190 Miscellanies. 



been determined to hold the next meeting of that Association in 

 this city, in the month of April, 1842, it was 



Voted, That this Society invite the Association of American 

 geologists to make use of the hall of this Society for the meetings 

 of that Association, contemplated to be held in this city in April, 

 1842, and tender the use of the cabinet and library for the pur- 

 poses of the Association. A true copy of record. Attest, 



T. BuLFiNCH, Sec. pro. tern. 



MISCELLANIES. 



FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. 



1. Proceedings of the Geological Soeiety, June \Qth, 1840. — A paper 

 was read on the polished and striated surfaces of the rocks which form 

 the beds of glaciers in the Alps, by Prof. Agassiz. 



This paper was accompanied by a series of plates, intended to repre- 

 sent the effect of glaciers upon the rocks over which they move. 



These effects, consisting of surfaces highly polished, and covered with 

 scratches, either in straight lines, or curvilinear, according to the direc- 

 tion of the movement of the glacier, are constantly found, not only at the 

 lower extremity, where they are exposed by the melting of the glaciers, 

 but also, whenever the subjacent rock is examined, by descending through 

 deep crevices in the ice. Grains of quartz, and other fragments of fallen 

 rocks, which compose the moraines that accompany the glaciers, have 

 afforded the material which, moved by the action of the ice, has produced 

 the polish and scratches on the sides and bottom of the Alpine valleys, 

 through which the glaciers are constantly but slowly descending. It is 

 impossible to attribute these effects to causes anterior to the formation of 

 the glacier, as they are constantly present and parallel to the direction of 

 the movement of the ice. They cannot be considered as the effects of 

 an avalanche, for they are often at right angles to the direction in which 

 an avalanche would descend ; they are constantly sharp and fresh be- 

 neath existing glaciers, but less distinct on surfaces which have for some 

 time been exposed to atmospheric action by the melting of the ice. In 

 the valley of the Viesch, the direction of the scratches is from north to 

 south, or towards the Rhone ; the direction of those which accompany the 

 glacier of the Rhone is from east to west; that of those beneath the gla- 

 cier of the Aar is first from west to east as far as the Hospice of the Grim- 

 sel ; and then from east to north, from the Grimsel to the Handeck. If we 

 could account for these scratches by the action of the water, we must im- 



