1868-70.] flfS .1SSOC/.177{S AT CAMBRIDGE. 171 



proposition, was successively divided into three separ- 

 ate chairs ; a chair of geology, a chair of palaeontology, 

 and a chair of zoology. At the time of his death neither 

 of the incumbents were persons well fitted for the posi- 

 tion for which they had ben chosen. 



The first mistake was the calling to the chair of 

 geology of an indifferent observer. We know how 

 Agassiz was justly proud of his knowledge on glaciers 

 and of being considered as the father of the " Ice-age." 

 What did his successor do but publish, in 1882, a 

 long and diffuse paper entitled, "The climatic changes 

 of later geological times," in Volume VII. of the " Me- 

 moirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology," founded 

 by Agassiz, in which he attempts to nullify his greatest 

 discovery in geology. It is almost incredible that at 

 this time of our knowledge of glaciers and the glacial 

 question a person has called the "Ice-age" a myth, say- 

 ing, pp. 387 and 388 in the paper quoted above : " The 

 so-called glacial epoch . . . the glacial epoch was a 

 local phenomenon," just the reverse of the discovery 

 and teaching of Agassiz. The same person, after 

 ascending Mount Shasta in California, and exploring 

 the Sierra Nevada, has the boldness to emphatically 

 declare that no glaciers exist now at either Mount 

 Shasta or in the Sierra Nevada, where we all know 

 they may be counted by the half-dozen. 



The second mistake was his choice for the chair of 

 palaeontology. Agassiz formed some pupils who greatly 

 honour his teaching in palaeontology. It is sufficient to 

 name such able American palaeontologists as Alpheus 

 Hyatt, Samuel H. Scudder, and Orestes St. John. But 



