1 845.] MEETING AT GENEVA. 251 



a middle-aged man, he seemed like the leader of the 

 meeting. He spoke first, at the general session, on the 

 structure of the fins of fishes ; and then, at the special 

 sections of physics, he gave an account of his researches 

 during the last three years on the glacier of the Aar, 

 dealing more especially with the motion of the glacier, 

 its structure, the ablation of the surface, the meteorol- 

 ogy, etc. Discussion followed, in which Jean de Char- 

 pentier, the founder of the glacial theory, and Venetz, 

 son of the first promoter and discoverer of the existence 

 of ancient and immense glaciers in the Rhone valley, 

 took part and gave new proofs of the great value now 

 attached to their first observations. Leopold von Buch, 

 present at the meeting, did not approve all that he 

 heard respecting glaciers, and left, rather indignant at 

 the evidence of the great progress made; for at this time, 

 all the Geneva naturalists, with the exception of Jean 

 Andre de Luc, then an octogenarian, were converted 

 to the new theory. Arriving at Zurich a few days 

 after the meeting was over, von Buch called on Arnold 

 Escher von der Linth, as he was accustomed to do 

 almost annually, and begged Escher to take him on an 

 excursion among the Alps of the Primitive Cantons of 

 Switzerland, making the one condition, however, that 

 Escher would not once speak of anything relating to 

 glaciers and glacial action. Escher, who respected and 

 loved von Buch, as the best friend of his deceased 

 'father, promised, and kept his word, notwithstanding 

 that he was himself one of the best and first-converted 

 glacialists, and that at every step he found most unde- 

 niable proofs of the great extension of glaciers. A few 



