566 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



anything, a still more ambitious work in two hundred and twenty-four 

 pages, profusely illustrated, and filled with the most interesting and 

 advantageous information. In 1911 this also attained its fifteenth 

 edition. The same scientific spirit that made his earlier books so 

 attractive and reliable is inevitably present even in a popular guide book. 



The oncoming of old age did not retire Whymper to a chimney 

 corner. In 1901 he made an exploring expedition in the Great Divide 

 of the Canadian Rockies. He repeated this visit four times, also push- 

 ing on to the Selkirk Mountains. 



We have no record that he ever undertook a voyage to the Himalayas 

 after his disappointment in 1874. It is significant that his death took 

 place at Chamonix. It may be that, feeling the approach of dissolu- 

 tion, and unwilling to die in his bed, he was about to undertake another 

 ascent of Mont Blanc, " the great White Mountain " of which he never 

 grew tired. 



Edward Whymper was not a transcendentalist or an esoteric in 

 mountain climbing. He employed his best descriptive talents and his 

 charming humor of the best British variety in his descriptions ; he knew 

 the mountains in their secret moods; but he seldom broke out into 

 poetry. There is no record of revelry by night, or of singing Alpine 

 paeans before breakfast. He seems to have gone about mountain climb- 

 ing seriously, yet pleasantly withal. No dangers affrighted him, but, 

 on the other hand, he did not seek extraordinary gymnastic feats. It is 

 safe to say that he had ingrained in him true love for the mountains, 

 and a great delight in the views from above the clouds, but he was also 

 imbued with the savage lust of exploration and pioneering. 



We may live to see a school of climbers that may accomplish more 

 things than his, but we shall not see one of more heroic spirit. 



The world owes him something more than a reputation of an 

 undaunted climber of mountains or a fame that can be assessed in 

 worldly terms. Zermatt owes him a statue, no less than Chamonix 

 owed to De Saussure and Balmat. 



