LETTER TO M. DE LA RIVE. 663 



Beside the enthusiasm which he brought to 

 his special work, he found an added pleasure 

 at Cornell in the fact that the region in which 

 the new university was situated contained an- 

 other chapter in the book of glacial records 

 he had so long been reading, and made also, 

 as the following letter tells us, a natural se- 

 quence to his recent observations in the West. 



I 



TO M. DE LA RIVE. 



Ithaca, October 26, 1868. 

 . . I am passing some weeks here, and -am 

 studying the erratic phenomena, and especially 

 the formation of the many small lakes which 

 literally swarm in this region, and are con- 

 nected in various ways with the glacial epoch. 

 The journey which I have just completed has 

 furnished me with a multitude of new facts 

 concerning the glacial period, the long con- 

 tinuance oi which, and its importance with 

 reference to the physical history of the globe, 

 become daily more clear to me. The origin 

 and mode of formation of the vast system of 

 our American rivers have especially occupied 

 me, and I think I have found the solution of 



Chapel at Cornell University by the trustees, recording their 

 gratitude for the share he took in the initiation of the insti- 

 tution. 



