John Strange, F.R.S., 1732-1799

John Strange, F.R.S., 1732-1799Author(s): G. R. de BeerSource: Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Oct., 1951), pp. 96-108Published by: The Royal SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3087262 .

Accessed: 16/06/2014 02:42

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Royal Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Notes and Records ofthe Royal Society of London.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.44.79.22 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 02:42:06 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rsl

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3087262?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


96

JOHN STRANGE, F.R.S.

I732-I799

By G. R. DE BEER, F.R.S.

IN the Dictionary of National Biography, John Strange is described as a diplomatist and author, as indeed he was; for in I773 he was appointed

British Minister Resident at Venice, and he published a number of works, mostly devoted to archaeology and geology. For his contributions to the former of these subjects, he was rewarded by his election to Fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries, just as, for the latter, he was elected into the Fellowship of the Royal Society.' It does not appear to be recognized, however, how important and accurate, and how far in advance of their time, were his contributions to Geology, nor should I have known of them had it not been for copies of manuscript unpublished letters of his in the British Museum (Natural History), and for a printed book in my own private collection bearing copious marginal notes by Strange. This is a copy of Description des Montagnes et des Valle'es quifont partie de la Principaute' de Neuchatel et Valangin, Neuchatel, I766, of which the anonymous author was Samuel-Frederic d'Ostervald,2 banneret of Neuchatel. The title-page bears in ink the words 'with Mr. Strange's marginal notes ', and the fly- leaf, 'Dec. 5, i8 56 Presented to me by Professor J. H. Marsden of Great Oakley nr Harwich. A. Sedgwick.' The notes were clearly written by Strange during the course of a journey made to the places described in the book.

I have compared the handwriting of the marginal notes in the book with that of letters signed by John Strange, and there is no doubt of their identity. It is a matter of some difficulty but considerable importance, however, to determine the date of the writing of these marginal notes. It is known from the life of Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry (afterwards 4th Earl of Bristol) 3 that Strange was in Venice and Padua, some of the time with him, in I77I. In the following year, Hervey introduced Strange to Johann Caspar Hirzel of Zurich in a letter which is dated ' Montpellier, 30 janvier I772. Mon cher Hirtzel. Faites moi la grace d'accueillir Mons. Strange,

'On io April I766. 2 I7I3-I795- 3 I73o-i8o3 ; F.R.S., I782.



97 gentilhomme Anglois, comme l'ami d'un homme qui vous respecte et vous aime ... Frederick Hervey.' 4

The date I772 agrees with the references to Strange in the letters from Albrecht von Haller in Berne to Johann Gesner in Zurich.5 On I2 August I772, Haller wrote: ' Is Strange debet mihi libros a Caldano adferre, novam potissirnum itinerum Targioni editionem, sed nondum advenit'. On 5 September I772, Haller was getting impatient and wrote 'Iste D. Strange accepit a Caldano 4 volumina itineris Targionii (nova editio) mihi reddenda. Venietne Bernam ?' On 26 September 1772, Haller had become quite angry and complained: ' Cl. Strange per nostram urbem transiit neque me adiit, neque libros dedit neque literas. Non male tamen de eo erarn meritus.... Fac quaeso, amicissime Gesnere, ut ab eo Caldani fasciculum accipias, eum mihi mittas, dic eum me valde desiderare . . .' from which it is clear that Strange was at Zurich at the time or returning thither. But by 8 October I772 Strange had been to Berne, for Haller then wrote: ' Mirus mihi homo videtur ille Strange. Hic cum abiret, dixit se Tigurum ire et cito rediturum; nescio quid de eo suspico', which he had apparently not done. On 28 November I772, Haller reported 'De Johanne Strange non audivi, . . . neque libellos mihi retulit', but on i6 December I772 'Tandem advenit D. Strange et libros retulit, communicavit etiam Fortis curiosos libros impresses et manuscriptos. Butius [John, 3rd Earl of Bute] de ossibus illis humanis ad me scripserat, quae mireris in reliquo terrarum orbe adeo rara esse.' And on 2 January I773: ' Strangius ante paucos dies Lausannam petiit', on his way to Italy where he passed the winter of I772-1773.

