224 HISTORY OF GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 



place previous to the upheaval of the Alps ; enormous masses 

 of ice had been formed and had extended over the surface as 

 far as erratic blocks and the scratched and polished rocks 

 could now be observed. 



Schimper took umbrage that the priority of the Ice Age 

 Theory should, in his opinion, have been stolen from him by 

 Agassiz, and the friendship of the two Alpinists was broken. 

 Schimper afterwards confined himself to the publication of his 

 Ode and of a scientific communication, which he made to 

 the Annual Congress when it met in Neuenburg. Agassiz, 

 however, continued the researches with unabating zeal; in 

 company with Desor and Studer, he visited the glaciers of 

 the Bernese Oberland, the Mont Blanc group and the Monte 

 Rosa group, and published the results of his investigation in 

 1840, in a work written in French, and immediately translated 

 into German by Carl Vogt. 



This work, which Agassiz suitably dedicated to the founders 

 of modern glacial research in Switzerland, Venetz and 

 Charpentier, contains the first general exposition of glacial 

 phenomena in the Alps. For much of his information Agassiz 

 relies upon Saussure and Hugi, but he devotes far closer 

 attention to the moraines and introduces the terminology now 

 in common use (end moraines, lateral moraines, median 

 moraines). 



Agassiz explains the formation of median moraines through 

 the junction of two lateral moraines, but, like previous authors, 

 he fails to appreciate the existence of ground-moraine, although 

 he clearly explains the etching action of sand-grains on the 

 rocks at the bottom of the glacier. With respect to the for- 

 mation of glaciers from descending firn, Agassiz agrees with 

 the conclusions previously arrived at by Scheuchzer, Saussure, 

 and Hugi. He regards Scheuchzer's infiltration and dilatation 

 theory as the best explanation of glacier movement. 



Agassiz recognises the great merit of Charpentier in having 

 drawn attention to the scouring, furrowing, and polishing of 

 rocks effected by glaciers, and strongly emphasises the work 

 of denudation effected by glaciers on the rocky floor over 

 which they move. He describes the hummocky bosses of 

 rock exposed to view on the retreat of a glacier, and notes 

 their characteristic striated appearance, and the parallelism of 

 the striae and grooves on their surface, with the direction that 

 had been followed by the glacier. 



