THE PROGRESS OF GEOLOGY, 



IX 



respective creeds having given rise to the appellations of 

 " Glaciahsts/' and " Diluvialists/^ bestowed upon the several 

 parties. Dr. Buckland, whilst occupying the chair of the 

 Geological Society of London, contending as the leader of 

 the former party in this country, that to the agency of ice 

 alone, various important changes in the outward appearance 

 of the earth might be attributed. We have explained the 

 nature of this theory at length, in a " Periodical summary," 

 and have detailed the prevailing opinions from time to time 

 on the fresh discoveries relating thereto, in the Monthly 

 Notices, to which we would therefore refer our readers, 

 who will thereby in a measure be prepared for the position 

 in which matters stand at the present time. Our own 

 distinct opinion has always rested in favour of diluvio-glacial 

 action — in other words rejecting the agencies of ice or water as 

 totally inadequate to produce any of those astonishing 

 effects, which we see recorded in, or affecting the solid 

 rock; and in this the majority of Geologists concur. Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz, however, still maintains his original opinion^ 

 despite of the opposition of M. Necker de Saussure, and M. 

 Godefroy, the former examining more minutely into those 

 detrital deposits connected with Alpine regions in particular, 

 from which he has arrived at the conclusion, that these are 

 divisable into two classes, the one of high antiquity, the 

 other of comparatively recent origin, and contends that the 

 enormous masses of ancient drift or diluvial detritus have 

 a direct connection with the actual configuration of the sur- 

 face, because the chief part of them has been derived from 

 the centre of the chain, the flanking and lower mountains, 

 and even the strata upon which they rest, having contributed 

 but little, comparatively, to the great advancing body. 

 Having examined the high valleys about Chamouni, and the 

 foot of Mount Blanc, and finding massive walls from 300 to 

 near 600 feet in height composed of this ancient diluvium 



