452 Mr. Clinton T. Dent [Feb. 15, 



type of the mountaineer of to-day ; but it must be the type of the 

 mountaineer of the future, who wishes to extend his sphere of 

 exploration beyond the restricted field of the mid-European Alps. 

 The pioneers were numerous. Such names as Agassiz, Studer, 

 Rendu, Forbes, Ball, occur at once to the mind ; but I must limit 

 myself to-night to two only, De Saussure during the last century, 

 and Tyndall in recent times. 



The true value of De Saussure's work can only be estimated by 

 considering the scientific chaos with regard to glacial phenomena 

 that was widely prevalent before and during his time. It is not long 

 since that avalanches, mountain falls, the bursting of glacial lakes 

 and such like occurrences were considered generally to be the work 

 of fiends or evil spirits. The legends that smiling Alps were con- 

 verted into snowfalls and glaciers as punishment for man's wickedness 

 were widely credited. Dragons were supposed to haunt the moun- 

 tains, and were implicitly believed in by men such as Wagner, the 

 naturalist, little more than two hundred years ago. Long after 

 the legendary ages, of which traces enough can still be found in the 

 Alps, and still more plainly in other mountainous countries, the state 

 of physical science as regards mountains and glaciers was in a very 

 primitive condition, owing largely to the terror with which mountains 

 were generally regarded. De Saussure reduced to order by direct 

 observation, by experiment, and by clear and impartial writing much 

 of the confusion. It must be remembered that in the days when he 

 travelled accurate maps were unknown. Thus, in a map of the early 

 eighteenth century, Chamonix is depicted as some sixty miles south 

 of the Mont Maudite, the name by which Mont Blanc was then often 

 known. Strange views indeed are to be found in the old writers, 

 whose desire to be credited with universal knowledge allowed them 

 little time for accuracy of detail. Crystals were supposed to be 

 formed by the excessive pressure to which ice was subjected. One 

 marvels that mountains do not sink into the earth by their own 

 weight ; another believes that they would certainly do so were they 

 not hollow. Lakes well stored with fish were imagined to be present 

 on the top of all high mountains. Besson, who wrote in 1786, was in 

 advance of his time, but it is to be feared that he borrowed largely from 

 De Saussure. He advocates the determining of mountain phenomena 

 by direct observation and experiment. Griiner, in 1760, the year 

 De Saussure first visited Chamonix, published a treatise describing 

 accurately the main features of the results of glacial motion. Still 

 in De Saussure's time the progressive movement of glaciers was 

 questioned. The very foundation of scientific mountain craft lies in 

 knowledge of glacial phenomena and of the results of glacial motion, 

 and De Saussure proved these convincingly enough. Previously, the 

 regular downflow of a glacier was often confounded with the increase 

 or diminution of the mass of ice as a whole. De Saussure inde- 

 pendently confirmed and extended Gruner's work. He distinguished 

 clearly between the high snowfalls and the true glacier. He explained, 



