314 Ascent of the Jungfrau in 1841. 
difficulties. The guides themselves, perhaps, exaggerated a 
little the dangers of this first passage, for they were lavish in 
their directions to us, and so liberal in their assistance, that we 
would have found it superfluous, if not injurious, some hours 
later. 
There now remained only one eminence for us to surmount, 
in order to reach the Col du Rottthal, which leads from the 
valley of Rott to the névé of Aletsch. The soft snow had 
again replaced the hard snow of the steep ascent, so that we 
walked with the greatest ease. But when we arrived at the 
centre of the last terrace, which we went along in a sloping 
direction, we encountered another fissure, which seemed as if 
it would stop our progress ; it penetrated, like the great fissure, 
obliquely into the mass of the snow, so that one of its walls 
was thinner than the other and ran beneath it, a circumstance 
which rendered the passage more difficult. As Agassiz, Jacob, 
Jaun, and I, had gone a little in advance, while our companions 
were still engaged in climbing the first ascent, I proposed 
that we should wait for them, that we might at least get the 
rope. Jacob thought we could pass it well enough without 
this precaution. In fact he found a place where the fissure 
‘was sufficiently narrow to allow him to stride over it; after 
having done so, he stretched out his hand and assisted us to do 
the same. While three of us were standing on the edge of the 
northern lip of the fissure, we witnessed a very extraordinary 
occurrence. We suddenly heard a dull crackling noise beneath 
us; at the same time the mass of snow on which we stood 
sunk about a foot. The guide, Jaun, was at this moment on 
the other side ; and upon hearing the noise, he saw simulta- 
neously the space which supported us sink down. He was so 
alarmed, that he cried out to us,—‘‘ Um Gottes Willen, schnell 
zuriick’’ (In God’s name, return quickly!) Jacob, on the con- 
trary, far from allowing himself to be disconcerted, told him 
instantly to hold his tongue; and making a sign to us to follow 
him, he continued the ascent at a quickened pace, repeating in 
his Haslian dialect,—* Es ist niit; Ganget numme vorwarts,!? 
(This is nothing; always go forward.) Although we had great 
experience in glaciers, and were in some degree familiarized 
with all the dangers they present, I must however confess, that 
