LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY.
1896.

All rights reserved


TO
MICHAEL FARADAY,
THIS BOOK
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.

1860.


PREFACE.

In the following work I have not attempted to mix Narrative and Science, believing that the mind once interested in the one, cannot with satisfaction pass abruptly to the other. The book is therefore divided into Two Parts: the first chiefly narrative, and the second chiefly scientific.

In Part I. I have sought to convey some notion of the life of an Alpine explorer, and of the means by which his knowledge is acquired. In Part II. an attempt is made to classify such knowledge, and to refer the observed phenomena to their physical causes.