Lesley.] ^24 [May 19, 



of all northern Europe.led naturally to those broad generalizations respect- 

 ing the coal-beds of all ages which have given him an immortal fame. 



In 1847 Agassiz settled in the United States and commenced his career 

 at Cambridge, Mass., after having opened the eyes of the British geologists 

 to the glacial phenomena of great Britain. He soon drew after him to 

 America Desor, Guyot, and Lesquereux. 



Desor, before going to America, had published his own "Geological 

 Alpine Journeys," and had traveled through Norway and Sweden in 

 order to compare the moraine phenomena of Scandinavia with those ot 

 Switzerland. 



In the winter of 1847-8 I found Agassiz and Desor at work together 

 in a zoological laboratory in East Boston, watching, a multitude of living 

 creatures which they had obtained from the neighboring shore and kept 

 in plates and bowls full of sea water. When Agassiz moved to his pro- 

 fessorial residence in Cambridge Desor insisted upon remaining in this 

 laboratory at East Boston. He soon became one of the lions of Boston 

 society, but attached himself with the ardor of warm friendship to Edward 

 Cabot, Theodore Parker and Josiah D. Whitney, who remained ever after- 

 wards his devoted friends . He became intimate also with Asa Gray and 

 Henry D. Rogers. It is needless to say that the circle of his habitual per- 

 sonal intercourse included such men as Emerson, Longfellow, Dr. Howe, 

 and James Freeman Clarke. 



The story of the separation of Agassiz and Desor which produced so 

 great a sensation in the brilliant society of Boston men of letters and 

 science will never be told, and need not be. In fact, however, the closest 

 intimacy of years was sundered in a few weeks and the two never met 

 again. Agassiz pursued thenceforth an independent career; became the 

 idol of the western world ; connected himself closel}' with Pierce and 

 Bache and Gould ; founded a school of natural history research ; erected a 

 vast museum; trained a considerable number of scholars to be the men of 

 science of the present generation, and in fact not only gave Harvard Col- 

 lege a new destiny, but inspired the entire population of the United 

 States with a zeal for discovery in every branch of human knowledge 

 which continues to burn and illuminate the world. 



Desor at first turned to the study of the osars of the coast, and spent a 

 summer with Davis in the study of the tidal gravel banks, always with 

 an eye to glacial action. 



He then joined Forster and Whitney in the survey of Lake Superior, 

 under a commission from the United States Government; his special task 

 was to study the alluvions and their fauna.* 



In 1850 and 1851 he accepted proposals made to him by Henry D. 

 Rogers to participate in the revision of the goological survey of Penn- 



*Hi3 term, Laurentian for the recent deposits along the St. Lawrence and the 

 Lakes has not been accepted by geologists, because of Its subsequent applica- 

 tion to the fundamental gneiss of tlie mountains of Canada. Ills views ou the 

 Northern Drift he published in the Amer. J. S., xiii, 93, 1852. 



