i68 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vii. 



On the 4th of November, 1840, Agassiz read before 

 the Geological Society of London his paper " On 

 Glaciers, and the Evidence of their having once existed 

 in Scotland, Ireland, and England " (" Proceed. Geol. 

 Soc. London," Vol. III., pp. 327-332). This memoir - 

 a masterly one- -opened a new chapter in the geology 

 of the British Isles. In the " Life of Murchison," by 

 Archibald Geikie, we find the biographer saying (p. 309, 

 Vol. I.) that " the remarkable series of observations by 

 Agassiz among the glaciers of the Alps, and the exten- 

 sion of them to Scotland by Buckland, Lyell, and Agassiz 

 himself," - a sentence which seems to imply that Agassiz 

 came after Buckland and Lyell. The man who with great 

 difficulty, and after a stout and protracted resistance, 

 during a prolonged visit to Switzerland, in 1838, taught 

 Buckland how to recognize traces of ancient glaciers, is 

 represented as occupying only a third place in the 

 discovery of the evidence of the existence of glaciers in 

 Scotland. The truth is, that Buckland, after being 

 converted to the new doctrine, informed Agassiz that 

 he had noticed similar phenomena in Scotland, but had 

 attributed them to diluvial action. He waited until 

 Agassiz came to Scotland, and it was when in his com- 

 pany that Agassiz said, as they approached the castle 

 of the Duke of Argyll, " Here we shall find our first 

 traces of glaciers"; and surely enough, the carriage 

 as it entered the valley rode over an ancient terminal 

 moraine. Then, and not until then, Buckland was made 

 sure that his indications were well based. It is impor- 

 tant to add that Buckland did not claim any priority. 

 On the contrary, he read his memoir " On the Evidences 



