viii PREFACE. 



As far as possible, I have tried to carry on the narra- 

 tive by means of the copious letters and journals which 

 Forbes left. And here let me state how large a share of 

 the necessary labour Mrs. Forbes has taken on herself. 

 She has selected, extracted, copied, and in many cases 

 re-copied, all those portions which are here given from 

 her husband's vast and methodically-preserved corre- 

 spondence. Indeed, but for her untiring exertions in 

 this way, I could never have overtaken my part of the 

 task. 



Our best thanks are due to those pupils and friends of 

 Forbes who have furnished letters conveying their recol- 

 lections of him, or have forwarded letters of his which 

 they had preserved. Among these I would offer spt 

 thanks to the Kev. Professor Kelland for the full account, 

 which he kindly supplied of Forbes* work in Edin- 

 burgh University. 



With these remarks this Preface might have ended. 

 It had been our hope that we might have been allowed to 

 tell our story, without reverting to controversies which, 

 we had thought, had been long since extinguished. 

 But after most of these sheets were in the press, a book 

 appeared, in which many of the old charges against 

 Principal Forbes in the matter of the glaciers, were, if 

 not openly repeated, at least not obscurely indicated. 

 Neither the interests of truth, nor justice to the dc;i<l. 



