LETTER TO HUMBOLDT, 257 



AQASSIZ TO HUMBOLDT. 



(London), October — , 1835. 

 ... I cannot express to you my pleasure in 

 reading your letter of May 10th (which was, 

 unhappily, only delivered to me on my pas- 

 sage through Carlsruhe, at the end of July). 

 . . . To know that I have occupied your 

 thoughts a moment, especially in days of trial 

 and sorrow such as you have had to bear, 

 raises me in my own eyes, and redoubles my 

 hope for the future. And just now such en- 

 couragement is particularly cheering under 

 the difficidties which I meet in completing 

 my task in England. I have now been here 

 nearly two months, and I hope before leaving 

 to finish the description of all that I brought 

 together at the Geological Society last year. 

 Knowing that you are in Paris, however, I 

 cannot resist the temptation of going to see 

 you ; indeed, should your stay be prolonged 

 for some weeks, it would be my most direct 

 path for home. I should like to tell you a 

 little of what I have done, and how the world 

 has gone with me since we last met. ... I 

 have certainly committed an imprudence in 

 throwing myself into an enterprise so vast 

 in proportion to my means as my " Fossil 



VOL. I. 17 



