260 Professor Agassiz on the Glacial Theory. 



more and more. The snow was much more compact, so 

 that even when its external crust yielded, we did not sink 

 very far. There was no longer any doubt of our arriving at 

 the Abschwung. But another inconvenience came in the 

 place of the difficulty of walking, and that was the intensity of 

 the light. In proportion as the sun attained a greater eleva- 

 tion, its rays were reflected with such power by the millions 

 of crystals of this vast snowy region, that the blue glasses 

 with which we were provided became insufficient ; and in 

 order to remedy this, and to preserve the skin of our faces, 

 we were obliged to envelope our heads in a double veil, under 

 which we breathed as if we had been in the middle of sum- 

 mer. It was not without some astonishment that we here 

 met with a small butterfly, which fluttered around us. It 

 i,e<>flied to be perfectly at its ease, and was, according to 

 1^1. Agassiz, the species named Vanessa urticcE (La petite 

 Tortue). 



'• It was eleven o'clock when we arrived at the height of our 

 old dwelling, and we were very much astonished at not being 

 able to discover the Hotel des Neuchatelois. Was it possible 

 to conceive that the immense block, which was seen from so 

 great a distance in summer, and whose summit had so often 

 reanimated the courage of our visitors, had been entirely in- 

 terred in the snow ? At last, after having sought for it on 

 all sides of the moraine, we descried at some distance a swell- 

 ing in the snowy ridge, and this proved to be our hotel. It 

 was entirely covered by snow. On one side only we saw one 

 of its walls uncovered for a space of some feet ; but, in order 

 to penetrate into the interior, it would have been necessary 

 to clear away an enormous bed of snow, which would have 

 occupied a great deal of time, and we therefore preferred re- 

 posing on the snow. Agassiz was in very high spirits, re- 

 joiced to find himself, in such magnificent weather, in the 

 midst of that sea of ice which he had made the scene of his 

 observations. In truth, the spectacle which we had before 

 us was of an unique character. It appeared to us, that we 

 had never seen the air so transparent. The outlines of the 

 mountains were delineated on the blue back-ground of the sky 

 with a precision never witnessed in summer. All the peaks 



