

xiv.] FORBES' SCIENTIFIC WORK. 480 



observations to the Eoyal Society of Edinburgh. This 

 was the most detailed and satisfactory account which 

 hud yet been given of the proofs that the Highlands of 

 Britain once nourished groups of glaciers. 1 



' In the year 1851 Professor Forbes undertook a journey 

 to Norway, partly to make observations of the great 

 solar eclipse, and partly drawn by his love of physical 

 geography, and notably of glaciers. It was his design 

 to compare the phenomena of glaciers in Northern 

 Europe with those already so familiar in Switzerland. 

 This he has done in a masterly way. His pages contain, 

 in a clear and succinct form, the sum of all that was 

 known at the time regarding the snow-line and the 

 existing glaciers of Norway. I have myself gone over 

 much of the ground he has described, and can bear 

 witness to the accuracy of his sketches, alike of pencil 

 and of peD. His two chapters on the physical geography 

 of Norway have always appeared to me to be a master- 

 ]! ( -e of careful yet rapid observation, broad generaliza- 

 tion, and clear description. 



' But though the tendency of his researches in geology 

 was mainly towards the investigation of the phenomena 

 connected with changes in the outline of the surface, he 

 did not neglect the study of minerals and rocks, in which 

 he had been trained under Jameson. Previous to 1836, 

 with the view of learning more of the history of ancient 

 'ogicnl upheavals, he had examined "the trap-rocks 

 of our own island, the ophites of the Pyrenees, and the 

 of Anglesea and the Lizard ; the porphyries 

 Northern Italy, the granite veins of Mounts Bay and 

 (;i<-n Tilt ; the ancient volcanoes of Auvergne, the Eil'd, 

 the Siebengebirge, and of Rome ; and the modern volcano 

 of Vesuvius." l In December 1835 he gave to the Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh a narrative of his researches in 

 Central France, dwelling more especially on the anal* 

 between the volcanic rocks of that district and the 

 trappean masses of his own country. Throughout his 

 narratives of foreign tnm-1, also, we everywhere n 



1 Edin. Xew Phil. Jour., vol. xl. p. 7G. * Ibid., vol. x\i. i 



