48 Obituary— Mr. John Ball, F.B.8. 



with which he sacrificed his Irish popularity by his defence of the 

 extension of the Income-tax to Ireland, won for him the confidence 

 of the leaders of his party, and led to his appointment in 1855 as 

 Under-Secretary for the Colonies in Pahnerston's first adminis- 

 tration. But Mr. Ball's defeat at Limerick in 1858 induced him 

 to abandon politics for science. 



It was about this time that the Alpine Club was started, and 

 though he was not one of its original founders, Mr. Ball's thorough 

 knowledge of the Alps, and his brilliant exploits there, led to his 

 election as its first President. It is almost impossible now to 

 realize the difficulties with which Mr. Ball had to contend in his 

 early Alpine explorations. The race of skilled mountaineers who 

 now do most of the work of an ascent was not then in existence ; 

 though a local guide was indispensable, he usually hindered instead 

 of helping, and was a positive danger on snow or ice ; thus in Mr. 

 Ball's ever-memorable passage of the Schwarzthor in 1845. the 

 whole of the difficult work among the seracs of the Schwarz 

 glacier devolved on him ; or, again, in the first ascent of the Pelmo, 

 the guide was left behind, too frightened to proceed, while Mr. 

 Ball fought his way to the summit alone. 



But it is probably not as a climber that Mr. Ball will be best remembered ; others 

 coming after him have reaped the rewards of his labours, and with a better race of 

 guides have gained a wider popular renown by the ascent of better known peaks, 

 or of those around which some striking tragedy has thrown the halo of romance. 

 But while Mr. Ball climbed "he used his head as well as his heels," to quote an 

 old saying of his, and he always studied the botany and geology of the districts he 

 traversed. The former was his favourite science, and as every one knows who has 

 used his Guide, he was as familiar with the local plants as with the local passes. 

 In working out his well-known theory of the origin of the Alpine flora,' he made 

 numerous visits to the Pyrenees and the Balkans, and others to the Andes and the 

 Atlas ; a lengthy list of memoirs and papers testifies to the ardour of his botanical 

 studies, while some of his results are of as much interest to geologists as botanists. 

 In the controversies over the theories of glacier motion and the glacial origin of lake- 

 basins, Mr. Ball's intimate acquaintance with the Alpine glaciers gave his utterances 2 

 exceptional weight ; his paper on " Soundings Executed in the Lake of Como " 3 

 seems to have settled the question as far as that lake is concerned. His papers on 

 glacier motion are no less marked by the trenchant criticisms of the theories of 

 Moseley and Croll than by the clearness with which he recognized the fundamental 

 differences between glacier and lake ice. 



Though others may have made more striking first ascents, or have left a deeper 

 mark in Alpine geology, there seems to be no question that in his knowledge of 

 Alpine topography, Mr. Ball stood absolutely without a rival. Mr. Ball knew the 

 Alps as no other man ever knew them. His great '"Alpine Guide" 4 has rendered 

 invaluable service to all subsequent work on the geography of the Alps. It is not 

 till one has tested this work in some unfrequented region, and compared it with 

 other guide books of the same period, that one can realize with what marvellous 

 instinct its author had seized all the salient features in the district. It is hoped that 

 a new and revised edition of this Guide will be prepared by the Alpine Club, as 

 to give Mr. Ball's greatest work a new lease of usefulness would be the most 

 appropriate memorial to one of the earliest of Alpine explorers and the greatest of 

 scientific mountaineers. J. W. G. 



1 " On the Origin of tbe Flora of the European Alps," Proc. Geogr. Soc. new ser. vol. i. 

 1879, pp. 564-88. 



2 "On the Formation of Alpine Valleys and Alpine Lakes," Phil. Mng. vol. xxv. 1863, pp. 

 81-103. "On the Formation of Alpine Lakes," Phil. Mag. vol. xxvi. 1863, pp. 489-502. "On 

 the Cause of the Descent of Glaciers," Phil. Mag. vol. xl. 1870, pp. 1-10. " On the Cause of 

 tbe Motion of Glaciers," Phil. Mag. vol. xli. 1871, pp. 81-87. 



3 Geol. Mag. Vol. VIII. i87l, pp. 359-63. 



* Western Alps, 1863; Central Alps, 1864; Eastern Alps, 1868. 



