Next30. Agassiz, Louis (1807-1873).
Études sur les glaciers. Neuchâtel: Jent et Gassmann, 1840.
Rocks polished and striated by a glacier, from Louis Agassiz, Études sur les glaciers, 1840.
Hugi’s hut on a medial moraine of the lower Aar glacier, from Louis Agassiz, Études sur les glaciers, 1840.
Having announced the glacial theory to a small scientific gathering in 1837, Agassiz now proceeded to document his theory, in the form of a study of Alpine glaciers, accompanied by a suite of large lithographs.
These illustrations depict not only the glaciers themselves, but terminal, medial, and lateral moraines, rock tables, and polished and striated boulders, which are characteristic signs of glacial activity. Agassiz could then argue that when moraines and scratched rocks were found in other locales, they told of past glacial presence.
One of his plates shows the two glaciers of Lauteraar and Finsteraar, which join to form the lower Aar (Unteraar) glacier. Franz Hugi had built a hut where the lower glacier begins in 1830 (see item 28). When Agassiz mapped the glacier, the hut had moved 4600 feet further down.
