262 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



der Braun. This period was one of the critical points in Guyot's ca- 

 reer. There was formed that close and tender friendship with Agassiz 

 which lasted until the latter's death, and found its final expression in 

 the beautiful memoir of Agassiz which Guyot prepared for the IN'ation- 

 al Academy of Sciences in 1877. But of still greater importance was 

 the impulse toward the study of science which he received from the 

 enthusiastic group of young naturalists with whom he was thus 

 brought into daily and hourly contact. He says of this period : " My 

 remembrances of these few months of alternate work and play, at- 

 tended by so much real progress, are among the most delightful of my 

 early days. ... It would be idle to attempt to determine the meas- 

 ure of mutual benefit derived by these young students of Nature from 

 their meeting under such favorable circumstances. It certainly was 

 very great, and we need no other proof of the strong impulse they all 

 received from it than the new ardor with which each pursued and sub- 

 sequently performed his life-work." 



In 1829 young Guyot went to Berlin in order to complete the theo- 

 logical studies which he had begun at Neufchatel ; but the love of sci- 

 ence was strong within him, and the new field which the lectures of 

 Steffens, Hegel, and Hitter opened up to his view decided him to enter 

 upon the study of Nature as his life-work. Having thus decided, he 

 determined to lay his foundations broad and deep, and with this end 

 in view he attended lectures on nearly all departments of natural sci- 

 ence : chemistry, physics, meteorology, zoology, geology, and physical 

 geography, alike received attention, and his subsequent career showed 

 the great wisdom of this thorough preparation. In 1835 he received the 

 degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and at once proceeded to Paris. Here 

 he resided more than four years, quietly pursuing his preparatory stud- 

 ies and extending them in vacation by tours of observation through 

 various European countries. He also took up the subject of his- 

 tory under Michelet, and, like everything else which he touched, 

 made it valuable in the great pursuit of his life, the study of earth 

 and man. 



In the spring of 1838 Agassiz came to Paris, enthusiastic upon the 

 subject of glaciers, and this induced Guyot to turn his attention in the 

 same direction. In the summer of the same year he went to Switzer- 

 land and began his work on the glaciers of that country. The results 

 of the summer's work were presented in a paper before the Geological 

 Society of France during the session of 1838, at Porrentuy. This 

 paper is mentioned in the "Proceedings " of the society (" Bulletin," 

 vol. ix, p. 407), but, owing to a long illness of the author during the 

 following winter, it could not be printed. The great laws of glacial 

 phenomena first enunciated by Guyot in this paper were afterward 

 announced as new discoveries by other obsei-vers, and were the occa- 

 sion of bitter quarrels. Afterward, when a discussion arose between 

 Forbes and Agassiz, the manuscript was, on motion of Agassiz, and by 



