ix.] ALPINE TRAVELS, 1842. 273 



this motion and its character, whether uniform or inter- 

 mittent, and whether differential or otherwise above all, 

 the origin of this motion were still moot points ; and 

 these points, he urged, could only be settled by treating 

 the mechanism of glaciers as a question of pure physics, 

 and obtaining precise and quantitative measures as the 

 only basis of accurate investigation. He resolved, there- 

 fore, that he would open a campaign by himself the 

 following summer, and, taking with him sufficient in- 

 struments for a complete trigonometrical survey of some 



\ nient glacier, grapple with the problem in a way 

 which had not before been attempted. His previous 

 visits had convinced him that the Mer de Glace of 

 ( 'hamounix would be found in every way suitable 

 for his researches. Although less extensive than the 

 Lauter-Aar Gletscher, this very fact placed its phe- 

 nomena more within the grasp of a single observer; 

 while the three glacier basins, the snows of which 

 combine at the same point to form its ice-stream, pre- 

 sented every variety of horizontal angle and lateral 

 pressure to which a glacier could be subjected. Next 



p, accordingly, he hastened thither, and in a few 

 weeks succeeded in placing the facts of glacier motion 

 for the first time on a firm basis. 



Journal, /'////>, June 7t/t. 



'I left London with Mr. C. Bentinck on the 27th of 

 riving here by Dover and Boulogne on the 29th. 

 On tin- 30th I was elected a corresponding member of 

 the Institute of France quite unexpectedly indeed, for 

 1 went to the meeting on that da] : and had I not been 

 recognized and told to withdraw, I might have been 

 placed in an awkward position. . . . 



'Tin- most interesting thing which I have seen in Paris, 



I saw to-day at M. Lihri's. He has acquired from an 



i box nf Napoleon's juvenile papers, whieh 



he had obtained from Carolina! Fi sell, during whose 



lifVt ,led up. Among them is 



ion in the army, si^med by Louis XVI.. and 



