 1'et^. En parcourant ce que j'ai pu vous en envoyer

1841-42.] LETTER TO DESHAYES. 183

des aujourd'hui, vous remarquerez sans doute que j'ai pris toutes les
precautions possibles pour eviter de multiplier les especes sans rai-
son ; ainsi pour les Trigonies j ai represente une serie de tous les
ages de la Trigonia navis (du Lias Superieur de Gundershofen,
Haut Rhin, recueillis par Gressly) pour prouver que quelques
especes nouvelles que j'ai etablies n'en sont pas les jeunes. Quant
a la famille des Myes elle a eu des representants bien plus nom-
breux et plus varies dans les terrains jurassiques, qu'a des epoques
plus recentes, et la diversite des types que j'ai etudies m'a engage
a grouper des especes (qui cadraient fort mal dans les genres
admis maintenant) dans plusieurs genres nouveaux dont je donnerai
tres en detail les caracteres distinctifs en les comparant soit entr'eux,
soit avec des genres qui ont des representants maintenant.

Si votre Conchyliologie continue a paraitre regulierement j'at-
tendrai que vous ayez public les Myes pour emettre ma Monographie.
Je suis enchante des deux livraisons qui ont deja paru.

Je vous adresse enfin les premieres planches d\m Memoire * que
je vais inserer pour paraitre incessamment dans le second volume des
Memoires de la Societe d'Histoire Naturelle de Neuchatel. Je
pense que cette publication sera utile pour la determination des
moules fossiles. Si vous desirez les avoir en platre, je vous les
enverrai, mais comme ils appartiennent a notre Musee, vous nVobli-
gerez de m^nvoyer en echange des fossiles ou des coquilles
vivantes. Dans ce cas je vous indiquerai ce qui nous manque
surtout.

Agreez, Monsieur, Tassurance de mon parfait devouement,

Ls. AGASSIZ.

This is 'one of the most important scientific letters
written by Agassiz, showing the direction of his mind
and his preconceived ideas on a subject which he advo-
cated, more or less, during his whole life, in regard to
species and genera, and also the erroneous notion of
the confinement of species to each group of formations,

1 " Memoire sur les Moules de Mollusques vivans et fossiles, premiere
partie; Moule d'Acephales vivants." 4to, 1839.

1 84 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

against the plain facts brought forward by Deshayes,
demonstrating the passage of species from one group
to another, illustrated so vividly in the great Tertiary
epoch of the Paris basin. In palaeontology Agassiz was
an absolutist until the last two years of his life, when
he abandoned the rigidity of his principles in his cele-
brated prophetic letter to Benjamin Pierce on the sup-
posed existence of Ammonites, Trilobites, and other
lost forms of marine animals at great depths. These
two errors are the most remarkable examples of the
excess of his imagination.

Another scientific letter, written at the same time to
Jules Thurmann, is too good not to be given in full.

NEUCHATEL, 12 fevrier, 1842.
MONSIEUR JULES THURMANN
a Porrentmy.

Monsieur, — Gressly m'a fait le plaisir de me communiquer la
lettre que vous lui avez adressee tout recemment. Je me rejouis
infiniment d'apprendre que vous vous etes remis avec ardeur a la
Geologic, et que vous etudiez maintenant serieusement les fossiles.
Je vous remercie infiniment pour ma part des detaiies circonstancies
dans lesquels vous etes entre sur les oursins, et rien ne me serait
plus utile et agreable que de recevoir vos observations sur les autres
parties de mon travail. Soyez persuade, Monsieur, que ^apprends
bien davantage des remarques de ce genre, que les compliments
d"une banalite affligeante, que les auteurs s'adressent si souvent. Je
ne puis meme vous prouver Pimportance que j'y attache, qu:en re-
pondant a vos remarques.

Une chose m'a frappe, c'est que mes coupes generiques vous
aient satisfaits. A ce sujet, je suis de la part des Zoologistes en
bute a des reproches continuels ; on me repete sans cesse que je les
multiplie a plaisir. Quant a moi j'ai la conviction que Ton ne par-
vient bien a etudier les especes, qu'en les groupant dans des genres

1841-42-] LETTER TO THURMANN. 185

aussi restraint que possible ; sauf, peut-etre a en reunir plus tard
plusieurs sous un meme chef, si Ton decouvre des types interme-
diaires.

Quant aux especes je partage pleinement les principes que vous
enoncez, je les professe hautement ; je dirai meme que ce sont ces
principes qui me dirigent dans mes etudes ; mais je differe surtout
de vous dans leur application. Ay ant egard a ce qui a eu lieu dans
les autres branches de la science, lorsqirelles etaient dans leur en-
fance, je cherche a reunir le plus de materiaux possible, et apres
avoir compare exactement, je distingue et distingue, faisant valoir
les moindre differences que j'apercois, etablissant des especes
souvent d'apres un seul exemplaire imparfait, sauf a reunir, quand
on a rassemble des materiaux suffisants pour le faire a bon escient ;
c'est la marche que la science a suivie dans toute son histoire. Ce
travail de critique a ses inconvenients, je le sais ; il oblige de
revenir sur les memes materiaux a plusieurs reprises ; mais il a ses
grands avantages, c'est de forcer a un examen scrupuleux, tous ceux
qui reunissent des materiaux nombreux sur une seule espece. II
forcera les collecteurs a ne pas disseminer a 1'infini leurs exemplaires
et a collecter des series et non pas des echant^llons. Vous verrez
que toutes les fois qu'il m1a ete possible d'etudier des series d'exem-
plaires, j'en ai analyse toutes les formes, distingue des varietes
d'ages, de station, etc. Vous reconnoissez vous-meme, que nos
collections sont trop pauvres pour nous permettre de faire cela, pour
un grand nombre d'especes des a present. Le terme desirable
n'est done pas encore a notre portee, et voila pourquoi je precede si
dirferemment de la plupart de mes collegues dans 1'application des
principes incontestables. Pour les memes' raisons j'ai frequemment
etabli des genres dont je n'ai longtemps connu qu'une seule espece.

Maintenant vous possedez des series d'especes dont je n'ai vu
jusqu'ici que des exemplaires isoles ; c'est une bonne trouvaille et
si vous voulez bien me les communiquer au complet, c'est-a-dire la
masse des bons exemplaires je serai le premier a supprimer celles
de mes especes qui forment double emploi. Mais avouez, qu'il etait
plus profitable a la science, que c'etait du moins fixer les yeux ou
Tattention d'une maniere bien plus pressante sur ces oursins, en
etablissant le genre Pedina et en y distinguant plusieurs espaces

1 86 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

qu'en les reunissant sous un seul nom dans le genre Echinus. Sup-
posons un instant, qu'au lieu de devoir les reunir, en partie du
moins, comme cela me parait probable, d'apres ce que vous ecrivez
a Gressly, les ayant d'abord reunis, quelqu'un cut trouve que Ton
confondait plusieurs especes sous le meme nom. La vraie difficulte
qui se serait alors presentee cut ete de savoir a laquelle, il faut con-
server le nom primitif ; puis si cette espece est etablie depuis long-
temps, s 'assurer laquelle des deux est mentionnee dans les differents
auteurs ; puis effacer toutes les citations de localites deja mention-
nees, parce qu'on ne sait plus, quelle est celle qui provient de 1'endroit
A. ou de 1'endroit B., etc. C'est-a-dire que c'est a la crainte d^etablir
trop (fespdces, sur des materiaux incomplets, qu'il faut attribuer tout
cet effroyable dedale de la synonymie, et des fausses citations de
gisements, qu'on ne peut eviter qu'en s'abstenant completement, ce
qui ne fait faire aucun progres, ou en distinguant et distinguant
toujours jusqu'a ce qu'on puisse reunir a coup sur.

N'en n'a t'il pas ete ainsi de tons nos oiseaux aquatiques, dont
les jeunes et les vieux ont passes pour des especes distinctes, meme
aux yeux de Linnee? C'est cette maniere d'agir qui m'a conduit a
etablir bien des especes, qu'il faudra peut-etre supprimer un jour.
J'ajouterai encore que c'est faute de posseder moi-meme une grande
partie des objets que je decris, que je suis force de faire faire les
planches, pendant que ces objets sont a ma disposition et souvent
de les numeroter d'A. B. C. et de faire pire encore. Aussi si nous
nous voyons plus souvent, m'entendriez vous souvent repeter qu'il
ne faudrait jamais publier que la seconde edition de ses oeuvres et
toujours canceller la premiere apres en avoir fait part a ses amis
seulement. Nous ne marcherons avec une entiere assurance en
paleontologie, que quand on possedera autant d'editions d'un genre
complet du Regne Animal, qu'il y a d'editions de " Cornelius
Nepos" ou de la grammaire latine de Broder, ou de tel dictionnaire
de poche.

Gressly, Desor et moi nous travaillons aussi assiduement que
possible a la paleontologie ; ces Messieurs vous ecrivent chacun de
leur cote ; j'ai voulu aussi vous donner un signe de vie, et j'espere
que nous n'en resterons pas la. Jent [1'e'diteur d'Agassiz a Soleure]
ne*peut pas vous avoir adresse les planches de Myes, puisqu'il ne

1841-42.] JAMES D. FORBES. 187

les a pas encore. Ce sera Gressly on moi qui vous les auront fait
parvenir, afin cTapprendre de vous, si vous aviez quelque chose de
neuf dans ces genres. Vous irfobligerez infiniment en en faisant
une petite caisse et en me Tadressant avec vos oursins. Nous
determinerons cela en commim, et Gressly ou Desor vous renverra
prochainement le tout.

Agreez, Monsieur, mes salutations tres empressees.

Ls. AGASSIZ.

Seldom has Agassiz written such an important scien-
tific letter, showing as it does his method of determining
species and establishing new genera. In it he anticipates
the criticism which has been made since, that he created
too many species ; for instance, of fossil fishes from the
flysck1 of Claris, some of which were distorted by strong
lateral pressure. A larger number of specimens than
were then at his disposal have since proved his mistake.

At the meeting of the British Association at Glasgow
during September, 1840, James D. Forbes, professor of
natural philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, took
such an interest in all the communications made by
Agassiz on the glacial question and the glaciers, that
Agassiz very politely tendered him an invitation to visit
him the next summer at his " Hotel des Neuchatelois."

On the 8th of August, 1841, Agassiz, with his assist-
ants, again occupied their old and rather rough quarters
on the Aar glacier ; and there Forbes, accompanied by
a Scotch friend, Mr. Heath, was received as a 'welcome
guest. Agassiz was delighted to have a physician so
celebrated as Forbes to examine his observations. He
showed him everything - - all the experiments they were

1 A lithologic term used in German Switzerland to designate a series of
strata belonging to the Tertiary Eocene.

1 88 LOUTS AGASSfZ. [CHAP. vm.

making in regard to temperature, progress of the mo-
raine, etc., often asking his opinion and advice. But
Forbes was as silent as a sphinx ; it was impossible
to draw from him a single remark or hint. This
impenetrability in a savant was new to Agassiz, who,
until then, had more or less easily charmed every scien-
tific man with whom he had come in contact. But
this time he had found one who would not yield to
his ingenuousness. During the three weeks spent by
Forbes at the " Hotel des Neuchatelois," he observed
everything around him, but said absolutely nothing,
even as regards his impressions. Agassiz's desire to
study the structure of glaciers led him to bore in the
glacier a hole 140 feet deep ; and he was also lowered,
supported simply by a rope, to a depth of 120 feet,
into an old "moulin' or well, to see how far through
the glaciers the laminated structure extended. This
veined structure was the only point referred to by
Forbes during his stay at the " Hotel des Neuchate-
lois." It had been observed previously by David
Brewster, Hugi, Bishop Rendu, Guyot, and Agassiz ;
but Forbes afterward claimed that it was he who first
called Agassiz's " attention to the fact that the ice of
glaciers is composed of vertical laminae, constituting a
true ribboned structure,"1 and raised a controversy, of
which we shall speak farther on.

Several peaks were ascended by Agassiz during
Forbes's stay, among them the summit of the Ewig-
schneehorn ; with a visit to the Gauli glacier, a walk
over the " mer de glace de Viesch," and, finally, an

1 "Edinburgh Philosophical Journal," January, 1842.

1841-42-] ASCENT OF THE JUNGFRAU. 189

ascent of the Jungfrau. Until then no tourist had suc-
ceeded in reaching the top of the Jungfrau. During
the last two years Agassiz had often discussed with his
favourite guide, Jacob Leuthold, the means of reaching
that virgin peak, the great landmark of the Bernese
Oberland.1 On the 2/th of August, Agassiz with
Forbes, Heath, Desor, and two others, and six guides,
left the Grimsel at four o'clock in the morning, arriving
at six o'clock P.M. at the Meril Chalets, near the lake,
where they were well received by the herders, who were
rather astonished at the arrival of such a large party.

Next morning, at five o'clock, they left Meril, aiming
for the Aletsch glacier ; after a fatiguing walk on rather
slippery ground, among " crevasses ' and over snow
fields, the party reached the base of the last slope at
three o'clock P.M. Four of the party had been forced
by fatigue or giddiness to remain behind ; but the other
eight- -one after another in turn- -gained the summit,
which is only two feet long by a foot and a half broad.
Agassiz was the first, then Desor, Forbes behind, and a
French tourist, M. Duchatelier of Nantes, fourth. At
four o'clock the descent began ; and they arrived all safe
at half-past eleven P.M. at the Meril Chalets. Three
days later Agassiz was again at the " Hotel des Neucha-
telois," where he found his artist-friend, Burkhardt,
and his assistant, Charles Girard, anxiously awaiting his
return.

1 The two brothers, Rudolph and Jerome Meyer of Aarau, in 1811 and
1812, made two ascents of the Jungfrau with success, although the fact is
contested by the mountaineers of the country. At all events, a party of
guides, with J. Baumann as chief, succeeded in reaching the summit on the
8th of September, 1828.

LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

During the five weeks' sojourn of Agassiz and his
friends on the glacier of the Aar, from the 8th of
August to the loth of September, 1841, many visitors
were received besides Forbes. The title of " Hotel des
Neuchatelois ' deceived several tourists, who, hearing
of it at the Grimsel Hospice, came up expecting to find
some establishment like the " Culm Hotel ' on the
Rigi. Even a Scotch lady, Mrs. Covan of Edinburgh,
in returning from an ascent of the Finsteraarhorn,
stopped and was entertained as well as it was possible
by Agassiz. Most of these visitors were obliged to
return to the Grimsel to find lodging, or to be contented
with a corner in the guide's cabin. The hospitality of
the " Hotel des Neuchatelois" was reserved for savants
or personal friends, such as General de Pfuel, the Prus-
sian governor of Neuchatel, Lord Enniskillen of Ireland,
the two de Rougemont of Neuchatel, the geologists,
Studer and Escher von der Linth, the meteorologist and
botanist, Charles Martins, Bravais, Guyot, etc. However,
the solidity of the block forming the roof was begin-
ning to awaken suspicion ; cracks had become alarm-
ingly numerous, and when it rained, the interior of the
hotel was almost a pond, with water running in every
direction. It was only a question of time when the
enormous block would break in pieces, and it was also
feared that a sudden move of the glaciers might hasten
the catastrophe. So every evening before retiring one
of the party used to make the round of the cabin to
see that all was right. Although not in immediate
danger, it was resolved to abandon the " Hotel des
Neuchatelois " and to erect next year a new cabin ; not,

1841-42-] NEUCHATEL ACADEMY. 191

as formerly, on the ' glacier, but on firm ground, and
hence less exposed to dangerous accidents.

Forbes, after his return from the ascent of the Jung-
frau, visited parts of the Valais and Chamounix, and by
the middle of September arrived at Neuchatel. His
reception by Agassiz was most cordial ; and Agassiz's
letter introducing Forbes to his good friend, Celestin
Nicolet, may be quoted as an evidence of his solicitude
to help him in every way.

NEUCH&TEL, le 20 septembre, 1841.

Mon cher ami Nicolet. — Cest M. le Professeur Forbes qui vous
remettra ces lignes et que je vous recommande tout particulierement
en vous priant de lui faire voir ce que vous avez d'interessant a la
Chaux-de-Fonds, en fait de Sciences et dlndustrie. Je suis sure que
vous aurez beaucoup de plaisir a faire la connoissance d'un homme
aussi haut place dans le monde savant que M. Forbes.

Venez bientot causer un pen plus intimement avec nous de tout
ce que nous avons vu dans les Aipes ; plus vite et mieux.

Tout a vous

Ls. AGASSIZ.

Although the Neuchatel Academy was founded in
1838, the public inauguration of the new institution was
delayed until the i8th of November, 1841. Agassiz on
that occasion, wearing the cross of the Red Eagle of
Prussia, delivered an address, " De la Succession et du
developpement des etres organises a la surface du globe
terrestre dans les differents ages de la nature," in
which he says, " Si le cours des astres ne nous presente
aucune variation, si 1'ordre des saisons est immuable, si
la reproduction des especes s'opere toujours de la meme
maniere, il est evident que le cours de ces phenomenes

192 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

est invariablement regie et suit des lois naturelles, inde-
pendantes de 1'influence creatrice qui les a etablies."

Objections were raised by the rector of the academy
and some of the professors ; and after discussion, it was
resolved that two hundred separate copies of Agassiz's
address should be printed for his own use, and four
hundred copies of the three speeches delivered at the
inauguration, as part of the programme and annual
report of the academy. The pietist party was very
strong then in Neuchatel, and several sentences in
Agassiz's address were considered as anti-orthodox and
antagonistic to the prevailing creed of the Neuchatel
ministers. The following letter from Agassiz to the rec-
tor shows the intensity of the commotion produced : —

NEUCHATEL, 14 decembre, 1841.

Mon cher collegue [le recteur Petavel]. --Considerez, je vous
prie, que mon discours s'adresse au public de 1 'Academic et que peu
m'importe le jugement de ceux qui sont incompetents ou incapables.
Que serait notre Academic si elle devait se mettre a la hauteur de
tous ceux qui en veulent ? Vous auriez pu voir vendredi que je fais
de vos reclamations une affaire de principes et que je suis parfaite-
ment decide a ne pas faire la moindre concession, parce que j'y
verrais une atteinte fatale a la liberte d'enseignement et parce que
je tiens a ce que notre Academic aie de la tenue et qu'un de ses
membres ne dise pas blanc aujourd'hui et noir demain. Ne con-
fondez pas votre position avec la mienne ; vous deviez parler au
nom du corps academique et c'est ce qui nous donnait a tous le
droit d'exiger que vous parleriez dans tel ou tel sens, dans celui de
la majority, sauf a vous de donner votre demission comme Recteur,
s'il ne vous convenait pas d'etre 1'organe de notre pensee : Vous ne
faites pas assez cette distinction. J'ai parle pour moi et dans
rinteret de notre Academic ; je ne souflfrirais pas la moindre critique
de ce que j'ai fait et dit ; je vous le repete sans la moindre ani-

1841-42.] LETTER TO THE RECTOR. 193

mosite ; je dirai meme que je le fais comme si j'etais tout a fait
etranger a la discussion et uniquement parce que vous me demandez
comme Recteur : quel bien je pense que cela fera a PAcademie, et
parce que me faisant le defenseur de cette independance de Pesprit,
sans laquelle rien ne grand ne peut prosperer, je dois vous rappeler
que le Recteur est tenu de rester etranger a tout cela. S'il en etait
autrement, ce seraient des antecedents qui donneraient acces au
cceur meme de PAcademie a des influences etrangeres, que je ferai
toujours tons mes efforts d'en bannir et auxquelles il faut fermer la
bouche des le commencement pour qifelles ne reiterent pas leurs
tentatives. Je vous Pai dit dans mon discours et je vous le repete
ici : il est peu de grandes verites qui n:aient ete traitees de chimeres
et de blasphemes, avant qu'elles fussent demontrees. Heureuse-
ment que les temps de Galilee n?existent plus ; mais aussi y a-t-il
bien moins de merite qu'alors a ne pas composer avec les preten-

r

tions des Ministres de VEglise, et ce n'est certes pas une couronne

/

de martyr que j'espere conquerir. Je dis "de PEglise," et par la
j'entends les ministres de tons les cultes, qu'ils soient protestants,
catholiques, juifs ou mahometans, qui ne veulent faire de progres en
rien, Notez bien que je ne vous dis pas " de la Religion." N'oubliez
pas que mes doctrines ne peuvent porter d'atteinte qu'a Penseigne-

f

ment des docteurs de 1'Eglise et nullement aux verites de la Religion.

J'en reviens a mon discours. Ennuye de toutes ces discussions,
je le livrerai aujourd'hui a Wolfrath (Pimprimeur) sans notes, tel
que je Pai lu, sans y changer quoique ce soit. Si on ne me laisse pas
tranquille a ce sujet, ce sera ma meilleur defense.

Agreez, mon cher collegue, mes salutations bien empressees ;
croyez que j'estime votre zele pour les convictions que vous pro-
fessez maintenant. Soyez persuade que jamais je ne chercherai cle
discuter sur ces matieres, que je desire avant tout vivre en paix avec
mes convictions et pouvoir poursuivre sans relache mes recherches,
ne reclamant en leur faveur que la meme tolerance que je concede

a tout le monde.

Ls. AGASSIZ.

This is the most decisive letter ever written by
Agassiz. At that time Neuchatel was entirely in the

o

1 94 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

r

hands of the " Ministres de 1'Eglise"; and the Pietists
and even the " Momiers " largely controlled Neuchatel
society. Some of Agassiz's most intimate friends, like
Arnold Guyot, were among the leaders of the Pietists,
and it required considerable moral courage to resist the
anti-liberal pressure exerted by the sect against all lib-
eral, even scientific ideas. This controversy is the best
answer to the attacks of those who have pretended that
Agassiz came under the influence of the Methodists in
America. Agassiz, on the contrary, was most liberal
in religion, and always took care never to confuse
science with religion. All his life he kept free of the
" Ministres de 1'Eglise," both in Europe and in Amer-
ica. To tell the truth, he never liked " ministers," to
whatever sect they might belong. To finish this inci-
dent, Agassiz was appointed rector of the Neuchatel
Academy for the year 1842-1843 ; and in his " Discours
du Nouvel-An," the ist of January, 1843, he said: -

Une institution aussi jeune que notre Academie a surtout besoin
de Tappui (Tun monarque qui veille avec une si constante sollicitude
aux interets de la science. Deja avant son avenement an trone
Frederic-Guillaume IV etait le protecteur le plus zele des sciences
en Prusse, et sous son regne les institutions scientifiques du royaume
brillent d'un nouvel eclat, du surtout a Pempressement avec lequel
le roi a appele dans ses Etats les hommes les plus eminents de 1'Alle-
magne dans le domaine de la philosophic, des sciences, du droit
et des lettres. Tout recemment encore, il a inaugure 1'oeuvre d'une
grande reconciliation religieuse. C'est lui qui a brise de vielles
entraves qui pourraient gener un nouvel elan de Intelligence pour
agrandir les limites d'une libre expression de la pensee, tout en la
contenant dans de sages bornes.1

1 " La premiere Academie de Neuchatel," par Alphonse Petitpierre,
pp. 128-129, Neuchatel, 1889.

