LOUIS AGASSIZ 73 



so it must have been in Switzerland, 

 where laughter and jollity, following on 

 science, are what travellers report from 

 the H6tel des Neuchatelois. Though of 

 world- wide reputation, the professor en- 

 joyed Alpine risk and adventure like 

 a boy. He was barely thirty when he 

 gave his first glacial discourse ; and he 

 wore his weight of learning lightly, like 

 a snowflake. It was not necessary for 

 glacial investigation that he should scale 

 the maiden peak of the Jungfrau 5 but 

 up it he went, and stood upon the two- 

 foot summit, balancing with his life in 

 his hand. Whether it had ever been 

 ascended before, is a question ; certainly, 

 it had not been attempted for many 

 years. 



In the same summer he took a risk in 

 the opposite direction, and had himself 

 lowered deep into a crevasse, in order 

 to observe the v " banded," or "rib- 

 boned," structure of the glacier. That 

 he came back alive from this "descent 



