252 Address before the Association ¥ American sein 
Yet eleventhly, this agency must have’ spats comparatively. 
recent. For the disintegration of the surface of the smoothed 
and furrowed rocks to: the depth of half an inch, would vane] 
obliterate all traees of their erosion. Yet in how many 
— does this effect appear as distinct as if a ion the pres- 
ent century! we 
Finally, this agency must have been. along more sell than 
any now operating upon the globe. In the language of Prof. 
‘ John Phillips, which he applies to the phenomena of drift in 
general, “such effects ate not at this day in progress, nor can we 
conceive the possibility 6f their being produced by the operation 
of existing agencies anne with their present intensities and 
in their ne ee on Geology, Vol. 1, P 
— # nk 
- Beyond idk eidepeuilen ‘bAdlaioe: as these, I confess I poor 
been of late yeate Unwilling: to go; and have regarded the nu- 
ies of dil action, which have recently appeared, 
only as Siep enioine: nelentony Bat it is well known: that. the 
Glacier Theory, originally suggested» by M. Venetz; and subse- 
quently adopted by M. Charpentier, and more fully. developed of 
late by Agassiz, is now exciting great interest in Europe.” ae 
say nothing of geologists in this»country who have expres 
themselves favorably towards it ;* it is surely enough to recom- 
_—~ it ‘e mengalacyi examination, to learn that such men as Agas* 
siz, B Murchison, after long. examination, have 
more or less tie adopted it; although on the other hand, it ought 
to be mentioned, that such geologists ‘as Beaumont, Sedgwick 
wgewelty Mantell, and others, still hesitate to receive it. ~ 
In a country like ours, where no glaciers exist except in Very 
high latitudes, and with the very defective accounts which have 
hitherto been given of those in the Alps, it is not strange that the 
attempt to explain the vast phenomena of. diluvial action by 
such an agency, should appear at’ first view, fanciful, bape 
Puerile. But the recent 1 : rk of Agassiz, entitled Hiudes sur 
4 subject. It is the result 2 
ones made during ‘five lehicis tine in the Alps, especially 
sent: stat whieti so! mcl has been Sid, but cam 
eee Saar ee | 
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