190 ¢: *. Miscellanies. 
been determined to hold the next meeting of that Association in 
this city, in the month of April, 1842, it was 
Voted, That this Society invite the Association of American 
geologists to make use of the hall of this Society for the meetings 
of that Association, contemplated to be held in this city in April, 
1842, and tender the use of the cabinet and library for the pur- 
poses of the Association. A true copy of record. Attest, 
T. Boxrincn, Sec. pro. tem. 
MISCELLANIES. 
FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. © 
1. Proceedings of the Geological Society, June 10th, 1840.—A paper 
was read on the polished and striated surfaces of the rocks which form 
the beds of glaciers in the Alps, by Prof. Agassiz. 
This paper was accompanied by a series of plates, intended to repre- 
sent the effect of glaciers upon the rocks over which they move. 
These effects, consisting of surfaces highly polished, and covered with 
scratches, either in straight lines, or curvilinear, according to the direc- 
tion of the movement of the glacier, are constantly found, not only at the 
lower extremity, where they are exposed by the melting of the glaciers, 
but also, whenever the subjacent rock is examined, by descending through 
deep crevices in the ice. Grains of quartz, and other fragments of fallen 
rocks, which compose the moraines that accompany the glaciers, have 
afforded the material which, moved by the action of the ice, has produced 
the polish and scratches on the sides and bottom of the Alpine valleys, 
through which the glaciers are constantly but slowly descending. It 1s 
impossible to attribute these effects to causes anterior to the formation of 
the glacier, as they are constantly present and parallel to the direction of 
the movement of the ice. They cannot be considered as the effects of 
an avalanche, for they are often at right angles to the direction in which 
an avalanche would descend ; they are constantly sharp and fresh be- 
‘neath existing glaciers, but less distinct on surfaces which have for some 
time been exposed to atmospheric action by the melting of the ice. In 
the valley of the Viesch, the direction of the scratches is from north to 
_ south, or towards the Rhone ; the direction of those which accompany the 
glacier of the Rhone is from east to west; that of those beneath the gla 
cier of the Aar is first from west to east as far as the Hospice of the Grim- 
sel; and then from east to north, from the Grimsel to the Handeck. If we 
could account for these scratches by the action of the water, we must im- 
