One evening, when, being assembled together round our hut, we were amusing ourselves by observing the effects of light on the Finsteraarhorn, we saw a numerous caravan issuing from the angle of the Abschwung. Immediately our glasses were pointed in that direction, to try if we could recognise among the travellers any one of our acquaintance. One of the party was in a chaise à porteurs. We all expressed our surprise at this singular mode of travelling; but what was our astonishment at discovering that this traveller was a lady. Our irony was at once converted into admiration. Was it possible that a lady had crossed the Strahleck? She was certainly the first that had attempted so difficult a route. It turned out to be an English lady, Mrs. C., of Edinburgh, accompanied by her husband and nine guides. We proceeded to meet them. The lady was very young, and seemed very timid; and Mr. C. informed us, that she had, nevertheless, performed the greater part of the journey on foot, but that her shoes had been torn, and it became necessary for her to be carried, which gave her great annoyance. I invited her to take a little repose, after which the caravan continued its route towards the hospice of the Grimsel, where it arrived at nine o'clock."

To the glacier of the Aar, M. Agassiz, after having visited in succession most of the glaciers, went for eight years consecutively with his friends, to pass there his summer vacations. At first "the hotel" was his residence, but afterwards he built a little stone cabin on the left margin of the glacier; this received the name of the "Pavilion," and here he continued his long series of researches that have deservedly obtained so much celebrity in the scientific world.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE ASCENT OF THE WETTERHORN.

"THE Peak of Tempests," the Wetterhorn, to which frequent allusion has been made, was one of those towering and snow-clad heights, to the summit of which the eagle or the lammergeyer might wing its flight, but which was long supposed to forbid approach by the foot of man. But so it was with other lofty elevations which we have seen him traversing, despite the degree of courage they tasked, or the physical suffering they inevitably cost. An adequate motive has been found in the mere gratification of curiosity, or in the ability to say "I have stood on that eminence;" while one has not been wanting which elicits our high admiration, in the desire of investigating the wonders of nature, of describing to the world what was previously unknown, and of explaining phenomena hitherto regarded as inscrutable.

It was not, therefore, to be supposed that no one would be found to contemplate the ascent of the Wetterhorn, so prominent as it is to the eye of the traveller in the Bernese Oberland, and so inviting as the sight of it must often have proved to men of inquiring and adventurous minds. But the first to attempt it was a young Englishman named Speer, the incidents of whose ascent we shall now proceed briefly to detail.

Among the guides he engaged were J. Jaunaud, Caspar Alphanalph, who had already discovered no mean fortitude, sagacity, and vigour, since they had both stood on the summit of the Jungfrau. The morning broke without a cloud, and there were to be seen all the appliances of equipment-two days' provision-and the flag which they hoped would wave in triumph on the peak of the Wetterhorn. Leaving the Grimsel, where the previous night was passed, their course lay among fallen rocks, up a desolate valley, bounded on the left by the Leidelhorn, and on the right by the Juchliberg and the Broniberg.

This valley, situated about 7,000 feet above the waters of the Mediterranean, appeared gradually to enlarge, and the party perceived that its further extremity was closed from side to side by a wall of dingy-looking ice, rising vertically between two and three hundred feet in height. This was the termination of the glacier of the Aar. Having attained the summit of this wall, by scaling the rocks on its border, they perceived the vast glacier of the Aar itself spread out before them for many miles, and surrounded by gigantic peaks. These stupendous elevations were the Finsteraarhorn, the Shreckhorn, the Oberaarhorn, the Viescherhorn, and the Lauteraarhorn; the former rising to the height of 14,000 feet; the remainder varying from 11,000 to 13,000 feet above the level of the sea.

Following the course of the terminal moraine, they reached the pure, unsullied surface of the glacier itself. It was thickly spread with crevasses, all running parallel with each other, and the majority of them filled with snow; so that peculiar caution was necessary in sounding them with the poles, before trust was reposed on so frail and deceptive a support. Proceeding onwards, in this way, for three hours, they arrived

before the little hut of M. Agassiz and his companions. The sun was now gradually declining the innumerable ice-bound peaks and glaciers were lit up with his last rays, and the whole chain presented the appearance of burnished gold. But the gorgeous spectacle was not of long continuance; and when it suddenly ceased, every object wore a ghastly black tinge, as the shades of night were drawn over them to their entire concealment, and the white line of the nearer peaks was alone discernible.

The weary frames of Mr. Speer and his guides now sought repose, and they took every precaution to guard against the severity of the cold. In this respect they partially succeeded; but sleep was not to be easily wooed. As midnight approached, several avalanches fell on the opposite side of the glacier, and their roar was that of the loudest thunder. All sensations of drowsiness were now banished; and speedily, therefore, they were again on foot, with the prospect before them of climbing over snow and glacier for seventeen hours-a task which required no mean courage to encounter-no mean energy to effectuate.

The first object to be accomplished was the descent to the surface of the glacier, into the recesses of which, owing to its disrupted condition, they found it necessary to penetrate-finding themselves at the bottom of a well, round the sides of which walls of ice arose almost vertically. To gain an exit from their cold and dismal prison, it was absolutely necessary to climb these walls. How, it is asked, could this be done? And to multitudes no means of doing so would be likely to occur, except from their knowledge of similar exploits. Juan, however, the chief guide, commences cutting out steps in the ice, and speedily all emerge from their retreat, and stand safely on the glacier of the Lauteraar, at the point of junction with the Finsteraar. The former descends from the Shreckhorn and Col de Lauteraar; the latter from the Finsteraarhorn and its attendant peaks.