1841-42.] CONTROVERSY WITH J. D. FORBES. 195

In his agenda, Agassiz wrote the same day : " Pre-
sente comme Recteur les hommages du corps acade-
mique au Roi. La reponse du President du Conseil
d'Etat me fait supposer que les paroles moderees que
j'ai prononcees ont deplu." After a second thought, and
on the advice of the governor, General de Pfuel, repre-
senting the king of Prussia, the matter was dropped.

The year 1842 began with a difficulty with James
Forbes, ended with one with Karl Schimper, with the
erection of a new and rather too costly establishment
at the glacier of the Aar as an interlude, - -three things
which might have been avoided to the advantage of
Agassiz. On the 26th of February his secretary, who
by this time had become hardly inferior to Agassiz,
wrote a rather sharp and irritating letter to Forbes,
relating to the question of priority in the discovery of
the laminated structure of the glacier. Desor, by incli-
nation and education, was always ready for a controversy
or a discussion on any point scientific, political, or relig-
ious. He had learned enough of law, when a student, to
assimilate the spirit of the advocate. He became a
naturalist by accident, and as a means of supporting
himself. But his proper sphere was politics; and as
soon as he became unexpectedly rich, he devoted almost
all his time to politics; as his biographer says: "He was
persuaded, at the end of his life, that on his shoulders
rested the welfare of the Swiss Confederacy, of the
Neuchatel Canton, and of -the federal Polytechnicum.
He passed all his time in writing polemic articles in
newspapers, compromised himself in petty personal dis-
cussions, and founded a newspaper to advocate and

196 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

maintain his ideas and regain his political position,
promptly lost by his own fault. In the end, his news-
paper was reduced to only one hundred subscribers ; and
the fatigues he incurred to maintain his political views
in a great measure brought on the fatal illness which
carried him off at Nice, the 23d of February, 1882."

The beginning of the controversy with Forbes is
recorded in the following letter from Agassiz, addressed
to Mr. Murray's son in London, who was the editor of
the "Annals and Magazine of Natural History."

NEUCHA.TEL, 13 fevrier, 1842.

D'apres votre lettre je presume que c'est Forbes qui vous a offert
un article sur les glaciers ; si c'est lui ce serait une raison de plus pour
moi de vous prier cTattendre mes notes, car je viens de recevoir une
notice de lui inseree dans le Journal de Jameson (£#/«£ w^/j New
Philosophical Journal} qui me parait la plus complete indiscretion
dont on puisse se rendre coupable envers un ami. Mr. Forbes a
mon invitation est venu passer trois semaines dans la cabane que
j'avais fait etablir sur le glacier de TAar, je lui ai fait voir tout ce
que la glacier offre d'interessant, toutes les recherches ont etc sui-
vies sous ses yeux. Des le premier jour je lui ai meme annonce
que Pun des points que je me proposals specialement d'etudier etait
la structure intime du glacier et particulierement les apparences
rubannees du glacier que j'avais a peine mentionnees dans mon

/

ouvrage ("Etudes sur les Glaciers1'), p. 121, en en decrivant
Taspect exterieur, parce que depuis 1838 ou je les avais pour la
premiere fois remarquees sur la mer de glace de Chamounix je
n'etais point encore parvenu a en suivre tons les details, ce phe-
nomene n'etant pas toujours egalement distinct. Comme cette
annee il a ete facile de Pobserver, nous en avons fait une etude
detaillee et des les 3 octobre, 1841, j'en donnai la description a
M. de Humboldt, alors a Paris, qui en fit part a 1'Academie (des
Sciences de Tlnstitut de France), et voila qu'en decembre {Edin-
burgh New Philosophical Journal, January, 1842), Mr. Forbes en

1841-42.] LETTP:R TO MR. MURRAINS SON. 197

fait part a P Academic crEdinburgh en s'en appropriant la clecou-
verte et en poussant 1'impudence jusqu'a dire qu'il fut surpris en
visitant le glacier de TAar cle voir en me parlant cle ce phenomene
que je ne le connaissais pas. Veuillez a ce sujet comparer la page
121 de mon livre. II faut absolument que je fasse connaitre ces
faits pour ne pas paraitre plus tard plagiaire dans mes propres
observations, et je vous prie de communiquer le contenu de cette
lettre a tous ceux de mes amis que vous connoissez et que cela
pent interesser. Ceci est une raison de plus pour activer la redaction
de mes observations sur les glaciers, et je compte que votre sentiment
de justice vous engagera a les attendre plutot que d'accepter quelque
fausse monnaie. Je vous prie cependant de ne pas faire imprimer
ceci parce que je compte faire moi-meme la Ie9on a Mr. Forbes.

Je serais moins surpris de ce que vient de faire Forbes, si lorsque
nous etions ensemble et que je le priais de contribuer a faire con-
naitre avec moi les glaciers en pretant a cette question Tappui du
nom d'un physicien justement estime dans le monde savant, il s'y
etait continuellement refuse, en repetant qu'il n'avait aucune opinion
sur ce sujet, qu'il avait voulu seulement apprendre a les connaitre
en venant les etudier avec moi et qu'il se garderait bien de rien
publier sur une matiere dans laquelle il lui restait plus que des
doutes J'etais bien loin de presumer que sous cette reserve se
cachait Tmtention de s'approprier les observations les plus pre-
cieuses de cette campagne.

Mr. Forbes a soin de dire que c'est dans ma societe et celle de
Mr. Heath de Cambridge qu'il a sejourne trois semaines sur le
glacier. Pour etre vrai il aurait du dire que j'avais fait etablir la
haut un appareil de forage desservi par cinq ou six hommes y com-
pris un maltre foreur, que je m'etais fait accompagner dim peintre
qui a dessine pour moi tous les accidents du glacier dont quelques
uns out ete copies par Mr. Forbes ; que deux de mes amis, M. le
Docteur Vogt nVaidait dans les recherches microscopiques et M.
Desor dans celles concernant la geologic ; c'etait tout un etablisse-
ment que Mr. Forbes s'appropie gratuitement par un pretentieux
our. Qu'en serait-il si de leur cote les autres savants MM. Studer,
Escher, Martins, etc., qui sont venus nous visiter et passer quelques
jours avec nous, en faisaient autant?

198 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

Agassiz took the side of his secretary, and published,
on the 2ist of April, 1842, a pamphlet of ten octavo
pages, without title, but which may be called, " A reply
to Mr. James D. Forbes on the laminated structure of
glaciers." The paper, although " privately distrib-
uted," was circulated largely among Agassiz's friends
to the number of five hundred copies. It began with
a reprint of a letter to M. Desor, under the date of
nth March, 1842, published by Forbes, with the
remark : " The following letter from Professor Forbes
to M. Desor of Neuchatel was written in answer to one
from the latter to the former, in which Professor Forbes
is charged with having, in a paper on the structure of
the ice of glaciers . . . assumed as his own a discovery
previously well known to M. Agassiz and his friends.
It appears that this injurious assertion has been pretty
extensively circulated through private channels, and, in
consequence, Professor Forbes has been advised by his
friends to make his denial equally known." The asser-
tion that Desor's written letter " has been pretty exten-
sively circulated through private channels ' involved
a gratuitous supposition without foundation; the letter
was not printed, and neither Agassiz nor Desor had
even kept a copy of it. Forbes's printed letter, on
the contrary, was largely circulated, although no copy
was addressed to Agassiz ; and Agassiz was obliged to
make use of the " Private copy for Mr. Guyot ' in
order to have it reprinted in his pamphlet. If the
"confidential adviser" of Agassiz, as Forbes calls
Desor, erred in writing to Forbes in a rather surly
tone, Forbes's letter is much more objectionable. In it

1841-42-] CONTROVERSY WITH 7 D. FORBES. 199

he calls to his help Studer, who was always only too
ready to join in a crusade against intruders on his
geological preserve of the Bernese Oberland. Forbes
seems rather anxious not to appear to have studied " in
the school of Agassiz " ; but to show that the fact of
the structure of the ice described in his notice was
unknown to Agassiz, de Charpentier, and other writers.
His remarks about " studying in a school ' are childish
in the extreme, and his knowledge of other works on
the structure of the ice was certainly limited ; for Hugi,
Rendu, and before them David Brewster of Edinburgh,
had observed the veined structure.

Agassiz's answer, dated the 2Qth of March, 1842,
gives the whole story of the relations between him and
Forbes. There is no doubt that Agassiz and every one
who met Forbes under the auspices of Agassiz, both
at the "Hotel des Neuchatelois " and at Neuchatel,
did everything possible to help Forbes, and were ex-
tremely kind and courteous to him ; while, on his part,
Forbes was austere to an extent seldom seen, even
among Englishmen. The impression he made when in
Switzerland was decidedly unfavourable, except in the
case of a single person, Professor Bernard Studer, to
whom he afterward dedicated his book, " Travels through
the Alps of Savoy," etc., 1843. It was wrong on his
part to accept the hospitality of Agassiz, and then to
act as if he had met him in a hotel. He was con-
stantly on his guard not to show any mark of assent, or
to say anything which might be useful for future observa-
tions. His great reserve puzzled everybody ; and when
he left, there was a general feeling of relief. Through-

200 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vin.

out his stay the relations were never cordial. He
personified the celebrated type of Englishmen so well
described and caricatured by Topffer, in his " Nouvelles
Genevoises," " Les deux-Scheidegg " : "Je defende vos
de paaler a moa, quand je dise rien a vos." A true no !
no ! 1 tall, thin, dry, haughty, and extremely egotistical.

Agassiz put forward the doubtful claim of Arnold
Guyot to priority in the discovery of ribboned structure,
noted by Hugi as far back as 1830. It would have
been better had no attention been paid to Forbes's
paper, which was written in bad taste and against all
the rules of courtesy between savants.

The only person who obtained any benefit from this
uncalled-for dispute was Desor, whose name, until then
entirely unknown in England and on the continent,
except in Switzerland, became conspicuous as the " con-
fidential adviser" of Agassiz.

All friendly relations between Agassiz and Forbes
ended with the following letter addressed by Agassiz
to Forbes, then in a hotel at Neuchatel : —

LE 12 JUIN, 1842.

Monsieur, — Je viens de recevoir la brochure que vous rrfavez
fait I'honneur de m'adresser et pour laquelle je vous prie cTagreer
mes remerciements. Je regrette que vous n'ayez pas encore re£u
le rccit de notre course a la Jungfrau que M. Desor vous a adresse
il y a plusieurs mois, si j'en avals encore un exemplaire a ma dis-
position je vous Tadresserais, afm que vous puissiez en prendre
connoissance.

1 Rudolph Topffer in his novel " Le Col d'Anterne " gives, as a type of
a well-bred Englishman, a tourist set in front of the Mont-Blanc, who
disclaimed to answer any of the numerous and polite questions asked by
Topffer, except by the two words, No ! no ! and Ui ! ui !

201

1841-42.] rORHES. 201

N'ayant re9u aucune reponse aux deux dernicres lettres que j"ai
eu rhonneur de vous adresser et apres la reponse que vous avez faite
a ma precedente, en livrant au public des remarques qui n'allaient
qu'a votre adresse, je ne coii9ois pas quelle espece de relations per-
sonnelles vous pouvez rechercher avec moi. Celles que j'aurais pu
desirer, vous les avez rendues impossibles ; et je ne saurais accepter
les froides civilite's d'une personne en qui j 'avals vu un ami. Cela
ne m'empechera pas de rendre pleine et entiere justice a celles de
vos publications qui tiennent de loin ou de pres aux recherches
scientifiques que je poursuis.

Agre'ez, Monsieur, etc.,

Louis AGASSIZ.

It would have been wiser on the part of Agassiz and
more profitable if, after his ascent of the Jungfrau and
his two "sejours" at the "Hotel des Neuchatelois " in
1840 and 1841, he had let the glacial question take care
of itself. The impulse he had given was quite sufficient
to assure his reputation as one of the first and most
successful workers ; and his place, after Venetz and de
Charpentier, was recognized as undisputed by all those
who had studied glaciers and the glacial age.

Frightened at the constant increase of expenses, his
Swiss and German families made remonstrances, and
were absolutely opposed to a new establishment at the
glacier of the Aar, to replace the " Hotel des Neucha-
telois," which had gone to pieces during the winter,
according to a report just received from the Grimsel.
Agassiz's best scientific friends, with Humboldt at their
head, hinted that, after all, his works on fishes furnished
his best claim to reputation and celebrity. In a previ-
ous letter, dated Berlin, i/th of June, 1838, Humboldt,
in a friendly way, had told him that he had never had

202 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

a secretary, or even a copyist, preferring to do all his
writing, and expressing his fear when he learned that
he had nine assistants in his employ, adding humor-
ously, " I am sure that there must be some gold some-
where in your polished rocks. I should like to know
your secret how to work so profitably and so quickly all
these mines." Humboldt repeated his friendly advice
during the summer of 1842, saying plainly that he, the
man of the equinoctial region, was frightened by the
Eiszeit and the terrible ice cap. But all this was in
vain. Agassiz had an answer for every objection; and
all that even his alarmed mother could obtain was a
promise that he would not make any more ascents of
inaccessible peaks, and be lowered again into hell, —
"descente aux enfers," as his descent into the glacier
well was familiarly called.

Arrived at the Grimsel, the /th of July, 1842, Agassiz,
with his numerous assistants, at once began observations
and excursions, first to the Siedelhorn, and after that to
the glacier of the Rhone. The troglodytic habitation
under the immense block, having become unsafe, it was
replaced by a long tent, divided into three compart-
ments, used as laboratory and dining-room, sleeping-
room, and dormitory for the workmen. The form of
the tent - - twenty metres long, four metres broad, and
five metres high - - recalled a Noah's ark, and was
therefore christened "the Ark,"1 to distinguish it from
the " Hotel des Neuchatelois," which was now used as a
kitchen. The old cabin of the guides served as a stable

1 The old name of "Hotel des Neuchatelois," however, continued in
use ; and the archaic word " Ark " was dropped before the summer was over.

1841-42-] STAY AT THE GLACIER OF THE AAR. 203

for ten goats ; and the establishment, as a whole, was a
great improvement on the old one. Besides being built
on the solid ground and not on the moving median
moraine, it afforded a shelter, beneath which they could
work whenever the rain obliged them to keep in doors.
On the loth of July it was ready for occupancy; and
the same night Agassiz, Wild, Vogt, Nicolet, Desor,
Burkhardt, and Girard slept under the canvas-covered
cabin. A new member was added to the usual staff of
Agassiz, - - M. Wild of Zurich, who had been engaged
by Agassiz as a topographical engineer, to survey and
make a trigonometric plan of the Aar glacier. To be
sure, the king of Prussia, on the recommendation of
Humboldt, had granted nearly a thousand dollars for
the continuance of Agassiz's glacial work; but this
royal gift was soon expended, and before the campaign
of 1842 was over, Agassiz was more deeply in debt
than ever; for with him a gift, however large and
important, was only an occasion to expend twice and
three times more than he had received.

The stay at the glacier extended from the beginning
of July until the middle of September, with numerous
excursions, one as far as Altorf to attend the meeting
of the Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences. Escher
de la Linth and Ferdinand Keller (the same who
twelve years after made the first discovery of the
lacustrine habitation of prehistoric man) were among
the guests who helped to make observations and experi-
ments on the glacier. Numerous other guests came,
but only as visitors and spectators. Investigations were
made in regard to infiltration, lamellar structure, strati-

204 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

fication of the glacier, the purity and composition of
the ice, the " crevasses," the temperature, the motion
of the glacier, the ablation, and the neve. Agassiz had
resolved to embody in a large publication, in three
parts, everything relating to the glacial system. The
first part, the only one ever published, was entitled
" Nouvelles etudes et experiences sur les glaciers
actuels, leur structure, leur progression, et leur action
physique sur le sol," and was accompanied by a beau-
tiful folio atlas, containing three maps and nine plates
(Paris, 1847). The second part was to be on the
" Alpine erratics," by Guyot. It was never written,
only a few general conclusions being published, without
maps of any sort. It is to be regretted, for Guyot had
prepared a map showing the distribution of the Alpine
boulders, which had not been published. However, a
great part of it — more than two-thirds at least- -was
anticipated by the issue, in 1845, at Winterthur, of an
anonymous map of the old glaciers of the Swiss Alps,
showing the extent of the ancient glaciers of the Arve,
Rhone, Aar, Reuss, Linth, and Rhine, with their lateral
and frontal moraines. This map is entitled " Verbrei-
tungsweise der Alpen-fiindlinge," and its author is the
modest and very able geologist, Arnold Escher von der
Linth. Very likely the publication of this map dis-
couraged Guyot, who was always extremely slow and
timid ; and he resolved to publish neither the volume
advertised nor his map. As to the third and final part,
by Desor, treating of erratic phenomena outside of
Switzerland, it remained in the stage of contemplation,
and was never begun.

1841-42-] JOHN TYNDALL. 205

Agassiz and all his collaborators and friends certainly
worked hard and with a determination to penetrate all
the secrets of the glaciers, and some of their observa-
tions and experiments are excellent and valuable ; but it
is no injustice to any of them to say that they were not
sufficiently equipped and prepared for the work they
had rather rashly undertaken. Devotion to progress of
science was not sufficient ; something more was required.
De Charpentier and Bishop Rendu had already said all
that could be expected from men not trained as physi-
cists. Agassiz added very little, if any, to their work.
What was wanted was a great physicist, to solve the
problem of glaciers. James D. Forbes proved unequal
to the task ; and it was reserved for John Tyndall, the
great pupil and successor of Faraday, as the discoverer
of " radiant heat," to explain fully the origin of glaciers,
the pressure theory, regelation, crystallization and inter-
nal liquefaction, the veined structure ; in fact, all the
mechanism of glaciers. The principles set forth in
Tyndall's "The Glaciers of the Alps" (London, 1860),
come next to the great discoveries of Venetz and de
Charpentier, and to Agassiz's Ice-age. The four com-
plete the survey of the subject.

In November, 1842, Agassiz, losing patience with the
constant attacks in German newspapers directed against
him by his formerly intimate friend, Dr. Karl Schimper,
published a pamphlet entitled " Erwiederung auf Dr.
Karl Schimper's Angriffe," four-page quarto, for pri-
vate circulation, though it was freely distributed, more
especially in Germany and Switzerland. It would have
been better Agassiz had ignored these attacks ; but

206 LOUIS AGASSTZ. [CHAP. vm.

urged on, he says, by many friends, and I may add by
the one called by Forbes " his confidential adviser," he
wrote his " Reply to Dr. Karl Schimper's Attacks." In
it, interesting details of their life as students, and of the
sort of community existing at that time between Alexan-
der Braun, the two Schimper brothers, and Agassiz are
given, and the kindness and generosity of Agassiz to
the two Schimpers are revealed; full justice is done to
the brilliant intellect of Karl Schimper, and his share in
the diagram entitled " Crust of the Earth as related to
Zoology," constructed by him with the help of notes
furnished by Agassiz, and afterward published (1848),
is fully acknowledged. As to Agassiz's delay in return-
ing specimens of fishes lent to him for his great work
on fossil fishes, it was unavoidable, on account of the
many specimens to be taken care of, and the delay in
the publication. As soon as the work was finished,
every specimen was carefully packed and returned in
good condition.

Schimper's claim to a small collection of minerals
offered to Agassiz at Carlsruhe, when Agassiz was on
the point of beginning his lectures as professor at Neu-
chatel, shows only too plainly how depressed and de-
moralized Schimper had become after the break in his
relations with Agassiz in 1838.

The only fault, and it is a very trivial one, to be found
with Agassiz, is that he did not refer to Schimper again
in his volume " Etudes sur les Glaciers," in regard to
the otherwise erroneous explanation of the diminution
of the temperature of the globe with the disappearance
of the animals, analogous to the phenomena accompany-

1841-42-] KARL SCHIMPER. 207

ing the death of individuals, and then of its rising again,
due to the arrival of a new creation of animals, develop-
ing heat as a consequence. In his volume Agassiz
reproduced Schimper's small mathematical figure, and
it would have been well to quote Schimper as his
authority. Alexander Braun, when consulted, threw the
blame on Agassiz, but refused to take part in the dis-
pute. In a letter from Agassiz to Braun, published in

Braun's Life, by his daughter, he says that if he did not

/

quote and speak of Schimper in his ' Etudes sur les
Glaciers," it was in order to punish Schimper for his
unjustifiable conduct towards him; a very lame excuse,
for scientific ideas and discoveries are sacred property,
which cannot be cancelled under any circumstances.
If Agassiz had repeated the sentence in his Neuchatel
Address of 1837, "1'explication de tous ces phenomenes
(glaciaires) est le resultat de la combinaison de mes idees
et de celles de M. Schimper," everything would have
been satisfactory.

It is strange that Agassiz did not abandon the theo-
ries advanced in his " Discours de Neuchatel," after its
delivery; for they met with not the smallest acquiescence
or encouragement, either from those who heard the
address or from those who read it afterward. De Char-
pentier was against it, and Sedgwick, the celebrated
geologist of Cambridge (England), expressed in happy
terms the impression made on him by the reading of the

*

" Etudes sur les Glaciers," when he said : ' I have read his
Ice-book. It is excellent, but in the last chapter he loses
his balance, and runs away with the bit in his mouth."1

1 "Life and Letters of Sedgwick," Vol. II., p. 18, Cambridge, 1890.

208 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vin.

The immense " nappe" of ice covering the earth, its
breaking by the upheaval of the Alps, etc., seem the
theoretical views of a dreamer, and are entirely at vari-
ance with the excellent and remarkable observations on
the power of glaciers to carry boulders, and their great
extension during the Quaternary epoch. But it was a
special characteristic of Agassiz's mind, which was
intensified by the teaching of his great master Cuvier,
seldom to acknowledge an error, but on the contrary
to try by all means to maintain his position. He re-
peatedly made mistakes in dealing with other savants,
and also in the too hasty generalizations which he
sometimes put forward in natural history. I do not
hesitate to attribute these weak points in Agassiz's
character to the influence of the author of the " Ana-
tomie Comparee," an influence which, if profitable on
many accounts, was sometimes much to be regretted.
At all events, Cuvier's influence was profound, and
among many things that Agassiz learned in his labora-
tory, was one of his most pronounced faults, the author-
itative and tyrannical attitude of the master, unable to
accept a contradiction, or to abandon an idea, when
once promulgated and in print.

