vi Rise of Glacial Geology 271 



cated and difficult than he believed it to be, and various 

 modifications have been proposed in his work and termin- 

 ology. But he will ever stand forward as one of the 

 pioneers of geology who in the face of incredible diffi- 

 culties first opened the way towards a comprehension of 

 the oldest rocks of the crust of the earth. 



If a geologist were asked to point out what departments 

 of his science had made the most signal progress during 

 the present century, he would undoubtedly place first the 

 extraordinary development of stratigraphy and its palse- 

 ontological accompaniments. But were he to continue 

 his selection, he would probably point to glaciation and 

 petrography as the two sections which display the most 

 remarkable advance, the former created within the life- 

 time of many geologists still living, the latter, though not 

 actually founded, yet vivified with a new life within the 

 memory of most of us, and by a man whom we can count 

 among our living associates. 



The original suggestion of Playfair that the erratic 

 blocks of Switzerland had been transported by glaciers, 

 during a former vast extension of the ice of the Alps, had 

 passed out of mind. Venetz and Charpentier were the first 

 to take up anew this interesting department of geology, 

 and to trace the dispersal of the crystalline rocks of the 

 Central Alps outward across the great Swiss plain to the 

 flanks of the Jura mountains. 1 It was reserved, however, 

 for Agassiz to perceive the wide significance of the facts 

 observed, and to start the investigations which culminated 

 in the recognition of an Ice Age that involved the whole 



1 Schweizer. Gesell. Verhandl. 1834, p. 23; Ann. des Mines, viii. (1835) 

 p. 219 ; Leonhard und Bronn, Neues Jahrb. 1837, p. 472. 



