SUPPOSED GLACIATION OF BRAZIL. 755 



or in those of the valleys of Cumberland in England " (pp. 456, 

 463). 



Naturally enough these views were received in the scientific 

 world with incredulity. As Mr. Wallace remarks'^ " Prof. Agassiz 

 was thought to be glacier-mad," 1 but his earlier observations on' 

 glaciers had been received with quite as much doubt, 2 so that the 

 doubts have nothing to do with the, case one way or the other. 



Professor Chas. Fred. Hartt states in his book 3 that he was 

 at first very skeptical about Brazilian glaciation, but that he was 

 finally obliged to yield to the evidence collected by himself, and 

 to confess that Agassiz was right. 



It should perhaps be mentioned here, that there is a general 

 impression that when Hartt wrote his book on the geology of 

 Brazil, he had spent several years, and traveled widely in that 

 country, and that the conclusions given by him are the results of 

 all his Brazilian work. This is far from being the case. When 

 he wrote the Geology and Physical Geography of Brazil, he 

 had spent only a year and a half in that country; on his first trip 

 he arrived at Rio de Janeiro, April 23, 1865, and left it on July 

 of the following year ; 4 on his second trip, he reached Para, 

 July 11, 1 867, 5 an d returned from Rio in September of that 

 year, 6 making in all not more than eighteen months spent in 

 that country up to the time his book went to press. The belief 

 in the glaciation of Brazil, as there expressed, is therefore based 

 upon his earliest and least trustworthy work in that region. 

 Hartt fully recognized this afterwards, and I have often heard 

 him say, " I wish I had known as much about geology when I 

 wrote that book as I know now." 



He subsequently made several trips to Brazil ; in one to the 



1 Nature, II., 511. Lyell's Principles of Geology, New York, 1889, 1, 466. 



2 Bui. de la Soc. Geol. de France, 1867-8, XXV.,' 685. 



3 Geology and Physical Geography of Brazil, Boston, 1873, 29. 



4 Agassiz, Journey, 46 and 540. 



5 American Naturalist, I., 648. 



6 Geology and Physical Geography, 201. 



