WORK IN THE ALPS. 293 



siz had been to embody the whole in a publi- 

 cation, the first part of which should contain 

 the glacial system of Agassiz ; the second the 

 Alpine erratics, by Guyot; while the third 

 and final portion, by E. Desor, should treat of 

 the erratic phenomena outside of Switzerland. 

 The first volume alone was completed. Un- 

 looked for circumstances made the continuation 

 of the work impossible, and the five thousand 

 specimens of the erratic rocks of Switzerland 

 collected by Professor Guyot, in preparation 

 for his part of the publication, are now depos- 

 ited in the College of New Jersey, at Prince- 

 ton. 



In the following summer of 1839 Agassiz 

 took the chain of Monte Rosa and Matterhorn 

 as the field of a larger and more systematic 

 observation. On this occasion, the usual party 

 consisting of Agassiz, Desor, M. Bettanier, an 

 artist, and two or three other friends, was 

 joined by the geologist Studer. Up to this 

 time he had been a powerful opponent of 

 Agassiz's views, and his conversion to the gla- 

 cial theory during this excursion was looked 

 upon by them all as a victory greater than 

 any gained over the regions of ice and snow. 

 Some account of this journey occurs in the 

 following letter, 



