214 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



placed?") If John was *' well placed" he would 

 shout, " En avance ! " Q' Come on ! ") I would 

 then call out, "Tirez!" (''Pull!") He would 

 then draw up on the rope, which action made it 

 much easier for me to scramble up than it would 

 have been without this assistance. Then it became 

 my turn to help up the next man ; but he usually 

 crawled up unaided, — having an aversion to being 

 helped, which I did not share, but for which I was 

 duly thankful. 



After working along in this way for about three 

 hours, John the Baptist told me to look up and I 

 would see the upper hut and the ropes which came 

 down from it. High above us we could see a little 

 stone shanty under the shelter of a huge pinnacle of 

 rock on the edge of a sharp precipice some fifty 

 feet high. Down this precipice hung a rope, fast 

 to an iron staple above, swinging loosely below. 

 We had read in the guide-books that " ropes have 

 been placed in the more difficult places on the 

 Matterhorn." We had imagined something such as 

 we had seen in other mountains, — a rope railing 

 alongside of a steep and narrow path. We were 

 hardly expecting to go up hand over hand on a 

 rope swinging loosely over infinity. 



John the Baptist started up on the rope, resting 

 his toes on the projecting points of the rocks, where 

 opportunity offered, until he reached a little shelf, 

 an inch or two wide, where he could stand on one 

 foot. It was growing very cold; the rope was 

 white with frost. I put on my gloves and climbed 

 up for a little distance ; but when I came to rest 

 my full weight of two hundred and ten pounds on 



