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, 



