446 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



the line engraving, so well known in the Old 

 World ; and I became convinced of what I 

 had already anticipated as the logical se- 

 quence of my previous investigations, that 

 here also this great agent had been at work." 

 The incident seems a very natural introduc- 

 tion to the following letter, written a few 

 months later : 



TO ELIE DE BEAUMONT. 



BOSTON, August 31, 1847. 



... I have waited to write until I should 

 have some facts sufficiently important to 

 claim your attention. In truth, the study 

 of the marine animals, which I am, for the 

 first time, able to observe in their natural 

 conditions of existence, has engrossed me al- 

 most exclusively since I came to the United 

 States, and only incidentally, as it were, I 

 have turned my attention to paleontology and 

 geology. I must, however, except the glacial 

 phenomena, a problem, the solution of which 

 always interests me deeply. This great ques- 

 tion, far from presenting itself more simply 

 here, is complicated by peculiarities never 

 brought to my notice in Europe. Happily 

 for me, Mr. Desor, who had been in Scan- 

 dinavia before joining me here, called my at- 



