1895.] on Influence of Science on Mountaineering. 453 



too, the formation of moraines. Theory thenceforth was replaced by 

 direct observation. The principle of the progressive movement of 

 glaciers may now seem obvious enough. Yet for ages the moraines 

 had stretched out their long lines, the dirt bands had traced their 

 curves, the seracs had formed, leant over, toppled and fallen, the 

 crevasses had started, widened and closed up again, but the interpreter 

 had been wanting. 



With De Saussure's geological work I have here no concern. 

 Most valuable and interesting are his observations on the effect of 

 high altitudes and diminished pressure on the human frame, for these 

 have a direct import to the modern mountaineer, and to the mountain- 

 eering question of the day. De Saussure was the true type of the 

 scientific mountaineer. Yet had it not been for the sensational 

 exploit of the guide Jacques Balmat, in 1786, in ascending Mont 

 Blanc, and had it not been for the wide interest that this feat evoked, 

 De Saussure's work might have remained comparatively unnoticed, 

 and it may be equally true that had it not been for such work as De 

 Saussure's, few might have passed through the door which Jacques 

 Balmat unlocked. Unquestionably the ascent of Mont Blanc marked 

 an epoch. Probably there were quite as many in Balmat's day who 

 would have questioned the possibility of ascending Mont Blanc, as 

 there are now who would question that of ascending Mount Everest. 



De Saussure's observations on the law of the decrease of tempera- 

 ture in the atmosphere according to altitude are of the utmost value 

 to mountaineers. The influence of cold as affecting the possibility 

 of making higher ascents, is a factor now recognised as of the first 

 importance. For many years after De Saussure, little more was 

 accomplished in mountaineering than repetitions of ascents of Mont 

 Blanc. 



Modern mountaineering dates its birth in the decade 1850-60. 

 It was in 1856 that Tyndall first visited the Alps, ascending Mont 

 Blanc the following year. Just as De Saussure's work was empha- 

 sized and supplemented by Balmat's achievement, so Tyndall's 

 researches came opportunely during the active revival of mountaineer- 

 ing when the conquest of the great Alpine peaks was proceeding 

 apace. Though Tyndall, like De Saussure, went originally to the 

 Alps from purely scientific motives, he at once fell under the fasci- 

 nation and became an enthusiastic and a highly skilled mountaineer, 

 which De Saussure never really aimed at. To very few will it ever 

 be given to combine so happily the qualities of man of science and 

 mountaineer which were so conspicuously shown in Tyndall, but to 

 many it may be possible to work on the same admirable lines. With 

 the views which excited controversy at the time they were divulged, 

 such as theories of glacial motion, and the viscous or non-viscous 

 qualities of ice, I have now fortunately no concern. It need only 

 be said, looking at the views that now obtain on this last question, 

 that it is hard to perceive any ground for fundamental difference of 

 opinion. The divergence of views really turned largely on the exact 



Vol. XIV. (No. 89.) 2 i 