The polemic with Karl Schimper was unfortunate,
because Schimper was no longer responsible. Like all
persons suffering from mental disorder, he thought he
had discovered all that he had heard in regard to the
glaciers and the glacial question during his long visits
at Bex and at Neuchatel, and he treated very slightingly
Venetz, Charpentier, and Agassiz ; he attributed to him-
self the lion's share, when he was only a poetical echo,

1841-42.] DANIEL DOLLFUS-AUSSET. 209

and a rather fantastic one at that, of what he had heard
during his stay in Switzerland. His half-scientific, half-
humorous poem " Die Eiszeit," printed at Neuchatel,
for friends, the I5th of February, 1837, the birthday of
Galileo Galilei, whose name Schimper had assumed when
a student, shows the state of mind into which he had al-
ready sunk; that of an obscured spirit. Schimper, after
brilliant " debuts " in science, produced nothing but two
small volumes of indifferent poetry, entitled " Gedichte '
(Erlangen, 1840, and Mannheim, 1847); he published
nothing on the morphology of plants, although he is
justly regarded as one of its discoverers. Charged by
Prince Maximilian of Bavaria, in 1842, to make a sur-
vey of the Bavarian Alps and the Palatinate, he made
no report, and finally was confined in an asylum, at
Schwetzingen, where he died the 2ist of December,
1867.

There is no doubt that Schimper was a well gifted
man. Without publishing a word, he left, as a botan-
ist, a reputation of a high order, and he influenced
both Alexander Braun and Agassiz to a great extent,
possessing more imagination and original ideas than
either of them. " II n'a manque a Schimper que
d'etre sobre," one of those who knew him best once
said to me.

Among the visitors attracted by curiosity to the
"Hotel des Neuchatelois," during the summer of 1842,
was a great manufacturer of Mulhausen, M. Daniel
Dollfus-Ausset. Such an enthusiast of high regions, of
glaciers, and of the glacial question, has rarely existed.
He was so fascinated by all that he saw on the glacier
p

210 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vm.

of the Aar, that from that day he became not only an
adept, but one of the most generous patrons of the work
in progress on the Oberland glaciers. As a first step,
he begged Agassiz to accept for him, and as many of
his assistants as he wished, an invitation to pass the
week between Christmas and New Year with him at the
Hotel des Trois-Rois at Bale, as a relaxation from their
hard work, and to celebrate his enrolment among the
glacialists, and the inhabitants of the " Hotel des Neu-
chatelois." Agassiz, in company with Desor and Vogt,
left Neuchatel the 24th of December, 1842, and arrived
at Bale in time to celebrate " Le reveillon," or Christmas
Eve. " Papa Dollfus," as he was always called after-
ward, received them most cordially, and for a whole
week, with the exception of daily morning work at the
Museum of Natural History, under the direction of the
learned and very sociable Peter Merian, they were
treated as princes of the sciences.

And thus Agassiz and his assistants ended the year
1842 at Bale, in the enjoyment of a 'royal hospitality.

CHAPTER IX.

1843-1844.
" RECHERCHES SUR LES POISSONS FOSSILES," 1833-1843 — REVIEW OF IT

BY JULES PlCTET DE LA RlVE — DR. A. GiJNTHER's OPINION — AGAS-

siz's ERRORS WITH THE EOCENE FOSSIL FISHES OF CLARIS (SWITZER-
LAND)— THE PART TAKEN BY COLLABORATORS IN THE " POISSONS
FOSSILES" — ANOTHER VISIT TO THE GLACIER OF THE AAR--THE
MEETING OF THE HELVETIC SOCIETY AT LAUSANNE, JULY, 1843-
AGASSIZ'S HOSPITALITY AT NEUCHATEL — FALSE POSITION OF HIS
SECRETARY, DESOR, AND HIS ASSISTANT, VOGT — SCIENTIFIC LIFE IN
NEUCHATEL — " MONOGRAPHIES DES POISSONS FOSSILES DU VIEUX
GRES ROUGE," 1844 - - THE GEOLOGIST AND STONECUTTER, HUGH
MILLER — " HISTOIRENATURELLE DES POISSONS D'EAU DOUCE " — KARL
VOGT LEAVES AGASSIZ — EXTRAORDINARY SESSION OF THE GEOLOGICAL
SOCIETY OF FRANCE AT CHAMBERY (SAVOY) — FAILURE OF NICOLET'S
LITHOGRAPHIC ESTABLISHMENT — DINKEL LEAVES NEUCHATEL — ILL-
NESS OF GRESSLY.

THE publication of the " Recherches sur les Poissons
fossiles ' continued through the ten years from 1833
to 1843, when the eighteenth and last part or " livrai-
son ' was issued, with " Additions a la preface," dated

I

Neuchatel, May, 1843, which may be considered as the
last pages of that great work. It is a true monument
to the science of palaeontology, and to speak of it with
authority requires such special study of ichthyology,
that the only way to give an idea of its value is to quote
one of the very few men able to speak of it with " con-

211

212 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

noissance de cause." For this reason, I have chosen to
quote what Jules Pictet de la Rive says of it in his arti-
cle, "Agassiz" ("Album de la Suisse Romane," 5^me
vol., Geneva, 1847), Pictet had made a special study
of fossil and living fishes, and his intimacy with and
admiration for Agassiz never relaxed during his whole
life. Independent by character and possessing a large
fortune, Pictet's opinions are properly considered just
and unbiassed.

" The ' Recherches sur les Poissons fossiles,' says
Pictet, " was one of the first conceptions of Agassiz, and
form to-day his most substantial title to renown. It is
in this beautiful work that the immanent qualities of
our learned palaeontologist shine more specially and
that his rich imagination has full play, although always
guided by a sagacious and well-balanced judgment based
on conscientious researches and on a minute analysis
of even the smallest parts of the organism.

" The limits of this article do not allow us to give
a complete idea of the work, which is composed of five
quarto volumes and a folio atlas of almost four hundred
plates. We shall only try to set forth the aim, the
plan, and the most important results.

" We know that when Cuvier published his first works
on the fossils his principal aim was to demonstrate that
the species destroyed by the revolutions of the globe
and preserved as fossils are different from those living
now on our continents and in our seas. That truth has
to-day become unquestionable, and new discoveries have
shown by the most undeniable evidence, that there
have been in the history of the earth a series of epochs

1 843-44.] POISSONS FOSS/LES. 213

during which the forms of the oceans and the conti-
nents have been successively modified, and each one
of them has been characterized by a special flora and
fauna ; that is to say, by an ensemble of vegetables and
animals specifically different from those coming before
or after. The fishes have existed since the oldest ages
of the globe, and their remains are found in all the
successive periods. Their palaeontological history, con-
sequently, is most important, and furnishes precious
data concerning this succession of faunas.

" When Agassiz began his researches and foresaw
the importance of the result that he might draw from
them, the classification of fishes was not advanced
enough to allow sufficient comparisons. Some dissimi-
lar forms were associated together, while other very
similar ones were separated by large intervals. Before
everything else, it was necessary to establish an exact
classification. Agassiz found in the scales the neces-
sary elements to solve the problem, and he recognized
that these teguments of the body correspond well with
the interior characters, and that their variations are,
in general, associated with and due to, organic differ-
ences. He accordingly divided fishes into the follow-
ing four orders : (i) The Cycloids, with scales, rounded,
smooth, and simple at the margin, composed of laminae
of horn or bone, but without enamel, - - endo-skeleton
ossified ; (2) the Ctenoids, with scales jagged or pecti-
nated (like the teeth of a comb) on the posterior margin,
formed by laminae of horn, but without enamel,- -endo-
skeleton ossified; (3) the Ganoids, with angular scales
regularly arranged like paving-stones, and composed of

214 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

horny plates covered with a strong, shining enamel, —
endo-skeleton cartilaginous, in some partly osseous and
partly cartilaginous ; (4) the Placoids, with cartilaginous
skeleton and skin covered irregularly with enamel
plates, sometimes of considerable dimensions, at other
times reduced to small points like the prickly, tooth-
like tubercles on the skin of rays.

" This classification allowed easy comparisons and
generalizations, and the palseontologic history of the
fishes offered results not at all expected and most im-
portant. These animals have been completely renewed
by successive creations, and whole populations of them
have been destroyed to make room for others which were
very different Of the four orders indicated above,
the Placoids, or cartilaginous fishes, have existed during
all the geologic periods, though they have undergone
various modifications, most remarkable especially in the
teeth. But the other three orders — that is, the osseous
fishes — have somehow replaced one another. Our
present seas contain almost altogether Ctenoids and
Cycloids, and, except two genera of Ganoids living in
rivers of warm countries, these two orders compose all
the present fauna of osseous fishes, while, on the con-
trary, none existed before the deposit of the chalk, and
it would be vain to look in all the preceding epochs for
one Ctenoid or one Cycloid ; that is to say, the old seas
did not contain a single fish with thin horny scales like
our perches or our trout, while in the present fresh
waters and seas we find such fishes almost altogether.

' On the other hand, the Ganoids were most common
previous to the Cretaceous epoch, and that order, now

1 843-44.] POISSONS FOSSfLES. 215

reduced, as I have said above, to only two genera, then
formed the majority of the population of the seas.
These same fishes present in their history a very re-
markable fact. Until the Lias epoch, all the Ganoids
possessed on the superior part of the tail a lobe formed
by a prolongation of the vertebrate column. But from
the Lias, on the contrary, all had a tail formed as that
of the osseous fishes of the present time ; that is
to say, the vertebrate column stops at the base of
the tail.

"It is, therefore, possible to divide the palaeonto-
logical history of the fishes into three periods or epochs.
During the first, extending from the Silurian to the
Trias, the faunas are composed of Placoids and Ganoids
with the vertebrate column prolonged to the upper lobe
of the tail. In the second, which corresponds to the
Jurassic epoch, we find the Placoids and Ganoids, with
the ordinary tail. In the third, which began during the
Cretaceous epoch and continued in our modern period,
the Placoids, the Ctenoids, and the Cycloids form almost
entirely the ichthyological population of the world.
Hence, if a geologist found a Ganoid with a prolonged
tail, he could conclude that the strata in which he found
it belonged to the first period ; a Ganoid with an ordi-
nary tail would indicate, with sufficient certainty, that
the group of strata belonged to the second epoch ; and
so on.

•

" It is easy to understand the interest created by a
work, the aim and result of which are to demonstrate
such remarkable laws, more especially when the proofs
are based on an incredible number of facts and observa-

216 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

tions. The work of Agassiz mentions more than one
thousand fossil fishes, with descriptions and beautiful
plates, which make them known almost as well as if
we were able to observe them alive.

" This work brought its author complimentary dis-
tinctions from several academies and learned societies.
Particularly during a journey in England and Scotland
all the collections were open to him, assistance in vari-
ous ways was offered, and he had the great satisfaction
of seeing with what astonishing precision the numerous
new facts which he daily observed confirmed all his
previous conclusions. The English and Scotch geolo-
gists for many years kept the remembrance of some
keen anecdotes on the subject.

" Agassiz's researches opened a new path, through
which he continued to advance, publishing in the mean-
time supplements to his main work ; among them, a
' Monographic des Poissons du vieux gres rouge,' which
was soon followed by one on the ' Poissons de 1'Argile
de Londres.' The first of these monographs furnished
some interesting results, both geological and zoological ;
in particular, it demonstrated two most important laws :
ist, the analogy existing between the first condition of
the embryos of fishes and the organization of fossil
fishes of the oldest epochs ; 2d, the parallelism exist-
ing between the embryologic development of the fishes
and the succession of the different types of these ani-
mals in the series of formations."

There is nothing to add regarding the great value of
this "vaste publication," as it is called by Pictet ; but
a few words are necessary to indicate some of the criti-

1 843-44.] POISSONS FOSSILES. 217

cism which it called forth, and to meet claims which
have now and then been put forward.

Agassiz knew perfectly well that his classification was
artificial, and not based on all the natural principles, as
it should have been, and as Cuvier's was before him ; but
he wanted to make use of a great quantity of fragmen-
tary specimens, and even mere scales of fishes, which
were found in abundance, and which otherwise would
have been useless, and would have left a great gap in
his series of forms. He worked as much to prove the
succession of fishes in the different systems of strata, as
to obtain a knowledge of them zoologically, trying to
find laws which might be used in palaeontology to clas-
sify groups of strata by their fossil fishes. And he
succeeded admirably? notwithstanding the defect of his
empiric classification.

As Dr. A. Giinther says : " We have no hesitation in
affirming that if Agassiz had had an opportunity of
acquiring a more extensive and intimate knowledge of
existing fishes before his energies were absorbed in the
study of fossil remains, he would himself have recog-
nized the artificial character of his classification. The
distinctions between Cycloid and Ctenoid scales, between
Placoid and Ganoid fishes, are vague, and can hardly be
maintained. So far as the living and post-Cretacean
forms are concerned, he abandoned the vantage-ground
gained by Cuvier ; and therefore his system could never
supersede that of his predecessor, and finally shared the
fate of every classification based on the modifications of
one organ only. But Agassiz has the merit of having
opened an immense new field of researches by his study

218 LOUIS AGASSI Z. [CHAP. ix.

of the infinite variety of fossil forms. In his principal
work, ' Recherches sur les Poissons fossiles,' 1833-
1843 (4to, atlas folio), he placed them before the world,
arranged in a methodical manner, with excellent descrip-
tions and illustrations. His power of discernment and
penetration in determining even the most fragmentary
remains is truly astonishing ; and if his order of Ganoids
is an assemblage of forms very different from what is now
understood by that term, he was, at any rate, the first
who recognized that such an order of fishes existed." *

Agassiz was one of those naturalists who find it easier
to discover differences than to bring together specimens
of fossils. He possessed a rare power of discerning
the smallest differences between allied forms of ani-
mals ; but sometimes he went too 'far, as in the case of
the Eocene fossil fishes in the flysch of Claris (Switz-
erland), where the cleavage resulting from the breaking
and compressing of the strata, during the dislocation of
the Alps, deformed some specimens to such an extent
that Agassiz was led to establish six species of Anen-
ckelum, all of which really belong to a single species,
Lepidopus glaronensis. The same mistake has been
noted by Dr. A. Wettstein and A. Heim for species
of the genus Palceorhynchum, Acanus, etc. (" Actes de
la Societe Helvetique des Sciences naturelles," Geneva,
August, 1886, pp. 46, 47). India-rubber models of some
of these fossil fishes, when pulled in certain directions,
give as many species as Agassiz founded ; and it is evi-
dent that Agassiz, in some cases, too easily multiplied

1 " Ichthyology," by A. Giinther, in " Encyclopedia Britannica," ninth
edition, Vol. XII., p. 634, London, 1881.

1843-44-] COLLABORATORS. 219

the number of species without proper restriction. But
this is only a detail, which does not affect the final
result and conclusions, nor the prodigious capacity of
his memory, in which lay the true secret of his classifica-
tion of fossil fishes.

In regard to the help that Agassiz received in his
" Poissons fossiles " : in the first place, the excellent
drawings were made by Dinkel and Mrs. Agassiz, those
of the latter being fully as good as and rivaling in
execution the best of the artist Dinkel. Secondly, after
the issue of the first twelve parts or " livraisons," Agas-
siz made a great deal of use of his assistant Karl Vogt
and his secretary Desor, in preparing the bones and the
scales, and in writing the descriptions of species and
even of genera. But as Vogt wrote me : " Agassiz
avait parfaitement le droit de s'attribuer ces travaux, car
il me payait pour cela, j'etais son preparateur a gages
sous ce rapport." Only one-third of the work was thus
prepared with his two collaborators, under Agassiz's
direction ; but this may be said, that it would have been
much better if he himself had finished what he had so
well begun and continued until 1838.

At the end of July, 1843, Agassiz returned to his
work on the glacier of the Aar. A new cabin had been
erected, which was called the " Pavilion " ; and Daniel
Dollfus-Ausset, with his son, established himself close
by, in another cabin. The time was passed in measuring
the motion of the glacier, its temperature, etc., and in
Alpine climbing. On the whole, it was a rather ex-
pensive campaign, and the results were inadequate
compared with the money expended.

220 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

During the meeting of the Helvetic Society of Natural
Sciences at Lausanne, the 25th and 26th of July,
Agassiz made a verbal communication in regard to his
researches on the glaciers, speaking of the new and
more practical direction given to his studies, and insist-
ing on the stratification of the glaciers and the blue
bands of ice, and on the formation of crevasses. At
the same meeting, he spoke of the great value of fossil
fishes in determining the ages of the " terrains," and
more particularly of the squaloid teeth, like those of
the true sharks, or squalodonts, the Ptycholepis of the
Chalk, the Strophodus of the Jura, the Acrodus of the
Lias, and the Psamnodus of the Coal measures.

His great sociability, which attracted so many people
to the " Hotel des Neuchatelois," was exercised on
rather a large scale in Neuchatel, if we may judge by

the following letter : —

NEUCHATEL, 23 decembre, 1843.
PROFESSEUR JULES PICTET DE LA RIVE,
Geneve.

Mon cher ami, — Favre vous aura fait part du desir que j'ai de
reunir ici quelques amis Jeudi prochain. Je viens insister aupres de
vous pour que vous soyez de la partie.

En arrivant Mercredi soir et en descendant " Aux Alpes," vous
trouverez Merian, Escher, Studer et Valentin.

IAm de mes guides irTa procure tin jeune chamois dont nous
depecerons les os Jeudi chez moi. Faites-moi le plaisir devenir;
si vous pouvez, amenez les Plantamour.

Votre tout devoue,

Ls. AGASSIZ.

His prodigious power of attraction is shown in his
ability to bring together, for a single dinner party, at

1 843-44-] HOSPITALITY AT NEUCHATEL. 221

Christmas time, during the snowy season, savants from
every part of Switzerland, from Bale, Zurich, Berne,
Geneva, etc., and at a time when travelling was not
easy, as it is now, with railroads in every direction.
Nothing shows better that Agassiz was an accepted
leader among the scientific men of Switzerland.

The year 1844 was a sad year with Agassiz. We
must turn back a few years in order to understand the
state of affairs, and how, little by little, he jeoparded
his position by a complete incapacity to manage his
assistants, his many employees, and his too numerous
undertakings. Too great familiarity with his assistants,
and inability to keep them at respectful distance, re-
sulted in his having no authority over them. If Agassiz
was a genius in natural history, in private life he was
entirely unable to manage his immediate surroundings.
Speaking of Agassiz's establishment at Neuchatel, Karl
Vogt says : " It was a scientific factory with a com-
munity of property ; only, unhappily, neither the num-
ber of workmen nor the capital engaged was sufficient
and in proportion to the production." It was also an
overworked establishment. Agassiz, as its director, had
to provide everything ; first the money, for all were
penniless ; and the life they led, though without luxury,
was, after all, rather expensive ; for to travel all over
Switzerland, to stay at the "Hotel des Neuchatelois," to
keep open house at Neuchatel not only for his assist-
ants, but also for all the naturalists who were continually
coming from every part of Europe, required a constant
expenditure of no small amount of money. Besides the
work of providing the money, Agassiz had an oversight

222 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

of every work going on ; he had to dictate letters, to
insert sentences in the descriptions of his assistants in
order to connect them and give them unity, to read and
correct at least one of the proofs; even to direct the
draughtsmen, and to select the drawings to be used, in
regard to the artistic merits of which he was very
critical and a capital judge, seeing faults where others
were glad to admire the fine execution. Agassiz was
well seconded by the artists in his service ; but scien-
tifically the assistance he received was rather deficient.
Karl Vogt had been educated as a naturalist, and soon
became most efficient in regard to the anatomy and the
embryology of fishes ; he also worked out the osteology
and neurology, prepared the specimens, made the draw-
ings, and wrote the descriptions. He was a first-rate
assistant, knowing well his duties ; and during the five
years of his connection with Agassiz he did a great
amount of good work. Although he always insisted
that he was not a pupil of Agassiz, having learned
zoology in Germany, there is no doubt of the great influ-
ence exerted by Agassiz on his work during the first
ten years of his life as a naturalist.

In October, 1837, as we have seen, Agassiz engaged
Desor as his private secretary, who, until then had done
nothing in natural history, with which he was not even
acquainted, beyond the general knowledge possessed
by any student of a university. Employed first as a
translator and a writer of dictated letters, he soon
acquired sufficient knowledge of fossil fishes and fossil
echinoderms, to help in describing species. Under
Agassiz's teaching he made such rapid progress that,

1 843-44.] SCIENTIFIC LIFE. 223

in three years, he became a useful assistant, not only in
palneontological works, but also in the work on the
glaciers and the glacial question. Vogt says of him,
that in 1840 Desor was the " cheville ouvriere ' (key-
stone) of the whole Agassiz establishment; and Agassiz,
on the nth of June, 1840, writes: —

Dans la redaction de cette seconde partie (Cidarides) de mon
memoire (" Description des Echinodermes fossiles de la Suisse ")
j'ai ete continuellement assiste par M. Desor, qui a continue a me
preter 1'appui de sa plume facile, comme il Tavait deja fait pour la
premiere partie. Mais cette fois son travail ne s'est pas borne a
une simple redaction ; Pexamen comparatif des nombreuses especes
des genres Diademe et Cidaris, dont les caracteres sont si difficiles a
apprecier, est meme entierement de son fait. Cependant j'en ai
revu la description, afin d'en partager avec lui la responsabilite scien-
tifique. II m'est precieux d'avoir trouve dans un ami un collaborates
aussi distingue.

Desor had no initiative faculty, and was totally devoid
of original ideas. He never rose above a third-rate
naturalist, retaining all his life the spirit of a lawyer,
with a special tendency to politics and a politician's
methods. Charles Girard was in too modest a position to
be helpful scientifically, except in the work of compila-
tion, which he always performed very industriously. As
regards Gressly, the help he gave Agassiz was invalu-
able; the exact geological position of two-thirds of the
fossils described in the different palaeontological works of
Agassiz was learned from him ; and he furnished more
than half of the best specimens of the echinoderms,
the Myas and the Trigonias. In the scientific associa-
tion directed by Agassiz, Gressly acted as the St. Bernard
dog, faithful, true, living, no one knew exactly how, on

224 LOUIS AGASSIZ, [CHAP. ix.

the crumbs from the table always spread in Agassiz's
home ; always satisfied, always respectful, and never so
happy as when Agassiz expressed his admiration of the
beautiful and rare fossils he drew from his numerous
and large pockets on his return from his never-ending
explorations in the Jura. However, an assistant as
modest and inexpensive as Gressly is a rare exception,
and Agassiz never again found one like him.

It was evident that something was wrong in the
whole establishment, and that running on such a basis
it would not last long. In fact, 1844 was its last year,
as we shall see further on. But before relating the
numerous incidents which one by one occurred and fin-
ally destroyed, at least partially, that extraordinary and
brilliant scientific centre, due entirely to the genius of
Agassiz, it is pleasing to call attention to two of the
best works done at Neuchatel under the impulse of
this remarkable man.

One of his most important works, and certainly his
most original, is the " Monographic des Poissons fos-
siles du Vieux Gres rouge ou Systeme Devonien [Old
Red Sandstone] des iles Britanniques et de Russie '
(4to, with a folio atlas of forty-one plates), which was
issued by " livraisons," or parts, the last three being
distributed in August, 1844. The material used was
mainly the specimens collected at Cromarty, in the
North of Scotland, by the celebrated geologist and
stonecutter Hugh Miller.

