62 



Louis Agassiz. 



Charpentier ; indeed, Agassiz concluded that if any- 

 thing his friend had taken a too conservative view of 

 the action of ice. 



Agassiz was at this time greatly hampered by a 

 lack of funds ; indeed the work on fossil fishes came 

 to a standstill for a while. He had parted with his 

 collection and every available franc that he earned 

 went to further what was the work of his life. He 

 now had nothing to dispose of but his original draw- 

 ings, the sale of which was finally effected through 

 the efforts of his friend Sir Philip Egerton, who 

 used his influence with the British Museum where 

 they ultimately found a home through the munifi- 

 cence of his cousin, Lord Francis Egerton. 



The proceeds from this sale were not sufficient to 

 enable Agassiz to still employ the artist, so Sir Philip 

 Egerton and Lord Cole defrayed the expenses of the 

 latter, with the understanding that the original draw- 

 ings should ultimately become their own. 



The summer at Bex was a revelation to the young 

 teacher. He wandered over the valley of the Rhone, 

 studied the great moraines, observed the huge 

 bowlders lying about here and there, and gradually 

 the part that had been played by the ice age of the 

 past was fully appreciated, and his mind was filled 

 with new thoughts and ideas which found expression 

 later on. 



During the winter following his visit to Bex he 

 investigated the evidences of glacial action near 

 Neuchatel and in the Jura, and in the spring when 

 the Helvetic Society of Natural Science met at 

 Neuchatel under his presidency, he unfolded his 



