Ascent of the Jungfrau in 1841. 315 
at this moment I felt my heart beat quicker than usual; but 
such was our confidence in our guide, that we hesitated not an 
instant in following him, although, in other circumstances, it 
would have appeared much more natural to go back. Our 
example decided the guide Jaun, who lost no time in rejoin- 
ing us. We then began to discuss the probable cause of the 
accident. The guides alleged that it was the layer of fresh 
snow sinking on the older layer, and Jacob mentioned more 
than one example of his having found the surface sink many 
feet under him ; and I myself recollected having experienced 
something similar the day before, when walking with a guide, 
on the snow plateau of Viesch. Proceeding a little further 
along the fissure, we thought that we could remark pretty ex- 
tensive hollows in the interior of the mass, for we felt our 
poles sink without any resistance, which never happened else- 
where, however soft the snow might be. From this we con- 
cluded, that these vacuities are the effect of the sinking of the 
lower beds, while the upper bed remains supported in the 
form of an arch, in consequence of the adhesion of its particles. 
When this upper layer is not very thick, it would naturally 
give way under a weight more or less considerable ; and it 
was this that happened in the accident I have just described. 
Our other companions joined us a few minutes after; they 
crossed the fissure and the place that sunk without difficulty, 
having no suspicion of the adventure that had occurred to us. 
It was two o’clock when we arrived at the Col de Rottthal, 
which is indicated in Plate V., figure 1, by an R. This col 
greatly resembles that of the Oberaar ; like the latter, it is 
bounded by two very high peaks, the Jungfrau on the north, and 
the extremity of Kranzberg on the south. I do not know whe- 
ther it has ever been crossed. Its breadth at this place is a few 
métres. The mists collected in the bottom of the Rottthal 
allowed us only a few transitory glimpses into this savage and 
disrupted valley, in which the people of the country fix the 
abode of those turbulent spirits, known under the name of 
Seigneurs du Rottthal.* 
* M. Hugi, in his work on the Alps, endeayours to connect these fables 
with electrical phenomena. 