During the ten years previous to Agassiz's visit at
Cromarty, in September, 1840, Miller, with great
patience and skill, had unearthed from the old red

1 843-44.] HUGH MILLER. 225

sandstone the most wonderful forms of animals yet
found. Agassiz says of some of them : " It is im-
possible to see aught more bizarre in all creation than
the Pterichthyan genus : the same astonishment that
Cuvier felt in examining the Plesiosaunis, I myself ex-
perienced, when Mr. H. Miller, the first discoverer of
these fossils, showed me the specimens which he had
detected in the Old Red Sandstone of Cromarty." As
early as 1831, Miller found the Pterichthys, or winged
fish; but Agassiz did not hear of it until 1838, when a
description and drawing was shown him in Paris by
an English naturalist : he was greatly interested in this
new form of life, and very anxious to see more of it.
The following* extract from Hugh Miller's principal and
most popular work, "The Old Red Sandstone," explains
how Agassiz was first made acquainted with Miller's
wonderful discoveries : —

A letter which I wrote early in 1838 to Dr. Malcolmson, then at
Paris, and which contained a rude drawing of the Pterichthys, was
submitted to Agassiz, and the curiosity of the naturalist was excited.
He examined the figure, rather, however, with interest than sur-
prise, and read the accompanying description, not in the least
inclined to scepticism by the singularity of its details. He had
looked on too many wonders of a similar cast to believe that he
had exhausted them, or to evince any astonishment that geology
should be found to contain one wonder more ("The Old Red
Sandstone11 by Hugh Miller, p. 119, Boston, 1854).

Although Agassiz had great sympathy and very cor-
dial relations with Hugh Miller, their correspondence
was extremely limited. Mrs. Agassiz says that with
a single exception no letters have been found from
him among Agassiz's papers ; and she gives that unique
Q

226 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

letter in Vol. II., pp. 470-477 of her work (" Louis
Agassiz, His Life and Correspondence "). Lately
another letter has been found in Switzerland by
M. Auguste Mayor, and I here give an extract from it.
The principal part is descriptive of specimens of fossil
fishes sent to Agassiz, which would be unintelligible
without good figures, and is consequently omitted ;
but the parts given are interesting on account of the
great originality and keenness of the writer.

CROMARTY, 3oth May, 1838.
PROFESSOR AGASSIZ,

Neuchatel.

Honored sir, - - 1 have just learned from my friend Dr. Mal-
colmson that you have expressed a wish to see one of the fossils of
my little collection. I herewith send it you and a few others which
you may perhaps take some interest in examining.

I fain wish I could describe well enough to give you correct ideas
of the locality in which they occur. Imagine a lofty promontory
somewhat resembling a huge spear thrust horizontally into the sea,-
an immense mass of granitic gneiss, forming the head and a long
rectilinear line of Old Red Sandstone the shaft. On the south side
are the waters of the Moray Firth, on the north those of the Firth
of Cromarty. The claystone beds which contain the fossils occupy
an upper place on the sandstone shaft, covering it saddlewise from
firth to firth. A bed of yellowish stone about sixty feet in thick-
ness lies over them, except where they are laid bare by the sea, or
cut into by two deep ravines — a bed of redder stone of unascer-
tainable depth (though it may be measured downwards for consid-
erably more than one hundred yards) lies beneath. The beds
themselves average from ten to thirty feet in thickness. They
abound everywhere in obscure vegetable impressions and fossil
fishes, but in some little spots these last are much better preserved
than in the general mass. All my more delicately marked fossils
have been furnished by one little piece of beach hardly more than
forty square yards in extent.

1 843-44-] LETTER OF HUGH MILLER. 227

Of all the fossils of these beds, the one with the tuberculated
covering seems least akin to anything that exists at present. I
have split up many hundred nodules containing remains of this
animal, for in the time of the Old Red Sandstone it must have
existed by myriads in this part of Scotland. The larger ones I
have invariably found broken and imperfect. The nodules in
which they occur are in general too small to contain more than
detached parts of them when large ; and besides, the coat of the
creature, consisting of hard plates separated apparently by sutures,
must have offered a very unequal degree of resistance to the super-
incumbent weight. And, however, though the plates themselves
are often as well defined and entire as the bits of a dissected map,
they are almost always found displaced and lying apart. It is only
the smaller fossils that I find perfect enough to furnish me with
anything like adequate ideas of the original shape of the animal ;
but in these, though the general outline be better preserved, the
plates are comparatively obscure. Thus the bits of the dissected
map still want a key, and I have not yet become skilful enough to
place them together without one.

The form of the body of the creature seems to have somewhat
resembled that of a tortoise. . . . Pardon me, honored Sir, that I
use this minute in describing these differences to you who observe
better than any one else and can make a better use of what you
observe. I have not succeeded in convincing some of our northern
geologists that we have two varieties of small scaled fish in our
beds, and I am now appealing to you as our common judge, and
thus showing the ground of my appeal. Besides, as I cannot send
you my specimens by hundreds, I deem it best (though it may seem
presumptuous in one so unskilled) to communicate in this way the
result of my examinations of the whole. One single specimen
sometimes furnishes a characteristic tract regarding which perhaps
fifty illustrations of the same fossil may be silent. Among all my
specimens of the fish with the spines, only one shows me that the
animal was marked by a lateral line. ... I am afraid, however,
that when thus communicating the results of some of my petty
observations. I am but gaining for myself the reputation of being a
tedious fellow.

228 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

I need not say how heartily welcome you are to the specimens I
send you, should you have any wish to retain them. . . . Do I ask
too much, honored Sir, when I request a very few lines from you
to say whether the formation in which these fossils occur be a
freshwater one, or otherwise, and whether the small scaled fish with
the teeth be of a kind already known to geologists or a new one?
I am much alone in this remote corner — a kind of Robinson
Crusoe in geology --and somewhat in danger of the savages who
cannot be made to understand why, according to Job, a man should
be "making leagues with the stones of the field." But I am san-
guine enough to hope that the good nature, of which my friend Dr.
Malcolmson speaks so warmly, may lead its owner to devote a few
spare minutes to render these leagues useful to me.

I am, I trust, sufficiently acquainted with geology, rightly to
value the decisions of its highest authority.

I am, honored Sir, with sincere respect,

Your most obedient Servant,

HUGH MILLER.

P. S.-- Since writing the above, I have picked up a specimen
which, I am pretty sure, you would deem interesting, but for which
I have unluckily no room in the box. It contains parts of the
tuberculated fossil, and among the rest the teeth of the creature.
These last somewhat resemble the teeth of a lobster, being appar-
ently cut out of the solid part of the jaw rather than fixed in it.

H. M.

Miller found more specimens, and more perfect ones,
in newly discovered beds of Old Red of Nairnshire, and
when Agassiz visited him in 1840, he showed him three
well-preserved species of the Ptcrichthys, and the wings
of a fourth. To one of these remarkable animals, look-
ing like the letter T, Agassiz has given the appropriate
name of Pterichthys Milleri. Complete and good speci-
mens were exhibited at the Glasgow Meeting of 1840,
and some restorations of the animals were made by

1 843-44.] OLD RED SANDSTONE. 229

Dinkel, in 1844, for the " Medals of Creation" by Dr.
G. Mantell, and were reproduced in the " Vestiges of
Creation." But Dinkel, so well trained, and so long
Agassiz's artist of fossil fishes, was not successful ; and
he failed also in trying the restoration of another rather
curious form of Old Red fish, the Coccostens or bcrry-on-
bonc. These two examples show what strange creatures
existed during the Devonian period, and the credit of
determining their place is due to Agassiz's keen eyes
and great knowledge of comparative anatomy ; for he
did not hesitate, on receiving the first broken and very
imperfect specimens, to say that the creatures must have
been fishes. As Miller says : " I received new light from
the researches of Agassiz which, while it did not show my
way more clearly, rendered it at least more interesting
by associating with it one of those wonderful truths,
stranger than fiction, which rise ever and anon from the
profounder depths of science, and whose use, in their
connection with the human intellect, seems to be to
stimulate the faculties. I have often had occasion to re-
fer to the one-sided condition of tail characteristic of the
ichthyolites of the Old Red Sandstone." "It character-
izes," says Agassiz, "the fish of all the most ancient for-
mations. At one certain point in the descending scale,
Nature entirely alters her plan in the formation of the
tail. All the ichthyolites above are fashioned after one
particular type — all below after another and different
type."1

In his preface to " The Old Red Sandstone," Agas-
siz says : " So true is it that observation alone is a

1 "The Old Red Sandstone," pp. 115-116, Boston, 1854.

230 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

safe guide to the laws of development of organized
beings, and that we must be on our guard against all
those systems of transformation of species so lightly
invented by the imagination." What a prophetic and
true sentence against Darwin's " Origin of Species,"
published fifteen years after. Observations and facts
only are given in his " Old Red Fishes," which he has
well summarized in the following words : " What I wish
to prove here, by a careful discussion of the facts
reported in the following pages, is the truth of the law
now so clearly demonstrated in the series of verte-
brates, that the successive creations have undergone
phases of development analogous to those of the embryo
in its growth, and similar to the gradations shown by
the present creation in the ascending series, which it
presents as a whole. One may consider it as hence-
forth proved that the embryo of the fish during its
development, the class of fishes as it at present exists
in its numerous families, and the type of fishes in its
planetary history, exhibit analogous phases through
which one may follow the same creative thought like a
guiding thread in the study of the connection between
organized being. . . . The facts, taken as a whole,
seem to me to show, not only that the fishes of the Old
Red constitute an independent fauna, distinct from those
of other deposits, but that they also present in their
organization the most remarkable analogy with the first
phases of embryologic development in the bony fishes
of our epoch, and a no less marked parallelism with the
lower degrees of certain types of the class as it now
exists on the surface of the earth."

1 843-44.] FOSSIL FISHES OF THE OLD RED. 231

The " Monograph of the Fossil Fishes of the
Old Red ' is more important for the embryologic
development, the zoological gradation, the geological
succession, and the geographical distribution in the
past and the present, than the " Origin of Species,"
by Darwin. It has remained, and will continue to
remain, a landmark in zoological researches, because
nothing in it is left to supposition. Instead of being
a work of the imagination, a philosophical dissertation,
like the " Origin of Species," it is simply a record of
facts and very keen observations ; and in science, and
more especially in natural history, nothing is of value
except exact observations. Agassiz was not an op-
ponent of development ; on the contrary, he gave facts
in its favour, many years before Darwin did ; but he
was averse to drawing too hasty conclusions ; and
he leaned all the time " upon an intellectual coherence,
and not upon a material connection " ; and he thought
that variability seemed controlled by something more
than the mechanism of self-adjusting forces. In a
word, Agassiz, after his student life, was not a
materialist, but a spiritualist, in natural history, an
adversary, both of agnosticism and of pietism ; for he
says : " I dread quite as much the exaggeration of
religious fanaticism, borrowing fragments from science,
imperfectly, or not at all, understood, and then making
use of them to prescribe to scientific men what they
are allowed to see or to find in nature" (Louis Agassiz,
in a letter to Professor Adam Sedgwick, dated June,

I8451)-

1 " Louis Agassiz," by Mrs. E. C. Agassiz, Vol. I., p. 388.

232 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

The " Histoire naturelle des Poissons d'Eau douce
de 1' Europe Centrale " remained unfinished, and has a
rather curious history. Agassiz began it as far back
as 1828, when he was a student at Munich, and when
his artist friend, Joseph Dinkel, was already making
drawings of freshwater fishes for him.

In 1839 appeared the first " livraison ' of a folio
atlas, published " aux frais de 1'auteur," and dedicated
to the British Association for the Advancement of
Science. This first monograph treated of the salmon
family, and was divided into two parts : the first, con-
taining the twenty-seven well-executed and luxuriously
printed plates by Dinkel, Sonrel, and Nicolet, illus-
trating the genera Salmo and Thymalus, with explana-
tions in French, German, and English, and with a cover
designed by Dinkel, representing fishes in all sorts of
attitudes and groups, with a boy four years old - - the
portrait of Alexander Agassiz - - fishing on the shore
of the Lake of Neuchatel. The second part of the
plates was announced to be issued with the first vol-
ume of text ; but changes were made, and the text of
Vol. I., containing the "Embryologie des Salmones,"
by C. Vogt, was published in 1842, without plates, the
latter being issued in 1848, in Vol. III. of the " Memoires
des Sciences naturelles de Neuchatel."

Agassiz, under the date of 1845, in the introduction
of the "Anatomic des Salmones," by L. Agassiz and
C. Vogt, gives the following explanation : " The ana-
tomical studies contained in this memoir were under-
taken for the * Histoire naturelle des Poissons d'Eau
douce de 1' Europe Centrale, de M. Agassiz,' and were

1 843-44.] K. VOGT LEAVES AGASSIZ. 233

at first destined to form the second volume. Some
special circumstances have led the editor to adopt
another mode of publication.

" In order to render justice to every one, it is desir-
able to remark here that the Osteology and the Neurol-
ogy are due to the researches of M. Agassiz, while
the Myology, the Splanctionology, the description of
the ' sensitive organs ' and the Angiology have been
worked out by M. Vogt. All the plates were drawn
by M. Vogt. This work dates as far back as 1843 and
1844, a few observations being added in 1845.

"L. A."

That Agassiz directed the work and freely gave his
advice to Vogt, there is no doubt ; but in some way
Vogt became dissatisfied. He disapproved of the
organization and methods of Agassiz's establishment,
and was more or less disappointed in his expectations ;
and, in consequence, in the autumn of 1844, after act-
ing as Agassiz's assistant for five years- -during which
time he certainly worked most efficiently and very hard
— he left him to try his fortune in Paris. Strange to
say, the break between Agassiz and Vogt, instead of
healing as the years went by, increased to such an
extent, that they wrere very unjust and bitter towards
one another. It must be regretted, for nothing really
important and seriously affecting either had occurred
between them. Agassiz never published anything
against Vogt, though Vogt might have shown more
discretion in his printed criticism ; and I do not hesitate
to say that he was unjust and guilty of exaggeration

234 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

«
touching some points, and that all that he says about

Agassiz's life in America is absolutely erroneous. He
disliked Neuchatel and the Neuchatelois, and most of
his indignation was hurled against them through and to
the detriment of Agassiz.

Although Agassiz spent a few days in 1843 on the
Aar glacier, his interest in the work going on there
was manifestly lessening, and in 1844 he failed to make
his usual summer visit.

In July, 1844, Desor, with the permission of Agassiz,
published a very interesting and well written volume,
entitled, " Excursions et Sejours dans les Glaciers et
les hautes Regions des Alpes, de M. Agassiz et de ses
Compagnons de Voyage " (Neuchatel, I2mo). The vol-
ume begins with an excellent " Notice sur les Glaciers,"
by Agassiz, a masterly paper, which gives a scientific
turn to the whole work ; the rest is written in a pictur-
esque style, and in imitation of the celebrated and popu-
lar works of Rudolph Topffer, the artistic and "spiritual*
author of the " Nouvelles Genevoises " and the " Voy-
ages en zig-zag."

It was certainly very generous in Agassiz to allow
his secretary to publish at this time all his researches
on the glaciers and among the Alps ; for it affected the

/

sale of his own " Etudes sur les Glaciers ' (1840) and

r

Nouvelles Etudes sur les glaciers actuels ' (1847).
The last one, more especially, found no sale at all,
everything in it having been anticipated by Desor's
publication, which, though not so fully developed, ren-
dered Agassiz's work almost superfluous. Desor had
taken the lead in the glacial question, and was strug-

1 843-44.] MEETING AT CHAMBERY. 235

gling with its physical problems, for which he was quite
as little prepared as Agassiz. Every impartial observer
saw this plainly; and it was melancholy to see Agassiz's
already straitened resources expended upon almost use-
less works.

Although the extraordinary meeting of the Geological
Society of France, in the Swiss Jura, at Porrentruy,
Soleure, and Bienne, in 1838, had much advanced the
recognition of the glacial question, it was important that
another meeting should be held, this time in the very
centre of the phenomena, among the Alps. The city
of Chambery, then belonging to the kingdom of Pied-
mont and Sardinia, was chosen, and the society held its
extraordinary session there, during the month of August,
1844. Agassiz presided over several of the meetings ;
as did also Bishop Rendu. Here these two great mas-
ters of the glacial theory met and entirely agreed.
After a full and very clear exposition by Bishop Rendu
of his " Theorie sur les Glaciers en General,"1 the I5th
of August, Agassiz says that he agreed ''entirely with
the theory as it was explained by Bishop Rendu."
Numerous adversaries, representing the theories of mud
currents, or also of icebergs, tried hard to oppose them ;
but one after another was silenced by the numerous
facts brought forward by Agassiz, Rendu, and others.
It was the last strong attempt to resist the glacial the-

r

ory. Afterward, Elie de Beaumont and his numerous
adherents in France and Italy, as well as Leopold von
Buch, continued their opposition, in a sort of Platonic

1 " Bulletin Societe geologique de France," 2ieme serie, Vol. I., pp.
631-636, Paris, 1844.

236 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

way, to cover their retreat. But we may truly say that
the Chambery session of the Geological Society of
France was the Waterloo of the mud theory for trans-
portation of boulders.

Agassiz, as usual with him, was very brilliant in his
exposition of all the observations he had made on the
glacier of the Aar ; and Bishop Rendu admirably de-
scribed the phenomena in Savoy. Agassiz, more espe-
cially, insisted that proofs accumulated every year to
show that the " Ice-age ' extended all over Europe,
and that the Alps were formerly a great central mass of
ice, extending forty leagues all around, as far as Lyons.
Professor Angelo Sismonda, of Turin, continued to
maintain that the phenomena did not extend to the
southern part of the Alps of Piedmont, until Professor
Bartholomeo Gastaldi finally proved beyond question, in
1850, that ancient glaciers occupied the whole valley of
the P6 and other valleys in Piedmont, just as they did
the valleys of the Rhone, the Arve and the Isere rivers.
I well remember those discussions, for I was a hearer
of several of them, and can vouch for the splendid part
taken by Agassiz in hastening the acceptance of the
glacial doctrine. We may say, without any exaggeration,
that the interference of Agassiz advanced fully thirty
years the recognition of the glacial theory, and that he,
and he alone, established the great " Ice-age."

Signs of bad management were visible in more than
one direction. The great lithographic institution of
Hercule Nicolet was kept running with the greatest
difficulty. After bringing about an association of Nico-
let with a capitalist, M. Jeanjaquet, Agassiz was con-

1 843-44.] DINKEL LEAVES NEUCHATEL. 237

stantly obliged to furnish work absolutely unnecessary
and very expensive. In a letter to the firm Nicolet and
Jeanjaquet, dated 2d July, 1842, Agassiz says: " Vous
etes parfaitement libres de faire ce qu'il vous plaira a
1'egard de vos employes; deja trop souvent j'ai fait
faire des travaux considerables nniqnement pour occuper
vos employes, travaux qui me sont restes des mois et
des mois inutilement sur les bras. J'ai fait tirer de
fortes editions d'ouvrages divers, dont je n'ai que peu
d'exemplaires places, pour vous accommoder. ... J'ai
Fhonneur de vous prevenir que je desire savoir si je
puis compter sur les travaux dont je vous ai parle lors
de ma derniere visite aux Sablons, parce que sans cela
j'ai reellement 1'intention de les faire faire ailleurs, car
je suis sur d'avance qu'ils me couteront beaucoup
moins." We have here Agassiz's own confession that
he undertook some works, solely to give occupation to
the too expensive lithographic establishments of the
Sablons, — an unbusiness-like proceeding, which was
certain to hasten the catastrophe which occurred, in
February, 1845, after a struggle of more than a year
and a half, when the whole establishment was broken
up and disposed of by auction.

Joseph Dinkel, the trusted and true friend of Agassiz,
his constant companion since they were students together
at Munich, left him to go to England to find work and
make a home for himself. He disapproved the leader-
ship of Desor, and foresaw very stormy times for his
good friend Agassiz ; and he prophesied to an artist
friend, who repeated it to me a few years after, that
Agassiz would not always submit to such a dictatorship

238 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix.

as Desor had assumed, and that it would end in terrible
strife. Dinkel clearly saw the game Desor was playing.
From the first he did not like him, and it was very pain-
ful to him to see Agassiz fall into such hands. He left
Neuchatel, with regret, in the spring of 1844, and many
years after acknowledged "that for a long time he felt
unhappy at the separation." In most graphic terms he
described Agassiz, who, he says, " was a kind, noble-
hearted friend ; he was very benevolent, and if he had
possessed millions of money, he would have spent them
upon his researches in science, and have done good to his
fellow-creatures as much as possible."1 Every word is
true, and is a noble tribute from one who knew Agassiz
most intimately during the time of life when faults of
character are most conspicuous, and are easily discov-
ered in the intimacy of friendship.

Still another misfortune befell Agassiz at the close of
the year 1844. Gressly, who usually returned to the
laboratory in Neuchatel at the beginning of the winter,
did not come back ; and it was only after weeks had
passed without any tidings of him, that it was learned
that the poor fellow was suffering under an attack of
religious insanity, and had been placed in an asylum.

1 " Louis Agassiz," by Mrs. E. C. Agassiz. Vol. I., p. 142.

CHAPTER X.

1845-

" MONOGRAPHIE DES MYES," 1842-1845 — THE " NOMENCLATOR ZOOLO-
GICUS," 1842-1845 — " BlBLIOGRAPHIA ZOOLOGL^E ET GEOLOGI.E " —
" ICONOGRAPHIE DES COQUILLES TERTIAIRES RliPUTEES IDENTIQUES
AVEC LES ESPECES VlVANTES," ETC. - - THE TWO TRANSLATIONS OF
SOWERBY'S " MINERAL CONCHOLOGY OF GREAT BRITAIN " — ACTUAL
MERCANTILE VALUE OF AGASSIZ'S PUBLICATIONS — AGASSIZ'S FAMILY
COME TO HIS HELP — GREAT CREDIT DUE TO NEUCHATEL AND ITS
INHABITANTS — AGASSIZ'S LAST SERIES OF LECTURES: "NOTICE SUR
LA GEOGRAPHIE DES ANIMAUX "-- INTIMATE FRIENDSHIP WITH JULES
PlCTET DE LA RlVE — AGASSIZ'S LAST VlSIT TO THE AAR GLACIER -
THE MEETING OF THE HELVETIC SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCES AT
GENEVA, AUGUST, 1845 — A LETTER TO PICTET, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL
REMARKS — BIOGRAPHY OF AGASSIZ BY PICTET — AGASSIZ RETURNS
ALL THE SPECIMENS BORROWED FOR HIS GREAT PAL^ONTOLOGICAL
WORKS.

THE year 1845 was spent mainly in finishing the
publication of works more or less advanced, and in
making a sort of scientific "liquidation," or clearing up.
The " Monographic des Myes," a quarto volume, with
an atlas of ninety-four well-executed plates, begun in
1842, an excellent and very useful work, containing a
number of new, well-defined genera, and which has
since been used constantly in conchology, was com-
pleted. Alcide d'Orbigny criticised several of the new

239

240 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. x.

genera, but Agassiz answered him successfully in his
" Introduction," maintaining the value of such genera
as Goniomya, Ceromya, Arcomya, Mactromya, Pleuromya,
Gresslya, Cardinia, etc., and in a letter to Pictet, dated
Aug. 15, 1845, he says: " Je crois que vous avez
accorde un peu trop d'importance aux critiques que
d'Orbigny a faites de quelques uns de mes genres des
Myacees. Dans ma 4^me livraison j'ai refute ce qui
me paraissait exagere ; il y a des remarques justes,
mais il y en a quelques unes qui sont completement
erronees."

