LOUIS AGASSIZ. 331 



accompanied by forty-one plates. The discovery 

 of these fossils was due to Hugh Miller, whose 

 interesting life and pathetic death will always be 

 associated with the study of the Old Red Sand- 

 stone. 



In the spring of 1846, a great change took place 

 in the life of the overworked naturalist. He had 

 long hoped to visit the United States for scientific 

 investigation, and now the time had come. The 

 King of Prussia, at the request of Humboldt, 

 granted him fifteen thousand francs for this pur- 

 pose he had previously given Agassiz one thou- 

 sand dollars for his glacial researches. . . . Leav- 

 ing his wife and daughters with Alexander Braun, 

 her brother, at Carlsruhe, and his son Alexander 

 at school at ISTeuchatel, Agassiz said good-by to his 

 students, who came at two o'clock at night, in pro- 

 cession with torchlights. Going to Paris, he spent 

 some time in bringing out his second work upon 

 the glaciers,-^ Systeme Glaciaire," receiving the 

 Monthyon Prize of Physiology from the Academy, 

 and sailed for America in September, 1846. 



Humboldt wrote him from Sans-Souci : " Be 

 happy in this new undertaking, and preserve for me 

 the first place under the head of friendship in your 

 heart. When you return. I shall be here no more, 

 but the king and queen will receive you on this 

 historic hill with the affection which, for so many 

 reasons, you merit. Your illegible but much at- 

 tached friend." 



Sir Charles Lyell, of England, who had given a 