In April I773 Strange was in Geneva, for on the 7th of that month he wrote to Charles Bonnet 6 who, in his turn, wrote to Haller: '0 mon ami, que M. Strange est une precieuse trouvaille pour un vrai naturalist '7

4Zentralbibliothek Zurich, F. A. Hirzel, 232 (No. 27). I am indebted to Professor Anton Largiader, State Archivist of Zurich, for kindly verifying this date. In an article on 'John Strange et la Suisse ' (Gesnerus, 6, I949, P. 34), in which the year I773 is referred to as ' deux ans plus tard ', Mlle C. E. Engel has implied that I77I was the year of Strange's visit to Johann Caspar Hirzel at Zurich, to whom he was introduced by Hervey. This is, however, incorrect, and presumably based on a misreading of the manuscripts or a blunder, as is clear from the letter of introduction from Hervey to Hirzel, to which Mlle Engel herself refers. It is therefore certain that Strange did not visit Switzerland in I77I, but went there in I772.

5 ' Albrecht von Haller's Briefe an Johannes Gesner,' Herausgegeben von H. E. Sigerist. Abhandlungen der Koniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gfttingen (Math-Phys. Ki), N.F., I I, I923. Albrecht von Haller, I708-I777, F.R.S., Johann Gesner, I709-I790.

6 Charles Bonnet, I720-I793, F.R.S., I743. C. E. Engel, Gesnerus, 6, I949, P. 37. OCTOBER I95I G



98

Strange was then living at Secheron at the gates of Geneva, and in June he moved to St Loup near Versoix. On 5 June I773 he wrote to Bonnet to say that 'J'ai eu une audience du seigneur de Ferney [Voltaire] hier pour la premiere fois. II etoit d'excellente humeur.' 8 On 14 June I773 he told Bonnet that he was shortly leaving, and by I2 July he had arrived at Lyons where he stayed for some time.

In this time-table, and bearing in mind the fact that Strange had seen Haller when he wrote his marginal notes in Ostervald's book, there are only two periods when a visit to the mountains of the Jura around Neuchatel could have been fitted in: in late September or early October I772 after leaving Berne, or in April or May I773. It may be accepted therefore that these notes were written at latest in I773. The establishment of this date will make it possible to set Strange's remarks out against the background of his contemporaries, and thereby to appreciate the degree in which they were in the forefront of scientific progress.

The marginal notes which Strange wrote in Ostervald's book are worthy of preservation not only as a reflexion of his attractive personality but also for their interest. For the most part they are related to the subject matter of the book, and refer to places and persons visited and seen. But there is also a note of considerable interest regarding the authorship of Ostervald's book: ' N.B. Bertrand told me at Iverdun, that he furnished Mr. Ostervald of Neufchatel with the original materials for this brochure, and which were the fruits of ajourney he made in the mountains in that neighbourhood with two of his travelling pupills. These however received a considerable, and, as I believe, judicious increase, and perhaps amendment, by Mr. Ostervald himself, an ingenious man, who purposely made one, if not more tours, in the Principality of Neufchatel for that purpose. Since, he has had the misfortune to be degraded from a very considerable civil employment at Neufchatel for conniving at an edition of Systeme de la Nature, a volume of materialism, lately printed at Neufchatel.' 9

The Bertrand here referred to was Elie Bertrand,10 of Orbe, who became 8 C. E. Engel, Gesnerus, 6, I949, p. 39. 9 The part played by Bertrand in the authorship of Ostervald's book was not previously

known, so I am informed by Dr Alfred Schnegg, State Archivist of Neuchatel. 10 Elie Bertrand, I7I3-I793. Cf. Ch. Berthoud: Les Deux Bertrand,Muse'e Neuchatelois,

7, I870, p. 53. Bertrand was the author of a number of works, such asMe'moire sur la structure inte'rieure de la terre, Zurich, I752 ; Essai sur les usages des montagnes, Zuric, I754 Memoires historiques et physiques sur les tremblemens de terre, La Haye, I757 ; Dictionna ire universal desfossiles, La Haye, I763 ; Recueil de divers traite's sur l'histoire naturelle de la terre et des fossiles, Avignon, 1766 ; and Le Thevenon, ou lesjourte'es de la montaguie, Neufchatel, I777.



