272 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. [CHAP. 



We reply, a glacier might do this. What other inani- 

 mate agent could do it we know no*t.' 



It was now the end of September, and Forbes turned 

 his steps homewards, pausing at Berne to discuss with 

 M. Studer the origin of blocs perches and striae ; but 

 although the latter had seen striae at Bagnes' produced 

 by water, which caused him to doubt, Forbes's convictions 

 as to their glacial origin remained unshaken. He soon 

 returned to England by the Rhine and Belgium, crossing 

 for the first time from Ostend to Dover, a route with 

 which he was greatly pleased. * There were about ten 

 passengers/ he writes, 'and everything so smoothly 

 managed at the Custom-house by a commissionnaire, who 

 will tell as many lies as you like for two shillings ! ' 



Forbes had now fairly served his apprenticeship in 

 glacier observation. During his residence with M. 

 Agassiz, on the Lauter-Aar Gletscher, he had acquired 

 an intimate acquaintance with the varying features of 

 the Alpine ice-world. * M. Agassiz/ he writes, ' had 

 lately published his interesting work on Glaciers, in 

 which he had embodied the bold reasonings of Venetz 

 and De Charpentier with the results of his own obser- 

 vations ; and, guided by this, as well as the ready 

 illustrations by means of example on the spot, which 

 M. Agassiz was as willing to afford as I was desirous to 

 learn from, I soon found that a multitude of interest- 

 ing facts had hitherto been overlooked by me, although 

 I was already tolerably familiar with Alpine scenes, 

 and with glaciers in particular. Animated and always 

 friendly discussions were the result, and, without ad- 

 mitting in every case the deductions of my zealous and 

 energetic instructor, I readily allowed their ingenuity/ l 



That glaciers moved, was unquestionable. That in 

 doing so they grooved and polished the rocks which 

 formed their beds, as they passed on, bearing the enor- 

 mous transported blocks which had for so long puzzled 

 geologists, Forbes was now convinced. But the rate of 



1 'Norway and its Glaciers,' p. 297. 



