1 843-44.] MEETING AT CHAMBERY. 235 



gling with its physical problems, for which he was quite 

 as little prepared as Agassiz. Every impartial observer 

 saw this plainly; and it was melancholy to see Agassiz's 

 already straitened resources expended upon almost use- 

 less works. 



Although the extraordinary meeting of the Geological 

 Society of France, in the Swiss Jura, at Porrentruy, 

 Soleure, and Bienne, in 1838, had much advanced the 

 recognition of the glacial question, it was important that 

 another meeting should be held, this time in the very 

 centre of the phenomena, among the Alps. The city 

 of Chambery, then belonging to the kingdom of Pied- 

 mont and Sardinia, was chosen, and the society held its 

 extraordinary session there, during the month of August, 

 1844. Agassiz presided over several of the meetings ; 

 as did also Bishop Rendu. Here these two great mas- 

 ters of the glacial theory met and entirely agreed. 

 After a full and very clear exposition by Bishop Rendu 

 of his " Theorie sur les Glaciers en General," 1 the I5th 

 of August, Agassiz says that he agreed ''entirely with 

 the theory as it was explained by Bishop Rendu." 

 Numerous adversaries, representing the theories of mud 

 currents, or also of icebergs, tried hard to oppose them ; 

 but one after another was silenced by the numerous 

 facts brought forward by Agassiz, Rendu, and others. 

 It was the last strong attempt to resist the glacial the- 



r 



ory. Afterward, Elie de Beaumont and his numerous 

 adherents in France and Italy, as well as Leopold von 

 Buch, continued their opposition, in a sort of Platonic 



1 " Bulletin Societe geologique de France," 2ieme serie, Vol. I., pp. 

 631-636, Paris, 1844. 



