302 Travels of a Naturalist in the Alps. 
ing given orders to proceed, one of his companions who was in ad- 
vance, in climbing along the steep ridge slid off towards the west. 
As he fell, Hue1 caught the end of the long pole with which he was 
furnished and which projected over the eastern side of the ridge. 
At that moment, the snow on which Hvar stood gave way, and in 
consequence, he hung dangling over a precipice four thousand feet 
in depth, while his companion was in like manner suspended on the 
opposite side of the ridge. In this position they remained until their 
companions were able by means of cords to secure them from the 
death which momentarily threatened them. The undertaking was 
now abandoned, and the whole party hastened down the mountain 
having suffered severely from the cold. 
The undertaking was renewed the following year, on the third of 
August ; the attempt however was abandoned in consequence of a 
violent snow storm, but was resumed on the ninth, on the evening of 
which day the party encamped behind the Finsteraarhorn. It was 
a clear moonlight night and the atmosphere was perfectly motionless. 
- So bright was the light as to enable Hvar to note down his observa- 
tions as easily as in the clearest days, and he could perceptibly dis- 
tinguish single dwellings, the least remarkable objects upon the remote 
side of the Valais on the Pennine Alps. The whole chain with its 
thousand peaks even to Mount Blanc was distinctly visible. In short, 
every object appeared far more distinct in the distance by moonlight, 
than it had done in an equally clear atmosphere a few hours before 
sunset, when it was impossible to discern these remote objects. Ev- 
ery thing distant was lost in a sort of magic haze during the prevalence 
of day light. The blue of the sky, as described by other Alpine trav- 
ellers passed, as the observer ascended, by a singular gradation from 
azure through dark green to a dusky black. On the following day the 
party reached the summit of the Finsteraarhorn, and erected a flag of 
iron wire covered with oil cloth upon its highest peak, which in fine 
weather is visible even from Soleure. The party suffered severely 
from the cold. The two who erected the pyramid on the summit 
for the support of the flag staff were observed to be of a death-like 
paleness when they descended to join their companions. The ther- 
mometer stood at — 2° 4’ Reaum, and the barometer at 16, 11, 70. 
Water boiled at 70° 10’, and alcohol at 53° 2’ Reaum. The mean 
of the author’s observations gave the elevation of the peak, 13,033 
feet above the level of the sea. 
