Item 144 - James David Forbes to William Whewell

7 pp

Pitlochry, Perthshire - A railway is currently being built 'proceeding direct from Perth to Inverness. It is strange how one becomes accustomed to anything, and we all find an interest in seeing engineering difficulties overcome, and in studying a little the not unamiable character of the multitude of working men thrown amongst us'. JDF finds plenty of work to do at St. Andrew's - 'I have not found time heavy'. Has WW seen John Tyndall's recent publication, 'Mountaineering in 1857'?: 'I felt my blood rise some what at the audacity of the attempt to give Mr Hopkins the credit of discovering the mechanical action of glaciers on their rocky beds; a matter in which neither Mr Hopkins nor I have the smallest part, belonging as it does in its entirety to the Swiss school, and Dr Charpentier in particular. With a duplicity peculiar by his own Tyndall names De Charpentier, Agassiz etc in second rank to Hopkins, as if they had been his followers in this matter!!' JDF has written a reply to the book intended for the Athenaeum, but has decided against sending it.