APPENDIX B. 



Historical Remarks on the first Discovery of the real Structure of 

 Glacier Ice. By PROFESSOR FORBES, Corresponding Member of 

 the Boyal Institute of France. (Edin. New Phil. Journal, 

 1843.) 



I FEEL myself most reluctantly called upon to state some 

 circumstances respecting the discovery of a fact in the theory 

 of Glaciers which M. Agassiz has declared, in a paper printed in 

 the last number of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, to be 

 erroneously claimed by me. 



The first account of ' a remarkable structure of the ice of 

 glaciers,' by myself, was printed in this Journal for January 

 1842. A history of this discovery, entirely opposed to mine, 

 appears at pages 265 and 266 of the last number. By the 

 kind permission of the Editor, I have now the opportunity 

 allowed me of stating how the facts really stand, and at the 

 same time of explaining the circumstances under which the 

 publication of the original paper, claiming the discovery, took 

 place, circumstances which delicacy prevented me from men- 

 tioning at the time, but which it now appears essential to make 

 known. 



Private report proverbially exaggerates and misrepresents 

 the history of transactions little interesting to any but those 

 immediately concerned. I believe that my own conduct and 

 its motives have been misunderstood, with reference to the 

 matter in question. A few extracts from the ample corre- 

 spondence of which I am possessed, in illustration of every step 

 of the transaction, will, I hope, suffice to place the matter 

 clearly before such readers as shall feel sufficient interest to 

 follow them. I pledge myself to their accuracy, and to their 



