REVIEWS. 



193 



REVIEWS. 



Etudes sur les Glaciers, Par L. Agassiz, Neuchdtel, 1840. 

 8vo. {Gent et Gassman.) 



We did not intend to withhold our notice of this work for 

 so long a period, but having borrowed largely from its pages 

 in the compilation of our periodical summary on Glaciers in 

 January last, we feared that we should have seemed to intro- 

 duce the subject too much upon the public attention at that 

 time. We had, moreover, interspersed the prevailing opi- 

 nions of the day as to the merits of Professor Agassiz*s 

 glacial theory ; and on that account the summary in question 

 might have seemed to serve both as a notice of the subject 

 generally, and a specific review of the work, which, as we 

 have said, added so extensively to its compilation. 



But this work of M. Agassiz needs further comment, and 

 the record of opinions which we could not express in the 

 article to which we refer. The volume itself, although pre- 

 senting margins and type sufficiently large to incur condem- 

 nation on the score of " book-making," contains the detail of 

 many laborious researches and careful observations ; but the 

 principal merit rests in the beautiful atlas of plates accompany- 

 ing it, presenting us with views of glaciers under their diffe- 

 rent aspects, and the prominent effects by which their courses 

 are marked. 



The lithography is first-rate, and the style unexception- 

 able, and the whole series have rather the impress of works of 

 art, than records of mere research ; they seem more adapted 

 to the portfolio of the collector than the library of a man 

 of pure science. 



We do not know of any method better calculated to disse- 

 minate the author's particular views on the subject, than 

 allowing him to speak in a measure for himself ; and we shall, 

 therefore, borrow somewhat from the preface to his work. 



M. Agassiz says, " That of all natural phenomena, glaciers 



VOL. I. — NO. it>, o 



Y!/ ' 



