real >itra d are of Glacier Ice . ^^^ 



claim to have aone:-to have re-discovered M. Guyot's unpub- 

 lished and all but forgotten fact ;-to have generalized it so as 

 to shew that it was common to most if not all glaciers ;-to have 

 explained the law of its occurrence in one glacier (the lamel- 

 lar surfaces of the glacier of the Rhone) ;-and to have applied 

 it to account for two appearances formerly ascribed to other 

 and imaginary causes, the distribution of sand on the surface 

 of the ice, and the supposed stratification of the terminal ftice 



of some glaciers. . . 



I might here close my observations on the question ot prio- 

 rity, but I will add a sentence or two, in order to avoid all 



'''can it be necessary to state that M. Agassiz has found a 

 friend-M. Dubois-obllging enough to state, in April lb4J, 

 that M. Agassiz had described to a meeting at bale, in lSd», 

 a structure similar to that noticed by M. Guyot, at Porrcn- 

 truy, in the same year? Is it possible that discoveries in 

 science can be made without the consciousness of those who 

 make them ? or that a discovery made in 1838 shall be wholly 

 misrepresented by the discoverer himself in 1840 (see Extract 

 Third), claimed anew for himself in 1841, and when re-claimcd 

 \n the same vcar by two other persons, the discoverer recol- 

 lects to have heard at Porrentruy the very fact wli'^h his 

 friends assure him they heard him claim for himself at Bale 

 the same year^ Yet such is the netvest claim of M. Agassiz 

 to an observation, which a discussion respecting priority ot six 

 months' duration failed to recall to his mind, but which he is 

 now persuaded that he made, upon the friendly testimony ot 

 M. Dubois of Montp6reux, in the following words :— 



Extract Eleventh. — M. Diihois' CertificaU. 

 « Je sousslgne conjointement avec M. Arnold Escher dc la Llntl., Se- 

 cretaire de la Section de Geologle de la Soeiete Helvetx<iue des Sciences 

 Naturelles lors de la Reunion a Bale, certifie que dans les notes recue.llees 

 pendant la Seance du 14 Septembre 1G38, 11 se trouve mentionne page 12 

 que M. A^^assiz a signale le fait de la structure lamellaire des glaciers et 

 qu'il en tr°ouvait la cause dans I'accumulation des matieres congelables 

 qui se deposent a la surface du glacier. La note est accompaguee d ua 

 dessin representant cette structure. Y^e,^^kio Dubois. 



" Pefeiix, 27 Avril 1842." 

 Now, this was on the 14th September 1838. M. Guyct 



