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. 



