July 23, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



77 



The Aletsch glacier is far distant from Austria, 

 descending: from the Jungfrau into the Valais, not 

 far from the glacier of the Ehone. Its length is over 

 nineteen miles. 



The misstatements, errors, and false quotations, 

 •with regard to glaciers and glacialists are somewhat 

 astounding, difficult to explain, and more so to ex- 

 cuse; for the whole matter belongs to our century, 

 almost to our own time. It would seem, that with 

 the advantages of the long teaching of Louis Agas- 

 siz, and the constant flow of travellers toward the 

 Alps, a little accuracy and exactness might be in 

 common use, and by this time all the facts ought to 

 be classic. But it is not so ; and lately the amount of 

 false notions has been lamentably increasing. I will 

 signalize a few of the latest and most glaring. 



'"Glaciers have become so well known from the 

 graphic descriptions of Carpenter, Forbes, Agassiz, 

 Tyndall, and others," etc. This first sentence of 

 'Existing glaciers of the United States,' by Israel C. 

 Eussell (fifth annual report XJ. S. geological survey, 

 p. 309, Washington, 1885), will mislead any one not 

 very well acquainted with the history of glaciers and 

 glacialists. 



Carpenter is an English name well known in science. 

 W. L. Carpenter and W. B. Carpenter are both 

 naturalists of renown, and it would seem that one of 

 these two Carpenters is referred to. But it is not so : 

 the savant mentioned under this wrong name is 

 simply Jean de Charpentier of Bex (Switzerland), the 

 celebrated author of the glacial theory for the trans- 

 portation of the erratic bowlders. It requires a cer- 

 tain effort of imagination to recognize him under the 

 name given by Mr. Eussell. 



If his list is intended as a chronological series, it is 

 altogether wrong and unjust. Forbes Was not the 

 first after de Charpentier to investigate glaciers. 

 Agassiz called Forbes's attention to the glaciers, at 

 Glasgow in 1840, and introduced him to his Aar's 

 glacier observations, at the ' Hotel des Neuchatelois ' 

 in 1841, one year after Agassiz's publication of his 

 important 'Etudes sur les glaciers.' 



Prof. J. S. Newberry, in his address before the 

 Cornell university, at the unveiling of the tablet to 

 the memoiy of Louis Agassiz, June 17, 1885. says, 

 "In 1815, Charpentier, the director of the salt-works 

 at Bex, and one of the most distinguished geologists 

 of Switzerland, passing a night in the cottage of a 

 mountaiweer in the hamlet of Lourtier, was told by 

 his host that he believed that the glaciers had for- 

 merly a much greater extent than at present, be- 

 cause, as he said, ' I find huge bowlders of alpine 

 granite perched on the sides of the valleys, wlaere 

 they could only have been left by ice.' This remark 

 excited the interest of Chai'pentier, and was practi- 

 cally the beginning of the investigations which have 

 resulted in the theory of the ice period. In 1834, 

 Charpentier brought before the Association of Swiss 

 naturalists at Lucerne a report upon the evidences of 

 the former extension of the Swiss glaciers, the result 

 of his observations through many years. At that 

 time a group of young, able, and enthusiastic scien- 

 tists were gathered at Neuchatel, — Agassiz, Guyot, 

 Scbimper, Desor, Carl Vogt, Wild, and others. The 

 new theory of Charpentier, that ice had once filled 

 all the Swiss valleys, excited in them the greatest in- 

 terest," etc. • 



De Charpentier, in his 'Essai sur les glaciers,' etc., 

 took special pains to say in regard to the mountaineer 

 Perraudin of the Bagnes valley, at the foot of the 



St. Bernard, that his hypothesis was so extraordi- 

 nary, and even so extravagant, that he did not think 

 that it was worth looking into and thinking of ; and 

 he adds, " J'avais presque oublie cette conversation 

 [showing plainly that it was not practically the be- 

 ginning of the investigations], lorsqu'au printemps 

 de 1829, M. Venetz vint me dii-e aussi que ses obser- 

 vations le portaient k croire que . non seulement la vallee 

 d'Entremonts, mais que tout le Valais avait et6 jadis 

 occupe par un glacier, qui s"etait etendu jusqu'au 

 Jure et qui avait ete la cause du transport des debris 

 erratiques " {Essai siir les glaciers, pp. 242 and 243). 

