CONTEMPLATES GOING TO AMERICA. 355 



have been called.-^ On the whole, the most 

 important result of the campaign was the 

 topographical survey of the glacier, recorded 

 in the map published in Agassiz's second 

 work on the glacier. 



At about this time there begin to be occa- 

 sional references in his correspondence to a 

 journey of exploration in the United States. 

 Especially was this plan in frequent discus- 

 sion between him and Charles Bonaparte, 

 Prince of Canino, a naturalist almost as ardent 

 as himself, with whom he had long been in 

 intimate scientific correspondence. In April, 

 1842, the prince writes him : " I indulge my- 

 self in dreaming of the journey to America in 

 which you have promised to accompany me. 



^ " Here and there on the glacier there are patches of loose 

 material, dust, sand, or gravel, accumulated by diminutive 

 water-rills and small enough to become heated during the 

 day. They will, of course, be warmed first on their eastern 

 side, then still more powerfully on their southern side, and, 

 in the afternoon, with less force again, on their western side, 

 while the northern side will remain comparatively cool. 

 Thus around more than half of their circumference they 

 melt the ice in a semicircle, and the glacier is covered with 

 little crescent-shaped troughs of this description, with a 

 steep wall on one side and a shallow one on the other, and a 

 little heap of loose materials in the bottom. They are the 

 sun-dials of the glacier, recording the hour by the advance 

 of the sun's rays upon them." — Geological Sketches^ by L. 

 Agassiz, p. 293. 



