real Htradarc of Glacier Ice. 149 



claim to have clone: — 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 laAV 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 face 

 of some glaciers. 



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

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

 cavil. 



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

 friend — M. Dubois — obliging enough to state, in April 1842, 

 that M. Agassiz had described to a meeting at Bale, in 1838, 

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

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

 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 

 in the same year by two other persons, the discoverer recol- 

 lects to have heard at Porrentruy the very fact which his 

 friends assure him they heard him claim for himself at Bale 

 the same year ] Yet such is the newest claim of M. Agassiz 

 to an observation, which a discussion respecting priority of six 

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

 tiow persuaded that he made, upon the friendly testimony of 

 M. Dubois of Montpcreux, in the following words : — ■ 



Extract Eleventh. — 31. Dubois'' Certificate. 



" Jc soussigne conjointemcnt avec M. Arnold Esclicr de la Liiitli, Se- 

 cretaire dc la Section de Geologic de la Societe Helvetique dcs Sciences 

 Xaturelles lors de la Reunion a Billc, certifie que dansles notes rcciiciliees 

 pendant la Seance du 14 Septcmbre 1838, il se trouve mentionne page 12 

 que M. Agassiz a signale le fait de la structure lamellairc des glaciers, et 

 qu'il en trouvait la cause dans I'accumulation des niatiercs congelablcs 

 qui se deposent a. la surface du glacier. La note est accompagnee d'uu 

 dcssin representant cette structure. Frederic Duiiois. 



" Pcccux, 21 Avril 1842." 



Now, this WHS on the 11th September 1838. M. Guyct 



