Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/567

Rh outburst of British energy, which brought the subjugation of all the higher Alps, until the ascent of the Meije in 1877. This was the last great Alpine peak to be conquered. From the pioneering of Whymper and his brethren came the widespread efforts which have left only a few great summits on the globe still unconquered.

These and other achievements of Mr. Whymper in the Alps are set forth in his famous book, "Scrambles among the Alps in the Years 1860-1869." The beautiful illustrations were engraved by the author himself, and they have been copied numerous times in books of travel. This absorbingly interesting little volume now commands a premium among collectors. It is at once a thrilling tale for children about the family fireside: a guide-book for the amateur; a style book for the writer of travels. Forty years have improved its flavor but have not dimmed its charm or usefulness.

Whymper returned to England to find himself grown famous in a night. The sad fatalities of his expedition did not shake his nerve. He was soon on the road again, this time visiting Greenland on an important expedition in 1867. The fine collection of fossil plants and Eskimo relics which he made on this occasion and upon a later visit in 1872, are now preserved in the British Museum. He also proved, by the discovery of magnolia cones, that Greenland was once covered by luxurious vegetation. His able review of this work was published in the Report of the British Association for the year 1869. Though the Greenland expedition was not the success that Whymper hoped it would be, for he was hampered by lack of financial backing and by the prevalence of an epidemic among the natives, yet he not only made important researches in the fauna and flora of Greenland, but he proved that the interior could be explored by the use of properly constructed sledges, and thus contributed to the advance of Arctic exploration and to the ultimate discovery of the pole. The expedition of 1872 was devoted to a survey of coast line. Although a busy artist, he found sufficient vacation every year to do some valuable climbing or exploration.

It was in 1879 that Whymper undertook his notable journey to the Ecuadorian Andes. He had contemplated going to the Himalayas, and in 1874 had projected a scheme which would have taken him to this, probably the most difficult mountaineering ground on the globe. He proposed to carry his exploration and research up to the highest attainable limits. Just at the time it was possible to start, the British Government entered upon the construction of a "scientific frontier" for India, and rendered that region unhealthy for any but soldiers. Whymper then turned to South America. Perhaps he would have preferred to go to Peru or Chile, but owing to unhappy local dissensions