YOUTH AND EARLY TRAVELS 81 



Academy the fruit of his experiences in his three first visits to 

 Chamonix in a lecture entitled, ' A Description of the Glaciers of 

 Savoy, and a Theory of their Formation.' In November he sent 

 the MS. to Haller and asked for his advice as to whether it was 

 worth publishing, but though Haller approved, publication seems to 

 have been postponed. The material, no doubt, furnished the basis 

 of the chapter ' Des Glaciers en general ' subsequently inserted 

 in the Voyages. We recognise in it the first signs of a shift in the 

 direction of de Saussure's scientific aims. Henceforth, though by 

 no means off with botany, geology, regarded as the key to the 

 history of our planet, becomes the first object of his pursuit and 

 study. His letters to Haller at this time indicate the change. 

 He does his best to soften to the great botanist the fact that 

 collecting rare plants has ceased to be his principal aim. He 

 writes : 



' I am very far from thinking of giving up botany ; plants shall 

 fail me before I will fail them. I meditate some grandes courses on the 

 Alps for next summer. The active life of a mountain naturalist has 

 a singular attraction for me. Plants, minerals, strange animals, seem 

 to grow under one's feet. The more general physical phenomena are 

 alone sufficient to attract observers. The purity of the air, the agree- 

 able temperature, the beauty of the landscape, would be enough to 

 induce me to frequent the mountains.' 



His point of view is enlarging ; a special study of mosses, he 

 writes, may have to wait, and the flora of Chamonix, he repeats, 

 is deplorably poor. 



The following quotation from the anonymous journal of a 

 visitor to Chamonix at this date (1764) bears witness to the 

 reputation de Saussure had already attained. 



' Professor de Saussure is not one of those who rely on the report 

 of others. Young and eager to learn, laborious and acute, he has 

 visited the district three times, twice in the summer, and lastly in 

 March, not without much fatigue and risk. His eager curiosity has 

 placed him in a position to satisfy ours, and we reap tranquilly the 

 fruit of his labours.' l 



De Saussure's marriage took place in the Chapel of the 

 Hospital on the 12th May 1765. Mile. Boissier's sister, Jeanne 

 Fran9oise, was married at the same time and place to Jean 



1 Published by M. Henri Ferrand in the Revue Alpine, 1912, pp. 103-6. 



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