358 Arnold Guyot 



Art. XXXIIL— ARNOLD GUYOT.* 



It is a remarkable fact in the history of American Science 

 that, forty years since, the small Eepublic of Switzerland lost, 

 and America gained, three scientists who became leading men 

 of the country in their several departments — Agassiz in 

 Zoology, Guyot in Physical Geography, and Lesqtjeretjx in 

 Paleontological Botany; Agassiz coming in 1846, Guyot and 

 Lesquereux in 1848. A fourth, Mr. L. F. de Pourtales, who 

 accompanied Agassiz, also merits prominent mention; for he 

 was "the pioneer of deep-sea dredging in America."f The 

 Society of the Natural Sciences at Neuchatel lost all four. As 

 an American Academy of Science we cannot but rejoice in our 

 gain ; but we may also indulge at least in a passing regret for 

 Neuchatel, and recognize that, in the life and death of Agassiz, 

 Pourtales and Guyot, we have common interests and sympathies. 



My own acquaintance with Professor Guyot commenced 

 after his arrival in America, when half of his life was already 

 passed. In preparing this sketch of our late colleague, I have 

 therefore drawn largely from others, and chiefly from his 

 family, and a memorial address by Mr. Charles Faure of Swit- 

 zerland, one of his pupils, which was published in 1884 by the 

 Geographical Society of Geneva4 



Youth — Education in Switzerland and Germany, 1807 to 1835. 

 — To obtain a clear insight into the character of Professor 

 Guyot it is important to have in view, at the outset, the fact 

 that the Guyot family, early in the sixteenth century, became 

 protestants through the preaching of the French reformer, 

 Farel, the cotemporary of Luther; and also the sequel to this 

 fact, that at the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the Guyots 

 were one of sixty families that moved into the principality of 

 Neuchatel and Valangin from the valleys of Pragela and 

 Queyraz in the high Alps of Dauphiny. Thus the race was 

 one of earnestness and high purpose, of the kind and origin 

 that contributed largely to the foundations of the American 

 Eepublic. 



Professor Guyot's father, David Pierre, esteemed for his 

 "prompt intelligence and perfect integrity," married in 1796 

 Mademoiselle Constance Favarger, of Neuchatel, "a lady of 



* From a biographical sketch by James D. Dana, prepared for the TJ. S. National 

 Academy of Sciences, and read by Professor 0. A. Young at the meeting in April 

 at Washington. 



f Mr. Alexander Agassiz, this Journal, III, xi, 254. 1880. 



% Vie et Travaux d' Arnold Guyot, 1807-1884, par Charles Faure. 72 pp. Svo. 

 Read before the Geographical Society of Geneva, April 25 and Aug. 25, 1884. 



