LOUIS AGASSIZ 71 



The boulders and scored rocks in the 

 valley of Bex were so many Eosetta 

 stones, and he took up the challenge of 

 Nature again without hesitation. The 

 fish might wait a little longer. If his 

 winters were given to them, he could 

 still put in his summers upon the glacier. 

 In 1837, when the Helvetic Society of 

 Natural History met at Neuch&tel, he 

 delivered the address on a glacial period, 

 which marks the admission of a new sub- 

 ject to general scientific attention. So 

 very great an innovation could not but 

 meet with a demand for very strong evi- 

 dence^ along with doubt, sometimes scorn- 

 ful, until years of research should accu- 

 mulate the evidence. Humboldt, much 

 as he respected Agassiz's judgment, was 

 sceptical. Yon Buch, the leading German 

 geologist, " raged," and invoked the 

 shade of De Saussure. " sancte De 

 8aussure, era pro nobis ! ? ? Caricature 

 was easy ; and there was plenty of it. 

 But Agassiz was supported by a firm 



