James Eccles
Encyclopedia
James Eccles FGS
(1838 – 6 June 1915) was an English mountaineer
and geologist
who is noted for making a number of first ascents in the Alps
during the silver age of alpinism
.
.
He was on the board of Blackburn School, and a minute recording a donation of his to the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
styles him as "James Eccles, J.P.
" He was elected a member of the Manchester Geological Society in 1866, becoming a vice-president in 1872. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society
from 1867 to 1915.
Eccles married in 1863 and moved to London
by 1874, where he lived at 15, Durham Villas, Fillimore Gardens, Kensington
. A notice in the London Gazette
states that on 2 November 1874 Eccles, together with John William Eccles and Robert Langley Wilson, presented a petition to the Lord Chancellor
for the winding up of the British Timber Company.
He died in 1915, leaving £163,334 in his will.
on 20 July 1869 from the Breuil side, employing J. A. Carrel and Bich as guides, together with two Chamoniards
with whom he would subsequently often climb – the Payot brothers, Alphonse and Michel. Alpine historian C. Douglas Milner called Eccles a climber of "exceptional calibre" and his guides the Payot brothers as "the finest that Chamonix could provide at that time". Eccles had a special interest in the mountains of the Mont Blanc massif
– Dumler calls him "that assiduous Mont Blanc explorer" – and made the first ascent of the Aiguille du Plan
in July 1871 with Alphonse and Michel Payot. This party also made the first ascent of the Aiguille de Rochefort
in 1873 and the Dôme de Rochefort
in 1881, the latter via its north-west face.
Eccles made the first ascent of the upper part of the Peuterey ridge
, having failed in an attempt on 28 July 1877. Milner writes that Eccles had also failed in an earlier attempt in 1875, intimidated by the Innominata face. Back in London, while walking down the Strand
, he saw displayed in a shop window a telephoto showing Mont Blanc and that amphitheatre taken from Crammont. This photo revealed the best exit from the amphitheatre, by the couloir to the Peuterey ridge. Milner implies that photo was the key to success of the climb. On their successful ascent, Eccles's party reached the foot of the climb by crossing the Innominata ridge from the Brouillard glacier, thereby gaining the Frenay glacier. From there they climbed onto the Peuterey ridge above the Grand Pilier d'Angle
via a steep couloir, reaching the summit of Mont Blanc de Courmayeur
nine hours after leaving their bivouac under Pic Eccles
. When Eccles reached the summit of Mont Blanc itself he was appalled by the amount of litter that he found. The party descended to Chamonix in the swift time of three hours and forty minutes.
Pic Eccles at the foot of the Innominata ridge on Mont Blanc
is named after him, as is the Eccles bivouac hut below Pic Eccles's summit. Col Eccles on the Brenva side of Mont Blanc is also named after him.
. On 7 August 1878, in a party of eight including surveyor Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden
, topographer A. D. Wilson and Eccles's favourite guide, Michel Payot, Eccles made the second ascent of Fremont Peak
(once mistakenly considered the highest peak in the Rockies); he also climbed Wind River Peak
in the Wind River Range
while accompanying the Hayden Survey, together with A. D. Wilson and Payot. Eccles offers the following description of Wilson:
Eccles attempted to make the first ascent of Grand Teton
(an ascent was claimed in 1872 by Nathaniel P. Langford
and James Stevenson, but was probably of The Enclosure, a side peak of Grand Teton) in 1878 with Wilson, his assistant Harry Yount
, and Payot. Eccles and Payot were unfortunately held up by the disappearance of two mules, and so were unable to accompany Wilson and Yount.
In 1881 Eccles befriended T. G. Bonney
, an alpinist of some repute and professor of geology at University College, London
. Eccles provided photography for Bonney's geological volume The Building of the Alps, and accompanied him on trips to the Alps that provided material for Bonney's paper "On the Crystalline Schists and their Relation to the Mesozoic Rocks in the Lepontine Alps." Bonney wrote Eccles's obituary in the Alpine Journal
.
As well as writing papers himself, Eccles was also a collector of rare rocks and minerals from places inaccessible to many geologists. For instance, specimens of glaucophane-epidote schist
, containing garnet
, sphene and diallage collected by Eccles from several feet below the summit of Monte Viso
were described in an 1889 paper "On Fulgurites from Monte Viso" by Dr Frank Rutley FGS.
