Ascent of the Jungfrau in 1841. 317 
composure, that he never doubted it; and, at the ery of vor- 
warts, we again commenced our ascent with as much ardour 
as at first. Here, one of the guides left us: he could no 
longer bear the sight of the precipices on our right; and, in 
fact, the path we were following was well calculated to alarm 
every one who had not full confidence in his head and legs. 
The uppermost ridge is nearly in the form of the section of a 
cone with vertical walls, overlooking on the east the fields of 
snow which we had crossed, and on the west the glacier of 
Rottthal. The inclination is, however, a little greater on the 
west side than on the east; for the fragments of ice, loosened’ 
by each stroke of the hatchet, all rolled into the last-men- 
tioned valley. As we had no time to lose, we ascended in a 
straight line, without making any zigzag. This was, besides, 
the most rational and certain method; for, according to the 
laws of mechanics, a person has much greater strength resting 
on the points of his feet, and turning his head against the 
acclivity, than in mounting obliquely ; so that if, by mischance, 
one of us had slipped down, it would not have been impos- 
sible for the others to draw him up, while otherwise that 
would have been more difficult. Besides this, Jacob made 
us walk on the edge of the ridge, because the ice in that place 
was in general somewhat less hard, and this greatly accelerated 
our ascent. It followed from this arrangement that we had 
constantly the precipice under our eyes, being separated from 
it only by a slanting roof of snow, the breadth of which varied 
from one to three feet. Often when my pole went farther than 
usual, I felt it penetrating through this snow-roof, which in 
some places was not more than two feet in thickness, and we 
were thus enabled, every time the fog dispersed for a moment, 
to look down through the hole made by the pole into the bot- 
tom of the great circus at our feet. Far from dissuading us 
from this, our guides encouraged all to do it who were free 
from giddiness, and I believe, in reality, it was an excellent 
means of giving us confidence. The mists, however, still con- 
tinued to envelope the summit ; the view was not open except 
eastward to the Eiger, the Ménch, and the peaks which in- 
close the glaciers of the Oberaar and Unteraar. Already 
we despaired of enjoying the speétacle which our imagination 
VOL. XXXII. NO, LxIv. APriL 1842. Y 
