18 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



mously, with the false imprint 'London') a popular edition 

 under a new title : Reisen durch die merkwurdigsten Gegenden 

 Helvetiena, in two volumes. It was obviously aimed to catch the 

 attention and serve the needs of the already rising tide of 

 visitors to the glaciers. 



In this aim Griiner was, on the whole, successful. His work 

 had no rivals. The best tribute to its position is the fact that de 

 Saussure set himself to learn German, in order to be able to read 

 it. 1 In the first volume of the Voyages he refers to Griiner in 

 characteristically generous terms : 



' Many Swiss Naturalists or Geographers, Merian, Simler, Hottinger, 

 Scheuchzer, and others, have dealt with glaciers. But no one has 

 treated the subject more thoroughly than Monsieur G. S. Griiner. 

 The descriptions which are the result of the author's own observa- 

 tions are very accurate and satisfactory, but as he was unable himself 

 to visit so many mountains he has been obliged to avail himself of 

 the help of others. . . . M. Griiner's third volume is a treatise on the 

 origin, nature, and differences of glaciers. In this the author has 

 exhausted his subject as far as a physical subject can be said to be 

 exhaustible, and although his opinion may not be shared on all points 

 by physical inquirers, it would be difficult, as a whole, to give a better 

 account of the various phenomena presented by these frozen masses. 

 ... As to the engraving which pretends to represent the Glaciers of 

 Faucigny, I do not know who sent it to Monsieur Griiner, but it 

 is certain that it bears no resemblance whatever to its alleged 

 subject.' 



These words were published in 1779, the year following the 

 appearance of the popular edition of Griiner's work, and also of 

 his death. It is, I think, more than probable that the knowledge 

 of the forthcoming appearance of the first volume of the Voyages 

 incited Griiner to reissue his own book. 



The typical specimens I have cited from what we may call 

 pre -alpine literature must suffice for my present purpose. They 

 may serve to show the nature of the material bearing on the 

 study to which he proposed to devote his life which lay at de 

 Saussure's hands, and also to indicate the trend of men's minds 



1 Griiner's work was not translated into French until 1770. Writing to 

 Wyttenbach he describes the translation as very faulty. In 1774 he was pro- 

 posing to publish a description of the Aletsch Glacier. De Saussure never men- 

 tions this greatest of Alpine ice-streams. 



