Ascent of the Jungfrau in 1841. dll 
has in the plain; thus, he who was not aware that it was the 
Jungfrau and Ménch that were under his eye, would have no 
doubt that the back part of the great circus corresponds to 
this same apparently rectilinear ridge, which, seen from the 
plain, seems to unite these two great peaks. To the west of 
the Repose, on our left, a vast hollow ran downwards between 
the Jungfrau and Kranzberg, and in this we distinguished a 
series of terraces rising one ahove another: it was by this we 
were to ascend. 
We left at the Repose the greater part of our provisions, 
carrying with us only a little bread and wine, some meteorolo- 
gical instruments,* and articles of different kinds, among others 
a ladder, a hatchet to cut steps, and a cord to tie us together. 
It was ten o’clock when we set foot upon the first plateau of 
snow ; an hour after mid-day we hoped to be on the summit, 
if no accident occurred; some of us even thought that we 
would reach it in two hours. Contrary to our expectations, 
we at first found the snow not in a very favourable state ; it 
was neither sufficiently compact, nor covered with a crust 
thick enough to bear us, so that we sunk very deep, in many 
places up to the knee. We soon came to the fissures, which 
are everywhere frequent where the declivities begin to become 
steep. These are crevices produced by sinking (crevasses de 
tassement), like those of the névé of Viesch. We saw some 
of them here nearly 100 feet wide, but they were not very 
continuous, so that we were able to go round them, or else 
they were masked, and in that case our guides had to use the 
greatest caution to guard us from danger. On this account we 
advanced much less quickly than we wished, and, in spite of all 
precautions, many of us sunk down, but without sustaining any 
injury. In this way we scaled many terraces, and, always 
directing our course westward, we arrived at a vast expanse, 
* The reader will, no doubt, be surprised to learn that the most essential 
instrument, the barometer, was not among them. Unfortunately we had 
broken three during our abode on the glacier of the Aar, and the fourth had 
admitted air; there was no means of getting them repaired at the time; so 
that we had no alternative but to set out without a barometer. 
