Deanery, Hereford, | Nov. 14th 1859.
My dear Tyndall,
Don’t think because I have not written to thank you for a copy of your paper on Glaciers1 before this, that Deans2 are an overworked class of men and have not time to write to their friends, but I happened to receive it during our audit which is rather a busy week, and I wished to read it before writing to you. It has given me a very great deal of pleasure the doing so and although I don’t pretend to be versed in such matters, yet the way in which you set about to ascertain the movement of these masses, the obstructions of different kinds which you have to contend with, and the attempt to ascertain the points of maximum movement have really interested me—not merely on account of the glaciers in Switzerland but the course of the river Wye3 and a walk on its banks after a flood will interest me more in future than they have done.
I shall watch the bending of the river and ascertain the velocity of the stream in different parts of the same section, and I shall look at the dirt beds left after a flood with greater interest than I have hitherto done; I wish the dirt beds of the Wye were the only ones we had here, they do good, but we have many dirt beds of another kind which I would like to examine (with the eye of a Tyndall) but I dare not.
Last week Mr and Mrs Philipps4 were staying with us. Mary Best that5 was, and she wished to be most kindly remembered to you.
Mrs Dawes begs me to give you her kindest regards, also to Frankland and Mrs Frankland when you see them,
and Believe me, my dear Tyndall, | Always sincerely yours | R. Dawes.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/1/319A
LT Typescript Only
Don’t think because I have not written to thank you for a copy of your paper on Glaciers: It is uncertain which paper Tyndall sent Dawes. It likely either refers to a draft of Glaciers of the Alps, or to one of the following three papers: J. Tyndall, ‘On the Physical Phenomena of Glaciers—Part I. Observations on the Mer de Glace’, Phil. Trans., 149 (1859), pp. 261–78; J. Tyndall, ‘Remarks on Ice and Glaciers’, Phil. Mag., 17 (1859), pp. 91–6; J. Tyndall, ‘On the Veined Structure of Glaciers; with Observations upon White Ice-Seams, Air-Bubbles and Dirt-Bands, and Remarks upon Glacier Theories’, Phil. Trans., 149 (1859), pp. 279–307.
Deans: Richard Dawes was the Dean of Hereford.
river Wye: fifth longest river in the UK, running along the Anglo-Welsh border. Tyndall drew comparison between the flow of glaciers and rivers in his research.
Mr and Mrs Philipps: not identified.
Mary Best: possibly a daughter of Samuel Best, see letter 1775.
Please cite as “Tyndall1650,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on