Some of Eccles’s collection of rocks, minerals and fossils was given to the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery. These include a number of fossils from Solenhofen in Germany. The museum also houses Eccles’s Devonian
orthocones from Wissenbach and several remains of vertebrates from the Kupperschiefer. Eccles donated specimens to the Museum of Practical Geology (now the Geological Museum
); one donation, in April 1873, contained two specimens of Productus humerosus/sublaevis from Caldron Low as well as a number of Carboniferous
brachiopods (including one from the Isle of Wight
) and corals. Eccles gave descriptions of his Productus humerosus specimens (which he collected from 1860 to 1870) in the 1870 issue of Trans. Manchester Geol. Soc., vol. 9, part 3, pp. 1–2.
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...
(1838 – 6 June 1915) was an English mountaineer
Mountaineer
-Sports:*Mountaineering, the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, trekking and climbing up mountains, also known as alpinism-University athletic teams and mascots:*Appalachian State Mountaineers, the athletic teams of Appalachian State University...
and geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
who is noted for making a number of first ascents in the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
during the silver age of alpinism
Silver age of alpinism
The silver age of alpinism is the name given to the era in mountaineering that began after Edward Whymper and party's ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 and ended with W. W...
.
Life
Eccles was born in Blackburn in 1838, the eldest son of Edward Eccles of LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
.
He was on the board of Blackburn School, and a minute recording a donation of his to the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
The Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery is the local museum service for the borough of Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. It is a museum with collections of Christian icons, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and local history, as well as those of the former Lewis Textile Museum.- The building :The museum is...
styles him as "James Eccles, J.P.
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
" He was elected a member of the Manchester Geological Society in 1866, becoming a vice-president in 1872. He was a Fellow of the Geological Society
Geological Society of London
The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...
from 1867 to 1915.
Eccles married in 1863 and moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
by 1874, where he lived at 15, Durham Villas, Fillimore Gardens, Kensington
Kensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
. A notice in the London Gazette
London Gazette
The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record of the British government, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published...
states that on 2 November 1874 Eccles, together with John William Eccles and Robert Langley Wilson, presented a petition to the Lord Chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
for the winding up of the British Timber Company.
He died in 1915, leaving £163,334 in his will.
Alps
Eccles began climbing in the Alps in the 1860s and made an early ascent of the MatterhornMatterhorn
The Matterhorn , Monte Cervino or Mont Cervin , is a mountain in the Pennine Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. Its summit is 4,478 metres high, making it one of the highest peaks in the Alps. The four steep faces, rising above the surrounding glaciers, face the four compass points...
on 20 July 1869 from the Breuil side, employing J. A. Carrel and Bich as guides, together with two Chamoniards
Chamonix
Chamonix-Mont-Blanc or, more commonly, Chamonix is a commune in the Haute-Savoie département in the Rhône-Alpes region in south-eastern France. It was the site of the 1924 Winter Olympics, the first Winter Olympics...
with whom he would subsequently often climb – the Payot brothers, Alphonse and Michel. Alpine historian C. Douglas Milner called Eccles a climber of "exceptional calibre" and his guides the Payot brothers as "the finest that Chamonix could provide at that time". Eccles had a special interest in the mountains of the Mont Blanc massif
Mont Blanc Massif
The Mont Blanc massif is a mountain range in the western Alps. It is named after Mont Blanc, at 4,810.45 m the highest summit of the Alps. It is located in France , Italy , and Switzerland...
– Dumler calls him "that assiduous Mont Blanc explorer" – and made the first ascent of the Aiguille du Plan
Aiguille du Plan
The Aiguille du Plan is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the French Alps. Its needle-like summit lies in the centre of the Chamonix Aiguilles when viewed from Chamonix.- External links :*...
in July 1871 with Alphonse and Michel Payot. This party also made the first ascent of the Aiguille de Rochefort
Aiguille de Rochefort
The Aiguille de Rochefort is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in France and Italy. The peak lies on the Rochefort arête between the Dent du Géant and the Grandes Jorasses and is usually climbed during a traverse of the ridge....
in 1873 and the Dôme de Rochefort
Dôme de Rochefort
The Dôme de Rochefort is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in Haute-Savoie, France and of Aosta Valley, Italy....
in 1881, the latter via its north-west face.
Eccles made the first ascent of the upper part of the Peuterey ridge
Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey
The Aiguille Blanche de Peuterey is a mountain of the Mont Blanc massif in Italy. It is considered the most difficult and serious of the alpine 4000-m mountains.There are three tops to the mountain:*Pointe Güssfeldt...
