338 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



storms been so bad in the sea near this that, 

 until three days ago, I was not able to procure 

 a living sea-urchin from which to make the 

 drawings required. . . . You have made all 

 the geologists glacier-mad here, and they are 

 turning Great Britain into an ice-house. Some 

 amusing and very absurd attempts at opposi- 

 tion to your views have been made by one or 

 two pseudo - geologists ; among others, poor 

 , who has read a paper at the Royal So- 

 ciety here, maintaining that all the appear- 

 ances you refer to glaciers were caused by 

 blocks of ice which floated this way in the Del- 

 uge ! and that the fossils of the pleistocene 

 strata were mollusks, etc., which, climbing 

 upon the ice-blocks, were carried to warmer 

 seas against their will ! ! To my mind, one of 

 the best proofs of the truth of your views lies 

 in the decidedly arctic character of the pleis- 

 tocene fauna, which must be referred to the 

 glacier time, and by such reference is easily 

 understood. I mean during the summer to 

 collect data on that point, in order to present 

 a mass of geological proofs of your theory. 



Dr. Traill tells me you are proposing to 

 visit England again during the coming sum- 

 mer. If you do, I hope we shall meet, when 

 I shall have many things to show you, which 