The manuscript of another work of great impor-
tance, of "which the first part was issued in 1842, the
" Nomenclator Zoologicus," was pushed forward with
that strong will which was now and then characteristic
of Agassiz. As he says, the work embraces the sources
of critical zoology: " C'est un travail de patience qui
a exige des recherches bien longues et bien penibles.
J'en avais conc^u le plan des les premieres annees de
mes etudes et des lors je n'ai jamais perdu de vue ce
projet. J'ose croire que ce sera une digue contre la con-
fusion babylonique qui tend a envahir le domaine de la
synonymie en Zoologie " (Letter to M. de Chambrier,
President of the State Council of Neuchatel, April,
1842).

The publication, which is in Latin, is a large quarto,
issued in eleven fasciculi ; the last one, which treats of
the Colcoptcra, having been published at Soloduri, in
1846; while the " Pref atio indicis universalis " is dated
Neocomi, Mense, Decembri, 1845. The " Index" alone
comprises 393 quarto pages; a duodecimo edition was

1 845.] NOMENCLATOR ZOOLOGICUS. 241

also issued at the same time. The general " Prefatio '
at the beginning of the work was written entirely by
Agassiz. It occupies forty-two pages, rendering justice
to all his collaborators, who included Prince Charles
Lucien Bonaparte, H. Burmeister, Dumeril, G. R. Gray,
Herman von Meyer, Milne-Edwards, Strickland, Charles
Des Moulins, etc. This " Prefatio ' is dated Neocomi
Helvetorum, Febr., 1846, only a few days before
Agassiz left Neuchatel for his journey to America.
To give an idea of the great labour expended in carry-
ing the work to completion, it will suffice to say that
it contains thirty-one thousand names of genera and
families alone, with bibliographical quotations number-
ing thirty-four thousand titles of works or papers on
natural history. In all, the number of quotations is
more than one hundred and fifty thousand.

Agassiz had collected for his own private use a
catalogue of all known works and detailed memoirs on
zoology and geology ; and, before leaving Europe, he
made an arrangement with the " Ray Society," of
London, to publish it. Professor H. E. Strickland, the
successor of Buckland at the Oxford University, was
requested to act as editor ; but, unhappily, Strickland
was accidentally killed, in September, 1853, while geol-
ogizing on the track of the Great Northern Railway,
at the mouth of the Clanborough Tunnel, near East
Retford, before he had finished the publication of the
" Bibliographia Zoologiae et Geologise," based on Agas-
siz's manuscripts ; and Sir William Jardine, the eminent
naturalist, and father-in-law of the lamented Strickland,
completed the editing of the remaining volumes of the

R

242 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. x.

work, which is composed of four octavo volumes, con-
taining the literature of zoology and geology until 1846;
a most useful publication, dated London, 1848-1854.

In 1845 another memoir on fossil conchology was
published by Agassiz, under the title : " Iconographie
des coquilles tertiaires reputees identiques avec les
especes vivantes ou dans differents terrains de 1'epoque
tertiaires, accompagnee de la description des especes
nouvelles," in " Nouveaux Memoires de la Societe Helve-
tique des Sciences Naturelles," Vol. VII. It is, perhaps,
the most objectionable paper he ever produced. Start-
ing from a preconceived idea that not a single animal
survived a geological epoch, and that no species passed
from one formation to another, with his great faculty
for differentiating specimens, he easily pointed out a
certain number of cases of Lncina, Venus, Cytherca,
Cyprina, and other acephales, which showed variations,
and which, according to his views, demonstrated that
the species, instead of being identical, were only analo-
gous. Deshayes and other conchologists did not accept
Agassiz's view, and, in fact, later knowledge has greatly
added to the number of species which pass from one
formation to another, not only for the tertiary epochs,
but also for the Mesozoic and the Paleozoic forma-
tions. The complete destruction of faunas and creation
of new and entirely different ones, without the survival
of a single species, can no longer be defended ; more
especially in its application to marine animals. As
usual, the memoir of Agassiz is beautifully illustrated
with fourteen plates, representing with great care all
the details of the shells.

I845-] TWO TRANSLATIONS OF SOWERBY. 243

During 1845 the last parts of the two translations in
French and in German of Sowerby's " Mineral Conchol-
ogy of Great Britain ' ' were distributed to the few sub-
scribers. The French edition, a large volume with an
atlas of 395 coloured plates, is entitled, " Conchologie
(sic) Mineralogique de la Grande Bretagne," par James
Sowerby, " traduction frangaise revue, corrigee et aug-
mentee par L. Agassiz." The German edition entitled,
" James Sowerby's Mineral-Conchologie Grossbritan-
niens, etc., Deutsch bearbeitet von Ed. Desor. Durch-
gesehen und mit Anmerkungen und Berichtigungen
versehen von Dr. L. Agassiz," is also composed of a
large volume, with the same atlas of 395 coloured
plates. Although the price was considerably lower
than that of the original English edition, the two trans-
lations did not sell well ; especially the French edi-
tion, which was and has remained almost absolutely
unknown. The undertaking was a great mistake in
every way, and both works have remained a drug in
the market.

Generally, as years pass, or after the death of an
author, some of his publications become rare and
valuable, and command a higher price than was asked
at the time of their issue. With Agassiz's publications,
however, this is not the case ; not a single one of his
European works is now quoted above, or even at, its
price of publication. All are discounted with a fair
reduction from the original price, and can be obtained
easily of any bookseller in Europe. The same thing
has happened also in the case of all his publications in
America, with the single exception of his volume on

244 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. x.

" Lake Superior," the value of which has risen to two
and even three times the price asked by the publisher,
when it came out in 1850, and it is now difficult to pro-
cure a copy. The explanation of this in the case of
some of Agassiz's works, which are really of great
scientific value, is, that in their desire to help him, many
persons were ready to pay any price asked, and conse-
quently almost all his publications were issued at rather
high prices ; while others of his publications, although
they were expensive, were either not really needed, like
the translations of Buckland's and Sowerby's works, or
were limited to a too small circle of naturalists to secure
a large sale.

Better management would have prevented Agassiz
from running into debt on account of his numerous
publications. At the same time that he was issuing his
works with such losses, works of the same sort were
published in France, not only without loss, but even
with profit from the very beginning of the undertaking.
I refer to the great work of Deshayes, " Description
des Coquilles fossiles des Environs de Paris," and
more especially the " Paleontologie frangaise," by Alcide
d'Orbigny. Agassiz differed from them, also, in his
method of working, and in his domestic arrangements,
for both Deshayes and d'Orbigny worked alone, without
assistants of any sort, except their artists ; and their
establishments at Paris were extremely modest, and
limited to what was strictly necessary.

In 1845 the pecuniary position of Agassiz became
very serious, and his family were obliged to come to his
assistance, which they did with great generosity. All

1 845.] CREDIT DUE TO NEUCHATEL. 245

his numerous and bulky publications were put into the
hands of the rich firm of Jent and Gassmann, booksellers
and publishers at Solothurn; securities were given to his
creditors, and everything was most honourably arranged
to relieve him from his immediate distressing position.

If, however, his Neuchatel establishment was a fail-
ure pecuniarily, scientifically it was a success unique
in natural history. The result of his fourteen years'
residence at Neuchatel was the publication of more
than twenty volumes, with two thousand folio or oc-
tavo plates, and many separate papers ; all were well
written, beautifully printed, and profusely illustrated
with most exact drawings - - a record so creditable that
it gave a just celebrity, not only to Agassiz, but also to
Neuchatel, at that time a small town of less than six
thousand inhabitants. The " Neuchatelois ' may well
be proud of such a performance ; their great liberality
toward science, and their appreciation of the rare value
of Agassiz, made it possible for him to prosecute with
unimpaired vigour his remarkable scientific researches
famed the world over.

That Agassiz thought that he was acting wisely in
receiving Vogt and Desor at his table as regular board-
ers, and giving a room in his apartment to Desor, there
is no doubt. But, in the long run, the scheme proved
expensive, and most harassing to his wife. Little by
little, the characters of both Vogt and Desor came
out; jokes of doubtful politeness were indulged in;
remarks rather satirical, cynical, and anti-religious were
not rare. Vogt, more especially, never missed an oppor-
tunity to make a "bon mot' at the expense of the

246 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. x.

Bible, turning into ridicule all religious beliefs and
practices. Mrs. Agassiz, being a religious woman and
bred in a totally different atmosphere in her own home
at Carlsruhe, was very sensitive to these sarcasms.
Finally expenses and difficulties reached such a climax
that a crisis became inevitable. Mrs. Agassiz' s health
was poor; and the announcement, by newspaper, all
over Germany, of a royal gift by the king of Prussia to
allow Agassiz to make a journey \o Arherica, was
hailed as a proper moment to join her own family at
Carlsruhe.

In a letter, dated Carlsruhe, i6th of March, 1845, her
devoted brother, Alexander Braun, wrote that all was
ready at his home to receive her. (Alexander Braun's
" Leben," pp. 378, 379.) Taking her children with her,
first on a visit to the excellent mother of Agassiz at
Cudrefin, at the old Dr. Mayor's house, Mrs. Agassiz
then left Neuchatel early in May. It is the most pain-
ful incident in the life of the great naturalist That
misunderstandings and difficulties developed mainly by
extravagance in the interest of natural history should
have had such a final result, is most pitiable and to be
regretted. These explanations are not meant to excuse
the faults committed by Agassiz at this time of his life ;
they show, however, how he fell into errors, and how
he might easily have avoided them. They have been
rendered necessary by what has been said, rather
bitterly, by the biographer of Desor (" Edward Desor :
Lebensbild eines Naturforschers," von Karl Vogt,
Breslau, 1882).

I845-] HIS LAST LECTURE AT NEUCHATEL. 247

In the spring of 1845, Agassiz delivered his last pub-
lic course of twelve lectures on the " Plan de la Creation,"
showing the successive development of organized beings.
It was followed with more attention and by a more numer-
ous audience than any of his previous annual series of
lectures. The news that he was to undertake a journey
to the New World under the auspices, and with the h<flp
of the king of Prussia and prince of Neuchatel, who con-
tributed from his " private purse three thousand dollars,
caused a surprise mingled with fear that he would prob-
ably never return to resume his position at Neuchatel.
Everybody in Neuchatel highly appreciated, not only the
great savant who was truly the founder of the Academy,
-which, but for him, would not have been established
for years,- -but also the friend and charmer so highly
esteemed and beloved, and went anxiously to hear him
once more ; anticipating, with good reason, that this
last course might be regarded as his scientific testa-
ment.

Agassiz took care to dictate his last lecture, and pub-
lished it in the first number of the " Revue Suisse,"
just transferred from Lausanne to Neuchatel, in August,
1845. The title of the lecture is : " Notice sur la Geo-
graphic des Animaux, par L. Agassiz " ; and it begins
with the following sentence : " All organized beings,
plants as well as animals, are confined to a special
area [or, as he calls it, " ont une patrie "]. Man alone
is spread over the whole surface of the earth." Strange
to say, one of his first impressions, after studying the
different races of man he met with in America, led him
to reverse this opinion, and a few years later he pub-

248 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. x.

lished his remarkable and scientifically very frank
paper, "Sketch of the Natural Provinces of the Ani-
mal World and their Relation to the Different Types
of Man," Cambridge, 1853. Agassiz was too good a
naturalist, too much accustomed to differentiate ani-
mals, to accept unity in the genus Homo, and when
converted to the views of Dr. Samuel Morton of Phila-
delphia on the different types and diversity of man, he
frankly proclaimed his change of opinion to the scien-
tific world, with the same earnestness with which eight
years previously he maintained the old creed of a unique
species ; and when, a few years later, he heard of the
discoveries of the fossil man of the Quaternary epoch,
he accepted it at once, delighted to learn that a man
was in existence and saw the great glaciers, of which he
was the first to conceive the existence before the present
epoch.

I may add a personal reminiscence of the first time
I saw Agassiz, when I presented to him a letter of
introduction from his friend Jules Thurmann. He had
close by him on his desk a pile of copies of this notice
on the geography of animals, and taking one, he wrote
my name on the cover, and offered it to me. I have
ever kept that first gift of Agassiz — followed by many
others, for he always from that time gave me all his
publications — as a souvenir of one of the most fasci-
nating men I have met in my life ; for such was the
impression he made on me ; an impression which has
remained unimpaired, and indeed constantly deepened,
until the last day of his life.

During 1845, the friendship which had existed for at

1 845.] INTIMACY WITH PICTET. 249

least twelve years with Jules Pictet de la Rive of Geneva,
became intimacy, and remained so until the end. These
two savants had many similar qualities, and it is not
surprising that when they met they became the best of
friends. For Pictet life was never difficult. Son of an
old and wealthy family, he married early the grand-
daughter of the celebrated Madame Necker-de-Saus-
sure, and became one of the richest men of Geneva ;
while, on the contrary, Agassiz had to struggle all his
life against poverty. However, both of them spent
largely for science, and were never so happy as when
they were able to secure at any price rare and well-
preserved natural history specimens. Although rich,
Pictet always worked very hard, being second only to
Agassiz in this respect, and not far behind him. He
conceived and published the first manual of palaeontol-
ogy in four volumes ; and the first copy was sent to
Agassiz, who wrote at once a review of it for the
" Bibliotheque Universelle." The following is a letter
from Agassiz on the subject: —

NEUCHATEL, 7 Mai, 1845.
F. J. PICTET,

Geneve.

Mon cher ami, — Cest a vous plutot qu'a Monsieur de la Rive
que j'adresse Panalyse que je viens de faire de votre ouvrage (" Traite
elementaire de Paleontologie "). Vous voyez que j'ai tenu parole
de ne prendre que le temps materiellement necessaire a sa lecture
pour la rediger. Aussi ma notice doit se ressentir de cette precipi-
tation, et c'est ce qui m'a fait decider de vous la soumettre d'abord.
Corrigez et changez ce que vous voudrez, je ivai pas Tesprit assez
repose pour avoir pu faire quelque chose de complet, quoique j'aie
hi votre beau livre bien attentivement. Je ne cloute pas que cet

250 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. x.

ouvrage n?ait un grand succes, et je vous engagerais fort a en pro-
voquer la traduction en anglais et en alleraand.

J'aurais eu un chapitre a ecrire sur la nature des progres orga-
niques, realises dans la serie des terrains, mais cela m'aurait entraine
a m'ecarter trop de votre ouvrage, et c?est ce que je n'ai pas voulu
faire.

Vous seriez bien aimable de venir me voir bientot ; quant a moi
je doute de pouvoir aller encore une fois a Geneve ; je suis accable
de travail. Mais proposez cette course a Favre et venez bientdt ;
ce serait un grand bonheur pour moi de vous revoir avant mon
depart qui est fixe a la fin de Juin. [He did not leave, however,
until ten months later.]

Je vous enverrai sous pen un long memoire sur la question des
Coquilles Tertiaires reputees identiques avec les vivantes, que je
viens de faire imprimer.

Mille amities a M. de la Rive. J'ai d'excellentes nouvelles de
Vogt, qui travaille comme un forcene a Paris, je lui ferai parvenir
Texemplaire du Traite (de Paleontologie) que vous lui destinez et
qu'il n'a surement pas davantage que moi.

Votre tout devoue,

Ls. AGASSIZ.

Dites moi si vous me pardonnez mes critiques.

A last visit to the glacier of the Aar, at the begin-
ning of August, 1845, was made in order to transfer
all the observations to Daniel Dollfus-Ausset, who had
generously offered to continue them at his own expense,
and who did so with great perseverance, during sixteen
years, until 1861. (See " Glaciers en activite," in "Ma-

/

teriaux pour 1' Etude des Glaciers," par Dollfus-Ausset,
Vol. V., Paris, 1870.)

As soon as Agassiz returned to Neuchatel, he again
left to attend the annual meeting of the Helvetian
Society of Natural Sciences, held at Geneva the nth,
1 2th, and I3th of August, 1845. There, although only

1 845.] MEETING AT GENEVA. 251

a middle-aged man, he seemed like the leader of the
meeting. He spoke first, at the general session, on the
structure of the fins of fishes ; and then, at the special
sections of physics, he gave an account of his researches
during the last three years on the glacier of the Aar,
dealing more especially with the motion of the glacier,
its structure, the ablation of the surface, the meteorol-
ogy, etc. Discussion followed, in which Jean de Char-
pentier, the founder of the glacial theory, and Venetz,
son of the first promoter and discoverer of the existence
of ancient and immense glaciers in the Rhone valley,
took part and gave new proofs of the great value now
attached to their first observations. Leopold von Buch,
present at the meeting, did not approve all that he
heard respecting glaciers, and left, rather indignant at
the evidence of the great progress made; for at this time,
all the Geneva naturalists, with the exception of Jean
Andre de Luc, then an octogenarian, were converted
to the new theory. Arriving at Zurich a few days
after the meeting was over, von Buch called on Arnold
Escher von der Linth, as he was accustomed to do
almost annually, and begged Escher to take him on an
excursion among the Alps of the Primitive Cantons of
Switzerland, making the one condition, however, that
Escher would not once speak of anything relating to
glaciers and glacial action. Escher, who respected and
loved von Buch, as the best friend of his deceased
'father, promised, and kept his word, notwithstanding
that he was himself one of the best and first-converted
glacialists, and that at every step he found most unde-
niable proofs of the great extension of glaciers. A few

252 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. x.

years later, Escher told me that it required the greatest
self-control he was ever able to exercise ; and that
nothing could induce him to attempt it again.

But to return to the Geneva meeting : Agassiz made
a third communication on the brain of fishes, and noted
the existence of a very large pot-hole (" Marmite des
Geants ") above the Handeck Fall in the Bernese Alps.
At the great dinner, given to the Helvetian Society at
the ''Hotel de la Navigation," Agassiz was toasted,
with the following remarks : " To the learned and ami-
able professor of Neuchatel, M. Agassiz, who is on the
point of undertaking a far-distant journey, where our
sympathies will follow him," etc.

The impression made on Agassiz was very strong, as
shown by the letter he immediately wrote to Pictet : —

NEUCHATEL, le 16 Aoftt, 1845.
JULES PICTET,

Geneve.

Mon cher ami, — Je ne veux pas tarder a vous envoyer Miller
("The Old Red Sandstone"), afin que vous le receviez avant votre
depart pour Naples. Renvoyez moi le des que vous le pourrez.

Je suis rentre chez moi hier, comme je me Petals propose, et j'ai
trouve ma mere qui m'attendait deja depuis la veille ; vous voyez
que c'eut ete tres mal de ma part de prolonger mon sejour a
Geneve. II fallait vraiment un pareil motif pour me donnerla force
de me separer de vous. Cette reunion a laisse dans mon coeur des
souvenirs ineffacables ; veuillez repeter encore a tous nos amis
communs, et en particulier a M. de la Rive, a Favre, a M. Marcet,
combien j'ai ete touche de leur accueil amical et de toutes les
marques d'amitie qu'ils m'ont donnees.

J'ai deja parcouru quelques feuilles de votre troisieme volume
( Traite de Paleontologie) ; plus j'apprends a connaitre votre livre,
et plus je suis convaincu qu'ilaura un grand succes. ... A propos,

I845-] BIOGRAPHICAL REMARKS. 253

j'ai oublie de vous demander si vous avez donne suite a la demande
qui vous a etc faite de rediger une notice biographique sur mon
compte, dans la Revue Rouiande ou je ne sais quel autre recueil.
Si cela est, dites-moi ou je la trouverai.

Votre tout devoue,

Ls. AGASSIZ.

The biography by Pictet, with an excellent portrait
of Agassiz, was communicated in manuscript to Agassiz,
who, in returning it, wrote in the following terms : —

NEUCHATEL, 25 Aout, 1845.
JULES PICTET,

Geneve.

REMARQUES :

Verso de page i.--"Cette correction, etc."; a effacer, on pour-
rait croire que mon pere m'avait a demi assomme,1 et personne
n'etait moins severe que lui.

Page 2. -- " d'eau douce " ; ajoutez : pour lequel il recueillit d'im-
portants materiaux dans le Rhin et dans le Necker, qu'il put com-
parer plus tard avec ceux du Danube et de risere, pendant son
sejour a Munich et a Vienne.

Verso de page 2. --Ajoutez au bas de la page : Ce gout pour Tob-
servation fut encore augmente par les nombreux voyages qu'il fit
dans le micli de PAllemagne, et en particulier dans les Alpes du
Tyrol, ou il se familiarisa avec Petude des plantes, sous la direction
d'un de ses condisciples, M. Alex. Braun, devenu depuis botaniste
distingue. Ces connaissances lui furent plus tard d'une immense
utilite pour Tetude des plantes fossiles.

page 4. — "Vogt.1' La large part que j'ai faite a Vogt dans la
publication de 1'embryologie des Salmones, que nous avons poursui-
vie pendant toute une saison en commun, et que je Tai charge plus
tard de terminer, tandis que j'aurais ete pleinement en droit d'apres

1 Here is the corrected sentence : " II (Agassiz) raconte lui-meme que
1'amour de la peche 1'entrainait quelquefois trop loin, et que la seule puni-
tion qu'il recut jamais de son pere lui fut inflige parce qu'il s'etait impru-
demment embarque dans un petit bateau pour la peche du brochet."

254 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. x.

ces antecedents de les publier sous nos noms reunis, ne doit pas
etre un motif pour m'exclure de toute participation a ce travail ;
ainsi modifiez legerement cet article, d'apres la preface de 1'ouvrage
redigee par Vogt lui-meme.

Page 9. - - Vous citez ici pour la deuxieme fois 1'ouvrage de Char-
pentier et vous ne mentionnez pas meme le mien qui etait deja,
lorsqu'il parut en 1840, appuye sur plus de faits que ceux que decrit
Charpentier. J'y donne deja des chiffres, et les premieres planches
que Ton ait possedees sur les glaciers, faites en vue de faire con-
naitre leur structure, la disposition des moraines, Faction des glaciers
sur le sol, les roches polies, etc., etc.

f

Ce fat deja en 1840 que j'allai visiter 1'Ecosse pour y chercher
des traces de glaciers et que je demontrai leur presence dans une
foule de ces belles vallees, tant d'apres 1'arrangement des moraines
qui les traversent, que d'apres la nature des polis de leurs parois
rocheuses et des galets de leur fond. Jeles observai aussi en Irlande,
en Angleterre dans la region des lacs, et plus tard dans la Foret
Noire. Et c'est a ces observations qu'est du 1'interet general qu'a
pris la question des glaciers.

