1849-52-] A GEOLOGICAL CHART. 45 



better informed, accused him of agnosticism, because he 

 mentions " those whose religion consists in a blind ado- 

 ration of their own construction of the Bible." Having 

 displeased abolitionists, atheists, and pietists, he declined 

 to furnish any more articles to religious periodicals. 



His second disagreeable experience at about this same 

 period had to do with savants. The palaeontologist of 

 the state of New York came to Cambridge one day in 

 November, 1849, with a large manuscript " Chart of the 

 Geological Formations," intended for the use of the 

 common schools of the whole state of New York. 

 Agassiz indicated some improvements and additions, 

 and gave a written testimonial. Some time after, he 

 received a copy of another chart of the geological for- 

 mations made by another person, with a request for his 

 opinion. The sending and request came not directly 

 from the author, but through the palaeontologist of New 

 York. Agassiz, accustomed in Europe to give freely 

 his opinions on scientific matters, did not pause an 

 instant to reflect, but wrote a letter disapproving this 

 second chart. Armed with this letter and Agassiz's 

 previous approval of his own chart, the palaeontologist 

 of New York succeeded in obtaining from those in 

 authority at Albany the acceptance of his chart 1 and 

 the refusal of the other. The author of the second 

 chart, having learned that the rejection of his chart 

 was due mainly to the opinion expressed by Agassiz 



1 " Key to a Chart of the Successive Geological Formations, with an 

 Actual Section from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Illustrated by the 

 Characteristic Fossils of Each Formation." By James Hall, Boston, 1852. 



