To Michael Faraday   4 Aug 1858

Eggischhorn¹ | 4 Aug 1858

My dear Mr. Faraday,

I wrote a letter to Mrs. Faraday five or six days ago but it was written during bad weather, and after a succession of rainy days, which probably cast their dull influence into the writing—so that on the whole the letter is not worth sending. My course hetherto has been thus. (1) To Paris where I saw nobody except Wertheim. Duboscq I learned was suffering from inflammation of the brain. (2) To Zurich² where I saw Clausius and bought a watch. (3) To Lucerne,³ making three voyages on the way. (4) to Meyringen⁴ over the Brünnig.⁵ (5) to Grindelwald.⁶ Spent two days there upon the glaciers. At Rosenlaui⁷ we slept a night, and next morning to my consternation found that a French tourist had taken away my boots. They were quite new and first rate. He left behind him a pair of vile Continental souliers⁸ in their place. A strong man followed him, overtook him at the Scheideck⁹ and deprived him of his illgotten booty. The subject of the structure of glacier ice has long been a source of discomfort to me. I had offered an opinion upon the subject, but still I was not quite sure, and the different opinions entertained by many intelligent glacier observers increased my hesitation. On this point I think I am now at peace, and it is the principal point which I had to settle during the present excursion. From Grindelwald we crossed the Strahleck¹⁰ and came down along the Finsteraar glacier to the Grimsel.¹¹ Here we spent a day examining the traces of ancient glacier action. These are perfectly astounding: To a height of at least 2000 feet above the valley of Hasli¹² this action can be traced with perfect distinctness. We¹³ crossed the Grimsel pass to the Rhone glacier¹⁴ and spent some time upon it—it was very instructive. How different things appear when the mental eye is cleared for their proper apprehension! The weather was here dismal, we spent a night at the little Auberge¹⁵ at the foot of the glacier and started down the valley in the rain next day. From Viesch¹⁶ we ascended to the Hotel Jungfrau¹⁷ situated half way up the Eggishorn, round which runs the great glacier of the Aletsch.¹⁸ From the summit of the Eggishorn the view is perhaps the finest I ever saw. But the great object of interest is the glacier: it is a most noble stream, and its origin is the grandest conceivable. Five valleys converge upon a single point, each pouring down a massive névé:¹⁹ all unite to form the trunk of the Aletsch. The Jungfrau,²⁰ the Monk,²¹ the Eiger,²² the Trugberg,²³ the Aletsch Horn,²⁴ and other mighty masses are the collectors of the material. The mountain forms are beautiful, and laden with their snows smooth and shining in the sunlight appear lovely beyond description. I was anxious to make some observations on the diathermancy²⁵ of the lower atmospheric strata, and hence wished to make simultaneous observations upon a high summit and in a low valley. With this object in view the night before last I took lodgings in a wild mountain cavern, with a single hardy mountaineer at my side purposing to start early to make an attempt upon the highest mountain of the Oberland,²⁶—the Finsteraarhorn.²⁷ At 3 o'clock yesterday morning we were on foot, and at half past 10 we were on the summit of the mountain. I had sent Ramsay²⁸ to the valley of the Rhone²⁹ with a black bulb thermometer, but unfortunately the day was not sufficiently serene to give us information on the principal point in question. Water boils at 187° farht, on the top of the mountain. I left a minimum thermometer there, which some future tourist may read, and give us some notion of the cold attained in these high regions. I reached this hotel³⁰ at half past seven yesterday evening; as fresh and well as could be expected after 16 ½ hours as hard work as I ever went through. I am resting to day. Eight hours unbroken sleep have done much to restore my forces. The only effect I feel is a kind of pleasant drowsiness, which to day’s rest will wear away, so that I shall be fit for a similar excursion tomorrow.

Will you kindly remember me to Mrs. Faraday and Miss Barnard. I have learned from a visitor here that Mr. Geo. Barnard³¹ is at Zermatt.³² I shall feel much obliged if you would ask Anderson to direct any letters that may be for me to Saas,³³ Canton Valais,³⁴ Switzerland.

Good bye | Ever Yours most truly | John Tyndall

RI MS JT/1/TYP/12/4084–6

Faraday Correspondence, 5:3495

Typed Transcript Only