74 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



into hell," as Ms horrified mother terms 

 it, is matter for surprise. He was so 

 absorbed in watching the structure of 

 the icy walk between which he was 

 gliding that he did not notice the 

 water beneath him until, at a depth of 

 one hundred and twenty-five feet, he 

 was suddenly plunged into an ice-cold 

 stream. His hasty signal being misun- 

 derstood at the surface, he was lowered 

 further and completely submerged. 

 Whether at that supreme moment he got 

 one last reading of the thermometer he 

 does not say, but that day he read no 

 more ; and the huge stalactites of ice 

 far above him, against which the rope 

 , was chafing, and the fall of a single one 

 of which would certainly crush the 

 intruder to death, dic^ cause some mo- 

 mentary anxiety even to the optimistic 

 Agassiz in his shivering upward flight. 



Plans were made for a great glacial 

 treatise in three volumes, each volume 

 to be worked out in detail by one man. 