99

pastor of the French-speaking church of Berne, and privy councillor to Stanislav Poniatovsky, King of Poland, before he returned to live near Yverdon about 1770. Strange would have found much in common with Bertrand from their mutual interest in geology and palaeontology. There was, however, one point on which they would not have agreed, for Bertrand who was a close friend of Voltaire11 appears to have been very hostile to Rousseau during the latter's sojourn in the mountains of Neuchatel. This is probably the explanation of the very disparaging remarks concerning Rousseau in Ostervald's book, opposite which Strange noted: 'what a ridiculous sally is this'.

Bertrand's two pupils were Count Michael George Mnisech and his brother, sons of the Countess Zamoiska.'2 As for Ostervald's misfortune referred to by Bertrand, it resulted from the fact that Ostervald was responsible for the Societe Typographique of Neuchatel, which, in 1771, printed the Systeme de la Nature, ostensibly written by a certain Mirabaud, but in fact ly the Baron d'Holbach,13 'a volume of materialism too unpalatable to the clergy and to the government for it to be possible for Ostervald to retain his charge of banneret'.

Many of Strange's marginal notes relate to the geology and palaeontology of the Jura mountains, and refer to some regions in which he was, so far as is known, the first English geologist and visitor.14 To start with, ' The Mountains of the Principality of Neufchatel more properly are parts of the chain of Mount Jura, whose ridge forms the boundary between that Province and France; parts of the Principality even lie on the west side of this ridge, as les Brenets at the one corner of the country and la Verriere at the other. I have been at both, the first on the bank of the Doux [Doubs].'

Of the mountains of la Tourne and of Boudry: 'The beginning of the flank of mount Jura chain-they are limestone in nearly horizontal beds

L.-E. Roulet: Voltaire et les Bernois, Neuchatel, i95o. While Bertrand was reported to have boasted that he would succeed in getting Rousseau expelled from Neuchatel, Ostervald spoke of him in kindly terms (Alexis Franmois: Jean-Jacques et Leurs Excellences, Lausanne [1924], p. 29).

12 Musee Neuchatelois, 7, i870, p. 53. This is confirmed by Sinner de Ballaignes in his Voyage historique et litte'raire dans la Suisse OccidentaleEn Suisse, I787. The name of Bertrand's pupils enables the date of his journey to be determined, for in July, I764, Rousseau replied to Michael George Mnisech to say how sorry he was that he could not receive him.

13 Paul Thiry d'Holbach, Baron de Heese et de Leande, I723-I789. 14 The next appear to have been Thomas Blaikie in 1775 (Diary of a Scotch Gardener at

the French Court. Edited by Francis Birrell, London, I93I) and William Coxe, F.R.S., in I776 (Sketches of the Natural, Civil, and Political State of Swisserland, London, I779).



100

coupes a Plomb '. Of the fossils that are found in them on the way to Brot: 'chiefly cornua ammonis, corallines, Anomiae, Echini, &.'. Of the minerals: 'minera ferri & ochrous earths are common throughout the range of mount Jura. Under the foot of it, near Arau [Aarau] is one of the richest iron mines in the country'.

Strange naturally referred to the deposits of asphalt in the Val de Travers, which are used so extensively to-day in the construction of roads in Great Britain, but said ' I saw them not; Buttes lies at a distance from the road and of difficult access'. However, 'I saw a specimen of this [asphalt] it is perfectly good'.

On the possibility of finding coal, Strange remarked: 'The limestone ofJura is not of the sort that generally lies near coal '.

Throughout his tour Strange kept his eyes open for the ravaging effects of water, and in regard to suggestions for controlling the floods of the river Areuse, he noted, ' It would be still a better, and less expensive scheme to confine the river to its natural bed ; this is, however, more generally neglected in Switzerland than in any other country I ever saw; the ravages of the Rhine in the Rheinthal above the lake of Constance; by the Rhone in the Valais; and by the Aar, in the vale of Aar, both above and below the lakes of Thun & Brientz, are very great and left to chance '.

