140 Proftssor Forbes on (he Fircit Discover!/ of (he 



stratificcition, -.vlnch I have since confirmed in every point.* 

 On our return to the Grimsel, I explained my views to ]M. 

 Agassiz, who copied the sketch I had made, which corres- 

 ponds exactly to that in the Edinburgh Philosojjhical Journal, 

 January 1842, p. 89. A month later, I explained this sys- 

 tem of curves of structure of the glacier of the Rhone to M. 

 Studer at Berne. His penetration immediately perceived its 

 importance, and he expressed great satisfaction at the insulated 

 fact which I had pointed out to him on the glacier of the Aar 

 being thus generalized. t We both agreed that its explana- 

 tion must involve, in a good measure, the true theory of gla- 

 ciers. In a letter to Professor Bronn of Heidelberg, dated 

 1st October 1841, a week after I had quitted Berne, M. Stu- 

 der gives an accurate account of my observations, being the 

 first publication on the subject. :]: 



II. 



I now come to state shortly the circumstances which led 

 to the publication of my paper describing this new structure 

 of glacier ice ;, and about \vhich there seems to have prevailed 

 a misapprehension which I am anxious to remove. 



It lias been supposed that I resisted every offer to take a 

 share in a joint publication of the proceedings of the summer, 

 in order to bring forth a separate notice of the structure which 

 I had observed ; that even whilst in Switzerland, I contem- 

 plated such a separate publication ; and having reached Eng- 

 land, hastened to anticipate M. Agassiz. 



The facts are precisely the reverse. The idea of publish- 



* See Letters to Professor Jameson in this Journal for October 1C42, 

 p. 346. 



t M. Studer, after quitting the glacier of tlie Aar, had recognized the 

 structure on several others in the canton of Yallais. I should add that I 

 pointed out the veined structure to M. Agassiz on the glacier of Gauli, in the 

 Urbaclitlial, on the 20th August, and it was afterwards noticed by both of us 

 on the Obcraar glacier, and that of Aletsch. So that no reasonable doubt re- 

 mained, at least, on my mind, that, having been observed on no less than 

 five contiguous glaciers, it was a general and not a particular phenomenon. 

 This meets M. Agassiz' statement, that I not only " erroneously claimed the 

 discovery,'' but " assigned to it a generality which the facts observed by my- 

 self did not at all justify." — Ed. PJdl. Jour., p. 265. 



\ Lconhard'e Jahrbi'ch, 1841. 



