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have been called.1 On the whole, the most important result of the campaign was the topographical survey of the glacier, recorded in the map published in Agassiz's second work on the glacier.
At about this time there begin to be occasional references in his correspondence to a journey of exploration in the United States.
Especially was this plan in frequent discussion between him and Charles Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, a naturalist almost as ardent as himself, with whom he had long been in intimate scientific correspondence.
In April, 1842, the prince writes him: ‘I indulge myself in dreaming of the journey to America in which you have promised to accompany me. ’
1 ‘Here and there on the glacier there are patches of loose material, dust, sand, or gravel, accumulated by diminutive water-rills and small enough to become heated during the day. They will, of course, be warmed first on their eastern side, then still more powerfully on their southern side, and, in the afternoon, with less force again, on their western side, while the northern side will remain comparatively cool. Thus around more than half of their circumference they melt the ice in a semicircle, and the glacier is covered with little crescent-shaped troughs of this description, with a steep wall on one side and a shallow one on the other, and a little heap of loose materials in the bottom. They are the sun-dials of the glacier, recording the hour by the advance of the sun's rays upon them.’—Geological Sketches, by L. Agassiz, p. 293.
Houghton, Mifflin and company, New York, Boston, 1885.
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