THE GLACIERS AND THEIR INVESTIGATORS. 747 



Faraday for many years before his death lent such an inexpressible 

 charm. The subject of glaciers, which I had never previously treated 

 in a course of lectures, might, it was thought, be rendered pleasant 

 and profitable to a youthful audience. The sight of young people 

 wandering over the glaciers of the Alps with closed eyes, desiring 

 knowledge, but not always finding it, had been a familiar one to me, 

 and I thought it no unworthy task to respond to this desire, and to 

 give such of my young hearers as might visit the Alps an intelligent 

 interest in glacier phenomena. 



The course was, therefore, resolved upon ; and, to render its value 

 more permanent, I wrote out copious " Notes," had them bound to- 

 gether, and distributed among the boys and girls. Knowing the 

 damage which elementary books, wearily and confusedly written, had 

 done to my own young mind, I tried, to the best of my ability, to 

 confer upon these " Notes " clearness, thoroughness, and life. It was 

 my particular desire that the imaginary pupil chosen for my com- 

 panion in the Alps, and for whom, odd as it may sound, I entertained 

 a real affection, should rise from the study of the " Notes " with no 

 other feeling than one of attachment and respect for those who had 

 worked upon the glaciers. I therefore avoided all allusion to those 

 sore personal dissensions which, to the detriment of science and of 

 men, had begun fifteen years prior to my connection with the glaciers, 

 and which have been unhappily continued to the present time. 



Prof. Youmans, of New York, was then in London, organizing the 

 " International Scientific Series," with which his name and energy are 

 identified. To prove my sympathy for his work, I had given him per- 

 mission to use my name as one of his probable contributors, the date 

 of my contribution being understood to belong to the distant, and in- 

 deed indefinite, future. He, however, read the " Notes," liked them, 

 urged me to expand them a little, and to permit him to publish them 

 as the first volume of his series. His request was aided by that of an- 

 other friend, and I acceded to it hence the little book, entitled the 

 "Forms of Water," which the friends and relatives of Principal 

 Forbes have read with so much discontent. 



That modest volume has, we are informed, caused an uncontem- 

 plated addition to be made to the Life of Principal Forbes, lately 

 published under the triple auspices of Principal Shairp, the successor 

 of Principal Forbes in the College of St. Andrew's, Mr. Adams- 

 Reilly, and Prof. Tait. " It had been our hope," says Principal Shairp, 

 in his preface, " that we might have been allowed to tell our story 

 without reverting to controversies which, we had thought, had been 

 long since extinguished. But, after most of these sheets were in press, 

 a book appeared, in which many of the old charges against Principal 

 Forbes in the matter of the glaciers were, if not openly repeated, not 

 obscurely indicated. Neither the interests of truth, nor justice to the 

 dead, could suffer such remarks to pass unchallenged. How it has 



