Mr. Bakewell on the progressive. Development of Organic Life. 33 



Captain Sherwill in his relation of his ascent of Mont Blanc, 

 speaking of the glaciers, says, " In traversing these stagnated 

 oceans, very large blocks of granite of many tons weight may 

 be seen riding on the surface of the ice. These blocks have 

 afforded the means of ascertaining a fact of importance. The 

 experiment I am about to relate to you was made last year 

 by some of the guides of Chamouni. Two poles were erected, 

 one on each side of the glacier, out of reach of its movement, 

 and so placed as to be in a direct line with a block of granite. 

 In the course of twelve months this block had entirely changed 

 its position as respecting the two poles, and had advanced 

 about one hundred yards on its march towards the valley ; a 

 clear proof that the glaciers do move on, and are continually 

 diminishing at their lower extremity by the melting of the ice, 

 and increasing at the upper end by the constant snows." 



We do not therefore believe that there is a single inha- 

 bitant of the valleys into which the glaciers descend, who en- 

 tertains the smallest doubt of their progressive movement : 

 and we will venture to say, that the " physical impossibility" 

 raised and stated by the learned German, arises from a super- 

 ficial examination only of the glaciers, in which the generative 

 and destructive forces of nature are so happily combined, that 

 no fear need be entertained of the too rapid progress of them 

 towards the fertile and pastoral valleys which for centuries 

 past have been threatened, but nothing more. 



If the progress made by the ladder of M. de Saussure, 

 taken for one year, and the result of the experiment made at 

 the instigation of Captain Sherwili, should not appear to 

 agree, it must be recollected that from the Col du Geant, to 

 the spot where the ladder is at present, is a very rapid descent, 

 and of course the march of the glacier would be rapid in pro- 

 portion : whereas the experiment of Captain Sherwill was made 

 on a level part of the same glacier, the Mer de Glace, where 

 the ice is of a more compact texture than that at an elevation 

 of above ten thousand feet, and consequently its progress 

 towards its final issue would be somewhat slower. 



X. Facts and Observations relating to the Theory of the pro- 

 gressive Development of Organic Life. By ROBERT BAKE- 

 WELL, Esq* 



A S it will be readily conceded that the true object of all 

 *^~ geological investigations should be the discovery of truth, 

 and not the support of hypotheses, the following account may 



* Communicated by the Author. 

 N.S. Vol.9. No. 49. Jan. 1831. F deserve 



