246 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



and uotwitlistanding their want of familiarity with the laws of physics, 

 the subject was so new that they rapidly acquired valuable information. 

 On his return from each expedition Agassiz published the results of 

 his researches. His object was not only to give an account of his ob- 

 servations, but to disseminate the theory of which he had become the 

 defender and promoter. Numerous memoirs upon present and ancient 

 glaciers of Switzerland, upon the glacial theory, upon the erratic blocks 

 of the Jura, bear the date of these years. Large works which appeared 

 later at Neuchatel and at Paris contained the results of his studies.* 

 These works revealed numerous phenomena then completely unknown, 

 made the knowledge of the glaciers popular throughout the world, and 

 gave a decisive impulse to this kind of study. 



Many years later Agassiz, while navigating the river Amazon, gave 

 the following illustration of the aspect presented by the glacial period : 

 " There is a phenomenon not uncommon in the autumn in Switzerland 

 which may help us to reconstruct this wonderful picture. Sometimes in 

 a Septeml)er morning the whole plain of Switzerland is filled with vapor, 

 which, when its pure white undulating surface is seen from the higher 

 summits of the Jura, looks like a snow-covered sea of ice, appearing to 

 descend from the peaks of the Alps, and extending toward the Jura, 

 while from all the tributary valleys similar masses pour down to meet it." t 

 In 1840 Agassiz went to Great Britain to seek there for traces of 

 ancient glaciers. He had no trouble in finding them both in Enghuid 

 and in Scotland. His journey through the country was a veritable tri- 

 umph, a series of ovations. 



This period of incessant activity, during which the scientific corps of 

 ISTeuchatel became so honorably distinguished, was not, however, for 

 Agassiz a i^eriod of undisturbed happiness. 



To meet the expenses of his extensive publications, his travels, his 

 expeditions to the glaciers, a large fortune was necessary, and this 

 Agassiz did not possess. The sums he owed to the generosity of the 

 King of Prussia, and which at that time had taken the form of a regular 

 pension, were not at all suflicieut for his needs, and rapidly disappeared 

 in the gulf of his expenses. Still the fire of his activity his labors, 

 his expeditions, continued ; but the situation at last became so critical 

 that he was forced to bring order into his affairs. Some letters of this 

 time show the serious embarrassment these diflQculties occasioned him. 

 " I am frightened at the approach of a new year, the time for the settle- 

 ment of accounts in Neuchatel, and I work like a madman to be able to 

 meet my indebtedness. If God preserves my health 1 hope, after one 

 or two years of continued labor, if I moderate my expenses, and particu- 

 larly if I abstain from publishing anything more on my own account, to 



*Agassiz. Etudes sur les (jlacicrs, avec un atlas de 32 pi. Neucliatel, 1840. Aouvelles 

 etudes et experiences sur les glaciers actuels. Paris, 1847. 



t A Journey in Brazil, by Professor and Mrs. Louis Agassiz, Boston, 18G8, chapter 

 iii, ]}. 116. 



