782 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



report of the scientific results of his expedition to Brazil, undertaken under 

 the auspices of the Austrian and Bavarian governments. The portion of the 

 work entrusted to his charge was tlie preparation of an account of tlie genera 

 and species of the fish coUected by the naturaUst Von Spix in the expedi- 

 tion. The successful accomplishment of this work gave him reputation as 

 an ichthyologist. His labors were noticed with approval, and brought be- 

 fore a Berlin meeting of German naturalists by the eminent transcendental 

 anatomist, Oken. Encouraged by this success he pursued his ichthyological 

 studies with great perseverance, recording the results from time to time in 

 the natural history publications of the day. His labors also secured him the 

 friendship of Humboldt and Cuvier in a visit to Paris, where he was enabled 

 to pursue his researches by the friendly pecuniary assistance of a clergyman 

 and friend of his father, Mr. Christinat. 



In 1832, he was appointed Professor of Zoology at Neufchatel. In 1834, 

 he published a paper on the " Fossil Fish of Scotland," in the " Transactions 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science," and others 

 subsequently on the classification of fossil fishes in various foreign journals. 

 He devoted seven years to this subject, completing the publication of his 

 great work on " Fossil Fishes," in five volumes, in 1844. Associated with 

 these studies and results, was the preparation of his important work on Star- 

 Fishes, or Echinodermata, published in parts from 1837 to 1842, under the 

 title " Monographes d'Echinodermes Vivans et Fossiles." He had also, 

 during this period, completed another leading work, a " Natural History of 

 the Fresh-water Fishes of Europe," which was published in 1839. 



" The researches of Agassiz upon fossil animals," says a writer in the 

 " English Cyclopaedia," " would naturally draw his attention to the circum- 

 stances by which they have been placed in their present position. The 

 geologist has been developed as the result of natural history studies. Sur- 

 rounded by the ice-covered mountains of Switzerland, his mind was naturally 

 led to the study of the phenomena which they presented. The moving 

 glaciers and their resulting moraines, furnished him with facts which seemed 

 to supply the theory of a large number of phenomena in the past history 

 of the world. He saw in other parts of the world, whence glaciers have long 

 since retired, proofs of their existence in the parallel roads and terraces, at 

 the bases of hills and mountains, and in the scratched, polished, and striated 

 surface of rocks. Although this theory has been applied much more ex- 

 tensively than is consistent with all the facts of particular cases by his 

 disciples, there is no question in the minds of the most competent geolo- 

 gists of the present day, that Agassiz has, by his researches on this subject, 