, having failed in an attempt on 28 July 1877. Milner writes that Eccles had also failed in an earlier attempt in 1875, intimidated by the Innominata face. Back in London, while walking down the Strand
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...
, he saw displayed in a shop window a telephoto showing Mont Blanc and that amphitheatre taken from Crammont. This photo revealed the best exit from the amphitheatre, by the couloir to the Peuterey ridge. Milner implies that photo was the key to success of the climb. On their successful ascent, Eccles's party reached the foot of the climb by crossing the Innominata ridge from the Brouillard glacier, thereby gaining the Frenay glacier. From there they climbed onto the Peuterey ridge above the Grand Pilier d'Angle
Grand Pilier d'Angle
The Grand Pilier d'Angle is a buttress on the southern side of Mont Blanc in the Mont Blanc massif in the Val d'Aosta, Italy.The first ascent from the valley was by James Eccles with guides Michel Payot and Alphonse Payot on 30 July 1877 during an ascent of the Peuterey ridge, although the summit...
via a steep couloir, reaching the summit of Mont Blanc de Courmayeur
Mont Blanc de Courmayeur
Mont Blanc de Courmayeur , in the Italian part of the Mont Blanc massif, is the second-highest peak in the Alps....
nine hours after leaving their bivouac under Pic Eccles
Pic Eccles
Pic Eccles is a mountain in the Mont Blanc massif in the Val d'Aosta, Italy. It lies at the foot of the Innominata ridge to the summit of Mont Blanc. The mountain is named after the English mountaineer and geologist James Eccles....
. When Eccles reached the summit of Mont Blanc itself he was appalled by the amount of litter that he found. The party descended to Chamonix in the swift time of three hours and forty minutes.
Pic Eccles at the foot of the Innominata ridge on Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc or Monte Bianco , meaning "White Mountain", is the highest mountain in the Alps, Western Europe and the European Union. It rises above sea level and is ranked 11th in the world in topographic prominence...
is named after him, as is the Eccles bivouac hut below Pic Eccles's summit. Col Eccles on the Brenva side of Mont Blanc is also named after him.
Rockies
Eccles was one of the first British mountaineers to make ascents of the higher peaks of the RockiesRocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
. On 7 August 1878, in a party of eight including surveyor Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden
Dr. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden was an American geologist noted for his pioneering surveying expeditions of the Rocky Mountains in the late 19th century. He was also a physician who served with the Union Army during the Civil War.-Early life:Ferdinand Hayden was born in Westfield, Massachusetts...
, topographer A. D. Wilson and Eccles's favourite guide, Michel Payot, Eccles made the second ascent of Fremont Peak
Fremont Peak (Wyoming)
Fremont Peak is the third highest peak in Wyoming and straddles the boundary between Fremont and Sublette counties. It is named for American explorer John C. Fremont who climbed the peak with Charles Preuss and Johnny Janisse on August 13 to August 15, 1842...
(once mistakenly considered the highest peak in the Rockies); he also climbed Wind River Peak
Wind River Peak
Wind River Peak is the highest point in the southern end of the Wind River Range that is located in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The peak straddles the Continental Divide and is surrounded by National Forest lands...
in the Wind River Range
Wind River Range
The Wind River Range , is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains in western Wyoming in the United States. The range runs roughly NW-SE for approximately 100 miles . The Continental Divide follows the crest of the range and includes Gannett Peak, which at 13,804 feet , is the highest peak...
while accompanying the Hayden Survey, together with A. D. Wilson and Payot. Eccles offers the following description of Wilson:
Eccles attempted to make the first ascent of Grand Teton
Grand Teton
Grand Teton is the highest mountain in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park, and a classic destination in American mountaineering.- Geography :...
(an ascent was claimed in 1872 by Nathaniel P. Langford
Nathaniel P. Langford
Nathaniel Pitt Langford was an explorer, businessman, bureaucrat, vigilante and historian from St. Paul, Minnesota who played an important role in the early years of the Montana gold fields, territorial government and the creation of Yellowstone National Park.-Montana Gold Fields:On June 16, 1862...
and James Stevenson, but was probably of The Enclosure, a side peak of Grand Teton) in 1878 with Wilson, his assistant Harry Yount
Harry Yount
Henry S. Yount was an American Civil War soldier, mountain man, professional hunter and trapper, prospector, wilderness guide and packer, seasonal employee of the United States Department of the Interior, and the first gamekeeper in Yellowstone National Park...
