The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 76, February, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 76, February, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
own funeral pile.
Even when I arrived in England, many of my friends would fain have
dissuaded me from my expedition, urging me to devote myself to special
zooelogical studies, and not to meddle with general geological problems
of so speculative a character. "Punch" himself did not disdain to give
me a gentle hint as to the folly of my undertaking, terming my journey
into Scotland in search of moraines a sporting-expedition after
"moor-hens." Only one of my older scientific friends in England, a man
who in earlier years had weathered a similar storm himself, shared my
confidence in the investigations looked upon by others as so visionary,
and offered to accompany me in my excursion to the North of England,
Scotland, and Wales. I cannot recur to that delightful journey without a
few words of grateful and affectionate tribute to the friend who
sustained me by his sympathy and guided me by his knowledge and
experience.
For many years I had enjoyed the privilege of personal acquaintance with
Dr. Buckland, and in 1834, when engaged in the investigation of fossil
fishes, I had travelled with him through parts of England and Scotland,
and had derived invaluable assistance from his friendly advice and
direction. To him I was indebted for an introduction to all the
geologists and palaeontologists of Great Britain, with none of whom,
except Lyell, had I any previous personal acquaintance; and through him
I obtained not only leave to examine all the fossil fishes in public and
private collections throughout England, but the unprecedented privilege
of bringing them together for closer comparison in the rooms of the
Geological Society of London. A few years later he visited Switzerland,
when I had the pleasure of showing him, in my turn, the glacial
phenomena of my native country, to the study of which I was then
devoting all my spare time. After a thorough survey of the facts I had
collected, he became satisfied that my interpretation of them was likely
to prove correct, and even then he recalled phenomena of his own
country, which, under the new light thrown upon them by the glacial
phenomena of Switzerland, gave a promise of success to my extraordinary
venture. We then resolved to pursue the inquiry together on the occasion
of my next visit to England; and after the meeting in Glasgow of the
British Association for Advancement of Science, we started together for
the mountains of Scotland in search of traces of the glaciers, which, if
there was any truth in the generalizations to which my study of the
Swiss glaciers had led me, must have come down from the Grampian range,
and reached the level of the sea, as they do now in Greenland.
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