76 



Louis Agassiz. 



centre of the great ice mass, and we can but imagine 

 the sensations of the enthusiast as he slowly de- 

 scended ; the gloom growing deeper and deeper, the 

 rich blue of the ice more intense. He had descended 

 to a depth of eighty feet when an obstacle was met 

 with in the shape of a parti-wall separating the well. 

 He first essayed the larger opening, but finding that 

 this radiated into a number of small tunnels he gave 

 it up and tried a smaller and slowly descended, now 

 being almost one hundred and twenty feet from the 

 surface of the ice. Every foot of the wall was care- 

 fully scanned, and he was completely absorbed in 

 the wonders of his surroundings when suddenly he 

 found himself in ice-cold water. He had reached 

 the bottom without observing it, and had plunged 

 into an icy bath of unknown depth. His shout of 

 distress was at first misunderstood, and he was being 

 steadily lowered into what would have been his 

 death when his signal was interpreted and those 

 above began to draw him up. If the descent was 

 dangerous the ascent was much more so. The well 

 was filled with large icicles, which pointing downward 

 presented no obstacle in his descent, but now as 

 Agassiz looked up the one hundred and twenty-five 

 feet of the blue ice the sharp and dangerous points 

 of hundreds of these javelins threatened to cut the 

 rope or fall upon him ; and possibly not till then 

 did he realise that he had taken his life in his hands 

 for science and that the trip was a foolhardy one. 

 His friends at the entrance did their work well. 

 Some watched ; others took care that the rope did 

 not chafe, while the rest hauled up the explorer 



