B.] FORBES, GUYOT, AND AGASSIZ. 54<) 



which he had not adverted. Accordingly, his convictions were 

 proportionably gradual ; and, as Mr. Heath observes, ' the after- 

 noon was taken up in what I then thought a very superfluous 

 endeavour to make out whether it was superficial or not.' 



Two days uHn- the discovery of the structure, namely, on the 

 llth of August, we were joined by Professor Studer, the dis- 

 tinguished geologist of Berne, and by other friends of M. Agassiz. 

 The structure in question having been discussed, it is impor- 

 tant to know the impression which it left as to novelty or 

 originality upon the mind of so competent a judge. M. Studer 

 writes to me : 



EXTRACT FOURTH. Professor Studer to Professor Forbes, 19th March, 1842. 

 >' h<l In/ M. Stumer's permission. 



'M. Desor 1 ni'a e"crit il y a quelqurs semaiues de cette contestation de 



Eriorite : jc lui ai repondu que je lie me melerais pas de cette affaire, mais que 

 ien certainement vous m'aviez tail remarqucr pour la premiere fois la structure 

 en question, et que j'avais cru en effet que son importance avait echapp6e a 

 Agassiz, comme a tous ses devanciers.' 



I will only cite one other testimony as to the origin of the 



discovery on the Glacier of the Aar, also by an eye-witness, 



Mi. Robertson of Newton House, near Elgin, a friend of M. 



-iz, whom I did not know before, and whom I have not 



seen since, but who, having learnt the nature of the contest as 



to piiority which has occurred, generously and voluntarily sent 



he following statement of facts, which I have likewise his 



permission to publish. 



TRACT FIFTH. Mr. Robertson, of Newton, to Professor Forbes. 



' NEWTON, May 4th, 1842. 



' Before joining you on the 13th August last year, 1 was pretty familiar, from 

 reading, with all the ordinary phenomena of glaciers, and, on my walk to the 

 ;ined each as it presented itself. Among others I observed the 

 superficial indications of the ribooned structure ; and, during the first half-hour 

 after my arrival, I recollect perfectly, in walking from the " Crevasse "at the end 

 of t!.< Aar glacier I'whrrr \..u had been preparing the experiment on 



the absorption of ice with reel wine) to the left flank of the Lauter Aar -where 

 .posed, with a hatchet, the contact of the ice and rock, in order to see the 

 sand, &c., between them), having asked Ai:ai/. how it was produced 't He told 

 me that tin !' the glacier hail completely changed since last year, when 



he h: it,- that it was an eil'eet of the moraines, and pro- 



eaused by the greater variations of temperature to which they were sub- 

 ject as cot ;he glacier, and that it had nothing to do with 



.-I her the horizontal lines at the end 

 :ti(ieation r and \sas told "undoubtedly." 

 ^tane." I pointed out the strut-lure very well 



d, at some distance I s, and, on cross-questioning Agassiz, 



saw that he was far from satisfied with his theory. 



tssiz. 



