THE BUET 195 



attention having been called to it by the present writer in 1872 

 cited it in his Forms of Water. The greater portion of Bordier's 

 chapter was subsequently reprinted in the Alpine Journal (vol. ix.). 

 A copy of the original volume is in the Alpine Club and Geo- 

 graphical Society's Libraries. 



There are two questions which must force themselves on all 

 readers who are at the pains to compare carefully this attempt 

 at a glacier theory with the lively but slight narrative in which 

 it is embedded. Can they possibly both be by the same hand ? 

 Can the essay on glaciers be the product of a tourist who spent 

 only a few hours at Chamonix, and, as far as we know, had no 

 scientific training ? The suggestions contained in it are acute, 

 and for the most part sound and in advance of their time. They 

 read like the product of a student with a keen eye and an in- 

 genious mind who has studied glaciers carefully and fixed his 

 attention on the problems connected with their motion. Was 

 there anyone among Bordier's acquaintances at Geneva at that 

 date who answers to this description ? I am unable to throw 

 any light on the question, and I must leave the inquiry to local 

 historians . I have quoted the opening sentences in Bordier's glacier 

 chapter ; the following ones from a later page (276) strengthen my 

 doubts as to the authorship they could hardly have been written 

 by anyone who did not know well what he was writing about : 



' II serait a souhaiter qu'il y eut a Chamonix quelqu'un qui put 

 observer les Glacieres pendant une suite d'annees et comparer leur 

 marche et leurs vicissitudes avec les observations meteorologiques ; la 

 position du Bourg seroit extremement commode pour cela ; cependant 

 Ton tire peu de lumieres des habitants. II faudroit marquer precise"- 

 ment quelles sont les bornes et 1'aspect successif des differents Glaciers, 

 en quel temps ils s'avancent ou retrogradent et quelles sont les annees 

 les plus remarquables & ces deux egards. II faudroit examiner quand 

 les fentes et les chutes des glasons sont plus consid6rables, quelles 

 alterations subissent les rivieres qui decoulent des Glaciers, quelles 

 sont les differentes hauteurs du Lac de Glace, ce que Ton pourroit 

 observer dans les rochers lateraux. II faudroit essayer de placer des 

 fardeaux sur les grosses ondes du Glacier des Bossons et voir quand et 

 comment ils seroient ren verses. II faudroit examiner si la glace, etant 

 idioilectrique, ces vastes monceaux de glace ne donneroient aucuns 

 phenomenes dans les tempetes, etc. etc.' 



