CH. XXXIX. AGASSIZ. 



411 



struggle with life. His enthusiasm breathes out so natu- 

 rally, and he speaks so regretfully of want of money, not 

 for himself, but the work he longed to complete ; while 

 his gratitude is so sensible and heartfelt towards those who 

 helped him to bring out these splendid additions to the 

 science of zoology. His was a wami-hearted, earnest, and 

 active nature, and he was beloved by all who knew him. 

 It is pleasant to think that the Americans, among whom 

 he spent the latter half of his life, from 1846 to 1874, ap- 

 preciated him fully ; so much so that Mr. Anderson, a 

 rich tobacco merchant of New York, presented him in 

 1873 with the island of Penikese, one of the Elizabeth 

 islands, north of New York, and with funds to establish 

 there a marine naturalist's school. The last year of Agassiz's 

 life was spent chiefly on this island, training up a group of 

 young naturalists. 



Agassiz proves that parts of northern Europe and 

 North America must once have been covered with Great 

 Fields of Ice, 1840. — It is, however, of the early part of 

 Agassiz's life, while he was still in Switzerland, that we must 

 now speak. Although his chief study was zoology, yet he 

 could not live at Neuchatel, and travel about the Alps without 

 being struck with those mighty rivers of ice, called glaciers, 

 which creep slowly down the valley of the Alps in Switzerland, 

 carrying with them stones and rubbish. (See Fig. 62, p. 412.) 



These glaciers are formed by the snow, which collects 

 on the tops of high mountains, and sliding down, becomes 

 pressed more and more firmly together as it descends into 

 the valleys, until it is moulded into solid ice, creeping 

 slowly onwards between the mountains, and carrying with it 

 sand, stones, and often huge pieces of rock which fall upon 

 it. At last one end of this ice-river readies a point wliere 



