422 AN ACCOUNT OF THE PROCEEDINGS, &c. 
could well be. Next morning, at half-past eight, I found myself 
breakfasting quietly at Berne, my geological trip and the meet- 
ing of the society, alike concluded. 
But now it will be asked, was this all? and was there nothing 
done in the day or two which elapsed before I met the society ? 
In anwer, I have only to say, that, after the most diligent enquiries, 
it appeared to me that nothing whatever had been done on the 
Wednesday, but that on Thursday morning—it was on that afternoon 
that I arrived at Porrentruy—there had been a communication 
made by Prof. Agassiz, on certain appearances which had been ob- 
served in the neighbourhood of glaciers, during a trip in the high 
Alps. 
The observations of this eminent naturalist were original and in- 
teresting, but whether altogether well founded I must leave it to 
others to decide. He had been examining the edges of glaciers, and 
had come to the conclusion that these accumulations of ice were in- 
creasing annually at a very rapid rate. So far he is, doubtless, 
right: but then he had also examined the surfaces of rock upon 
which they moved ; and from his observations he gave, as a theory, 
that the instances of rock polished naturally on the Jura limestone 
mountains, were owing to the sliding of glaciers upon them in for- 
mer times, when, in all probability, the whole of the great tertiary 
valley of Switzerland was covered with water. His proof of this 
seemed to rest on the fact that these extensive flat surfaces of rock 
are marked with large and small furrows and scratches, all horizon- 
tal, and presenting the same phenomena which really occur when a 
large mass of mixed ice and stones is dragged forcibly along an in- 
clined surface. 
In the starting of this theory, and the discussion consequent upon 
it, seemed to me to consist the whole business of the meeting ; and 
there certainly was much talk concerning it both at Bienne and 
Neuveville, where the best instances of the polished rock are found. 
But I feel bound to add that, beyond this, no subject of the 
slightest general interest was publicly discussed, nor was any agree- 
ment of opinion produced by all the talk on the one matter in dis- 
pute. What the society may, on other occasions, do, or have done, 
I am unable to say: I only speak in the present tense, and my 
judgment is given without the slightest intention of finding fault ; 
for I cannot but think that the great use of all such assemblies is 
rather the bringing together fellow-workers in the same field, and 
so promoting good feeling and enlarged views, than, by the commu- 
nication of new discoveries, to advance immediately the cause of 
