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 