, and Payot. Eccles and Payot were unfortunately held up by the disappearance of two mules, and so were unable to accompany Wilson and Yount.
Geology
Eccles described many geological phenomena in the north of England, as well as in the Alps and the Rockies. Of his 1878 trip with Hayden's team he wrote in preface to his "On the Mode of Occurrence of some of the Volcanic Rocks of Montana, U.S.A.":In 1881 Eccles befriended T. G. Bonney
Thomas George Bonney
Thomas George Bonney FRS was an English geologist.-Career:Bonney was the eldest son of the Reverend Thomas Bonney, master of Rugeley Grammar School...
, an alpinist of some repute and professor of geology at University College, London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
. Eccles provided photography for Bonney's geological volume The Building of the Alps, and accompanied him on trips to the Alps that provided material for Bonney's paper "On the Crystalline Schists and their Relation to the Mesozoic Rocks in the Lepontine Alps." Bonney wrote Eccles's obituary in the Alpine Journal
Alpine Journal
The Alpine Journal is the yearly publication of the Alpine Club of London. It is the oldest mountaineering journal in the world.-History:The journal was first published on 2 March 1863 by the publishing house of Longmans in London, with Hereford Brooke George as its first editor...
.
As well as writing papers himself, Eccles was also a collector of rare rocks and minerals from places inaccessible to many geologists. For instance, specimens of glaucophane-epidote schist
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
, containing garnet
Garnet
The garnet group includes a group of minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. The name "garnet" may come from either the Middle English word gernet meaning 'dark red', or the Latin granatus , possibly a reference to the Punica granatum , a plant with red seeds...
, sphene and diallage collected by Eccles from several feet below the summit of Monte Viso
Monte Viso
Monte Viso or Monviso , is a mountain in the Cottian Alps in Italy close to the French border. Monte Viso is well known for its pyramid-like shape, and because it is higher than all its neighbouring peaks by about 500 m it can be seen from some distance, from the Piedmontese plateau and the...
were described in an 1889 paper "On Fulgurites from Monte Viso" by Dr Frank Rutley FGS.
Some of Eccles’s collection of rocks, minerals and fossils was given to the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery. These include a number of fossils from Solenhofen in Germany. The museum also houses Eccles’s Devonian
Devonian
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic Era spanning from the end of the Silurian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya , to the beginning of the Carboniferous Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya...
orthocones from Wissenbach and several remains of vertebrates from the Kupperschiefer. Eccles donated specimens to the Museum of Practical Geology (now the Geological Museum
Geological Museum
The Geological Museum is one of the oldest single science museums in the world and now part of the Natural History Museum in London...
); one donation, in April 1873, contained two specimens of Productus humerosus/sublaevis from Caldron Low as well as a number of Carboniferous
Carboniferous
The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian Period, about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Permian Period, about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya . The name is derived from the Latin word for coal, carbo. Carboniferous means "coal-bearing"...
brachiopods (including one from the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
) and corals. Eccles gave descriptions of his Productus humerosus specimens (which he collected from 1860 to 1870) in the 1870 issue of Trans. Manchester Geol. Soc., vol. 9, part 3, pp. 1–2.
Works by Eccles
- "Specimens showing the identity of Productus Humerosus," Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, Vol. 4, p. 1
- "On some instances of the superficial curvature of inclined strata near Blackburn", Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, Vol. 7, p. 20
- "On the excursion to Holcolme Hill", ibid, p. 36
- "Denudation of rocks at Sabden", ibid, p. 61
- "Glacial striae on Kinder Scout grit at Mellor", ibid, p. 62
- "Starfishes from the Rhenish Devonian Strata", Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, Vol. 9, p. 51
- "Two dykes recently found in North Lancashire", ibid, Vol. 9, p. 26
- "Carboniferous limestone fossils from Twiston", Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society, Vol. 10, p. 70
- "Relations of the sedimentary and crystalline rocks in the chain of Mont Blanc and its immediate vicinity", ibid, p. 70
- "The Brouillard and Fresnay glaciers", Alpine Journal, 1878
- "The Rocky Mountain Region of Wyoming and Idaho", Alpine Journal, IX, p. 241 ff
- "On the Mode of Occurrence of some of the Volcanic Rocks of Montana, U.S.A.", Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 1881, Vol. 37, issue 1–4, pp. 399–402
- Appendix to "The microscopic characters of the vitreous rocks of Montana, U.S.A." by Frank Rutley FGS, ibid, pp. 391–98