346 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



wrongly, inclined to look upon all geological 

 theories as having their being in a mythical 

 region, in which, with the progress of phys- 

 ics, the phantasms are modified century by 

 century. But the " elephants caught in the 

 ice," and Cuvier's " instantaneous change of 

 climate," seem to me no more intelligible to- 

 day than when I wrote my Asiatic fragments. 

 According to all that we know of the de- 

 crease of heat in the earth, I cannot under- 

 stand such a change of temperature in a 

 space of time which does not also allow for 

 the decaying of flesh. I understand much 

 better how wolves, hares, and dogs, should 

 they fall to-day into clefts of the frozen re- 

 gions of Northern Siberia (and the so-called 

 " elephant-ice " is in plain prose only porphy- 

 ritic drift mixed with ice-crystals, true drift 

 material), might retain their flesh and mus- 

 cles. . . . But I am only a grumbling re- 

 bellious subject in your kingdom. ... Do 

 not be vexed with a friend who is more than 

 ever impressed with your services to geology, 

 your philosophical views of nature, your pro- 

 found knowledge of organized beings. . , . 



With old attachment and the warmest 

 friendship, your 



A. DE HUMBOLDT. 



