128 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vi. 



time he was more successful than at the meeting of 

 Neuchatel, the year preceding. His celebrated address 

 of 1837 had excited the curiosity of many geologists; 

 and some, like Captain Leblanc of Montbeliard, had 

 gone so far as to find undeniable proofs of the existence 

 of ancient glaciers among the Vosges Mountains, proofs 

 which were presented before the society as new facts 

 to be added to those of Venetz, de Charpentier, and 

 Agassiz, observed in the Alps and the Jura. One of 

 the first converts to the glacial theory was the cele- 

 brated d'Omalius d'Halloy, who acted during the meet- 

 ing as vice-president ; and Bernard Studer, already well 

 known as the geologist best informed in regard to the 

 Bernese Alps, as well as the Molasse of Switzerland, 

 and until then a most stout opponent, was compelled 

 by Agassiz's explanations and enthusiasm to moderate 

 gradually his opposition. As he afterwards said to me, 

 Agassiz was almost irresistible in all his explanations, 

 having a ready answer to all objections. Agassiz pre- 

 sented to the society, the 6th of September, his " Obser- 

 vations sur les glaciers," in which, though attacked by 

 Studer, he was sustained by de Charpentier, Hugi, Max 

 Braun, Leblanc, Guyot, and Renoir. The paper is one 

 of Agassiz's best ; it was published first in the " Biblio- 

 theque Universelle de Geneve," Tome XX., p. 382, 

 December, 1839, more than a year after its delivery 

 before the French Geological Society, and again in 

 1840, in the "Bulletin Soc. Geol. France," Vol. IX., 

 p. 407. In it he quotes the observations of Max Braun 

 and A, Guyot on surfaces polished by ancient glaciers 



