ii.] FORBES, GUYOT, AND AGASSIZ. 551 



II. 



I now come to state shortly the circumstances which led to the 

 publication of my paper describing this new structure of glacier 

 ice ; and about which there seems to have prevailed a mis- 

 apprehen.su >H \\nicii 1 am anxious to remove. 



It has been supposed that I resisted every offer to take a share 

 in a joint publication of the proceedings of the summer, in order 

 to bring forth a separate notice of the structure which I had 

 observed ; that even whilst in Switzerland, I contemplated such 

 a separate publication ; and having reached England, hastened to 

 anticipate M. Agassiz. 



The facts are precisely the reverse. The idea of publishing 

 either this or any original observation of niy own, on a subject 

 so new and so unexpectedly difficult as I found the glacier theory 

 to be, had certainly not entered my imagination during any part 

 of my stay abroad. A precis of the labours of others, in the 

 form of a Eeview of the writings of Venetz, De Charpentier, and 

 siz, such as subsequently appeared in the 'Edinburgh 

 -w,' I certainly contemplated, thinking, that if I pursued the 

 subject another year, such a preliminary study would be the 

 fittest introduction to any original investigations. But I can 

 safely say, that the way and manner in which my observations 

 on the glacier structure should be brought out, was not a matter 

 of the slightest concern to me, until an unexpected circumstance 

 brought it to my mind. 



I must mention, however, what passed between M. Agassiz 

 and myself relatively to a joint publication, when I was at 

 N< ufchatel in the middle of September 1841. I will state this 

 in the words which I employed in writing to a friend a few 

 months after the transaction took place. 



EXTRACT SIXTH. From a Letter from Professor Forbes to a Friend, dated 1st 



April, 1842. 



' M. Agassiz never asked me, so far as I recollect, to publish with him on 

 the subject of the Glaciers. He once proposed to me to communicate the 

 observations I had made on Solar Radiation on the Glacier of the Aar, to form 



f the description of the jounney, of which the narrative part was to be 

 written by Desor. 



.is 1 declined, on the ground that these observations formed part of a 

 scries of experiments, long since commenced, and which must be treated of in 

 Conner 



was very well aware, however, that a declaration of my opinion on 



r T/heory was what was desired; and M. Desor took upon him 



to intimate this to me at Neufchatcl, in these words : " M. Forbes ne 



i Thry aramlinL'ly form part of a very extensive inquiry since communicated 

 to the Royal Society of London. 