At St Sulpice Strange's landlord was M. Theodore Meuron, of whose collection of fossil shells Strange did not think very much. Still less was he impressed by the history of the monstrous serpent which in the I4th century devoured so many men and women near St Sulpice that the highway to France was rendered impracticable. 'This is exactly in the style of Scheuchzer's Dragon-Histories in his Itinera Alpina, which so shamefully engross great part of a volume and crowd it with at least a dozen useless imaginary Plates.'

Continuing along the Val de Travers, Strange noted 'This is the passage over the ridge of mount Jura ; St. Sulpy [St Sulpice] is at the bottom on one side, & les Verrieres on the other, tho both in the Principality. The rock is the usual yellow limestone.' A little further ' Bayards and la cote aux Fees are on the top of the mountain nearly, and have a range of good pasture, with which the summit of Jura, being flat, abounds'. Oni the borders of the principality, ' Les Verrieres, tho in a valley, at the descent from the edge of Jura, is yet high, and commands extensive pastures in the surrounding hills.... I found Echini and anomiae, both smooth and striated, in great abundance.'

Of the cave known as the Temple des Fees, Strange noted: 'I went



I0I

only to the mouth of this cavern; the rock is of the usual limestone. According to this description [in Ostervald's book] the grot must be curious, but promising me no instruction I was not tempted, especially having so good a description.' This note supplies the evidence that Strange had the book with him on his tour.

Although it did not lie on his route, La Dole next engaged his attention. 'La Dole, near 4000 feet perpendicular height above the sea's level according to Fatio Duillier,15 near Geneva is the most famous spot for botanizing in the whole range of Jura. Ray16 and Sherard 17 ransacked it well & Haller assured me, that he is obliged to them for many plants of his Stirpes Helvetiae unnoticed by others.'

Ostervald's text goes on to speak of a river, the Venoge, which forked and flowed into both the Lake of Geneva and that of Neuchatel, to which Strange remarked: ' I cannot reconcile his Geography, as to this particular, with any map of the country I have yet seen. The Venoge, it is true, falls into the lake of Neufchatel, & another small brook of the same name falls into the lake of Geneva between Lausanne and Morges & which they have endeavoured, tho unsuccessfully hitherto, to join by a canal with the Lake of Neufchatel, but there is no natural communication between the two rivers....' At the time when Strange was writing, the Canal d'Entreroches,18 although incomplete in that it never made a junction with the Venoge and the Lake of Geneva, was nevertheless working between Cossonay and Yverdon on the lake of Neuchatel. Strictly speaking it was not the Venoge but the Nozon which was partially deflected from its original flow into the lake of Neuchatel to work a water-mill and drain into the lake of Geneva via the Venoge.

From the Val de Travers, Ostervald's book takes the reader to La Brevine between two- cliffs which Strange characterized as ' of the same limestone-always yellowish. Mount Jura in German is called thence Leberberg, from Leber, liver'. At La Brevine Strange was particularly interested in the drainage of the basins without apparent outlet, which phenomenon is associated with the source of rivers at no great distance. ' I took the pains to examine into this affair, and am firmly of the same

15 G. R. de Beer: 'Les Fatio de Duiller et les Alpes ', Les Alpes, 24, Berne, I948. Nicolas Fatio de Duiller, i664-I753, F.R.S., i687. Jean Christophe Fatio de Duillier, ? -1720, F.R.S., I706.

16John Ray, i627-I705, F.R.S., i667; visited La Dole in i665. 17 William Sherard, i659-1728, F.R.S., 1719; visited La Dole about i693. 18 P. L. Pelet: Le Canal d'Entreroche Lausanne, 1946.



102

opinion, the surplus water runs under ground in that direction, & the interval is not considerable and totally deprived of any other means of forming the source of the Reuss [sc. Areuse]. These accidents are very common in limestone countries. Thus the surplus of the Lake de Joux, not far distant, runs underground and, at no great distance, forms the source of the Orb[e] gushing from a rock ; this I have also attested. The limestone mountains in Canton Appenzel afford the like phenomenon, which I shall note elsewhere; but Istria and Dalmatia exceeds them all.'

