146 Professor Forbes on the First Discovery of the 



the priority of observation to M. Agassiz, but likewise proving 

 that he had his attention directed by me to the structure in 

 question. The transaction vs^ith M. Guyot did not come to 

 my knowledge until long after. 



Meanwhile, M. Agassiz sent no direct answer or complaint 

 upon the receipt of my Paper on the Structure of Glaciers. I 

 will not now advert to the means taken, through third parties, 

 to discredit my statements, on the one hand, and on the other, 

 to obtain from me a renunciation of my claim under a threat 

 of exposure. Having no exposure to fear, I contented myself 

 with sending to M. Agassiz a statement of the various facts, 

 cited in the commencement of this paper, connecteJ .vith the 

 discovery on the 9th of August, requesting to know whether 

 any of them, or which, were denied. A tardy and involved 

 reply (29th March 1842) contained a denial of none of them, but 

 (as we have seen, Extract Second) an exact confirmation of what 

 both Mr Heath and 1 recollected him then to have stated re- 

 specting his own observations. But the real cause of the marked 

 embarrassment of his reply I was not at the I .ne aware of. 

 He had now no apology for ignorance of M. Guyot's claim to 

 prior observation, yet feeling that his own dissatisfaction with 

 my publication was solely grounded upon \vy 1 ving claimed 

 for myself something which rightfully lolorjged to him (M. 

 Agassiz), — " le fait le plus noiiveaii" of 18 11, — " les observa- 

 tions les plus precieuses de la campagne ;"" he naturally felt an 

 embarrassment at being obliged to admit that similar facts and 

 observations had been described in his hearing at Porrentruy 

 three years before. Unable to maintain any longer his own 

 originality, in his letter of the 29th March 1842 (afterwards 

 privately printed), he endeavours to impeach mine ; and, de- 

 scribing what passed on the 9th August, in the words already 

 quoted in Extract Second, he adds, — 



Extract Ninth. — From Professor Agassiz to Professor Forhes. 



" Je suis certain d'avoir ajoute que M. Guyot les avait vues la nieme 

 annee (1838), a una profoundeur notable sur le Glacier du Gries." 



To prove the negative fact that M. Agassiz did not cite M. 

 Guyot upon the occasion, I can only state (1.), that neither Mr 

 Heath nor myself recollect his name to have been mentioned, 

 although we perfectly collected M. Agassiz' meaning as to his 

 having observed the linear arrangement of the sand on the 



