86 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. v. 



On his return to Neuchatel, Agassiz began to exam- 

 ine attentively, with the new tool he had obtained at 

 Bex, all the vicinity of Neuchatel and Bienne, finding 

 everywhere the most unmistakable proofs of glacial 

 action, and of the extension of the glacier of the Rhone 

 to the Chaumont, with its " Pierre a Bot," and far away 

 north towards Soleure. 



During his stay at Bex, Agassiz, as a good friend, 

 wished to share the great pleasure afforded to him by 

 his stay near de Charpentier, and he kindly invited Karl 

 Schimper to visit him. As Agassiz said in 1842, in his 

 defence against the attacks of Schimper, " Through the 

 highly interesting works of Venetz and de Charpentier 

 upon glaciers, my attention was called to these phe- 

 nomena. In the autumn of 1836 I went to Bex, where 

 I spent several months, and under the guidance of M. 

 de Charpentier gradually learned to understand these 

 remarkable phenomena." These plain words cannot 

 leave any doubt as to the fact that Agassiz became 

 converted to the glacial theory by the teaching of de 

 Charpentier. Schimper, who did not leave Bex with 

 Agassiz at the beginning of November, but accepted 

 the hospitality tendered to him by de Charpentier, was 

 not with Agassiz when he made his observations on 

 the polished and scratched rocks and boulders round 

 Neuchatel. After lingering several weeks at de Charpen- 

 tier's hospitable and generous house, Schimper rejoined 

 Agassiz at Neuchatel as his guest, as he had been at Bex 

 and formerly at Munich. Of course, being constantly 

 together, Agassiz and Schimper carried on a continual 

 exchange of views on the Ice-age. During the winter 