Of the fossils in the neighbourhood of La Brevine, Strange noted, ' I saw neither cochlites, Tubulites, ostracites, Bucardites or Musculites ; but anomiae in plenty, a few ammonites & the rest he [Ostervald] mentions. Bourget19 copied from Langius20 and Scheuchzer 21 chiefly, & Bertrand says nothing of the productions of this tract in particular in any of his works.'

Among the many striking curiosities of the Jura are the subterranean water-mills which naturally attracted Strange's close attention. There were some near La Brevine involving a set of three wheels, driven in succession by the same water falling from one to the next at increasing depths underground. 'These Mills are very curious, all strangers visit them; having a scarcity of water in this high country, they are ingenious in making the best use of the little they have, and shcw real genius in some of these inventions.'

Strange also had an eye for the vegetation. 'The woods of Jura in general are the common Fir conis deorsum inflexis, or Beech, which is universal ; very little oak. Vast tracts of the Beech I have seen without any mixture of other trees: this is also observable in the Beech woods of our Chiltern Hills. They prevent the growth of other Trees, and consequently should be destroyed in timber woods, where they are sometimes mixed, as in Hertfordshire particularly. I have done so.'

Further evidence of Strange's interest in husbandry is found in his remarks on irrigation: 'I never saw any country where they seem to understand irrigation des pre's better than in Switzerland, especially in the Cantons of Bern & Zurich. Haller of Berne told me, that there are particular Peasants who make it their profession, and are hired out for these purposes. They also understand it well in the Alpine & other Cantons.'

19 Louis Bourguet, i678-I742, of Neuchatel, author of Traite'des petrifications, Neufchatel, 1742.

20 Carl Niclaus Lang, i670-1741, of Lucerne. Author of Historia lapidum figuratorun Helvetiae, Venetiae, 1708.

2lJohann Jakob Scheuchzer, i672-1733, F.R.S., 1703. Author of Meteorologia et oryctographia Helvetiae, 17i8.



103

Of the country between La Brevine and Le Locle, Strange noted, 'It is a high valley between two ridges on each side, or they rather are several successive vallies en basin or double cul de sac, where the water must either stagnate, or find its issue by subterraneous channels. These sort of vallies are most common in dry countries, for where a quantity of water falls it generally forces itself soon a regular passage. They are in Arabia, see Russels' Hist. of Aleppo pag. 49, 50. see also Michaelis Recueil de Questions proposes aux Scavans envoys par sa Majeste Danoise pour voyager en Arabie p. i59 Quest. 40. He calls them " Les valle'es sans ecoulement", they have a particular name for them in Arabic; hence they are probably common.

These basins, or emposieux as they are called, frequently contain peat- bogs, concerning which Strange had the following to say: 'Nothing more common than tourbe in all these culs de sacs & natural basins between the mountains, tho ever so high; such places, having no natural drain, collect more easily the materials that form this tourbe, and also commonly produce spontaneously a twitchy grass and Moss, which in great part contributes to form the tourbe itself'

Still on the subject of underground drainage, and referring to Oster- vald's mentron of the canal built to drain the lake of Giswil, Strange noted: ' I have seen this; there is a capital mistake in all the Swiss Maps ... which is the placing 3 lakes in the valley of Sarnen in the Canton of Underwald, where in reality there are but two, which I attest from experience.... These two lakes are of course those of Lungern and of Sarnen; but, pace Strange, there was a third, the lake of Giswil which, however, by the time Strange passed it was partly dried up and partly reduced to swamp with reeds. It was finally drained in I850.22

At Le Locle, in addition to the watch and clockmakers, Strange visited the maker of mechanical automata: 'No one makes this tour without paying a visit to Mr. Jaquet Droz; the head of these mountaineer artists . . . I was edified in my visit by a concert played on the harpsichord by one figure, while another with the musick in hand beat time . . . I was also serenaded by a Canary Bird, perched on the top of a Pendule.' Returning to matters of geological interest, he noted in respect of M. Sandoz des Roches, mayor of Le Locle : ' I spent a very agreeable day with him. He has lived many years in London. His Cabinet is in very neat order, and interesting in the productions of the environs, which

22 Julius Weber: Geologische Wanderungen durch die Schweiz, herausgegeben vo Schweizer Alpen Club, 2, p. 333, Zurich, 1913.



