ON MOTTNTMNS AND MANKIND. 345 



Charlotte at Windsor, where he Hits across Miss l'>uniey's pages as 

 the friend of Ilerschel at Sh)u;ih and the jest of tipsy royal dukes. 

 Oddly enoii<2;h, the lii'st soinid oiiess as to <;laeier nioveinent was made 

 by one Bordier, who had no scientific pretensions. I reprinted man}'' 

 years ai;o the sin<»:ulai- passa<>e in which he c()nij)are(l <j^laciei- ice to 

 " cire amollie," soft wax, "flexible et ductile juscpTa un certain 

 point,"' and described it as flowin<>- in tlu^ manner of li(juids {AJ p. r/., 

 ]X, 3'27). He added this remarkable su«i«i-estioii, foreshadowing:: the 

 investipitions of Professoi- Kichter and M. T'oi-el : "It is very de- 

 sirable that thei'e should be at Chamonix some one capable of observ- 

 ing the glaciei's for a series of years and comparing their advance 

 antl oscillations with meteorological records.^' To the school of 

 Geneva succeeded the school of Neuchatel. Desor and Agassiz; the 

 feat of I)e Saussure was rivaled on the Jungfrau and the Finster- 

 aarhorn by the jNIeyers of Bei-n. They in turn were succeeded by the 

 British school, Forbes and Tynthill, lieilly and AVills, in ISlO-l'sOO. 



In 1857 the Ali)ine CMub was founded in this country. In the half 

 century since that date the nations of western Europe have enndated 

 one another in forming similar bodies, one of the objects of which has 

 been to collect and set in oi'der information as to the mountains and to 

 further their scientific as well as their geographical exploration. 



What bowlders, or rathei' pebbles, can we add to the enormous mo- 

 raine of moilern Alpine literature — a moraine the lighter portions of 

 which it is to be hoped, for the sake of posterity, that the torrent of 

 time may speedily nudce away with ? 



For fifty' years I have loved and at frequent intervals wandered and 

 climl)ed ill the Alps. I have had something of a grand j)assion for 

 the Caucasus. I am on terms of visiting accjuaintance with the Pyre- 

 nees and the Himalaya, the Apennines and the Algerian Atlas, the 

 mountains of (ireece, Syria, Corsica, and Norway. I will try to set 

 in order some observations and com])arisons suggested by these va- 

 rious ex})eriences. 



As one travels east fi'om the Atlantic through the four great ranges 

 of the Old ^^^)rld the peaks grow out not only in absolute height but 

 also in abruptness of form and in elevation above the connecting 

 ridges. The snow and ice region increases in a corresponding man- 

 ner. The Pyrenees have few fine rock peaks except the Pic du Midi 

 (rOs>au; its chief glacier sununits, the Yignenude, Mont Perdu, the 

 Alaladetta, corres})()ud to the Titlis or the Buet in the Alps. The 

 peaks of the Alps are infin.ite in their variety and admirable in their 

 clear-cut outlines and graceful curves. But the central grou]) of the 

 Caucasus, that which culminates in Dykhtau, Koshtantau, and Shkara, 

 17,000 feet summits (Koshtantau falls only 120 feet below this figure), 

 has even more stately j)eaks than those that cluster round Zernuitt. 



Seek the far eastern end of the Himalaya, visit Sikhim, and you 



