LOUIS AGASSIZ. 259 



embankment ; the lake was emptied, while the moraine, beaten by the 

 sea and carried away by the llo^\ing• waters, disappeared, as was also 

 the case in great part with the ground upon which it rested ; for the 

 violence and the rapidity with which the sea eats into the shores of this 

 region is extreme, and a strip of hundreds of miles in width has already 

 been carried away. * 



Such is, in a few words, the theory of Agassiz of the ancient glaciers 

 of Brazil. This is not the place to discuss its claims ; it was attacked 

 on all sides, and has now few defenders. 



In his latter years Agassiz, overburdened with his occupations, aban- 

 doned special research; the organization of his museum, his public 

 courses of lectures, his immense correspondence, were too much for his 

 strength, and his health gradually failed. In 18C9 he became seriously 

 ill. He had hardly recovered before he was at work again. He accom- 

 panied Count Pourtales on one of the expeditions this zoologist made 

 in the year 1807, to study the submarine relief, the currents, and the 

 marine fauna of the coasts of America. These explorations, in which 

 each sounding gave rise, so to speak, to a discovery, captivated him ex- 

 tremely, and he soon conceived the idea of extending this kind of re- 

 search. In 1871 he joined an expedition organized by the Government 

 of the [Juited States for the exploration of the shores of America, the 

 study of the Gulf Stream, the temperature of the water, and the marine 

 animals. He sailed in the Hassler, and visited in this vessel the sea of 

 the Antilles and the shores of America as far as San Francisco, doubling 

 Cape Horn. A letter he wrote to Professor Pierce before starting, in 

 which he set forth the results he hoped to obtain, drew ujion this expe- 

 dition the attention of all the scientific world. He hoped to find living 

 at the bottom of the sea a large number of the types known only by fossil 

 representatives, and thus connect the actual with anterior creations. 



Soundings were made at first at great depths, but the apparatus was 

 in a bad condition, and on the coast of Chili this kind of research had 

 to be abandoned. Agassiz contented himself with the coast animals and 

 the fishes, which he collected by thousands. In every port the deck of 

 the vessel was covered with animals brought by the natives. The sin- 

 gular fauna of the Gallapagos Islands were collected with the greatest 

 care, and Agassiz was able, among others, to procure numerous shells 

 of two species of reptiles of the genus AmhlyryncJms, the structure of 

 which recalled that of these animals in the secondary period. Some idea 

 may be formed of the collections made in this voyage, by the fact that 

 the quantity of alcohol used to preserve the animals was about 3,500 gal- 

 lons. He came back to Cambridge by the Pacific Eailroad. 



Immediately on his return he formed the project of establishing on the 

 sea-shore a school for zoological research. x\s soon as the idea was con- 

 ceived, an American, Mr. xVndcrson, gave him in 1871 a small island in 

 Buzzard's Bay, the island of Penikese, and a considerable sum to assist 



' Journey in Brazil, Chap, xiii, pp. 419-436 ; Atlantic Monthly, 1866, pp. 49, 150. 



