The Agassi 2 Memorials. 227 



audience. In fact, it was fortunate for popular 

 science that he was — Agassiz ; for men with such 

 a rare combination of good qualities, and such a 

 position, come but seldom in a century. 



One of the branches of scientific investigation to 

 which he gave much actual examination and earnest 

 thought, and by which he will be known as the great 

 expounder, was the extent of glacial action during 

 the period when the greater part of the northern and 

 southern continents was under an ice-sheet of 

 immense thickness. He first grasped the full force 

 of the problem, and enunciated it ; and his demon- 

 strations have made clear many existing conditions 

 on the surface of the earth, which had baffled the 

 skill of others. Perplexities melted before it, and 

 from chaos are emerging order and consecutiveness. 

 In his visit to this coast, he was particularly gratified 

 and excited with the evidences of glacial action which 

 mark our Sierras, and which I have shown to mark 

 our coast-line. These, the existence of the great 

 living glaciers of British Columbia and Alaska, and 

 the evidences of glacial action through the thousand 

 miles of ocean Yosemites stretching from latitude 

 forty-seven to sixty, were some of the inducements 

 that led him to acquiesce in the projected trip of this 

 season. He had studied the glacial action through 

 similar geological formations from Cape Horn 

 northward, and, from his comprehensive knowledge 

 and grasp of the subject, was peculiarly fitted for the 

 discussion. Even among those who may be capable 

 of seizing the minutiae of evidence and realising the 

 magnitude of the powers which performed that work, 



