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, 



