328 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



a world previously covered with a rich vegetation 

 and peopled with large mammalia, similar to those 

 now inhabiting the warm regions of India and 

 Africa. Death enveloped all nature in a shroud, 

 and the cold, having reached its highest degree, 

 gave to this mass of ice, at the maximum of ten- 

 sion, the greatest possible hardness." He showed 

 how huge boulders had been distributed over the 

 continent. 



His views excited much opposition, from most of 

 the older geologists. Even Humboldt said, " Your 

 ice frightens me." But the discussion convinced 

 the scientific world that Agassiz was both original 

 and brilliant. He was soon called to a professor- 

 ship of geology and mineralogy at Geneva, with a 

 salary of three thousand francs, and also to Lau- 

 sanne ; but he refused both offers. So pleased were 

 the people of Neuchatel that they made him ac- 

 cept a present of six thousand francs, payable dur- 

 ing three years. 



In 1838, Agassiz founded a lithographic printing 

 establishment in Neuchatel, where his work could 

 be done under his own direction instead of in 

 Munich. He was now, besides his duties as pro- 

 fessor, at work on "Living and Fossil Echinoderms 

 and Mollusks," as well as " Fresh- Water and Fossil 

 Fishes," and soon after upon the " Etudes sur les 

 Glaciers," with an atlas of thirty -two plates. The 

 book gave an account of all previous glacial study, 

 and the observations of himself and companions. 



"Agassiz displayed during these years," said 



