If the editor of the Athenaeum is not already tired of the subject he will perhaps be so kind as to find the accompanying note a corner in his next impression.
John Tyndall
[enclosure]
ASCENT OF THE WEISSHORN.
December 7, 1861.
Will you allow me to say one word in reference to a sentence in this day’s Athenaeum,2 as it may help a brave man in his vocation. After accomplishing the last dead lift which placed my two companions and myself3 on the highest rock of the Weisshorn, we paused a moment to take a breath. The summit was within a few paces of us—a little pyramid of spotless snow, with a sharp ridge leading to the top of it. The man who had been in the rear of our little party during the day here stepped forward, and set his foot upon the ridge, with the apparent intention of going to the top. His progress was arrested by a rather emphatic exclamation of “Back! —not you.” Johann Joseph Bennen—the best and bravest climber I have ever met—had been my leader throughout. Him I ordered to the front, and he it was who first planted a foot upon the summit of the Weisshorn.4
JOHN TYNDALL.
Matterhorn Museum, Zermatt (covering letter)
The Athenaeum, 14 December 1861, p. 808 (enclosure)
To [Editor of the The Athenaeum]: No salutation is given on the covering letter. The editor from 1853–69 was William Hepworth Dixon (1821–79), historian and explorer.
a sentence in this day’s Athenaeum: the sentence reads: ‘the first man on the top was … Dr. Tyndall’. [Anon.], ‘Review: The Alps, or Sketches of Life and Nature in the Mountains’, Athenaeum 7 December 1861, p. 759.
my two companions and myself: Tyndall was accompanied by Bennen and Ulrich Wenger.
first planted a foot upon the summit of the Weisshorn: They reached the summit on 19 August 1861. It was the first ascent of the Weisshorn.
Please cite as “Tyndall1837,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on