Dernier e page. -- Ajoutez : Sous les auspices et aux frais du Roi
de Prusse, auquel j'ai du de flatteuses distinctions, ou quelque chose
d'analogue ; ce sera utile pour 1'avenir.1

Voila bien des observations, mon cher ami, mais vous les intro-
duirez encore plus brievement dans votre notice qui me fait grand
plaisir, et pour laquelle je vous remercie vivement. Si j'ai fait une

r

petite note pour les Etudes sur les glaciers, c'est que j'ai le senti-
ment qu'a 1'egard de ce livre, on n'a pas ete juste a mon egard et
que de toutes parts on lui a jete la pierre centre ; les uns disent que
j'en avais empi-unte le contenu a M. de Charpentier que je n'avais
pas pourtant visite qu'en 1836, tandis que mon ouvrage est de 1840,
et est le resultat de mes courses et de mes observations propres ; de
la la divergence sur tant de points avec de Charpentier qui n'a
public qu'un an plus tard ; les autres, et Forbes en particulier, meme
en 1842, m'ont refuse la connaissance de tout fait qui n'etait pas

1 It is evident that Agassiz, at that time, still hoped to be called to a
professorship in the University of Berlin.

1 8450 HIS BIOGRAPHY BY PICTET. 255

/

mentionne dans mes Etudes et cela meme pour des faits que je leur
ai montres le premier. Ce iVest done pas pour une miserable glo-
riole que je reclame, mais par un sentiment de justice.

Demain ou apres-demain je vous enverrai mes Myes.
Adieu, mon cher ami.

Tout a vous,

Ls. AGASSIZ.

P.S.--Voudriez-vous dire a Favre ou a son frere, si Alphonse
est aux Diablerets, qu'alors meme que je ne reponds pas immediate-
ment a sa lettre, il pent compter que je lui donnerai les renseigne-
ments qu'il me demande pour son voyage dans le Nord, avant mon
depart.

Pourrais-je obtenir de Tediteur de votre notice d'en avoir quel-
ques exemplaires pour distribuer a mes amis ?

Adieu, bon voyage si vous allez a Naples, mes amities au Prince
de Canino.

The biography of Agassiz by Pictet is almost un-
known, on account of its publication in an album,
which had a very limited circulation, confined to French
Switzerland, and among a circle of subscribers residing
in villas round the shore of the Lake of Geneva. Of
the many biographical notices, published either during
the life or after the death of Agassiz, it is by far the
best ; and I cannot do better than to quote the first and
last sentences, - -two admirable pages of true and just
homage to the great naturalist. Pictet says : -

Parmi les savants dont la Suisse a pu avec raison s'honorer
dans ces dernieres annees, Agassiz est certainement un de ceux
dont la reputation est la plus populaire. Des travaux scientifiques
remarquables, empreints de ce melange dlmagination et de juge-
ment qui caracterise les creations brillantes et durables, une grande
perseverance dans Petude des faits, une eloquence chaleureuse et
entrainante, justifient amplement cette reputation, a laquelle ses
etudes sur les glaciers, plus a la portee de tout le monde que ses

256 LOUIS AGASSrz. [CHAP. x.

autres travaux, ont ajoute un nouvel eclat. Oui, en effet, parmi les
amis des Alpes, ne s'est pas interesse a cette petite reunion cThommes,
lies par Pamour de la science, transportant leur laboratoire dans ces
Hautes Regions Glacees, decrivant en artistes les beautes speciales
de ces vastes solitudes, y exercant une large hospitalite et deploy ant
dans leurs travaux une perseverance, une ardeur et quelquefois une
hardiesse bien faite pour captiver Tattention des plus indifferents ?
. . . Nous avons cherche a esquisser ici la vie deja si remplie de
notre savant compatriote, nous aurions voulu oser penetrer encore
plus avant, et raconter a ceux qui ne le connaissent pas, son carac-
tere aimable et attachant, son ardeur dans tout ce qi^il entreprend,
sa vivacite dans la discussion unie a la politesse du coeur et en un
mot toutes les qualites qui lui ont cree partout des amis et qui Pont
fait Tame de reunions des naturalistes suisses qull vivifie par sa
presence.

Such appreciation, coming from so independent and
just a naturalist as Jules Pictet de la Rive, shows what
a strong hold Agassiz had upon his countrymen, when
hardly in middle life ; indeed, before he was forty years
old. Every one in Switzerland felt that so small and
modest a place as Neuchatel could not retain him
any longer. Even Swiss naturalists saw plainly that
Switzerland was too small a field for the indefatigable
activity of a man so gifted, and that his proper place
was either at Paris, or in a new and great country like
the United States of America ; and when he left, every-
body knew that it was a final departure, and that
Agassiz was lost to the fatherland.

Agassiz's letter to Pictet is also most important,
because it gives an inside view of several occurrences,
more especially of the difficulty with de Charpentier.
Agassiz did not realize the impression made on many
by the impropriety of his publishing before de Gharpen-

I845-] RETURNS ALL THE SPECIMENS. 257

/

tier a volume of ' Etudes des Glaciers." Many of
Agassiz's best friends regretted it sincerely, and there
is no doubt that it was a mistake on his part not to have
waited until de Charpentier had issued his volume.

A last duty remained to perform before saying good
by to Neuchatel. It was to return all the specimens of
fossils so generously lent by public establishments and
private individuals for his palaeontological works. It
was not a small undertaking ; for Agassiz, with his
eagerness to collect all the material he wanted, asked
for and collected around him a quantity of specimens
which he was unable to make use of. However, every-
thing was carefully packed and sent safely to its desti-
nation with the thanks of the professor. And since that
time all such specimens are quoted in both public or
private collections as determined by Agassiz ; every one
being justly proud to have helped the author of the
" Poissons fossiles," of the " Echinodermes," and of the
" Myes."

CHAPTER XL

1846.

DEPARTURE FROM NEUCHATEL, MARCH, 1846 --ARRIVAL IN PARIS AND
SOJOURN AT THE "HOTEL DU JARDIN DU Roi " - - " NOUVELLES
ETUDES SUR LES GLACIERS ACTUELS " - - THE GLACIAL THEORY BEFORE
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF FRANCE, AT THE MEETING OF THE 6TH
OF APRIL, 1846 — AGASSIZ'S "CATALOGUE RAISONNE DES ECHINO-
DERMES " — HIS WORK IN THE " GALERIE DE ZOOLOGIE " AND AMONG
THE PRIVATE COLLECTIONS OF BRONGNIART, DE FRANCE, DESHAYES,
D'ORBIGNY, DE VERNEUIL, ETC. — DESOR'S PRESUMPTION, IN PUTTING
HIS NAME ON THE TITLE PAGE, WITHOUT AGASSIZ'S KNOWLEDGE — AT-
TENTIONS PAID TO AGASSIZ BYTHIERS — INDIRECT OFFER OF OFFICIAL
POSITIONS AT PARIS DECLINED — SHORT VISIT TO ENGLAND, TO MEET
CHARLES LYELL - - ON A CUNARD STEAMSHIP FROM LIVERPOOL TO
BOSTON.

AT the beginning of March, 1846, Agassiz left Neu-
chatel, never to return, except for a single very short
visit, of a few days, in 1859. At two o'clock in the
morning, he took the stage for Bale, en route for
Carlsruhe ; and, notwithstanding the early hour, the
post-yard was filled with his many friends, colleagues,
and students, the last coming in a body, with torch-
lights, and giving him a parting serenade. Although
he spoke of his return, and of resuming his scientific
work at Neuchatel, every one felt that the departure
was momentous, and that Neuchatel was losing the
man who had given it a world-wide reputation as a

258

1846.] DEPARTURE FROM NEUCHATEL. 259

centre of science, never before equalled in Switzerland,
in connection with such a small town, such a limited
academy, and in so short a time.

In order to understand what follows, it is necessary
to say a few words concerning the material difficulties
under which Agassiz laboured during his fourteen
years' residence at Neuchatel. His very small salary,
of eighty louis (Neuchatel currency), and a few years
later of one hundred and sixty louis, was hardly suffi-
cient to defray his household expenses, even if he had
limited them strictly to his family. But very soon he
largely increased all his expenditure, both for his pub-
lications and for his assistants. At first, his sister and
wife helped him, and his friend Louis de Coulon assisted
him in bibliographic work, and in collecting under his
direction. But when he became interested in glaciers
and the glacial question, it was too great a task for
his voluntary assistants, and, in addition, new duties
obliged Mrs. Agassiz to give up drawing and writ-
ing for her husband. If Agassiz was an indefat-
igable worker, when busied in the observation of
new facts, he was too impatient, and always carried
too far by new schemes, to write books, or even
memoirs. As he himself says, it was very difficult
for him to sit down at his desk and write all he had
observed and knew on a subject. "Je ne suis pas un
cul de plomb comme Richard Owen," the great English
palaeontologist. He always envied this faculty, so
strongly characteristic of Professor Owen. But it was
vain for him to try to acquire it, for he soon fretted,
was extremely nervous, and finally left the work to

260 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xi.

others to finish, or abandoned it altogether, never
returning to it. With such a disposition, Agassiz was
much in need of a secretary and assistants able to
understand his instructions and to carry out and finish
his numerous schemes. He successively added several
assistants. In fact, the apartment of the professor
was a sort of ''Pension bourgeoise " for naturalists and
artists ; for, besides the regular inmates, there was a
constant arrival of friends, and of members of the
Agassiz family, who were quite numerous around Neu-
chatel, and of foreign naturalists, such as the two
Schimpers and the two Braun brothers. Of course,
the one hundred and sixty louis of his salary were soon
exhausted in keeping such an establishment, and needed
additions of money were lacking all the time. Agassiz
very quickly expended his share of his inheritance from
his father, and then all his family were obliged to help
him ; which they did at first with pleasure, and after-
ward with some reluctance.

The Neuchatel burgesses, and more especially all
the wealthy families, who had contributed to the sub-
scription for founding his professorship of natural
history, were ready to help him, and very generously
contributed money for each new scheme brought be-
fore them by Agassiz. But as soon as one scheme
was fairly started, another, absolutely unexpected,
was added to the burden. And, as one of the
most liberal of those naturalists of Neuchatel says,
" We were ready to help Agassiz with money ; but
there was no end to his constant needs. He had
already expended, in advance, all we were glad to

1846.] GREAT LUMP OF GOLD. 261

offer him, et c'etait toujours a recommencer." In fact,
Agassiz had exhausted all his credit, when he left Neu-
chatel, having made use, one after another, of each of
his friends, and of his whole family. And all for
science ! for he had few needs, and was by no means
extravagant in personal expenses. Always generous
when he had money in his hands, he distributed it to
his assistants, draughtsmen, and lithographers, never
thinking of himself and of his own family, until all
others had been supplied. On the whole, Agassiz was
a very rare character, - - always hopeful, but a great
dreamer ; and he acted, all his life, as if he knew with
certainty that a great lump of gold belonging to him
was lying somewhere behind an enormous boulder, and
that he had only to extend his hand behind the boulder,
and fill his pockets with as much as he wanted. And,
curiously enough, this dream of his was fully realized,
only it was at the end of his life, and for the benefit of
his children. And so was fulfilled Humboldt's predic-
tion, in a letter dated Berlin, June 17, 1838, that "he was
certain that there was gold somewhere in his polished
rocks. I should like to find the secret which you
possess, to work all those mines." For it is under, and
even in, polished rocks of the great North American
glacier extending from Greenland to Minnesota that
Agassiz's great gold lump lay.

When Agassiz left Neuchatel, it was arranged that
Desor and Girard should pack up about two hundred
volumes, — the most necessary works for reference on
glaciers and fossil echinoderms, — and leave all the
rest of Agassiz's already large library in charge of

262 LOUIS AGASSI Z. [CHAP. xi.

William Hiiber, the librarian, with directions to con-
tinue the bibliographic collection of titles for Agassiz's
great manuscript list, forming his " Bibliographia Zool-
ogiae et Geologise," and then hasten to Paris to meet
Agassiz on his arrival there.

The son, Alexander, then a boy of eleven years, was
left at Neuchatel, to pursue his studies at the College.
The two daughters and Mrs. Agassiz were already liv-
ing at Carlsruhe with Alexander Braun, the always
trusted friend of Agassiz and the excellent brother of
his wife. Having disposed as satisfactorily as possible
of all his affairs and the numerous persons more or less
dependent on him, Agassiz took his departure, with a
heavy heart and great anxiety as to his future. He
knew too well that it was impossible for him to return
and assume again the same position,- -a position inad-
equate to his wants and his aspirations as a savant and
as the head of a family. The world was open before
him, to be sure ; but all was uncertainty. However, his
will was strong to conquer a position ; and with that
determination constantly in view, he began life again at
the ripe age of thirty-nine years.

After a few days passed with his family at Carlsruhe,
Agassiz arrived in Paris at the end of March, stay-
ing, as he was accustomed to do, at the old " Hotel
du Jardin du Roi," rue Copau (now rue Lacepede),
near the Jardin des Plantes. There he was received by
Desor and Girard, to whom were added Karl Vogt, at
that time a resident of the hotel, and Dickmann, one of
Agassiz's artists.

At once Agassiz started several works ; first, an

1846.] . ETUDES SUR GLACIERS. 263

octavo volume on the glaciers, and second, a ' Cata-
logue raisonne des Echinodermes vivants et fossils."

x

After his publication of " Etudes sur les Glaciers '
(1840), Agassiz began in 1841 a new series of re-
searches and observations on the structure of ice, the
temperature, the annual progression, and the daily
movement of glaciers ; and it was the result of these
four years of constant study on the glacier of the Aar
that he wished to present to the scientific world.

A well-known Paris publisher, M. Victor Masson,
purchased Agassiz's manuscript, the first fruit of his
arduous toil that Agassiz had succeeded in thus dispos-
ing of; but, unhappily, the transaction proved an un-
fortunate one for the publisher, who lost heavily, the
failure being due partly to political trouble in France in
1848, a short time after the work was issued, partly to
its incompleteness. According to the announcement, it
was to be composed of three parts, of which the first
only was published ; the contemplated second part was
to be furnished by Arnold Guyot, on the distribution of
boulders round the Alps, and the third part, on the geo-
graphical distribution of old glaciers all the world over,
by E. Desor. Guyot and Desor contented themselves
with a few short papers, published in the " Bulletin de la
Societe des Sciences Naturelles de Neuchatel," 1847, on
the erratic boulders of the basins of the Rhone, Rhine,
and the Pennine Alps ; and in the " Bulletin de la
Societe Geologique de France," on the glacial deposits
of Scandinavia, and the erratic or Quaternary of North
America.

As usual, Desor wrote the first part, under Agassiz's

264 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xi.

direction and supervision. Chapter by chapter, Agassiz
looked over the manuscript, correcting with pencil, and
indicating additions to be made. The manuscript was
finished before Agassiz left Paris, and went to the
printer between November, 1846, and April, 1847; first
under the direction of Desor, who left Paris at the end
of February, 1847, and afterward under the direction
of Charles Martins, who wrote the introduction and fin-
ished the excellent list of works on the present glaciers.
Thus the volume is a rather composite one, through the
collaboration of Desor and Martins, and as a whole, is
less important than Agassiz's first volume on the gla-
ciers, although it contains many new facts. The truth
is, that Agassiz and Desor were not physicists ; and
although Martins and Bravais, who were good physi-
cists, helped them with their advice at the glacier of
the Aar, they failed to recognize the plasticity of gla-
ciers, as Bishop Rendu and James Forbes had done
in the case of the Savoy glaciers ; and it was reserved
for the great English physicist, John Tyndall, to solve
the problem of the conversion of snow into ice by pres-
sure, to find the cause of glacier motion in pressure,
regelation, crystallization, and internal liquefaction, - - a
splendid discovery which was made between 1856 and
1859, and published in 1860, in a work entitled " Gla-
ciers of the Alps."

Beside the publication of the volume on the glaciers,
Agassiz, during his stay in Paris, greatly advanced the
acceptance of the glacial doctrine by all unprejudiced
geologists. In a communication made before the Geo-
logical Society of France, at the meeting of the 6th of

-1846.] GLACIAL THEORY IN PARIS. 265

April, 1846, he discussed, with more care, if possible,
than usual, all the plain facts observed on the present
glaciers, as regards polishing of rocks, directions of
striated marks, " cailloux stries, boue glaciaire," trans-
portation of boulders, etc. For we must keep in mind
that everything was contested and often denied by
the opponents of the glacial theory. Agassiz had
before him, however, an audience suited to his wishes.
De Beaumont, the great adversary of glaciers, was
there ; also de Beaumont's collaborator and right arm,
Dufrenoy, besides some partisans of his own views,
among them Constant Prevost, Deshayes, Martins, Bra-
vais, Dollfus-Ausset, d'Omalius d'Halloy, and Major
Leblanc. It was a very important meeting, for Agassiz
was able to answer every objection. De Beaumont,
who was always very cunning when in the presence of
original and able observers, preserved a discreet silence,
and let all the heat of the discussion rest on Dufrenoy,
contenting himself with smiling and nodding his ap-
proval. It was a curious duel. Dufrenoy, always scep-
tical, but amiable, and rather inclined to be humorous,
asked if the " cailloux stries" were truly a good indica-
tion of the existence of old glaciers. "Yes!" was the
answer. " They are the characteristic fossils of a gla-
cier." Little by little, the audience of eighty persons,
all good geologists, came round to Agassiz's views. It
was a marked success ; so much so, that de Beaumont
left the room before the end of the meeting ; and
Dufrenoy, when the meeting was over, said aloud to
Agassiz, referring to his collaboration and compan-
ionship with de Beaumont during twenty-five years,

266 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xi.

" Croyez-vous que j'ai ete toujours a la noce avec lui; '
showing how much he had to endure from the disposi-
tion of his colleague in the construction of the Geological
Map of France.

On this day the glacial theory at last gained the
ascendency in France. De Beaumont, for two years
longer, continued an underhanded opposition by means
of some of his favourite pupils, Messrs. Durocher and
Frappoli. But Charles Martins, a remarkable speaker
and good writer, took the question where Agassiz left it,
and easily extinguished all opposition. Now it may seem
strange to many that such a clear question, with such
admirable and visible proofs, should have encountered
such a powerful opposition, and arraigned against it such

f

geologists as Alexander von Humboldt, von Buch, Elie
de Beaumont, and Murchison. Geology is too vast for
any one man, whatever his intellectual capacity and
knowledge, to be a good judge and an expert on all the
questions which arise. At the beginning of the crea-
tion of modern geology it was the custom for every
one to give his opinions on each point. In this way,
a number of errors were accepted as facts ; and it
required generations of able observers to remove these
great obstacles to the progress of geology. The belief
in the transportation of boulders by great mud currents,
in connection with the universal deluge of the Mosaic
tradition, was so deeply implanted in the minds, even
of savants, that it was not an easy task for Venetz,
de Charpentier, and Agassiz to uproot it. It laid upon
them a quarter of a century of hard work and harder
fighting.

1846.] IN THE "GALERIE DE ZOOLOGIE: 267

From the time of his first establishment at Neuchatel,
Agassiz had taken great interest in the echinoderms,
publishing, from 1833 to 1845, numerous and most
important memoirs on the subject. His stay at Paris
was an opportunity long looked for, and he seized
upon it with his usual enthusiasm. All the public and
private collections were at his complete disposal. The
Jardin des Plantes, with its vast wealth, known and
unknown, was thrown open to him. The old gallery
of zoology, just opposite the " Pitie Hospital' had its
best room barricaded ; and drawers filled with speci-
mens, barrels of all shapes, containing collections of
marine animals from all parts of the world, and never
opened until now, were brought from cellars and gar-
rets, and arranged in front of the usual collection of
echinoderms exhibited to the public. Agassiz placed
the specimens on long tables ; and there, with the help
of his friend Valenciennes, professor of conchology,
and his assistant, Louis Rousseau, - - a brother of the
great landscape painter, Theodore Rousseau,- -he began
classification and determination, dictating to his secre-
tary, Desor, the descriptions of families, genera, and
species. Sometimes his enthusiasm was raised to per-
fect rapture, when some new species or a new genus
was found in one of the barrels brought up from the
Pacific Ocean by exploring expeditions of the end of
the last or the beginning of this century. It was
interesting and also amusing to see him with a sea-
urchin in one hand, and a lens in the other, analyzing
each organ and each part of the animal, with that accu-
racy of description for which he was justly celebrated ;

268 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. XL

and after looking at the label of the barrel, he would
sometimes exclaim, " Why ! it was collected by Ouoy
and Gaimard, or by Humbron, or some one else, on the
shore of Tasmania or New Zealand, during the voyage
round the world of de Freycinet, or Dupere, or Dumont
d'Urville," etc. Happiness beamed on his face ; and
satisfaction was seen in every movement, exclamation,
and posture. What an admirer of natural history
objects! It was impossible to resist feeling interest in
his work. He excited the curiosity of every one in the
gallery, and even the guardians and porters were deeply
affected and attracted around the professor. The guar-
dian, or janitor, named Philippe Pothau, so well known
by all zoologists who have studied, or even only passed
through the collections of the Jardin des Plantes, was
in ecstasy and rapture before Agassiz. He was
not accustomed to see such enthusiasm, Valenciennes
being the most prosaic and unmovable of men, and all
the other professors of the Jardin des Plantes being
either very sceptical, or too busy to pay much attention
to the treasures under their guardianship.

The private collections at Paris were then more
numerous and more important than at the present
time. The impulse given to the study of palaeontol-
ogy and geology by Cuvier and his school had not yet
died out. His principal collaborator Alexandre Bron-
gniart was still alive ; and on two successive Sundays he
himself exhibited to Agassiz his fine collection of fossil
echinoderms, some of which were the types described
by Lamarck and himself in his celebrated " Geologic
des Environs de Paris." Defrance, one of the ablest

1846.] CATALOGUE DES ECHINODERMES. 269

and most modest of all French palaeontologists of the
first half of the nineteenth century, was also still alive,
and with his printed list of fossil remains entitled,
"Tableau des corps organises fossiles," etc., in his
hands, he pointed out each of the echinoderms to
Agassiz. Besides those two collections, so important
on account of the types they contained, Agassiz studied,
one after another, the fine collections of Alcide d'Or-
bigny, Deshayes, Michelin, Graves, de Verneuil, d'Ar-

r

chiac, as well as the public collections of the Ecole des

/

Mines, la Sorbonne, and the Ecole Normale. It was a
rare enjoyment for Agassiz.

