Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/1117

1100 that may combine every important requisite. He was created a baronet in Oct. 1869, in which year he instituted the "Whitworth Scholarships," consisting of thirty scholarships of £100 a year each, tenable for two or three years, for the encouragement of mechanical and engineering science. Sir Joseph Whitworth is the author of "Miscellaneous Papers on Practical Subjects; Guns and Steel," 1873. The University of Edinburgh conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. in 1878.

WHYMPER,, artist, author, and traveller, second son of the well-known engraver and water-colour painter, was born in London, April 27, 18 W), and educated at Clarendon House School, and under private tuition. He was trained as a draughtsman on wood, but preferring active to sedentary employment, commenced a series of journeys which eventually changed the course of his life. In 1861 he ascended Mont Pelvoux (then reputed to be the highest mountain in France), and discovered from its summit another mountain 500 feet higher—the Pointe des Écrins—which is the loftiest of the French Alps, and was subsequently ascended by Mr. Whymper in 1804. Between the years 1861-5, in a series of expeditions remarkable for boldness and success, he ascended one peak after another of mountains till then reputed to be inaccessible. These expeditions culminated in the ascent of the Matterhorn (14,780 feet), July 14, 1805, on which occasion his companions, the Rev. Charles Hudson, Mr. Hadow, and Lord Francis Douglas, and one of the guides, lost their lives. In 1867 he travelled in N. W. Greenland with the intention of exploring its fossiliferous deposits, and, if possible, of penetrating into its interior. This journey was characterised by Sir Roderick Murchison as "truly the ne plus ultra of British geographical adventure on the part of an individual!" No account of it has been published, although upon it Mr. Whymper obtained cones of Magnolia, and the fruits of other trees, which demonstrated the former existence of luxuriant vegetation in these high northern latitudes. This fine collection of fossil plants was described by Professor Heer in the Transactions of the Royal Society in 1869, and the first set was secured for the British Museum, where a selection is now exhibited. In 1871 Mr. Whymper published an account of his Alpine journeys, under the title "Scrambles amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-69," London, 1871. In recognition of the value of this work, its author received from the King of Italy the decoration of Chevalier of the Order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus. In May, 1872, he again left Copenhagen for North Greenland, and spent the season among the mountains, returning on Nov. 9 to Denmark, bringing back from this his second exploring journey in Greenland, rich collections, among them fine specimens of fossil wood. In the years 1879-80, Mr. Whymper travelled in the Republic of Ecuador, exploring, ascending, and measuring the Great Andes on and near the Equator. On this journey he made the first ascents of Chimborazo (20,517 feet), Sincholagua, Antisana, Cayambe and Cotocachi, and several others. Large zoological and other collections were made, which are now in course of description.

WILBERFORCE,, D.D., Bishop of Newcastle, is the third son of the late Right Rev. Samuel Wilberforce, successively Bishop of Oxford and of Winchester, by Emily, elder daughter and heiress of the late Rev. John Sargent, of Lavington House, near Petworth, Sussex. He was born at Brigstone, or Brixton, in the Isle of Wight, Jan. 22, 1840; and educated at Exeter