[49] It Is desirable that the reader should look up these localities upon a map of Switzerland, that he may be impressed with the growing grandeur of these ancient glaciers, even while they were retreating into the heart of the Alps; for in proportion as they left the plain, the landscape must have gained in imposing effect in consequence of the isolation of these immense masses of ice, which in their united extension may have recalled rather the immensity of the ocean, than the grandeur of Alpine scenery. [50] This map, with all its details and measurements, is reproduced (Pl. V. fig. 1) in my "Systeme Glaciaire." It was accompanied by an explanatory paper in the form of a letter to Altmann, then Professor at Berne. [51] M. de Charpentier has published a map of this ancient glacier in his "Essay upon the Glaciers and Erratics of the Valley of the Rhone." [52] In the last report of the New-England Emigrant Aid Company we find the following significant passage:-- "There is, undoubtedly, a general desire among the inhabitants of the Northern and Middle States to remove into the States south of them, which will soon welcome the introduction of free labor. This desire manifests itself strongly among soldiers who have seen the beauty and fertility of those States, in their duty of occupation and protection; and it has communicated itself to their friends with whom they have corresponded. Society in those States is, however, still so disturbed, and in such angry temper, that no Northern settler will be welcome or comfortable, as yet, who goes alone. To be saved the animosities and the hardships of lonely settlement, it is desirable that parties of settlers, furnishing to each other their own society, and thus far independent of dissatisfied neighbors, should go out together. The conditions on which only land can be obtained point to the same organization. Lands already under cultivation are not offered for sale in all the Border States, at very low rates. If parties of settlers could buy in the large quantities which are offered, it would prove that they could remove and establish themselves, in some instances, upon these lands, almost as cheaply as they have hitherto been able to make the expensive Western journey and take up the cheap wild lands of the Government. "But such purchases in the Border States are only possible when large tracts of land are sold. To enable the settler of small means to take a farm of a hundred acres, there needs the intervention of the organizers of emigration. Such a company as ours, for instance, can bring together, upon one old plantation, twenty, thirty, or forty families, if necessary: it can arrange for them terms of payment as favorable as those heretofore granted by the Government or the great railroad companies of the West."