DE SAUSSURE IN SCIENCE AND LITERATURE 447 



a bosquet or to turn a glacier torrent into a tranquil trout 

 stream. In the little headpieces and in the illustrations to his 

 own books we meet Bourrit in his natural style. At de Saussure's 

 instance, and no doubt under his eyes, he made an effort to 

 adopt a bolder method in order to show rock structure. But his 

 plates are poor things compared with the better art of his day. 

 Theodore de Saussure's sketches from the Col du Geant have some 

 vigour, and for the date are creditable. But his attempt to draw 

 Monte Rosa from Macugnaga is a sad failure. The most im- 

 pressive illustration in the Voyages, perhaps, is one of Mont Blanc 

 from Val Ferret by Bartolozzi, a Florentine artist, not to be 

 confused with the famous engraver, or his son. De Saussure 

 himself did not add any artistic talent to his many accomplish- 

 ments, though he once tried to sketch Monte Rosa from Vercelli, 

 and made some rough diagrams near .the Devil's Bridge on 

 the St. Grotthard. He missed the chance of giving the world 

 the first outline of the stupendous obelisk of the Matterhorn. 

 The Mont Cervin, as it was then called, seems to have failed to 

 make the unique impression on the early travellers that it did 

 on all nineteenth -century visitors to Zermatt. 



The illustrations to the Voyages, however, if of little artistic 

 value, have, as de Saussure himself urges, at least the merit of an 

 attempt, occasionally successful, at fidelity and of an obvious 

 desire to avoid exaggeration. But of the maps, though again 

 de Saussure writes of them with respect, it is impossible not to 

 endorse the severe comment of Forbes ' Of these it is hardly pos- 

 sible to speak too disparagingly.' After making due allowance 

 for the date and the state of Alpine cartography, they are sadly 

 wanting, even as eye-sketches. De Saussure must surely have 

 been influenced by friendship when he gave the map of the 

 chain of Mont Blanc provided by Jean L. Pictet credit for 

 accuracy. The area of the sources of the Mer de Glace, it is 

 true, is approximately indicated, but no attempt is made to 

 separate the basins of the glaciers at either end of the range. 

 Anyone who had climbed the Buet ought to have learned more 

 of their relations. De Saussure, on the whole, contributed 

 singularly little to Alpine cartography. It is, I think, evident 

 that he had a geologic rather than an orographic eye. 



The modern mountaineer is apt to think he has tendered his 



