Ascent of the Jungfrau in 1841. 319 
Jacob Leuthold, Michel Baunholzer, Johannes Alplanalp, and 
Johannes Jaun of Meyringen ; so that, as one of my friends 
has remarked in the Gazette Universelle d’ Augsbourg, Swit- 
zerland, England, France, and Germany, were each represent- 
ed in this ascent. 
From this point we could now view, for the first time, the 
Swiss plain: we were on the western side of the section of 
the cone, having at our feet the masses which separate the 
valley of Lauterbrunnen from that of Grindelwald. From 
this moment the scene appeared entirely changed ; the moun- 
tain masses, which seemed to us to repeat each other in pro- 
portion as we ascended, now enlarged to the whole height that 
we had surmounted. A little further on we reached a kind of 
small elbow, which is only about ten feet below the highest 
peak, and which can be easily distinguished from the plain 
with a good telescope, and even sometimes with the naked 
eye. Here we saw, not without some alarm, that the space 
which separated us from the real summit was an almost sharp 
ridge, in some places ten, in others eight, and in others six 
inches broad, by a length of about twenty feet, while the de- 
clivities on the right and left had an inclination of from sixty 
to seventy degrees.* ‘‘ There is no means of reaching that,” 
said Agassiz; and we were all nearly of the same opinion, 
Jacob, on the contrary, affirmed that it was not at all difficult, 
and that we would all go, Laying aside the articles he was 
carrying, he began to advance, passing his pole over the ridge 
so as to have the latter under his right arm, and walked along 
the west side, where he endeavoured to make solid steps for 
us by treading down the snow as much as possible with his 
feet: for from the place where we found the rock cropping 
out, the ice had given place to a rough snow, very hard, but 
at the same time very porous, so that, notwithstanding its 
being placed at 800 feet.) I can easily fancy to myself this redacteur of the 
Journal des Debats, who, appreciating heights by the measure of his know. 
ledge, imagines that a mountain three times the height of Montmartre must 
really be an enormous one. After that, what more natural than to deduct 
10,000 from the 12,872 feet of the Jungfrau ! 
* Fig. 2 of Plate V. represents this ridge, as seen from the small elbow 
where we halted. Fig. 3 is a ground plan, with the marks of our feet on one 
side, and those of the poles on the other. 
