From time to time somebody discovers a genuine error in my books. In the old days, there was nothing to do but glow with a red face. Now, however, matters can be corrected on the web.

Lucien-Charles Bonaparte: page 109 says, "a fourth traveler joined the group as it rode to Neuchatel. He was one of Agassiz's patrons, the prince of canino, Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother." My source for this identification was Imbrie & Palmer, Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery (1979); however, Paul Grindrod, Outreach Coordinator for HawkWatch International has written to tell me: "Charles-Lucien was Napoleon's nephew, the son of Napoleon's brother Lucien, not Napoleon's brother as stated. It is an important difference relative to the political fall-out you further imply because Charles-Lucien spent virtually his entire life in exile from France which probably had an enormous impact on his life as an itinerant naturalist. The fact that he devoted his life to natural history 'after the Battle of Waterloo' is probably a little overstated, since he was only 12 at the time of the battle and already living the life of minor royalty in virtual exile in Italy."

Benjamin Peirce: pages 211-12 says, "The guests, who came in sopping wet from a day-long rain, included ... the creator of pragmatic philosophy, Benjamin Peirce ..." This turns out to be a misidentification, as pointed out to me by Rob Harrap, Department of Geological Sciences, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario. He writes, "Charles Sanders Peirce was the creator of Pragmatism, but after James coopted the term he renamed his own philosophy Pragmaticism. His father (I believe, I'm relying on memory for this last bit) was Ben Peirce, who I seem to recall was a mathematician, lived in Boston, etc." A quick check with Louis Menand's The Metaphysical Club confirms this identification. On page 158 I find, "Charles was the second of Benjamin Peirce's five children."

Early knowledge of glaciers: Dr. Richard S. Williams, Jr., Research Geologist at the US Geological Survey, Woods Hole, Mass. has written to inform me of an omission. In 1795 an Icleandic naturalist, Sveinn Palsson, "wrote the first comprehensive glaciological treatise." Dr. Williams, along with Oddur Sigurdson has published an illustrated English translation of the work, which is available from the Icelandic Literary Society.

Spotted an error? Write me at:  blair@ebbolles.com