358 LOUIS AGASSJZ. 



Charpentier, who is going to your meeting, 

 will contest it, but you can tell him from me 

 that it is as evident as the stratification of the 

 Neptunic rocks. To see and understand it 

 fully, however, one must stand well above the 

 glacier, so as to command the surface as a 

 whole in one view. I would add that I am 

 not now alluding to the blue and white bands 

 in the ice of which I spoke to you last year ; 

 this is a quite distinct phenomenon. 



I wish I could accept your kind invitation, 

 but until I have gone to the bottom of the 

 glacier question and terminated my "Fossil 

 Fishes," I do not venture to move. It is no 

 light task to finish all this before our long 

 journey, to which I look forward, as it draws 

 nearer, with a constantly increasing interest. 

 I am very sorry not to join you at Florence. 

 It would have been a great pleasure for me to 

 visit the collections of northern Italy in your 

 company. ... I write you on a snowy day, 

 which keeps me a prisoner in my tent ; it is 

 so cold that I can hardly hold my pen, and 

 'the water froze at my bedside last night. 

 The greatest privation is, however, the lack of 

 fruit and vegetables. Hardly a potato once 

 a fortnight, but always and every day, morn- 

 ing and night, mutton, everlasting mutton, 



