146 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vn. 



This conversion of such a prominent alpine geologist 

 induced many other Swiss geologists, who, until then, 

 had hesitated to adopt the glacial theory as proposed 

 by Venetz and de Charpentier, a theory which was 

 extended by Agassiz to embrace almost the whole of 

 the Northern Hemisphere. It was a great gain, due 

 mainly to Agassiz ; and from that day no more serious 

 objections were made in Switzerland. 



Curiously enough, directly after the reading of 

 Studer's paper, Renoir of Belfort published a most 

 important paper on the glaciers of the southern part 

 of the Vosges. In it he declared that when Captain 

 Le Blanc of the French Engineer Corps, at the meet- 

 ing of the society at Porrentruy in 1838, announced 

 the existence of old moraines in the Vosges, he dis- 

 believed him ; but started at once for the valley of St. 

 Amarin as soon as the meeting was over, and to his 

 astonishment found there proofs of all the glacial phe- 

 nomena as established by Venetz, de Charpentier, and 

 Agassiz. 1 



The proofs given by Professor Renoir, as well as the 

 argument advanced by Captain Le Blanc, left no further 

 doubt as to the existence of glaciers during the Quater- 

 nary period in the Vosges, and Professor Fargeaud of 

 Strasbourg had extended his observations on ancient 

 glaciers even to the Black Forest of Baden, and to the 

 Pyrenees. So promptly did Agassiz's prophecy in 

 the address at Neuchatel in 1837 receive confirma- 



1 Note sur les glaciers qui ont reconvert anciennement la partie meri- 

 dionale de la chaine des Vosges (" Bull. Soc. Geol. France," Vol. XI., p. 53, 

 Paris). 



