No. 375.] AGASSIZ AND THE ICE AGE. 167 
In 1838 he began that careful study of the Alpine glaciers 
which brought out most of the facts which have since convinced 
the world of the reality of the glacial period. With a party of 
six he ascended the valley of the Aar to the Grimsel Pass, and, 
upon his return after ten days, started at once for Chamounix, 
where the party was gone a week. With the additional facts 
gathered in these trips, Agassiz attended the meeting of the 
Geological Society of France at Porrentrui (Sept. 5, 1838), 
where he was more successful than the year before in convinc- 
ing the sceptical of the truth of his theory. In August, 1839, 
Agassiz resumed his glacial studies, and, taking with him a 
number of eminent geologists, visited Monte Rosa and the 
Matterhorn, when, after studying the Gorner Glacier, he made 
a visit to the Aletsch Glacier and the Merjelen Lake, and 
thence went on to the Glacier of the Rhone, subsequently vis- 
iting again the Grimsel Pass and the Glacier of the Aar. As 
a result of this excursion, the most determined opponents of 
the glacial theory who accompanied him became convinced. 
The characteristic respect which Agassiz paid to ordinary 
observers appears in a conversation of his with his guide to 
the Gorner Glacier. ‘Seeing a vertical wall of serpentine 
finely polished, he asked the guide to what that phenomenon 
was due. The guide, who had not the smallest interest in the 
glacial question, answered with great zaiveté that in the country 
(le pays) everybody thought that it was made by the glacier, 
adding : ‘It is true that no inhabitant of the village remembers 
to have seen the glacier in this place, but it was there formerly, 
for it is always in this way that the glaciers wear away the 
rocks,’ ’’ 1 
Upon this excursion Agassiz was taken by his guide to see 
the cabin upon the Glacier of the Aar which had been built 
and occupied by the monk Hugi of Soleure in 1827. Ten 
years later it was found that the cabin had moved downward 
with the surface of the glacier a distance of 2028 feet, or 
about 200 feet per annum. Agassiz resolved to return the 
next year and either reoccupy this cabin or build one for himself. 
1 Life, Letters and Works of Louis Agassiz, by Jules Marcou. New York, 
Macmillan, 1896. Vol. i, p. 145. 