Their course was now directed across the glacier towards the Abschwung, the ascent of which by M. Agassiz and his friends have been already described. Along the base of the glacier they cautiously proceeded, the ice at this early period-for it was more than a month earlier than any of the ascents of a similar character-being very dangerous and slippery. The doubtful crevasses were sounded, and the yawning ones avoided as far as possible. These, on attaining a height of 9,000 feet, ceased in a great degree, and the surface of the glacier appeared covered, for miles in extent, with a thick coat of unsullied and unbroken snow; whilst in front of them, yet fully three hours' march, distinctly rose the Col de Lauteraar, 10,000 feet high, and hitherto considered impracticable. Its brilliant white crest, cut out in the strongest relief against the deep blue sky, excited indeed the belief that it was close at hand; but soon was manifest the inability there is to calculate distances, in regions where any such attempt is baffled by the vast size of the surrounding objects, combined with the peculiar light reflected from the snow and glaciers.

Hours were now passed surmounting long slopes of snow, sinking at every step halfway to the knee, without any decrease of distance appearing. At length they reached the first range of those great crevasses usually found at the foot of the steepest ascents, and among these it was necessary to proceed with the greatest caution. The whole party were lashed together, and they threaded their way through this labyrinth of blue and ghastly abysses to the very foot of the redoubted Col de Lauteraar. This now arose, as if perpendicularly, far above their heads for many hundred feet, whilst on its ridge they perceived a mass of overhanging snow exciting great uneasiness from its threatening aspect; in fact a more formidable or apparently inaccessible barrier could scarcely be witnessed.

There was, however, no alternative: it was necessary to surmount the elevation, and the question now arose, "How can it be done?" Nor was it easy to answer the inquiry,

when at their foot lay a large crevasse, on the opposite side of which the wall of snow rose immediately, not leaving the smallest space on which to plant a foot. Yet the head guide, as if not to be daunted by stupendous difficulty, attempted at once to surmount it. He succeeded, by means of his long alpenstock, in excavating a hole in the snow, into which the rest might jump without much danger of falling into the yawning gulf below. Then first crossing it, he extended his baton to assist the next comer, and this being seized by Mr. Speer, he took a leap, but the snow gave way, and he remained suspended over the abyss, grasping with all his might the extended pole.

Instantly rescued from his perilous position, the rest of the guides crossed in safety, and all found themselves clinging to the wall of snow which constitutes the southern aspect of the Col. And now the ascent commenced in earnest; the first guide having been relieved by the second in command, with hatchet in hand, who assiduously dashed holes in the snow in which to place the hands and feet; the steepness of the Col being such that the necessary inclination of the body forwards, which all ascents require, brought the chest and face in close contact with the snow, the excessive brilliancy of which, notwithstanding the blue glasses and veils of the party, proved singularly annoying. In this critical position, their progress upwards was of necessity very slow, the advance of the foot from one step to the succeeding one being a matter of careful consideration, as a slip, the least inclination backwards, or even giddiness, must inevitably have proved fatal to one or other of the party. Thanks, however, to the efforts of the hardy mountaineers," says Mr. Speer, "the summit of the Col was at length attained, five hours after our departure from the night encampment. For some time previous our sphere of vision had necessarily been limited by the interposition of the Col de Lauteraar; its crest, however, being attained, we beheld a great portion of Switzerland stretched out like a map far below, whilst on either side rose the summits of those gigantic barriers which bound the valley of Grindelwald. On the left the great and little Shreckhorn and the Mettenberg, and on the right the object of our ambition, the three peaks of the Wetterhorner, the Wetterhorn, the Mittalhorn, and Rosenhorn; below us lay the fields of snow which descend from these summits, and crown the superior glacier of Grindelwald.

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"It was now deemed necessary to descend a portion of the opposite side of the Col we had just surmounted, previous to arriving at the foot of the great peak, which appeared to rise in close proximity to the height of 2,150 feet above the plateau of snow on which we stood, and which in itself attained an elevation of 10,000 feet. We now began our descent, which, although not so steep as our previous ascent, was perhaps more terrifying, the precipices of ice and snow, together with the wide crevasses thickly spread at their feet, being constantly before the eyes. Great stress being laid on the ropes and hatchets, this descent was in turn safely accomplished, and we again began to ascend slope after slope of snow (at times threading our way with much difficulty among the gaping crevasses, all of which presented the appearance of the deepest azure), our course being directed towards the base of the superb central peak known as the Mittalhorn, which now towered above our heads; apparently a huge pyramid of the purest ice and snow. To me it appeared so impossible to scale it, that I ventured to inquire of the guides whether they expected to attain the summit; to this they replied, that they assuredly did so. I therefore held my peace, thinking myself in right good company; and the south-western aspect of the peak being deemed, to all appearance, the most practicable, we began the arduous task of scaling this virgin mountain. The ascent in itself strongly resembled that of the Col de Lauteraar described above: its duration, however, being longer, and the coating of ice and snow being likewise more dense, the steps hewn out with the hatchet required to be enlarged with the feet preparatory to changing our position. In this singular manner we slowly ascended, digging the left hand into the