ATTEMPT AT AN ENGLISH LETTER. 289 



men who, however serious their aims, were 

 still young enough to enter like boys into the 

 spirit of adventure. Agassiz himself was but 

 thirty-one ; an ardent pedestrian, he delighted 

 in feats of walking and climbing. His friend 

 Dinkel relates that one day, while pausing at 

 Grindelwald for refreshment, they met an el- 

 derly traveler who asked him, after listening 

 awhile to their gay talk, in which appeals were 

 constantly made to " Agassiz," if that was 

 perhaps the son of the celebrated professor 

 of Neuchatel. The answer amazed him; he 

 could hardly believe that the young man be- 

 fore him was the naturalist of European rep- 

 utation. In connection with this journey oc- 

 curs the first attempt at an English letter 

 found among Agassiz's papers. It is addressed 

 to Buckland, and contains this passage : "Since 

 I saw the glaciers I am quite of a snowy hu- 

 mor, and will have the whole surface of the 

 earth covered with ice, and the whole prior 

 creation dead by cold. In fact, I am quite 

 satisfied that ice must be taken [included] in 

 every complete explanation of the last changes 

 which occurred at the surface of Europe." 

 Considered in connection with their subse- 

 quent work together in the ancient ice-beds 

 and moraines of England, Scotland, Ireland, 



19 