104

abounds with corals & the usual genera of Mt. Jura. Locle affords in particular a pretty Dendrites, and shells in a flinty matrix like the agate ones of Bologna. . . . He has the finest incrustations of Moss I ever saw, taken from the grottos, &c, about the curious mills near him. . . . The pieces are large, very beautiful and well preserved ; the same mass is often half the natural moss and half incrustation.'

From Le Locle, Strange made an excursion to Les Brenets (' You must pass the last ridge of Jura to come at les Brenets from Locle ') with M. Jean Pierre Giroud, ' an excellent sujet; he was my cicerone to the Saut de Doux [Saut du Doubs] a cataract near les Brenets that will bear seeing even after that of the Rhine, but is little known or talked of'. Close by is the cavern of La Tossiere: 'I visited this cave in my way from les Brenets to the cataract: it is in a rock by the rivers side, but contains nothing curious. I went in a boat from les Brenets to the cataract and returned to Brenets to take horse.'

Of the cataract of the Doubs, Strange noted: ' It falls over a rock of the usual limestone. At les Brenets the Doux enters between high perpendicular rocks of this limestone, and continues so for several leagues.... Short of the cataract, where the rocks close in, the Doux forms a very large basin or Lake of still water. This is not uncommon ; Gmelin in his acct of Siberia mentions just such another. See Voyage de Sibegrie Toim. 2. Ch. 5 8. p. i 9.'

' At Locle and La Chaux de Fond they are tolerably civilized', noted Strange, and continued on his way which led him to the house of the celebrated naturalist Abraham Gagnebin 23 at La Ferriere. ' From La Chaix d'Abel I saw in Gagnebin's Cabinet a large Pecten marmorise' convex on both sides like that of Passan . . . Gagnebin the Physician undertakes the care of mad people, whom he has en pension upon the spot. He is an able Botanist, assisted Haller much in his Stirpes Helvetiae 24 where he is often quoted. He has travelled much. His Herbary is very incompleat & in no order. His Cabinet is general, but in very bad order, and only interesting for the productions of the neighbourhood, which it contains in plenty, some very curious. . . His fossils only merit attention. He has several other large masses of fossil Madrepores of different species ; the largest I ever saw in any collection and found at La Ferriere. The Mass of Strombites is from Vallangin; a separate aggregate of the same species without any others. They are the Turbo or vis.'

The pride of Gagnebin's collection was a fossil brittle-star. 'Gagnebin 23 Abraham Gagnebin, 1707-i 800. See J. Thurmamn: Abraham Gagnebin de la Ferriere,

Porrentruy, i85i. 24 Historia Stirpium Helvetiae inchoata, Bernae, 1768.



IOs

has given a description of this Etoilefossile in the 7th vol. of Acta Helvetica. Bertrand had another in the collection of the Margrave of Baden Durlach who purchased Bertrand's Museum. Gagnebin's is the vulgar small Stella pentaradiata radiis subcylindraceis et sensim decrescentibus. It is genuine en relief; rare but far from being unique.' Strange then went on to make some remarks on the ecology of fossils

which it is astonishing to find written in 1773. Even if his conclusions are other than the views which are held to-day, they show a remarkable power of generalization in a field in which fancy had been rampant. 'Gagnebin wanting to sell his cabinet, imagines that his etoile petrifiee alone is to do the business. Bertrand assured me that his was equally genuine, and of the same species ; and I have seen others, tho do not at present recollect in what collections. Probably in the recent state, this common species of Stella frequents the shore more than the caput Medusae, hence is not so common in the fossil state as the latter, since in general all the littoral productions of the sea are very rare fossil, and those of the great deep very common. The auris marina (I mean the comAion perforated) Lepas, Balanus, Pholas &c are seldom or ever found fossil, while Anomiae, cornua Ammonis Belemnites &c often engross whole Provinces. The auris marina I never yet saw, and hold Scheuchzer's in Oryct. Helvet. and Hebenstreits in Museo Richteriano as apocryphal. No one ever saw, or must expect to see, a fossil limpet or Balanus adhering to a rock as they naturally do on those by the sea side. If they are found they are constantly adherent either to other shells or sea pebbles or isolated, broken from them. Pieces of rock are often found fossil with " nidi " of Pholades in them, but seldom, or ever containing the shells of the Pholades; while other parasitical species are not uncommon. See also in Acta Helvetica vol. 7. p.30 another dissertation of Gagnebin's " Description de quelques Petrifications " in which he describes as fossil Solen, Strombus and Fungites of those mountains &c but ignorantly, and with an unnecessary detail. His Solen is a dubious one, he thinking them rare, tho they are not ; the Strombus is common as well as the Fungites. I examined them. He has a Pinna maxima fossil from near la Ferriere, uncommon here.

