DR. BUCKLAND AND THE GLACIAL THEORY. 
229 
opposite physical structure, surface, climate, etc. Secondly [from the] 
marine remains of the glacial period, showing the continents to be 
submerged. Mr. Darwin has described an island capped with snow in 
the equivalent latitude of Yorkshire, and by supposing an equal extent 
of water in our Polar regions, we might induce a degree of cold 
sufficient for that; but these glacial phenomena are found over too 
wide an extent to allow of that. (Mr. Lyell— “I have attempted to 
account for that in my paper ”—here interrupted. Mr. Buckland— 
“ So have I in a paper which is not yet written ! ”) Mr. Whewell, 
continuing—Our attention to-night is limited to Dr. Buckland’s paper. 
Thirdly, the physical conditions under which glaciers now exist. We 
find them universally stretching out from lofty mountain-chains, 
which take their rise in warm climates, so as to allow of the downward 
motion and the retiring in summer. Mr. Lyell speaks of the 
prodigiously rapid retreat of a glacier which amounted to half a mile 
in a single summer. But where shall we obtain mountains fulcra 
for glaciers, stretching many leagues into the plains, producing such 
results as are ascribed to their action in Scotland ? 
Dr. Buckland resigned the chair to Mr. Greenough, and argued 
the a priori credit to be attached to his “narrative,” from the circum¬ 
stance of his having been a “ sturdy ” opponent of Professor Agassiz 
when he first broached the glacial theory, and having set out from 
Neuchatel with the determination of confounding and ridiculing the 
Professor. But he went and saw all these things, and returned 
converted. And he considered the testimony of four such competent 
observers as himself, and Agassiz, and Benouard, and . . . who, 
next to Saussure, had spent more time in the Alps than any other 
geologist, sufficient to prove to all the truth of their observations, 
and the correctness of their inferences. He referred to Professor 
Agassiz’s book, and condemned the tone in which Mr. Murchison had 
spoken of the “beautiful” terms employed by the Professor to 
designate the glacial phenomena. That highly expressive phrase 
“ roches moutonnes,” which he had done so well to revive, and that 
other “beautiful designation,” the glacier remanie ! remanie! remanie ! 
continued the Doctor most impressively, amidst the cheers of the 
delighted assembly, who were by this time elevated by the hopes of 
soon getting some tea (it was a quarter to twelve p.m.), and excited by 
the critical acumen and antiquarian allusions and philological lore 
poured forth by the learned Doctor, who, after a lengthened and 
fearful exposition of the doctrines and discipline of the glacial theory, 
concluded—not as we expected, by lowering his voice to a well-bred 
whisper, “Now to,” etc.,—but with a look and tone of triumph he 
pronounced upon his opponents who dared to question the orthodoxy 
of the scratches, and grooves, and polished surfaces of the glacial 
mountains (when they should come to be d-d) the pains of eternal 
itch, without the privilege of scratching 1 
