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. 



