236 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. ix. 



way, to cover their retreat. But we may truly say that 

 the Chambery session of the Geological Society of 

 France was the Waterloo of the mud theory for trans- 

 portation of boulders. 



Agassiz, as usual with him, was very brilliant in his 

 exposition of all the observations he had made on the 

 glacier of the Aar ; and Bishop Rendu admirably de- 

 scribed the phenomena in Savoy. Agassiz, more espe- 

 cially, insisted that proofs accumulated every year to 

 show that the " Ice-age ' extended all over Europe, 

 and that the Alps were formerly a great central mass of 

 ice, extending forty leagues all around, as far as Lyons. 

 Professor Angelo Sismonda, of Turin, continued to 

 maintain that the phenomena did not extend to the 

 southern part of the Alps of Piedmont, until Professor 

 Bartholomeo Gastaldi finally proved beyond question, in 

 1850, that ancient glaciers occupied the whole valley of 

 the P6 and other valleys in Piedmont, just as they did 

 the valleys of the Rhone, the Arve and the Isere rivers. 

 I well remember those discussions, for I was a hearer 

 of several of them, and can vouch for the splendid part 

 taken by Agassiz in hastening the acceptance of the 

 glacial doctrine. We may say, without any exaggeration, 

 that the interference of Agassiz advanced fully thirty 

 years the recognition of the glacial theory, and that he, 

 and he alone, established the great " Ice-age." 



Signs of bad management were visible in more than 

 one direction. The great lithographic institution of 

 Hercule Nicolet was kept running with the greatest 

 difficulty. After bringing about an association of Nico- 

 let with a capitalist, M. Jeanjaquet, Agassiz was con- 



