458 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



bim pecuniary aid for his researches, and to Humboldt, after the gla- 

 cier cami^aigu of 1841 had ended, he addressed a private note, men- 

 tioning among other things his having seen the veins. I make no at- 

 temj)t at excusing his omission of the name of Forbes from this note ; 

 but, taking every thing into account, the sin of omission does not 

 seem very heinous. Its effect upon Prof. Forbes shall be described 

 by himself. 



*'I reached home," he says, "in the month of October, 1841, and soon com- 

 menced the historical review of the glacier question which I had projected. 

 While I was thus engaged, the ' Comptes Rendus ' of the Academy of Sciences 

 in Paris for the 18th of October reached me. In it I found a letter from M. 

 Agassiz to Baron Humboldt, containing the following passage with reference to 

 the observations made upon the glacier of the Aar : 



" 'Le fait le plus nouveau que j'ai remarque, c'est la presence dans la masse 

 de la glace des rubans verticaux de glace bleue, alternant avec des bands de 

 glace blanche d'un quart de ligne a plusieurs pouces de large, s'etendant sur 

 toute la longueur du glacier et penetrant a une profoudeur du moins 120 pieds 

 puisque j'ai observe encore ce phenomene au fond du trou de sonde.' 



"On reading this letter," says Principal Forbes, "from which even all men- 

 tion of my presence on the Aar is excluded, my first impression was of surprise 

 and pain. That I could not suffer so direct a plagiarism to remain unchallenged 

 never appeared to me to admit of a doubt; lefait le plus nouveau que j'ai re- 

 marque was an assertion as articulate as it was unfounded." 



For nearly a month Prof. Forbes had shared the shelter of Agas- 

 siz's roof, and wandered with him among scenes of unsurpassed grand- 

 eur. He had found in his host " noble ardor, generous friendship, 

 unvarying good temper, and true hospitality." It is upon the man 

 thus described by himself that Prof. Forbes turns in this fierce way, 

 for the mere omission of his name. It grieves me to say a word which 

 could be interpreted as severe to a dead man; but the comparisons 

 drawn by his panegyrist compel me to state that, among the eminent 

 men whom it is my privilege to call my friends, there is not one to 

 whom such an ex^^losion of resentment for so purely personal — I had 

 almost said paltry — a cause would be even approximately possible. I 

 charge him with nothing consciously unfair ; but from a man so hot 

 in the assertion of his " claims," so sensitive to public recognition, and 

 so free in the use of hard words, these interminable discussions run as 

 naturally as rivers from their water-shed. 



With more time at my disposal I should probably enter more fully 

 into these matters; but this and my former article, taken in conjunc- 

 tion with the " Forms of Water," in which, even to the ignoring of 

 myself, I desire to do justice both to Agassiz and Forbes, and the 

 pages referred to in the " Glaciers of the Alps," will have so far cleared 

 a dusty atmosphere as to enable any really earnest reader to see the 

 bearings of this question. It now only rests with me to give some 

 samples of those " terrible " and " tremendous " words to which Prof. 

 Tait has referred, and which Prof. George Forbes has thought fit to 



