BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OV ISAAC LEA, LL. D. XXI 1 1 



had corresponded for many years. He showed Mr. Lea li is very fine 

 cabinet of. shells, and gave him some rare terrestrial molIus<,'a from 

 Guatemala, &c., which he had collected while traveling there. 



From thence he went to Chamouni, where he examined the glaciers, 

 which were magnificent. He went on the Mer de glace and examined 

 the l^locks of granite lying on the ice. The exit of the Arveyron, llowing 

 under the glacier and strewing hundreds of huge blocks of granite in 

 its course, was particularly interesting, as was also the deep cave of 

 blue ice. 



In his visit to Zurich Mr. Lea met two of the professors of the uni- 

 versity, Schintz and Mousson. Passing through the ancient city of Ulm, 

 he stopped at Stuttgart, where he found Professor Yeager, of the uni- 

 versity, had already gone to attend the meeting at Wiesbaden, but he 

 saw Professor Krauss, who very kindly showed him the excellent col- 

 lection of the public museunv, which embraced tusks and molars of the 

 mastodon of great size. One tusk was said to be 3 feet in circumfer- 

 ence and 17 feet long. 



Mr. Lea hastened on to Wiesbaden, where he found Professor Yeager 

 expecting him. He and Professor Krauss introduced him to many of 

 the members. There were assembled some eight hundred of the promi- 

 nent scientific men of Germany, among whom Mr. Lea more particu- 

 larly made the acquaintance of Haidinger and Von Hauer of Vienna, 

 Hunker, Von Buch, Miiller, Kurr, Gerhard, Klipstein, Remak, Stilling, 

 and Desor. Professor Leonhard read a i>aper on " Pseudo-crystals" and 

 Von Hauer read one on the "Tertiary MoUusca of the Vienna Basin." 

 Professor Kurr read a paper on the diluvian of the Swabian Alps in 

 which were found human teeth with mastodon bones. Von Meyer ex 

 pressed his belief that "they were recent, and accidentally mixed with 

 the fossils." 



Mr. Lea subsequently went to Strasburg, where he saw Professor 

 Schimper, the distinguished geologist, who received him most kindly, 

 being introduced by letter from Prince Charles Buonaparte. He showed 

 Mr. Lea specimens of the Kliiper, Muschel Kalk, and Bunter sandstones 

 concerning which he had published so much, and gave him his papers 

 on these subjects, together with specimens, and kindly offered to take 

 him to the Vosges localities to see the different formations, but Mr. Lea 

 could not spare the time. He gave Mr. Lea the geology from Strasburg 

 to Paris by the road which he intended to travel, which was very inter- 

 esting. 



Arriving in Paris, Mr. Lea saw Boivin and Petit, both eminent conch- 

 ologists. He arranged and named the Unionicla' in each of their cabi- 

 nets and gave them numerous new species from the United States. 

 He also spent some time with D'Orbigny, the well-known geologist and 

 traveler who discovered that remarkable and rare shell which he called 

 Acostca from the rivers of Colombia, but which Mr. Lea had suggested 



