CHAPTER V. 



1836-1837. 



THE WOLLASTON MEDAL FIRST PAPER OF DE CHARPENTIER ON THE 

 GLACIAL THEORY VENETZ'S OBSERVATIONS ON LARGE BOULDERS 

 PERCHED ON THE SlDES OF THE ALPINE VALLEYS DR. HERMANN 

 LEBERT, THE FIRST DISCIPLE AND PUPIL OF DE CHARPENTIER AND 

 VENETZ EXTRACT FROM DE CHARPENTIER'S FIRST PAPER AGAS- 

 siz's SUMMER VACATION AT BEX, NEAR THE HOUSE OF DE CHAR- 

 PENTIER CONVERSION OF AGASSIZ TO THE GLACIAL THEORY; His 

 CREATION OF THE ICE-AGE KARL SCHIMPER VISITS AGASSIZ AT BEX 

 AND AT NEUCHATEL DISCOURS DE NEUCHATEL JULY 24, 1837, ON 

 THE ICE-AGE. 



i 



THE year 1836 was happily inaugurated by the 

 reception of the Wollaston Medal, awarded to Agassiz 

 by the Geological Society of London, at its annual 

 meeting on February 19. The President, Charles 

 Lyell, a life-long friend of Agassiz, in presenting 

 the medal, said : 



On a former occasion we presented the proceeds of the Donation 

 Fund l for one year to the same distinguished naturalist, to assist 

 him in the publication of the early part of his great work, the 

 importance of which was then only beginning to be known to 

 the scientific world. It will ever be a subject of gratification to us 

 to have learned that this small pecuniary aid was not without its 

 influence in accelerating the publication of his " Researches on 



1 The sum of thirty guineas, or ,31, ios. sterling. 



72 



