1882.] 5-"^ [Lesley. 



sylvania. As liis task -was to investigate the si;rface deposits, with a 

 special regard to the possible existence and activity of a boreal glacier 

 invading Pennsylvania, I saw much ot him in my topographical studies 

 for the construction of maps to show coal terraces, «&c. and learned much 

 from him about the movements of the surface sub-soil and local drift. 



The study of glaciers led him to regard with critical eyes all phenomena 

 of erosion, and his measurements of the retrocession of the ftills of Nia- 

 gara gave him a very different scale of geological time from that of Hall, 

 Lyell and others. His diagramatic cross-section of the Via Mala, 

 placed him partly in accord with and partly in opposition to the glacial- 

 ists of the Ramsay school. 



His glacial researches led him also necessarily to study rain and snow, 

 the fohn or schnee-fresser and other winds ; in a word he became a good 

 meteorologist and made one of the band of early investigators, with Dove 

 at their head, who established that branch of modern science. After his 

 return to Europe he published papers on the "Climate of the United 

 States and its effect on habits and manners." 



At the close of 1851, or early in 1852, Desor was recalled to Neufchatel 

 by the serious illness ot his brother, whom he nursed until his death, tak- 

 ing care of his property and becoming his heir. 



Here a new career opened before him ; he became a teacher. He was 

 appointed to a chair in the Academy of Neufchatel, made famous first by 

 Agassiz, and now more famous by the lively, clear, eloquent, fresh teach- 

 ings of Desor. 



In the meantime he pursued his train of original research, and grad- 

 ually devoted himself to the special branch of fossil echinoderms. His 

 "Synopsis des Echinides" procured him a doctorate from the University 

 of Bale. 



In 1856 his brother's death and the care of his inherited property in- 

 duced him to resign his chair in the Academy ; but while he tended his 

 vineyard overhanging the lake, and farmed the old hunting-lodge of 

 Combe Varin overlooking the Yal de Travers, he pursued his researches 

 in natural history, and continued his dredgings on the sites of the aborigi- 

 nal lake-dwellers. He made unobtrusive use of his wealth in assisting 

 others in their researches. 



"He was himself," says one of his intimates, "not without some ambi- 

 tion. It flattered him to stand in relations to the first men of science and 

 be known as their equal. The hospitality which he practised in the most 

 liberal manner enlivened and preserved to him this intercourse which he 

 so dearly loved. Every summer Desor's farm at Combe Varin, on the 

 mountain top overlooking the railway station of Noiraigues on the road 

 to Pontarlier, was a gathering point for notabilites not only of Switzer- 

 land but of all foreign countries, not only his friends but his acquaint- 

 ances ; and there reigned in this old hunting-lodge of the Depierres such 

 a comfortable simplicity of entertainment and such perfect liberty of occu- 

 pation that each guest felt himself entirely at home. 



