222 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



The guide Pession had been in a shiver of mortal 

 terror ever since the accident, and for the rest of 

 the day was worse than useless. '' You must par- 

 don him," said John the Baptist, ** for he has a wife 

 and children in Val Tournanche." 



At seven o'clock we reached the upper hut. 

 We put Gilbert on the hay ; after which he refused 

 to move, and soon went to sleep. John decided to 

 remain there over night, with Victor, Spangler, and 

 myself, and to send the others down to Zermatt. Af- 

 ter many adventures, which I need not here relate, 

 the others reached the bottom in safety. Mean- 

 while, we five arranged for lodgings in the upper 

 hut, some thirteen thousand feet above the sea, — 

 one of the highest ** houses" in Christendom. 



This hut is simply a pile of stones more like the 

 den of some beast than a cabin. It is built between 

 a pinnacle of rock and a precipice, its stone roof 

 rising in a slope from the edge of the latter to the 

 former. The height of the room within is perhaps 

 five feet on the highest or upper side. Its length 

 is some ten feet, and its width about six. On 

 the south end is a little door or hole for entrance, 

 and on the floor on the north end are three coarse 

 blankets and a few armfuls of hay. A little bench, 

 a small table, a tin-pail, and a basket of shavings 

 complete the equipment. 



John the Baptist sent us to bed at once, — one 

 on each side of Gilbert, to keep him warm. But 

 nobody kept us warm. Our clothes were wet, and 

 my off side was against a frosty rock, which carried 

 away heat faster than I could generate it. The 

 young man in one of Grimm's fairy-tales, who 



