John Tyndall to Faraday   11 September 1858

Chamouni, Sep, 11th, 1858.

My dear Mr Faraday

I see “it is all out”¹, for I have just read it². There is nothing very stupid in it, and it gives me pleasure to think that you considered it sufficiently interesting to be made public. For the little bit at the commencement³ I thank you much. I was puzzled two or three days ago on opening a letter from General Portlock⁴, to find the first words of it referring to my letter to you published in the Times. Beside his letter came your own⁵ explaining all. The only difference it makes is that instead of the single lecturing of Mrs Faraday, I shall have half a dozen ladies solemnly admonishing me. But I can patiently bear any amount of lecturing from ladies, and so on this score I am not very much disturbed.

I came here soon after I wrote to Mrs Faraday, but the weather for a long time proved obstinately bad. Heavy rain in the valleys and heavy snow on the mountains. I came to look at the Mer de Glace once more, and to see whether hints obtained upon other glaciers this year were illustrated upon it. The fresh snow, however, on the upper portions of the glacier disguises the structure of the ice, and renders observations difficult. It was also my intention to assist the eminent guide Auguste Balmat in placing some thermometers at the summit of Mont Blanc. We have not a single observation to show either the minimum winter temperature, or the depths to which the cold of winter penetrates the ice at the summit. Zaupire⁶ has some conjectures upon this latter point, but we have no direct observations. The weather however opposed itself to this expedition -- aided and abetted, I am sorry to say, by the guide chef at Chamouni, who attempted to impose on me, in all their rigour, the regulations which have been made for tourists. He would not permit me to have a boy to carry a little instrument up the Mer de Glace -- I must take a guide. He also opposed himself to my concerted ascent with Balmat, and declared that I must conform to the rules and take four guides. I vainly endeavoured to shew him the difference between my position and that of a tourist; or to make him understand that the works of scientific men had done more for Chamouni than hundreds of ordinary travellers. To their credit, however, be it spoken, his superiors think a little differently upon the subject from the Guide Chef; The “Intendent” of the Province has told him that in the case of a man of science he must interpret the laws widely and liberally, and must not attach to them a “Judaical” signification. Having come to this conclusion that the bad weather offered an insuperable barrier to the ascent of Mont Blanc I went the day before yesterday with Balmat to the glacier du Taléfre, and at a height of about 10,000 above the sea we sank a thermometer in the ice. We found it excessively hard and difficult to pierce. A second thermometer was placed beside a rock which forms the summit of the Jardin, so as to give the minimum temperature of the air. Next year Balmat will ascend and read the result. I had never seen the wonderful circus of the Taléfre so wonderful, rendered so by the glorious weather, which has suddenly changed, and the heavy fresh snow which covered the surface of the glacier and rolled incessantly in avalanches from the surrounding mountains. During portions of our little expedition we had to plod through snow nearly three feet deep. (I had a most intelligent companion in Mr Wills⁷, who as you know has written an interesting little book upon the Alps⁸)[.] The weather at present is magnificent, but our thermometers are disposed of. Balmat posses one of his own, which, though not graduated low enough to give us the temperature of the air, might tell us something regarding the depth to which the winter cold penetrates the ice. Balmat himself conceives the idea of ascending Mont Blanc for the sole purpose of making his observation. I learned this last year, and made it known to the Council of the Royal Society, recommending the enterprise as one worthy of assistance and encouragement. The Council promptly voted me a small sum out of the government grant⁹; but as for personal remuneration Balmat steadily refused it. He affirms that he was actuated by no hope of pecuniary reward when he conceived the idea of placing the thermometer at the summit, and that he will not now accept such recompense. It gives me pleasure to make known to you the spirit which actuate this brave, gentle, and independent Chamouni guide, who never once shuned fatigue or danger if a scientific object was to be gained by encountering it. He has ascended in winter through the snow to the Mer de Glace, and observed the motion of the boulders upon the glacier. These observations, which are recorded in the excellent papers of Prof Forbes¹⁰, are the most important, if not the only ones, that we possess, as to the influence of the seasons upon glacier motion. I think we must help him to carry out his idea. The observation will not be a complete one, but it will teach us something, and others may be associated with it to repay the ascent. Thus matters stand at present, and a day or two will decide whether the mountain is to feel this year the shock of a crowbar upon his head.

Remember me most kindly to Mrs Faraday and Miss Barnard | And believe me always | Most sincerely Yours | John Tyndall

Would you have the goodness to have the enclosed posted for me?

Like many other apparently ‘impractical’ things I think the climbing tendency of Englishmen might be turned to profitable account. There are many men of intelligence and culture among these mountain climbers who would be rejoiced to lend a hand in making scientific observations.

Water boils here at 194.6 Faht.

Chamouni, 11th, Sep, 1858.