200 LOUIS AGASSIZ. [CHAP. vin. 



out his stay the relations were never cordial. He 

 personified the celebrated type of Englishmen so well 

 described and caricatured by Topffer, in his " Nouvelles 

 Genevoises," " Les deux-Scheidegg " : "Je defende vos 

 de paaler a moa, quand je dise rien a vos." A true no ! 

 no ! 1 tall, thin, dry, haughty, and extremely egotistical. 



Agassiz put forward the doubtful claim of Arnold 

 Guyot to priority in the discovery of ribboned structure, 

 noted by Hugi as far back as 1830. It would have 

 been better had no attention been paid to Forbes's 

 paper, which was written in bad taste and against all 

 the rules of courtesy between savants. 



The only person who obtained any benefit from this 

 uncalled-for dispute was Desor, whose name, until then 

 entirely unknown in England and on the continent, 

 except in Switzerland, became conspicuous as the " con- 

 fidential adviser" of Agassiz. 



All friendly relations between Agassiz and Forbes 

 ended with the following letter addressed by Agassiz 

 to Forbes, then in a hotel at Neuchatel : 



LE 12 JUIN, 1842. 



Monsieur, Je viens de recevoir la brochure que vous rrfavez 

 fait I'honneur de m'adresser et pour laquelle je vous prie cTagreer 

 mes remerciements. Je regrette que vous n'ayez pas encore reu 

 le rccit de notre course a la Jungfrau que M. Desor vous a adresse 

 il y a plusieurs mois, si j'en avals encore un exemplaire a ma dis- 

 position je vous Tadresserais, afm que vous puissiez en prendre 

 connoissance. 



1 Rudolph Topffer in his novel " Le Col d'Anterne " gives, as a type of 

 a well-bred Englishman, a tourist set in front of the Mont-Blanc, who 

 disclaimed to answer any of the numerous and polite questions asked by 

 Topffer, except by the two words, No ! no ! and Ui ! ui ! 