He himself wrote, without any aid from his secre-
tary, the " Resume d'un travail d'ensemble sur 1'orga-
nisation, la classification et le developpement progressif
des Echinodermes dans la Serie des terrains " ; a mas-
terly review of his knowledge of the Echinidae, and
read it before the Academy of Science of the Institute,
of which he had been a corresponding member since
April, 1839. Printed first in the " Comptes-rendus de
1' Academic," Vol. XXIII., it was reprinted with very few
alterations and addition in the " Annales des Sciences
naturelles," as an introduction to the " Catalogue rai-
sonne des families, des genres et des especes de la
classe des echinodermes, par MM. L. Agassiz et E.
Desor." The secretary and assistant of a savant has
no scientific right to authorship in the publications
made by the savant, though generally the savant says
in the introduction, or in the body of the work, that he
has been helped by his assistant. Agassiz refers several
times in the introduction of the " Catalogue raisonne

270 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xi<

des Echinides," to Desor and his help ; and it was the
only recognition really due. But Desor, without asking
permission, took upon himself to add his name, as one
of the two authors of the " Catalogue," a high-handed
proceeding which did not come to the knowledge of
Agassiz, until May, 1848, when he received the fifty
separate copies printed for his private use. It is not
surprising that Agassiz resented the presumption and
expressed his disapproval in his great work: "Contribu-
tions to the Natural History of the United States of
America," Vol. I., p. 97, Boston, 1857, in tne following
terms : " Catalogue raisonne, etc. I quote this paper
under my name alone, because that of Mr. Desor, which
is added to it, has no right there. It was added by
him, after I had left Europe, not only without authority,
but even without my learning it, for a whole year. . . .
This is one of the most extraordinary cases of plagiarism
I know of." Being the most important witness in the
case, and the only survivor of all those who had anything
to do with that "Catalogue," I shall dispose in a few
words of the claims made rather cavalierly by Desor in
his " Synopsis des Echinodermes fossiles," p. xv, Re-
ponse a M. Agassiz, Paris, 1858.

Not only was I present many times when Agassiz
dictated to Desor the descriptions of genera and species,
and accompanied him often in his visits to the private
and public collections of echinids in Paris, but it was
to me that the manuscript was entrusted by Desor when
he started for America, on the last day of February,
1847. About two-thirds of the " Catalogue " - - the first
eight sheets- -had been printed under the supervision

1846.] CATALOGUE RAISONNE, ETC. 271

of Desor. I had to correct the proofs of sheets 9, 10,
and u, and besides to write not only the "Addenda,"
but also the entire " Distribution geologique des echi-
nides fossiles," with many notes and corrections. The
memoir was not issued in separate form until January,
1848, and it was I who delivered it to Agassiz at
Cambridge, in May, 1848. I remember perfectly the
amazement with which Agassiz saw the name of Desor
on the cover as one of the authors, and as Agassiz
knew the part I also had taken in the memoir, he said :
" But you have more right than Desor to put also your
name as one of the authors, for you did it entirely with-
out compensation of any sort, only in kindness and
friendship." On the whole, it was very presumptuous
in Desor, who had assumed the position of Maire du
Palais, ruling at his will, not only Agassiz's household,
but also distributing scientific authorship according to
his fancy or private interest. The part taken by him
was simply that of a subordinate. Entirely in the pay
of Agassiz, he simply wrote, mainly under Agassiz's
dictation, the characteristics; added the description of
about one hundred species — more or less — and three
or four new genera, and also corrected a few errors,
which was all a part of his duty as secretary. Agassiz
had begun his studies and publications on the echino-
derms five or six years before Desor came to Neuchatel,
and when he became Agassiz's secretary he knew abso-
lutely nothing of echinoderms, or even of zoology.

The " Catalogue raisonne," etc., notwithstanding its
many imperfections, marked great progress when it was
published ; and has, ever since, served as the basis

272 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xi.

of classification of the echinoderms. It is constantly
quoted, and will continue to be quoted, just as the
" Animaux sans vertebres ' of Lamarck is ; and it
is one of the great services rendered by Agassiz to
zoology.

Agassiz was the recipient of all sorts of attention dur-
ing his stay in Paris. He met many old friends, not only
Parisians, but even men from the provinces and from
foreign countries, who came to bid him farewell. M.
Esprit Requien, the celebrated director of the museum
at Avignon, who had communicated all his magnificent
collection of fossil fishes, more especially those from the
celebrated locality of Aix-en-Provence, for Agassiz's
great monograph on the " Poissons fossiles," took
lodging at the same hotel, the " Jardin du Roi," in
order to see as much of Agassiz as possible. Requien
was a rare type of savant : being an archaeologist, a
numismatologist, and a botanist and zoologist, and a
friend to every one with whom he came in contact, from
Stendhal (Beyle), Prosper Merimee, Adolphe Thiers,
De Candolle, and Alcide d'Orbigny, to Agassiz. He
possessed that exuberance of word and gesture so char-
acteristic of the Provencal people and so well portrayed
by one of their own writers, Alphonse Daudet. Agassiz
much enjoyed his visit. There was another Provengal,
Adolphe Thiers, who also was much attracted by the
charm of Agassiz's society. They had previously met ;
but it was during Agassiz's present stay in Paris that a
true friendship ripened between the two men, and their
later correspondence showed many points of resem-
blance and common interest; both having an unbounded.

1846.] FRIENDSHIP WITH A. THIERS. 273

confidence in their power of conversation and public
speech, and being extremely fond of applause and
congenial society ; they soon came to appreciate one
another, and from this time Thiers, influenced by his
conversations with Agassiz, became devoted to natural
history. At that time, however, he had no leisure to
give to it, being absorbed by his history of the Consulate
and the Empire, and afterward by his political positions ;
but as soon as he was free after his Presidency of the
third French Republic, he turned to science as a favour-
ite study and consecrated the greater part of the last
years of his life to the history of the earth.

There also came to Paris at this time, whether or not
attracted by Agassiz it is impossible to say, one who
had been a not over-scrupulous opponent of Agassiz
on the glaciers,- -no other than James D. Forbes, of
Edinburgh,- -and an attempt was made in his name to
effect a reconciliation. After the publication by Agassiz,
in 1842, of the history of his difficulties with Forbes,
the scientific world, at least on the European continent,
had pronounced against the method used by Forbes
during and after his visits to the glacier of the Aar as

t

Agassiz's guest. A common friend, Elie de Beaumont,
invited Agassiz to a great dinner party to meet Forbes,
insisting upon the desire on the part of Forbes to
forget the past and be friends again ; but Agassiz very
politely, though firmly, declined the invitation, feeling
that the attacks of Forbes had been marked by too
great impropriety to allow of further friendly relations.
During his stay in Paris, it occurred to several of
Agassiz's friends and acquaintances, that he might be

274 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xi.

induced to settle there permanently. Nothing would
have been easier for the French government than to
secure his services, if not at once, at least after his
engagement with the Lowell Institute in Boston had
been filled, and his promises to send collections to
Berlin and Neuchatel, in return for the advance money
he had received from the king of Prussia, had been
accomplished. For several reasons, the idea of his per-
manent residence in Paris was not to the taste of the
leaders of natural history ; although they feasted him,
and gave him a Physiological prize of three hundred
dollars at the annual meeting of the Institute of France,
they feared, that if he became their colleague, he would
soon over-shadow them all. In fact, jealousy was at the
root of the affair ; and although they loudly professed
their admiration for the man himself and his work, and
were ready to help him in some of his scientific work,
they took no proper steps in the direction of keeping
him. Nothing was offered in a direct way by the
French government ; but indirectly it was hinted that
if he wanted to settle in Paris, official positions with
salary amounting to six thousand francs per annum
would be granted to him. Agassiz declined this doubt-
ful offer, and it was probably a great relief to the official
zoologists and geologists to know that he was not to
become their rival, and possibly their leader and master
as well.

A Swiss artist of Neuchatel, Fritz Berthoud, then a
resident in Paris, took advantage of Agassiz's stay to
obtain a full-length portrait of him. The picture, now
in the museum at Neuchatel, represents Agassiz and

1846.] VISIT TO ENGLAND. 275

his secretary Desor ; but the portrait of Agassiz is not
good, and the picture, as a work of art, is poor, showing
only the good will of the artist.

At the end of August, Agassiz left Paris, going first
to London and then to Southampton, where he attended
the meeting of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Sciences, the loth of September. It was im-
portant for him to see Charles Lyell, who had lately
returned from his two visits to North America, 1841-
1842 and 1845, on June 26, and who had prepared the
way for Agassiz, both with Mr. John A. Lowell, the
director of the Lowell Institute at Boston, and with
American savants in general, as to what might be ex-
pected from the visit of such a master and enthusiast
in natural history.

During his short stay in England, Agassiz saw plainly
that, although all the English leaders of sciences were
extremely courteous and friendly to him, it was abso-
lutely useless to expect from them the offer of any
scientific position. His habit of going ahead, without
regard to the consequences, was too much for English
precision. They admired Agassiz ; but that was all.
Some, even, were ready to help him in a limited
pecuniary way, and truly loved the savant, but the
" sans-f agon " of Agassiz they could not sanction.

At the end of September Agassiz embarked at Liv-
erpool, on a steamer bound to Boston. The passage,
as it is usually at about the time of the autumn equi-
nox, was extremely rough ; so much so that it \vas very
much prolonged, and created apprehension as to the
safety of the steamer. The newspapers even announced

276 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xi.

that the steamer was lost; and lamentations on the death
of Agassiz were printed and circulated all through Swit-
zerland: several of Agassiz's friends and admirers shed
tears on reading the announcement of his tragical and
premature death. "What a miserable end," says one of
his best Swiss friends, " for poor Agassiz ! He was
much too valuable a savant to perish in the middle
of the ocean."1 Happily, the report was without foun-
dation ; but during the difficult crossing of the Atlantic
Agassiz had full time to realize his position. He had
left Europe much discouraged and in an extremely
serious mood. During the past twenty years, he had
acquired a great reputation, but he had had to pay
very dear for it. Not only he had worked hard, and
had even gone so far as to endanger his social posi-
tion, but all his numerous publications had involved
pecuniary losses, with the exception of the fishes of
Martius and Spix of Brazil, and his two works now in
the press in Paris, on the glaciers and the echinoderms.
He had contracted debts which must be paid ; and his
position at Neuchatel was on this account no longer
tenable. Besides, he had formed the habit of having
six, eight, and ten persons under his control, to help him
in his works as assistants, secretary, artists, and lithog-
raphers. He had a family of three children to provide

1 These two sentences may seem, now, rather melodramatic, but they
well reflect the impression really produced. It must be remembered that,
in 1846, the crossing of the Atlantic in steamships was in its infancy,
many extremely serious accidents were then quite common, and steamers
disappeared without leaving traces of any sort after them. Besides, in
the centre of the continent, as Switzerland is, a journey to America was
considered a great and dangerous undertaking.

1846.] ON A CUNARD STEAMSHIP. 277

for and an invalid wife whose health was a cause of
great apprehension to all her friends. In addition, his
stay in Paris and in England had dissipated all hope,
if he had entertained any, of getting there official posi-
tions lucrative enough to satisfy his numerous wants
and pecuniary obligations.

Success in America was for him a necessity, as he
plainly saw, and he resolved to conquer, and bravely and
nobly to meet his destiny, whatever came. The first
thing for him to do was to master the English language
sufficiently to allow him to speak in public and be under-
stood. Ever since his first visit to England in 1834 he
had practised more or less in translating and speaking
English ; but he knew very well, from his various
attempts, how difficult it was for him to make himself
understood among his English friends. Lyell had told
him that it was useless to lecture in America in the
French or German languages ; for those two languages
then were used in very narrow limits, and if he wished
to make an impression on the American public, he must
speak good English.

During his long journey across the Atlantic, Agassiz
began in earnest, not only speaking English all the
time, but committing to memory English sentences and
repeating them aloud before any one who had the
patience to hear him. The captain of the steamer
said, " I have never had such a passenger as you,
Professor Agassiz " ; and like every one else, he was
charmed with the great Swiss naturalist. Here again
Agassiz's great memory helped him, although no longer
so elastic as it had been in his youth ; he soon knew a

278 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. XL

sufficient number of sentences and words to allow him
to attempt public speaking, as we shall presently see.
However, it was too late in life for him to become a
complete master of the English language, as he was of
the German. He never spoke correct English, and he
always retained a strong French accent, which was not
without some charm to his listeners.

CHAPTER XII.

1 846 (continued) - 1 847 .

ARRIVAL IN AMERICA, AND RECEPTION BY MR. JOHN A. LOWELL —
CONDITION OF NATURAL HISTORY IN THE UNITED STATES — His
FIRST VISIT TO NEW YORK - - His ACQUAINTANCE WITH DR. SAMUEL
MORTON, OF PHILADELPHIA — COLLECTIONS OF CAPTAIN WILKES
MADE DURING HIS EXPEDITION ROUND THE WORLD, SEEN AT WASH-
INGTON — SCIENCE AT THE CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES —
AGASSIZ'S FIRST SERIES OF LECTURES BEFORE THE LOWELL INSTITUTE
AT BOSTON — His SUCCESS — A COURSE ON THE GLACIERS, IN FRENCH

— FRANK DE POURTALES JOINS HIM — CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

— His OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEGROES — His DISAPPROVAL OF SLA-
VERY — ARRIVAL AT NEW YORK OF HIS TWO ASSISTANTS, DESOR AND
GIRARD. — ESTABLISHMENT AT EAST BOSTON — SICKNESS OF AGASSIZ

— His HOSPITALITY — A VISIT TO NIAGARA FALLS — ON BOARD THE
UNITED STATES COAST SURVEY STEAMER, THE "BIBB" — ARRIVAL
OF MINISTER CHARLES Louis PHILIPPE CHRISTINAT - - FIRST DIF-
FICULTIES WITH HIS SECRETARY - - Two LETTERS TO J. MARCOU,

EXTENDING AN INVITATION TO JOIN HIM.

ONE fine morning in the first week of October, 1846,
a stranger recently disembarked was seen in the streets
of Boston, looking to the right and left, in some aston-
ishment, but steadily making his way to Pemberton
Square, a rectangle with a garden in the centre, and
surrounded by fine three-storied brick houses, at that
time a very aristocratic part of the city, recalling many
squares and circles of the London West End. After
looking at the numbers of several houses, the foreigner

279

28o LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xn.

pulled the bell at the door of Mr. John A. Lowell, who,
on opening the door, was surprised to have a stranger,
with a strong foreign accent, ask if Mr. Lowell was at
home. The astonishment was quickly changed into
undisguised satisfaction when the stranger added : "I-
a-m P-r-o-f-es-s-or A-g-a-a-ss-i-z," with the drawling pro-
nunciation so characteristic of Romand or French Swit-
zerland, and more specially of Neuchatel. Mr. Lowell
very cordially extended both hands, and congratulated
him on his safe arrival ; and, in this auspicious manner,
Agassiz made his entry into American life, and was
launched into American society.

Lowell, with his keen eyes, his knowledge of Euro-
pean life and society, his association with savants, was
very favourably impressed by Agassiz. He saw at once
that his friends, Charles and Lady Lyell, had not over-
strained the praise they had bestowed on the scientific
worth of the savant they had so highly recommended
to him ; and from that first day he became an ardent
supporter, and soon after a most intimate friend and
counsellor, of Agassiz.

This day was certainly one of the happiest of Agas-
siz's life. A new life was opened to him at a moment
of great mental depression and despondency, the nat-
ural result of the difficult position in which he was
placed, both pecuniarily and socially.

The moment of his arrival in the New World was
particularly fortunate and well timed. Until then the
United States had developed without borrowing much
from Europe. After the founding of the New Eng-
land and Virginia colonies and the war of indepen-

1846-47-] SCIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES. 281

dence, American society, isolated and separated by the
broad and stormy Atlantic, had been left to its own
resources. At first a new society is necessarily limited
to material progress, with sound moral and religious
training ; but sciences and the fine arts are not yet
needed. Some scattered naturalists had here and there
sprung up, but were not appreciated in proportion to
their real merits, and were obliged to publish their
observations in Europe, as was the case with the great
ornithologist, Audubon. However, now that the great
Napoleonic wars were over, a sort of revival in scien-
tific researches and studies had begun. The American
savants were not numerous enough to influence society ;
but a general desire to make scientific discoveries and
to try what Americans could do for themselves in this
field of human knowledge, illustrated by Buffon, Linne,
Cuvier, Lamarck, de Candolle, etc., had already begun
to exhibit signs of activity. Local scientific societies
had sprung up at Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and
Washington, and essays in scientific periodical publica-
tion, although not prosperous, because as yet a little
premature, had shown that American savants, and
especially American geologists, were desirous to enter
the arena.

Curiously enough, science entered America led by
geology. To be sure, botany, ornithology, conchology,
entomology, and other branches of zoology, had some
representatives scattered all along the Atlantic borders,
and even as far west as New Harmony (then in the Indian
Territory) in the Ohio Valley, but they were not only
isolated, but also without the support of the people.

282 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xii.

Public opinion did not encourage them. This was not
the case with geology. People in general, and agricult-
urists in particular, soon showed an eager desire to know
the resources of the soils, the rocks, and the mines.
Geological surveys were started at the expense of the
State in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsyl-
vania, New Jersey, the New England States, New
York, and Ohio. A desire to agree on points of classi-
fication and to know one another brought together the
state geologists, who founded in 1840 the " Association
of American Geologists," the first national scientific
organization, and which held its meetings at different
places in the Union.

The two visits of Lyell in 1841 and 1845, and the
important journey of de Verneuil in 1846, among the
palaeozoic formations from the State of New York and
Canada, to the Ohio Valley, the Upper Mississippi
River, and Lake Superior, had given a strong impulse
to geological researches, in bringing about the much
needed comparison with European classification and
synchronism. The field was well prepared, if not
zoologically, at least palaeontologically, to receive one of
the greatest palaeontologists hitherto produced by Europe.
The coming of Agassiz was anticipated with great joy
by all American naturalists, and the more so, because at
first his stay was announced to be only temporary.

After a few weeks spent in Boston, making the ac-
quaintance of the Boston naturalists, and visiting the
surrounding country, more especially the seashores and
beaches, Agassiz went to New Haven, New York,
Princeton, Philadelphia, Washington, and Albany. In

1846-47-] FIRST VISIT TO NEW YORK. 283

this, his first experience, everything was new to him,
— the people, the natural history, and American cus-
toms and society, - - and his first impressions were most
encouraging. With his extraordinary penetration and
far-seeing vision, he realized what stores of scientific
problems were in readiness, wanting only a little push
to start the whole machinery of thorough researches
over half a continent. It was just the work for him;
American natural history had found its leader.

When I said that Agassiz was much encouraged by
what he saw of American society, during October and
November, 1846, it must not be understood that it was
the fashionable world which he saw — rather limited
although it was then, in comparison to what it is now.
During the first five or six years of his life in America
Agassiz paid very little attention to what is called
fashionable society ; he even avoided it, reserving his
letters of introduction, and taking care to deliver them
only at the last moment of his stay in New York and
Washington, in order to escape invitations. His time
was too precious to allow dissipation of any sort ; so
much so, that, on his first day in New York, instead
of examining the magnificent bay and great city, he
begged his cousin, Auguste Mayor, a resident of Brook-
lyn, to take him far up Greenwich Street, to the home
of the only American palaeo-ichthyologist, Mr. W. C.
Redfield, and there he passed a part of the day, looking
at fossil fishes.

His means did not allow him to go to first-class hotels,
and he patronized second- and even third-class houses,
or, more accurately, inns, as they were then, at Albany,

284 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xn.

Philadelphia, and Washington. He readily adapted
himself to American fare, except in one particular.
Born in a wine country, even the excellent beer of
Bavaria, during his long and numerous stays in Ger-
many, was never much relished by him ; and to be
reduced to ice water and tea was rather hard. However,
he was obliged often, too often for his inclination, to do
the best he could, contenting himself with an occasional
glass of claret, and a cup of black coffee, if obtain-
able, which was seldom the case. But as soon as he
possessed a home, he provided light red wine and black
coffee at luncheon and dinner, and adhered to this
custom until the last day of his life. He never drank
freely of strong wine, like the Spanish, Madeira, and
Portuguese wines, and was averse to liquors of any sorts,
excepting a small glass of " Chartreuse ' or very old
Cognac, when in company. Agassiz came to America
too late in life to change this part of his diet.

At Princeton, Agassiz met, for the first time, Professor
Joseph Henry, an American savant, who became one
of his best friends and a constant admirer. Professor
Asa Gray of Cambridge was there also, at the house of
the then most celebrated botanist in the United States,
Professor Torrey ; and together Agassiz and Gray
started for Philadelphia and Washington. Agassiz
knew more of botany than was usual for a zoologist;
and Gray, then a young and rising botanist, was very
solicitous to please Agassiz. Their friendship grew
rapidly, until completely checked by the publication
of Darwin's " Origin of Species," in 1859.

Philadelphia greatly attracted Agassiz. There he met

1846-47-] VISIT TO WASHINGTON. 285

Dr. Samuel Morton, the great anthropologist, and an
excellent palaeontologist ; a remarkable man, entirely to
the taste of Agassiz, through the variety of his knowl-
edge and the originality of his discoveries and thought.
He also saw Conrad, Lea, Hallowell, Booth, and Frazer,
and was, on the whole, well impressed by Philadelphian
savants.

At Washington he was surprised by the gigantic
scale on which the French engineer, Major Lenfant,
had laid out the capital of the United States, by the
imposing and beautiful Capitol, and also by the empti-
ness of many streets and quarters where building had
hardly begun. It was, as it was called then, the " City
of Magnificent Distances." Washington was not then
the great and beautiful city of the present day. The
inhabitants were few ; and the government buildings,
except the splendid Capitol, were limited to the White
House, the State Department, the War and Navy
buildings, and the Patent Office. The Smithsonian
Institution existed only on paper ; 1 and the savants
were few in number, while the most prominent one,
Professor Bache, the already celebrated director of the
Coast Survey, was absent on duty. Arriving fresh
from the great capital of France, it was a contrast to
find science occupying so small a place in the great
American republic, at least officially. Mr. Francis
Markoe, the chief clerk of the State Department, and
secretary of the National Institute, gave him a set of
the Transactions of that society ; and to the astonish-

1 Professor Joseph Henry was not appointed secretary of the Smith-
sonian Institution until several months later, on the 3d of December, 1846.

286 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xii.

ment of Agassiz, the three or four small paper-covered
parts were far less important in regard to the quality,
and even the number of original papers, than his " Bul-
letin de la Societe d'Histoire Naturelle de Neuchatel,"
issued in a very small town of one of the smallest can-
tons of Switzerland. The disappointment to one who,
a few months before, under the dome of the Mazarin
Palace, had received a Monthyon prize of physiology
from the Royal Institute of France, may be easily
understood. As a compensation, Markoe took Agassiz
to the rooms of the Institute, and showed him the large
and important collections made by Captain Wilkes dur-
ing his scientific expedition round the world, from 1838
to 1842. He was more especially impressed by the
extraordinarily beautiful and exact drawings of fishes,
reptiles, molluscs, and corals, executed from life during
the expedition by Mr. Drayton, by far the best artist of
natural history objects in America.

Until this time, all exploring expeditions into the
interior of the United States, sent at the expense of
government, from the journeys of Lewis and Clarke,
Pike, Major Long, Nicolet, Featherstonhaugh, D. D.
Owen, to those of Captain Fremont, had had their
reports rather meagrely published in regard to plates
and natural history drawings. Congress always voted
liberal sums to defray the expense of these publications,
but they were at that time all done by contract, fall-
ing as spoils into the hands of politicians; and the
result was the issue of reports disgraceful as re-
gards material execution - - bad type, bad drawings, bad
paper - - a state of things most discouraging to all

1846-47-] CAPTAIN WILKES EXPEDITION. 287

the explorers and savants connected with the govern-
ment.