'He has the Tubularia purpurea Tourn, Tab. 342. Elem. Bot. p. 446. fossile and well preserved from near La Ferriere. Both Gagnebin and Mr. Sandoz of Locle want to sell their cabinets, but want ten times their value.' It is only fair to add, in view of Strange's remarks, that Gagnebin never pretended to be anything but what he was, a simple rustic naturalist, while Strange was a very competent scientist.



io6

From La Ferriere, Strange had a view into the Val St Imier, ' A fertile pretty valley of considerable extent, between lateral branches of Jura of the usual yellow limestone. I crossed the bottom of this valley in my journey from Bienne to the famous Pertuis or Pierre Porte; a passage cut by the Romans in the limestone rock, to open a communication between the country towards Basil and that of Bienne Neufchatel &c described in many authors.'

Ostervald's reference to the fossils of the Jura surrounding the valley of la Sagne led to further palaeontological remarks by Strange: 'These Echinites a mammelons, or Turbans as the French call them, are the common Echinites of Mounts Rand,25 Leger and Jura.' To Ostervald's statement that artificial pasture had been made by means of the rich marls found near Coffrane and Dombresson, and that more such marls might be discovered with the help of the Marquis de Turbilly's 26 sounding rods, Strange commented: 'I wish there were more in use for the advantage also of natural History.'

Strange's return journey took him through Valangin, ' a very shabby place, containing only a few straggling houses, and a half-ruined castle on a high rock; from thence towards Neufchatel begins a very romantick road between high craggy rocks of the usual limestone, alongside of the torrent Seyon, which cut a deep channel between the rocks & forms a continual cascade, having here a great declivity

Near Neuchatel lies the Pierre "a Bot, an enormous erratic, concerning which Strange had remarks to make of the greatest interest and importance. 'In this wood, on a declivity of the usual limestone mountain, I contemplated with wonder an immense irregularly rhomboidal isolated mass of the grey granite peculiar to the primary Alpine Regions of the St. Gothard &c, unknown to the whole range ofJura, excepting in such like isolated masses, which are indisputably adventitious et natales habent in summis Alpibus. Linnaeus somewhere mentions a similar phaenomenon in the northern [regions]. They are common on the flank of Jura fronting the Swiss Alps, but this just mention'd is the largest I ever saw, and was to me the most interesting object in my whole tour in the Principality. It is many tons weight.'

The fact that the large masses of granite and other igneous rocks now known as erratics, strewn over the southern slopes of the Jura and the plain,

25 This reference is not clear ; perhaps the Jurassic summit Tete de Rang is meant. 26 Louis-Francois-Henri de Menon, Marquis de Turbilly, I717-I776, F.R.S., 1762.

Author of Mernoire sur les de'frichemetis, Amsterdam, I762. A noted agriculturalist.



107

were of extraneous origin, gradually became realized during the course of the eighteenth century; some authors even thought that they might be the remains of comets or meteorites. That these particular erratics originated from the Alps was realised by H. B. de Saussure 27 and by J. A. De Luc ; 28 the former attributing their transportation to water, the latter to catastrophic catapulting; but their books were not published until 1779. It is therefore remarkable to find Strange in 1773 proclaiming his belief in the alpine origin of these erratics, without committing himself on their method of transportation.

