AGASSIZ (Louis). A journey to Switzerland, and pedestrian tours in that country, including a sketch of its history. London, Smith, Elder, 1833. In-8°, half calf binding with corners (Modern binding). Rare first edition with lithographed frontispiece. Account of excursions in the Swiss Alps. First major work on the Alps published by the learned glaciologist. Small tear with loss (3 x 10mm), otherwise a very fine copy. Louis Agassiz was born in Môtier, on the shores of Lake Morat in the canton of Fribourg. A protégé of Georges Cuvier and Alexander von Humboldt, he devoted himself to the natural sciences, particularly the study of glaciers in the Alps. Based on the work of Charpentier, he demonstrated the existence of a geological period to establish and popularise his theory of the Ice Age: it was not floods and other catastrophes that shaped vast areas of Europe, but layers of ice (En français dans le texte, no. 258).