n.] FORBES, GUYOT, AND AGASSIZ. 561 



In like manner the older observers, whose more vague 

 language and antiquated terms make their meaning capable of 

 several interpretations, may very possibly have described this 

 appearance, without its having been handed down to their 

 successors. I have not yet seen any evidence that they have 

 done so, but I stated last winter to the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh, that I should not feel the least surprise if such an 

 anticipation were discovered. How easy it is to find meanings 

 in undefined phrases, after a well-marked truth has been 

 announced, may be judged of from the interpretation given even 

 by a very able and candid judge, of a passage in Godefroy's 

 v sn.r leu Gt("'i''rs, p. 12, as referring to the present ques- 

 tion, but which a closer examination shows has no relation to it 

 whatever. 



I cannot conclude with any observation so just, or so much 

 to the point, as that which Professor Studer has added to the 

 testimony, of which I have already quoted a part (Extract Fourth}, 

 in a letter to myself. 'C'est toujours 1'histoire de 1'ceuf de 

 Colombo ; je ne doute pas que de Saussure, de Charpentier, 

 Agassiz et tant d'autres, parmi lesquels je me placerai moi-meme, 

 comme vous vous y etes place aussi, n'aient vu cette division 

 verticale de la glace bien avant uotre dernier voyage au Grimsel : 

 comme Newton aura souvent vu tomber des ponimes sans 

 songer & la lime. Dans toutes les ddcouvertes il ne suffit pas 

 de voir les choses, ou bien la science ne ferait pas des progres 

 aussi lents.' 