In order to remedy such a condition, all the reports
of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition were placed under
the direction of one man, Mr. Drayton, who super-
intended the whole publication. But, going from one
extreme to another, the Senate, which made the law, in-
serted in it a provision by which the number of copies of
each volume was limited to two hundred, and distributed
exclusively to senators ; while of Captain Fremont's re-
port, issued in 1845, ten thousand extra copies were
printed for the use of the members of Congress. The
immense difference between two hundred and ten thou-
sand copies is evident. The result was that Wilkes's
reports, being placed exclusively in the hands of sena-
tors, no one of whom was a scientific man, or had suf-
ficient knowledge of natural history to appreciate their
value but distributed them simply on account of the
beautiful plates, became extremely rare from the very
first. Half of the number of copies was soon entirely
lost, and some of the reports were destroyed in a fire at
the printing establishment, so that now several of the
great quarto volumes and folio atlases of the expedition
have become so scarce that it is almost impossible to
get copies at any price.

The report of Fremont, which was defective only in
good execution, was furnished with poor engravings, poor
plates of fossils, poor paper, and printed from indifferent
type. When Agassiz received at Washington, from
the hands of Colonel Abert, chief of Topographic Engi-
neers, Fremont's report and those of Nicolet, Abert's

288 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xn.

son, D. D. Owen, and Featherstonhaugh, he immedi-
ately saw that a great reform was needed to give their
true value to all these government reports and publica-
tions. On the one hand, Wilkes's report was lost to the
scientific public by its scarcity and the mode of distri-
bution ; and, on the other hand, Fremont's report and
others of the same sort were so badly executed that
they were a disgrace to the country.

From this moment Agassiz began to urge constantly
on those in power at Washington the necessity laid upon
the United States government to publish only well-exe-
cuted volumes, especially in regard to plates of natural
history and landscape drawings. He himself set the ex-
ample in 1850 in publishing his important exploration of
Lake Superior. His efforts, combined with the power-
ful help of Professor Bache and of Professor Henry,
succeeded in bringing about a much better state of
things after 1853, as we shall see. But it was during
his first visit to Washington, in 1846, that he laid the
foundation for the improvement of the government
scientific publications.

As soon as Agassiz was back in Boston, he again
devoted himself to his practice of learning English
phrases by heart, and speaking aloud in English in his
room in order to be able to deliver his first course of
lectures before the Lowell Institute. The subject was

The Plan of the Creation, especially in the Animal
Kingdom." It is not surprising that he was much
concerned about his first lecture at the beginning of
December ; for it was not an easy task to set forth, in a
language which he had never before used in public, one

1846-47-] FJJtSr LECTURE AT BOSTON. 289

of the most difficult and complicated questions of natural
history, but he was so full of his subject that he trusted
to his power to enrapture his very large audience of fif-
teen hundred persons of both sexes and of all ages.
Sometimes words were not at his command, and he
would pause and wait patiently, with his peculiar smile
and beaming eyes, so characteristic of the man, in the
meantime amusing his audience by drawing on the
blackboard excellent outlines of animals. His French
accent was considered a new charm added to his other
personal accomplishments ; and he stepped down from
the platform in a burst of applause, which plainly
showed that he had succeeded in his rather hazardous
undertaking.

Until then he had never seen a scientific lecture
delivered before so many people. The largest audi-
ences he had seen were in Paris at the lecture-rooms
of the College de France and the Jardin des Plantes,
when George Cuvier was the lecturer, and at the Astro-
nomical Observatory, when Frangois Arago was explain-
ing the " Systeme du Monde ' before such listeners as
Alexander von Humboldt, Biot, Leverier, and a whole
crowd of members of the French Institute. In those
days three or four hundred persons at most crowded
the Paris lecture-rooms, but the fifteen hundred auditors
of the Lowell Institute room surpassed everything he
had ever thought of. Making a large allowance for
the curiosity which attracted many persons, there re-
mained enough to satisfy, and even more than satisfy,
his most sanguine expectations. For the first time he
understood that very characteristic feature of American
u

290 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xn.

life,- -public lectures. He was impressed by the seri-
ousness of his listeners, although he knew well that
only a small part of the audience was able to under-
stand the full meaning of what he said ; but it was very
encouraging to see so many ladies and gentlemen of
the world ignorant, almost all of them, of the first ele-
ments of natural history, listening attentively to what
he had to say. It showed a desire to learn, or at least
to be instructed on points in regard to which very
few of them before entering the lecture-room had
the least knowledge. It was a revelation to him,
which from that day caused a great change not only
in his scientific life, but also in his social and family
habits.

It is fortunate for the progress of science, to which
Agassiz contributed so largely during his twenty years
of work in Europe, that he did not begin his scientific
life in America, for his extraordinary ability as a
teacher would have absorbed all his time. To be sure,
he would have popularized natural history, by a con-
stant contact, of forty-five years' duration, with the
general mass of the American people ; but he would
never have undertaken his " Poissons fossiles," and
many other of his original works. Although his first
course of lectures in America, at the Lowell Institute,
was a success, Agassiz felt that a part of his power was
paralyzed, in a great degree, by the difficulty he expe-
rienced in using the English language. For a man who
was a good scholar in Latin, in Greek, in French, and
in German, it was painful to realize how incorrect his
English was, and it was a great regret to him not to be

1846-47-] A COURSE IN FRENCH. 291

able to display all his resources and his unequalled talent
as a teacher " hors ligne."

His friends in Boston and Cambridge understood this
feeling, and, at their request, Agassiz delivered, before
a select audience, a series of lectures on " Les glaciers
et 1'epoque glaciaire," in French, his native language.
At that time, the number of persons in Boston and
Cambridge who knew enough French to follow a
lecture in that language was limited. However, the
subscription list was large, the ladies outnumbering the
gentlemen, and according to his own account it was
the best course of lectures he ever delivered. The sub-
ject was entirely new in America; the illustrations were
excellent and most attractive for the time, and the
delivery in correct and even elegant French. It was a
rare treat to every one, from the lecturer himself to
almost all his listeners, the most enthusiastic being
the ladies, who were lost in admiration of the Alpine
glaciers, Alpine peaks, Jura boulders, " roches mouton-
nees," and " cailloux stries," and, indeed, of the Pro-
fessor.

After these two courses of lectures, Agassiz became a
great favourite in Boston society, and he remained such
until the end of his life. He had conquered the " elite'1
of Boston and Cambridge, as well as the common people,
not only of Boston, but of Massachusetts and even of
New England; for his lectures were published at once,
and almost in extenso in newspapers.

During the delivery of his Boston lectures, his favour-
ite pupil at Neuchatel, Frank de Pourtales, had joined
him, the first of Agassiz's European scientific friends to

292 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xn.

come to this country, attracted by his glowing accounts
in his private letters from America. The addition of
Pourtales, who had independent means, was important,
for Agassiz did not have to provide for his support, and
he was greatly assisted by him, when he settled at East
Boston.

After repeating his Lowell lectures at Albany, before
a very sympathetic audience, Agassiz and Pourtales
embarked at New York for Charleston, South Carolina.
The reception they received was particularly gratifying.
Everything possessed a charm unknown to Agassiz
until then, and it was the first time that he came in
contact with a sub-tropical fauna and flora. Besides,
the broad and generous hospitality of the planters
attracted him much, and Agassiz and Pourtales were
both glad to meet gentlemen, coming from their common
stock of French and Swiss Protestants, like de Saussure,
Ravenel, and others, or Dr. Fabre, an old Swabe
student of the University of Tubingen. But the man
who particularly pleased them was Dr. Holbrook, a her-
petologist of talent, one of the rare zoologists of the New
World, and at the same time a most amiable and ser-
viceable man.

Agassiz delivered a course of lectures, with the same
success as before the Lowell Institute, which made him
at once a great favourite in Southern society. Estab-
lished with Pourtales on one of the islands near Charles-
ton, he was in perfect ecstasy over his daily discoveries
of new fishes, new turtles, new molluscs. The rich
entomological fauna was also a constant surprise. But
what made the greatest impression on him as a natu-

1846-47-] OBSERVATION ON THE NEGROES. 293

ralist was his contact with a large population of negroes.
With his power of comparing zoological characters, it
was impossible for him to consider the black man as a
species identical with the white man. To one who
considered not only the species, but even the genus, as
natural divisions, whatever the system of classification
adopted, the conclusion was irresistible.

One of his last lectures, just before leaving Neuchatel,
was on the geographical distribution of animals (" Notice
sur la geographic des animaux," "Revue Suisse," avril,
1845), m which he had insisted that every animal and
plant is confined to a certain portion of the earth,
while man is the only one which covers the whole
surface. As he says, " L'homme, malgre la diversite
de ses races, constitue une seule et meme espece sur
toute la surface du globe." It was hard for him to
abandon this view ; but he was too thorough a natu-
ralist, and had a too exalted idea of the immutability
of species, like his master, Cuvier, to believe in only
races for man. After his first visit to South Carolina,
species, in his eyes, existed for man as well as for every
other genus. That is to say that the genus Jwnw is
composed of several species; for instance, the Caucasian
or white man is one species, with many varieties or
races, such as the Arabs, Indians, Turks, Scandinavians,
Irish, Slavic, Greeks, Italians, etc. The negro is an-
other species with many races or varieties, such as the
Hottentots, the Soudans, the Congos, the Zambesi,
etc. But it would be erroneous to conclude, from his
opinion as a naturalist, that he was in favour of slavery.
This was an abyss which he never crossed. The pas-

294 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xii.

sionate and bitter discussions, which already agitated
and divided the South from the North, had no influence
on him, and he never took part in them, directly or in-
directly. It is true that several politicians of the time
made use of his opinions for their own selfish interests,
but it was impossible for Agassiz to prevent it. Con-
fining himself to a zoological point of view, he admitted
with great sincerity and frankness, that although once
a believer in the unity of the races of man, he had found
out that this was an error, and that his studies among
large numbers of negroes and Indians had led him, as a
zoologist, to conclude that it was impossible to consider
them as simple varieties or races of the white man. In
his view, they were entirely distinct species, each, —
negroes, American Indians, and Circassians or Euro-
peans, - - possessing its peculiar varieties or races.

But as regards the servitude of one species to another,
and the right of one man to sell another, Agassiz never,
for an instant, justified such a proceeding, either mor-
ally, socially, or religiously. Science had nothing to do
with such an iniquity ; to deal with it was the work of
morality, philanthropy, politics, and religion, but not
of a savant, whose domain is entirely outside of all
institutions of society.

In early spring Agassiz returned to New York, where
he met his assistants, Edward Desor and Charles Girard,
who had left Paris in February, and had embarked
on a sailing-ship at Havre, the 2d of March, 1847. It
now became needful to have a permanent establishment
somewhere ; and Agassiz did not hesitate to choose
Boston as his headquarters, on account of the great

1846-4?.] ESTABLISHMENT AT EAST BOSTON. 295

interest and sympathy shown to him since the day of
his arrival on American soil ; and, curiously enough,
the house he leased was only a stone's throw from his
landing-place at the Cunard wharf.

Accompanied by Pourtales, Desor, and Girard, he
came to Boston, early in April, stopping at a boarding-
house in Temple Place, preparatory to arranging for
a house. Agassiz took, for one year, a three-storied
brick house at East Boston, close by the sea, the tide
even entering the garden; where he tied up a little
row-boat, called, in New England, a dory, as his first
contribution to the furniture of his establishment. Here
is another example of atavism, in a descendant of the
lake-dwelling peoples of Switzerland, who were always
ready to return to water, whenever occasion offered.
He was led to the choice of this house, with its rather
heavy rent, - - one thousand dollars a year, - - by his
ardent desire to have a laboratory close by the sea,
where he could get marine animals to his heart's con-
tent, and preserve them alive.

It was not easy for four Europeans, three of whom
spoke hardly a word of English, to furnish a house,
and remove there all their property, including books,
large diagrams, and the several barrels and boxes of
natural history specimens collected since Agassiz's
arrival.

Before the final arrangement and the removal to
East Boston, the health of Agassiz broke down, for the
first time in his life. Until then fatigue and anxiety of
all sorts had made no impression on his strong constitu-
tion ; he seemed to be above the reach of sickness. But

296 LOUIS AGASSrZ. [CHAP. xn.

the numerous exertions on many lines entirely different
from those to which he was accustomed; the American
way of living, so new to him, added to his great anxiety
as to his future, which was still uncertain ; all this fell
heavily upon him ; and it is not surprising that a few days
after his return to Boston he was seized by a severe
attack of nervous prostration, a malady which clung to
him from this time to the end of his life, recurring now
and then, with an increase in the frequency of its attacks
as he grew older, and as he constantly and often impru-
dently burdened himself with new duties.

By the end of May the settlement was achieved ;
rooms were assigned for microscopical studies, for the
dissection of animals, for the drawing of large diagrams
for public lectures, and the collections were sorted and
divided for future distribution. Every day Pourtales
and Charles Girard went sailing in Boston harbour,
dredging the bottom for specimens ; or they followed
on foot the edge of the tide water on beautiful Chelsea
beach, picking up every animal worth preserving.

The originality of this naturalist-home brought to
East Boston not only all those engaged in the study of
natural history, but also many ladies and gentlemen
curious to see how practical zoology could be made.
Agassiz, with his usual buoyancy of spirit, and his ever-
ready desire to teach, showed the ladies how to look
into the microscope, explaining graphically the wonders
of each small animal. Then, turning to the tank of salt
water always teeming with marine animals, he would
take a fish, or a big jellyfish and explain its way of
swimming, or its system of blood circulation. Time

1846-47-] O.V BOARD THE "BIBB." 297

passed quickly, and his visitors left him charmed
with what they had heard and seen. Boston felt proud
of the acquisition of a naturalist of genius, while Agassiz
was delighted to have excited an interest among persons
so intelligent and refined in taste.

During the heat of summer, Mr. Lowell, always
attentive to the comfort and welfare of Agassiz, invited
him and his assistant, Desor, as his guests, to visit
Niagara Falls and the great rapids of the St. Lawrence
River. The impression of this grand and picturesque
region, combined with the finding of glacial scratches
everywhere, and the sight of many zoological specimens,
especially fishes, created in Agassiz an admiration and
an enthusiasm difficult for any one not a naturalist to
realize, and from that moment he was resolute to conse-
crate the remainder of his life to the study of the natural
history of the New World.

Returning to Boston, he received an invitation from
Professor Bache to join in a cruise along the shores of
Cape Cod and the island of Nantucket, on the coast-
survey steamer Bibb, commanded by Lieutenant (after-
ward Admiral) Charles Henry Davis, U. S. Navy, who
was then employed in surveying the bay of Boston, —
an excursion which passed for Agassiz like a dream of
the Thousand and One Nights. In one day, as he says,
he learned more than in months from books or dried
specimens. It was a new opening for his never-ending
activity of spirits and schemes. A most intimate friend-
ship grew up with both Professor Bache and Lieutenant
Davis from that first cruise, and lasted as long as they
lived, and in them Agassiz found, not only sympathizers,

298 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xii.

but true patrons of scientific researches, happy in the
opportunity to secure to America the services of such a
savant. There is no doubt that Agassiz's settlement
in America was due to the kind reception and many
acts of true friendship and admiration he received from
Mr. Lowell and Professor Bache.

Before his first year in America was over, a most
intimate friend of his Swiss family, M. Charles Louis
Philippe Christinat, arrived at his house in East Boston.
Victim of a political revolution in the Canton de Vaud,
Christinat, for many years a minister in the village of
Montpreveyres, was obliged to leave his parish, and
after wandering as an exile in Italy and France, he
resolved to join his friend Agassiz, and finish his life
with him. He possessed the full confidence of Agassiz's
mother, and the family was very glad that such a trusty
friend was willing to help Agassiz by his advice and his
devotion to his person and interests ; for they all knew
how much Agassiz was influenced, and often not in the
right direction, by his secretary Desor.

As soon as Christinat arrived, at the end of Septem-
ber, 1847, Agassiz, who remembered how devoted Chris-
tinat had always been to him since his childhood, going
so far as to supply his always empty pocket with money
in order that he might make his much-desired journey
to Paris, felt that he had at last near him a man whom
he could fully trust. It was a great relief to his mind.
His relations with Desor were no longer as friendly as
they had formerly been at Neuchatel. When they met
again in April, after an eight months' separation, Agassiz
saw at once a great change in Desor's manner, and more

1846-47-] DIFFICULTIES WITH HIS SP2CRETARY. 299

especially in his way of talking. He had left him in
Paris his secretary and assistant, and he found him at
New York his associate and collaborator, writh a certain
air of domination which extended even to every act of
his private life. Passionate and painful discussions fol-
lowed one another in rapid succession ; and although
they all ended in reconciliation, they were but the begin-
ning of most serious difficulties. It was evident that
Desor's prolonged sojourn at Paris, during which he had
assumed the joint authorship of one of Agassiz's publi-
cations, and his journey in Scandinavia- -at the expense
of Agassiz, who found the amount of one thousand
dollars a little hard to pay back to his banker in
his already straitened pecuniary position - - had given
him a somewhat exalted opinion of his scientific and
social value. Agassiz was much hurt by this new de-
meanour of his secretary ; it was hard for him to be
lectured by his own pupil both on scientific and private
affairs. He recalled the poor young man who came to
him at Neuchatel at the end of 1837, not as a naturalist
of worth, but only as an amanuensis and translator, and
at whose mercy now, ten years later, he found himself,
both scientifically and socially. As he himself said, it
was he who brought the water to turn the mill, for
Desor had never contributed a cent to the constantly
increasing expenses.

The following letters are presented to show how
Agassiz was always ready to help and encourage a
young naturalist ; and they allow me, at the same time,
to define my position with him. Being an assistant at
the Jardin des Plantes, under the direction of M. Cordier,

300 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xii.

the professor of geology, I was offered, as a reward for
work done in determining invertebrate fossils at the
Museum, a journey of three years' duration, outside of
Europe, with my own choice as regarded the country to
be explored. My acquaintance with Agassiz led me to
choose North America, and I wrote him asking if he
would help me by his advice, and tell me his plans
for explorations during 1848. His answer follows :-

BOSTON, 30 septembre, 1847.
MONSIEUR JULES MARCOU,

Paris.

Mon cJier monsieur, - - Ne pouvant ecrire aujourcThui a M. Cordier,
ni vous dormer de quelques semaines une esquisse arrete de mes
projets de voyage pour Tanne'e prochaine et ne voulant cependant
pas vous laisser attendre une reponse a la demande que vous

t

m'adressez de venir rejoindre aux Etats-Unis, le trio de travailleurs
que vous avez connu a Paris, je me bornerai pour le moment a vous
dire en termes generaux que je serai charme de vous associer a ce
que je puis faire dans ce pays. Je sais trop bien tout ce qu'il reste
a faire dans tons les domaines de la science pour redouter le con-
cours d'effbrts combines dans un meme but ; bien au contraire je crois
que les resultats scientifiques, que notre petite troupe pourra obtenir
seront d^utant plus considerables qu'elle s'associera un plus grand
nombre de bons observateurs ; et comme je n'ai aucun penchant
a m'approprier les observations d'autrui, vous pouvez etre assure
d'avance que quelqu'importantes ou quelqu'insignifiantes que puis-
sent etre les decouvertes que vous ferez dans ces peregrinations
communes, elles vous seront bien duement acquises, et vous reste-
ront en plein et sans partage, meme dans le cas ou elles auraient etc
amenees par des recherches que j'aurais pu vous suggerer. Cest
sur de telles bases seulement que je con9ois des rapports durables
entre hommes devoues a la science.

Quant a mes projets prochains, j1ai 1'intention de visiter cet hiver
les Carolines et de re venir pour le mois de fevrier a Boston, pour

1846-47-] LETTER TO J. MARCOU. 301 .

me preparer a une course dans POuest. Je desire consacrer une
bonne partie de Pete a Pexploration des bords du Lac Superieur et
de la vallee du Mississippi, comme preparation a une seconde course
au-dela de ce fleuve, dans la direction des Montagues Rocheuses.
Les ressources dont je pourrai disposer ne me permettent pas de
songer a passer Phiver dans une sorte d'inaction, loin des grandes
villes, oti je puis par quelques lemons acquerir de quoi poursuivre
mes recherches. Je crois de plus qu'il est plus avantageux de cou-
per ainsi en deux temps une exploration de POuest dont la premiere
campagne servira de reconnaissance et de point de depart pour la
seconde. Puis il y a dans Petat de POhio plusieurs collections qui
meritent d'etre etudiees et dont Pexamen nous evitera des travaux
inutiles, et nous fournira des points de repair. Meme ici a Boston,
mais surtout a Albany, vous pourriez consacrer bien des mois utile-
ment a vous preparer, car il vous sera difficile, malgre les publica-
tions des geologues de New York, de vous faire une juste id£e de
Petendue des travaux, en grande partie inedits, qui out ete faits
dans ces contrees. Dans ce moment deux caravanes de geologues
explorent les etats de Michigan et de Wisconsin. Aussi plutot
vous pourrez venir et mieux, et surtout ayez a votre disposition des
ressources pecuniaires suffisantes, car pour la depense les dollars
sont a peu pres pour nous ce que les francs etaient a Paris, avec un
genre de vie qui est a peu pres le meme.

Ces renseignements preliminaires vous permettront de faire vos
preparatifs sans delai ; des que je le pourrai, je vous ecrirai d'une
maniere plus precise a quoi je compte m^rreter definitivement pour
Pannee prochaine, et j'ecrirai en outre a M. Cordier pour Passurer
que les interets du Museum ne courront aucun risque si vous venez
me joindre. Je n?en veux de meilleure preuve que le fait que j'ai deja
mis spontanement de cote une assez jolie collection de fossiles pale-
ozoiques que je destine au Jardin des Plantes et qui seraient deja
partis pour PEurope n'etait Pennui de Pemballage.

Je vous remercie de tous les soins que vous avez mis a Pimpres-
sion des Echinodermes (Catalogue raisonne) et a la redaction cPun
registre de la distribution geologique, addenda, etc. ; ce sont des
additions qui seront tres utiles, je pense.

Adieu, mon cher Monsieur ; croyez a la sincerite de Pinteret que

302 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. xn.

je vous porte et que votre zele pour la geologic justifie si complete-

ment.

Votre devoue,

Ls. AGASSIZ.

In another letter, dated New York, 14 November,
1847, he says : -

Desor est reste a Boston pour le moment ; Charles, dont je suis
assez content, est ici avec moi ; Pourtales n-faccompagne dans le
Sud avec mon dessinateur. Nous ferons de la bonne besogne, je
crois, et malgre la difficulte de gagner ma vie en faisant des cours
depuis que je suis au terme de mes subsides de Berlin, tout va son
train, comme devant, et je suis loin de songer a reduire Tetendue de
mes recherches pour peu que je puisse continuer a suffire a toute cette
depense a force de travail. Adieu, mon cher ami, venez bien vite
et je crois que vous serez content de ce pays.

Tout a vous,

Ls. AGASSIZ.

END OF VOLUME I.

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