426 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. [CHAP. 



' Our visit is a very short one, at least Alicia's and 

 mine. Our boys, who are with us, are to spend their 

 fortnight previous to the summer Cession of the College 

 Hall, and they too are acquiring the same deep love 

 of the localities which I did forty years ago at their 

 age/ 



To PROFESSOR ST CIDER, BERNE. 



' PITLOCHBIE, October 1865. 



P ' . . , You will believe that the catastrophe of the 

 Matterhorn powerfully affected me. Having friends 

 in the district, particularly Mr. Keilly, I suffered for 

 some moments intense anxiety, and the whole details 

 of the accident were of a kind to occasion the pro- 

 foundest interest and regret. I have lately been at the 

 Birmingham meeting of the British Association, where I 

 met Keilly and Whymper, and from the latter I learned 

 privately every detail. Whymper's letter to the Times 

 was in excellent taste, and he has most prudently 

 abstained from the temptation of being made a 

 hero of. 



' Finding myself rather better than usual, I ventured 

 to attend the meeting of the British Association at Bir- 

 mingham, where I saw some friends, but found a large 

 preponderance of new faces. Sir K. Murchison and M. 

 Von Dechen were staying in the house where I was. 

 There was not much original matter brought forward 

 in any branch of science ; but the meetings were inter- 

 esting. I returned home very tired, but not otherwise 

 the worse for it. Phillips was the President; Sir C. 

 Lyell was there for a day, but I did not see him. 

 The Cambridge men were mostly absent, which was a 

 disappointment to me. 



' In about a week I hope to be at St. Andrews for the 

 winter, where I hope you will write to me and tell me 

 the scientific news of central Europe. There is a curious 

 book, full of clever drawings, published, called "Frost 

 and Fire/' by Mr. Campbell, not a professed geologist, 

 but a clever fellow. He ascribes much to the action 

 of icebergs carried by ocean currents. Ramsay who is 