Three more examples may be given of the prophetic nature of Strange's opinion on geological matters. On IO February 1774, Abraham Trembley wrote to Bonnet, ' les courses que Monsr Strange a faites en Auvergne et dans le Velai, ont bien etendu l'Histoire des Basaltes. I1 a un coup d'oeuil et une patience remarquable. ...' 29 It may be remembered that Strange's friend Frederick Hervey was also deeply interested in basalt, in northern Ireland and France and Italy, and he referred to Mrs Strange as 'Madame Montaigne, who deserves to be preferred to all the Basaltes in the world '.30 The recognition of the igneous nature of basalt is usually attributed to Nicolas Desmarets who conceived it in 1763, communicated it to the Paris Acad'mie des Sciences in 1765 and 177i and published it in I774Y3 On the other hand, Rudolf Erich Raspe 32 realised this fact in 1769 and published it in the Philosophical Transactions in 1771. While not the first, Strange may at any rate be included among the earliest to take this fundamental step in geological science.

Next, Strange appears as a palaeontological stratigraphist. In 1779 he wrote 33 'The Gryphites oyster is not only found abundantly in the lower

27 Horace-Benedict de Saussure, I740-I799, F.R.S., I788: Voyages dans les Alpes, vol. i, Neufchatel, I 779.

28Jean Andre De Luc, I727-I8I7, F.R.S., I773: Lettres physiques et morales sur l'histoire de la terre et de l'homme, La Haye, I779. 29 British Museum, Add. MS. 23730, 6, 69.

30 W. S. Childe-Pemberton: The Earl Bishop, London, I924, p. I20. 31 Nicolas Desmarest: ' Memoire sur l'origine et la nature du Basalte . . .' Histoire de

l'Acade'nie Royale des Sciences, Annee MDCCLXXI, 705-I775, Paris, I774; and Annee MDCCLXXIII, 599-670, Paris, I777.

32 Rudolf Eriche Raspe, F.R.S., I769; expelled I775. 33' Remarks on the Reverend Mr. William Harris's Observations on the Roman

Antiquities in Monmouthshire and the neighbouring Counties of Wales . . .'; Archaeologia, 6, p. 6, I782. This paper also contains a reference to Strange's travels in Switzerland on P. 12: (re Roman Camps)-' I observed a very perfect camp of this kind on an eminence near Avanches in Switzerland, the ancient Aventicum.... Other similar Roman camps are also observable in Switzerland. The most remarkable one that occurred to me in my



io8

part of Monmouthshire and about Purton Passage, but also extends in considerable aggregates along the neighboring midland counties; having myself traced them, either in gravel or limestone, through Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Leicestershire, occupying in like manner the lower parts of those counties, under the Hills'. As Sir Archibald Geikie remarked, the Lias was traced by means of its fossils by Strange across England before William Smith even began his work.

Lastly, Strange held correct views on the subject of the origin of granite some years before Hutton's and von Buch's publications demonstrated how untenable were Werner's and de Saussure's views of its aqueous origin. In a letter from Venice dated 14 February 1785 to Sir Joseph Banks, Strange wrote: 34 'Mr. Bonnet of Geneva . . . informs me that Monsieur de Saussure is far advanced in his second Volume 4to of his Voyages auix Alpes, the first of which, printed a few years since, is doubtless well known to you. He tells me that there will also be a third and a fourth Volume, adding that Mr. de Saussure " est parvenu entre'autres "a denmontrer rigoureusenent que le granit en grandes masses est former de couches parallels, et qu'il est une vraie concretion ou crystallization operee par les eaux," his proofs of which I shall be very glad to learn, having hitherto from my own observations been led to the opposite opinion of its igneous origin....'

It is to be hoped that these few pages will have done something to draw John Strange out of the shades of oblivion, and to encourage the belief that some competent person may feel inclined to devote a monograph to him and his work.

tour of that country, was on the summit of one of the highest mountains in the Canton of Appenzell, and which entirely commanded a vast tract of the vale of the Upper Rhine, above the lake of Constance, between the Swiss and the Grison Alps.'

34 British Museum (Natural History), Banks MS Correspondence, 4, f. I26.



Documents

John Strange, F.R.S., 1732-1799