“Welaen, Germaen en Belg tezaem ten stryd
    Voor vryheid, tael en vaderland! 
  De vaen van’t duitsch en vlaemsche zangverbond
    Prael op’t gentsch eeregoud! 
  Wy willen vry zyn, als de adelaer
    Die stout op eigen wieken dryft,
  Voor wien er slechts een koestring is, de zon. 
    Alom waer der Germanen tael
  Zich heft en bloeid en’t volk,
    Daer is ons vaderland!”

* * * * *

The Glaciers of the Alps.  Being a Narrative of Excursions and Ascents, an Account of the Origin and Phenomena of Glaciers, and an Exposition of the Physical Principles to which they are related.  By JOHN TYNDALL, F.R.S., etc., etc.  With Illustrations.  London:  John Murray. 1860. pp. xx., 444.

Our readers are probably aware that the question of the causes of glacier formation and motion, cool as the subject may seem in itself, has demonstrated the existence of a great deal of latent heat among scientific men.  In England, the so-called viscous theory of Professor J.D.  Forbes held for a long while undisputed possession of the field.  According to him, “a glacier is an imperfect fluid, or viscous body, which is urged down slopes of a certain inclination by the mutual pressure of its parts.”  With that impartial superciliousness to all foreign achievement which not seldom characterizes the British mind, the credit of all the results of observation and experiment on the glaciers was attributed to Professor Forbes, who seems to have accepted it with delightful complacency.  But presently doubt, then unbelief, and at last downright opposition began to show themselves.  The leader of the revolt was Professor Tyndall, whose book is now before us.  The controversy has begotten no little bitterness of feeling; but none is shown in Mr. Tyndall’s volume, which is throughout written in the truest spirit of science,—­with the earnest frankness that becomes a seeker of truth, and the dignity that befits a lover of it.

Not content with any theoretic antagonism to the Forbes explanation of the phenomena, Mr. Tyndall devoted all the leisure of several years to an examination of them on the spot.  At the risk of his life, he verified the previous observations of others and made new ones himself.  At home, he made experiments upon the nature of ice, especially upon its capacity for regulation and the effect of pressure upon it.  He satisfied himself that snow may be changed to ice by pressure, that crumbled ice may in like manner be restored to its original condition, and that solid ice may be forced to take any form desired.  Under proper conditions, lamination may be produced by the same means.  The result of his investigations is, that the glacier is a solid body, and that pressure answers all the requirements of the glacier-problem, and is the only thing that will.