Beschreibung:

AGASSIZ, Louis (1807-1873). tudes sur les glaciers . Neuchatel: Jent & Gassman, 1840. 2 volumes. Text: 4 o (235 x 153 mm). Atlas: 2 o (454 x 306 mm). 18 engraved plates by Joseph Bettannier, with outline key of engravings on 14 of the 18 tissue guards (some foxing to plates, occasional foxing to text volume). Contemporary quarter purple calf, gilt spine, marbled boards and contemporary quarter blue cloth, marbled boards (corners worn). Provenance : Emily Peel (signature, atlas). FIRST EDITION. "THE GREAT WORK OF THE FOUNDER OF GLACIAL GEOLOGY" (Horblit). While studying glaciers near Chamonix and in the Rhone valley, Agassiz deduced that the smooth rock faces could not have been created by water flow, but only by ice flow. Further research in Scotland and Ireland led to the conclusion that the greater part of Europe, North Asia and North America had been covered by a vast ice-sheet, resulting from a dramatic drop in temperature, an age he labelled the Ice Age. Horblit 1; PMM 309; Ward & Carozzi 12; Norman 17. -- AGASSIZ. Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of North America. Volume I, Part I: Essay on classification . [Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1857]. 4 o (327 x 257 mm). (Minor occasional dampstaining and spotting). Modern green buckram, gilt-lettered spine. FIRST EDITION. Only 4 volumes of the intended 10 were finished "and these, although magnificently illustrated, were valuable only for their descriptions of North American turtles" (DSB). Agassiz's work was intended as an anti-evolutionary argument, but was considered too detailed for the general public, and not theoretical enough to convince naturalists interested in Darwin's conceptual arguments. Norman 18. (3)