 The order of priority of discoveries is, first, Venetz, 

 who in a memoir written and read in 1821 before the 

 Swiss naturalists, and published in 1833 under the 

 title of ' Memoire sur les variations de la temperature 

 dans les Alpes ' {Denksch. allgem. Schweiz. ges. gesam. 

 natunv., Zm-ich), showed the greatest extension of 

 glaciers and their gigantic thickness ; second, Jean de 

 Charpentier, who in 1834 read before the same Hel- 

 vetic society of naturalists at Lucerne his memoir, 

 'Notice sur la cause pi-obable du transport des blocs 

 erratiques de la Suisse ' (Annales des mines, 3^ serie, 

 vol. viii. p. 219, Sept. et Oct., 1835 ; also Bibl. univ. 

 de Geneve, 2^ serie, vol. iv. p. 1, 1836 ; and trans- 

 lated into German by JuHus Froebel, in Mittheil. aus 

 dem gebiete der theoret. erdkunde, p. 482) ; and, third, 

 Louis Agassiz, who first announced the existence of 

 the 'glacial epoch,' or 'ice period,' in his ' Discours 

 prononce ^ I'ouverture des seances de laSociete Hel- 

 vetique des sciences naturelles, h Neuchatel. le 24 

 Juillet, 1837' (Actes de la Soc. Helv. des sc. natur., 

 22e session, Neuchatel, 1837; also Bibl. univ. de 

 Geneve, vol. xii. p. 367, 1837). 



To Venetz is due the idea and proofs of gigantic 

 glaciers, which transported the bowlders from the 

 Alps of the Rhone valley to the Jura Mountains ; to 

 de Charpei.tier, the finding, accumulation, and the 

 classification of material proofs (such as, the mo- 

 raines. the roches moutonnees, ^jolies et strides ; the 

 cailloux stries and boue glaciaire, etc ), which consti- 

 tute the ' glacial doctrine ; ' finally, to Agassiz is due 

 the ' ice period ' and the prompt diffusion and accept- 

 ance of the theory of Venetz and de Charpentier. 



Professor Newberry seems to think that in 1834, 

 when Charpentier brought his theory forward at Lu- 

 cerne, there " were gathered at Neuchatel, Agassiz, 

 Guyot, Schimper, Desor. Carl Vogt, Wild, and 

 others." It is a great mistake. Agassiz alone, of all 

 those named, was then living at Neuchatel ; Guyot 

 did not come to live there until 1839 ; Schimper never 

 lived there; Desor came at the end of 1837, Carl Vogt 

 in 1839 ; and Wild was an inhabitant of Zurich. 



Mrs. Agassiz, in her charmingly written history of 

 her husband's life, says, "Agassiz was among tbose 

 who received this hypothesis (the ancient extension 

 of the alpine glaciers to the Jura) as improbable and 

 untenable. Still, he was anxious to see the facts in 

 place, and Charpentier was glad to be his guide " 

 (Z/Oia's Agassiz, his life and correspondence, vol. i. p. 

 261, Cambridge). De Charpentier was a great deal 

 more than his guide : he was his teacher ; for Agassiz 

 then knew almost nothing about glaciers, and cer- 

 tainly nothing about the glacial theory of Venetz and 

 de Charpentier. 



In the summer of 1836, Agassiz established himself 

 at Sallaz, near ' des Devens,' the residence of de 

 Charpentier at Bex, to study under his direction. 



De Charpentier studied with his friend Venetz the 

 whole question, and created the glacial doctrine be- 



