Olveston | 7 Jan 1857.
My dear Sir,
I have read the paper of Ch. Desor1 which you mentioned to me2 with great interest, and am truly obliged to you for directing my attention to it. I am ashamed to say that I have neither seen the work of De Saussure nor those of Charpentier3 nor Agassiz. None of them are in the Library of the Royal Society. If you have the books at hand will you oblige me by giving me the names of the publishers and by telling me something about the size that I may judge of the cost. Allow me to thank you lastly for the copy of your paper on Slaty Cleavage4 which I have now read through with sincere pleasure. I congratulate you on a very successful effort in Philosophical induction
Yours sincerely | H. Moseley.
P.S. I thank you for your kind promise to inform me of any papers which come to your knowledge about glaciers. I cannot feel convinced that the temperature of the depth of the glacier is only zero. Experiments in open holes however deep are I think fallacious—or in any holes into which water drips. I propose to go to Switzerland this year—But unhappily I must be back at Bristol5 on the 1 July.
RI/JT/TYP/3/901
LT Typescript Only
paper of Ch. Desor: not identified. Desor published many papers on glaciers in the 1840s and 50s, as well as the book Excursions et sejours dans les glaciers et les hautes régions des Alpes de M. Agassiz et de ses compagnons de voyage (Neufchâtel, 1844).
which you mentioned to me: letter missing.
Charpentier: Jean de Charpentier (1786–1855), German-Swiss geologist who studied glaciers in the Swiss Alps (CDSB).
your paper on Slaty Cleavage: see letter 1295, n. 3.
I must be back at Bristol: in 1854 Moseley became vicar of Olveston, Gloucestershire, a small town ten miles north of Bristol (ODNB).
Please cite as “Tyndall1313,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on