LETTERS FROM PROFESSOR AGASSIZ. 159 



tiy, more trouble than I have had to sustain it in my own. 

 But I have talked to you enough of myself, and I finish, 

 commending myself anew to your goodness, and praying 

 you to accept the reiterated assurance of my high esteem 

 and entire devotion. Present my respects to your son and 

 Mr. Dana, 



And believe me for life, your obliged servant, 



L. AGASSIZ. 



NKUFCHATEL, February 1, 1846. 



FROM PROFESSOR AGASSIZ. 



MY DEAR SIR, You can see by this that if I 



appear in little haste to be in your country, it was from the 

 desire to be there completely when I shall have crossed 

 the Atlantic, and not to leave behind me occupations which 

 could turn me from my desire and aim to study with care 

 the zoology and the fossils of the United States, without 

 neglecting the physical geography of a country contain- 

 ing lakes as remarkable as those which border your north- 

 ern frontiers, and rivers as large as the Ohio and the 

 Mississippi, which open new paths to civilization, by the 

 mere fact of their direction ; coasts so indented, on which 

 the polar ices are exposed to the warm currents of the 

 South ; not to speak of the direction of the mountain- 

 chains, of the configuration of the soil, of the trend of your 

 great valleys, which form so curious a contrast with those 

 of Europe. 



All these, and many other facts which will present them- 

 selves to your mind more rapidly than I could enumerate 

 them, are well worthy to fix the attention of a naturalist ; 

 and I do not know that I am mistaken in thinking that 

 there are few countries in the world if there exists one 

 other where one can study phenomena so varied, with as 

 much facility as with you. So I make in advance a fete to 

 myself in the prospect that I now have a glimpse of. Now 

 I will say au revoir to you, and to the pleasure I shall have 



