1846.] GREAT LUMP OF GOLD. 261 



offer him, et c'etait toujours a recommencer." In fact, 

 Agassiz had exhausted all his credit, when he left Neu- 

 chatel, having made use, one after another, of each of 

 his friends, and of his whole family. And all for 

 science ! for he had few needs, and was by no means 

 extravagant in personal expenses. Always generous 

 when he had money in his hands, he distributed it to 

 his assistants, draughtsmen, and lithographers, never 

 thinking of himself and of his own family, until all 

 others had been supplied. On the whole, Agassiz was 

 a very rare character, - - always hopeful, but a great 

 dreamer ; and he acted, all his life, as if he knew with 

 certainty that a great lump of gold belonging to him 

 was lying somewhere behind an enormous boulder, and 

 that he had only to extend his hand behind the boulder, 

 and fill his pockets with as much as he wanted. And, 

 curiously enough, this dream of his was fully realized, 

 only it was at the end of his life, and for the benefit of 

 his children. And so was fulfilled Humboldt's predic- 

 tion, in a letter dated Berlin, June 17, 1838, that "he was 

 certain that there was gold somewhere in his polished 

 rocks. I should like to find the secret which you 

 possess, to work all those mines." For it is under, and 

 even in, polished rocks of the great North American 

 glacier extending from Greenland to Minnesota that 

 Agassiz's great gold lump lay. 



When Agassiz left Neuchatel, it was arranged that 

 Desor and Girard should pack up about two hundred 

 volumes, the most necessary works for reference on 

 glaciers and fossil echinoderms, and leave all the 

 rest of Agassiz's already large library in charge of 



