526 Obituary — Edward Whymper. 



and pre-photographic hand-camera days, when the artists for Punch, 

 the Illustrated London JVetvs, and other papers and journals drew 

 their pictures direct upon the blocks on which they were afterwards 

 engraved; the drawings and engravings being both extensively 

 carried out by the Whympers, father and sons, assisted by a numerous 

 staff of wood-engravers working under their personal superintendence 

 and instruction. The introduction of process-engraving and the 

 rapid and less costly methods of photo-processes of all kinds have, 

 to a very great extent, swept away the engraver and his art, and 

 they only survive in the illustrations to such luxurious works as 

 are but little known save to the wealthy dilettanti who desire to 

 maintain the now almost extinct wood-engraver's art. 



In 1860 Edward Whymper commenced his career as an Alpine 

 climber, and took a commission from a London publisher to make 

 some sketches of the great Alpine peaks. "At this time," wrote 

 Mr. Whymper afterwards, "1 had only a literary acquaintance 

 with mountaineering, and had not even seen — much less set foot 

 upon — a mountain. Amongst the peaks which were upon my list 

 was Mont Pelvoux in Dauphine. The sketches that were required 

 of it were to celebrate the triumph of some Englishmen who intended 

 to make its ascent. They came, they saw, but they did not conquer. 

 By a mere chance I fell in with a very agreeable Frenchman who 

 accompanied this party, and was pressed by him to return to the 

 assault. In 1861 we did so with my friend Macdonald [Mr. Reginald 

 J. S. Macdonald] and we conquered. This was the origin of my 

 Scrambles amongst the Alps." In those days Alpine climbing as 

 a, sporting pastime was only just beginning to come into vogue. 

 Mr. Whymper fell a willing victim to its fascinations. He had 

 been attracted to Mont Pelvoux by those mysterious impulses which 

 impel men to peer into the unknown. He next set himself to 

 conquer the Matterhorn, which was then regarded as wellnigh in- 

 surmountable, and which appealed to him by its grandeur. Repeated 

 failure to scale its summit only stimulated the young enthusiast to 

 fresh endeavours, and the history of these efforts occupies a large 

 part of his first book, Scrambles amongst the Alps in the years 1860-69, 

 which first appeared in 1871. Mr. Whymper's perseverance was 

 crowned with success in July, 1865, but the triumph was marred 

 by a terrible disaster. The ascent of the Matterhorn is not now 

 considered as one of unusual difficulty or danger, but the great 

 peak avenged itself on those who first violated its virgin summit by 

 taking a heavy toll for their achievement. On that occasion the 

 smnmit had been attained, and the descent was in progress, when 

 one of the party lost his foothold, and falling against Croz, the 

 leading guide, knocked him over ; the two following members were 

 dragged from their steps ; the guide who followed next with 

 Whymper endeavoured in vain to save them by planting themselves 

 as firmly as the rocks would permit, but the rope broke midway 

 between Lord Francis Douglas and the guide Taugwalder, and the 

 four leading members of the party fell down the almost precipitous 

 wall of rock to the Matterhorngletscher below, a distance of nearly 

 4,000 feet. 



