no LOUIS AGASSrZ. [CHAP. vi. 



de Charpentier was not gratified to see his glacial 

 question mixed up with rather uncalled-for biological 

 problems, the connection of which with the glacial age 

 was more than problematic. 



The first part of the address presented in a clear way 

 all the facts first observed by Venetz and de Charpen- 

 tier, with additional observations made by Agassiz on 

 the Jura in the vicinity of Orbe, Neuchatel, and Bienne. 

 The only opinion expressed by Agassiz which was 

 opposed to de Charpentier's glacial theory, that the ice 

 covering all the country as far as the Jura did not come 

 from glaciers of the Alps, was an error on his part. 

 The second part presented by Agassiz, a combina- 

 tion of his ideas with those of Schimper, was fully 

 as erroneous as the theory of water and mud currents 



X 



defended by de Luc, von Buch, and Elie de Beaumont. 

 It is not surprising that de Charpentier shook his 

 head and was sorry to see his glacial theory used as a 

 vehicle for such biological dreams and fantastic expla- 

 nations of the " role " played by the upheaval of the Alps. 

 The only rational and just conception presented in the 

 second part is, that immense masses of ice covered the 

 earth wherever boulders and polished rocks exist, and 

 that the earth was covered by ice at least from the 

 north pole to the Mediterranean and Caspian seas; in a 

 word, that there was an " Ice-age," or " Eiszeit," accord- 

 ing to the name coined by Schimper. 



The idea of an Ice-age was a stroke of genius due to 

 Agassiz ; l Schimper tried to explain it by means of 



1 Many years after, \\hen the question of an Ice-age had been recog- 

 nized as settled according to the views of Agassiz, I received a letter from 



