i88i;] Ascent of the Matterhorn 



by the great pyramidal mass, the ghstening snows 

 of the Dent Blanche and the Breithorn flanking it 

 on either side. At sunrise we reached the cabin, a 

 fairly comfortable shed at the foot of the peak it- 

 self. Within, the walls bear inscriptions in many 

 tongues. One reads as follows: 



Litde Matt Horner 



Sat in the corner, 

 And vowed he would not be climbed; 



We tried it, you know, 



But found so much snow 

 We very politely declined. 



After a brief rest we now set out on a long and T:he Berg- 

 most trying climb, the many details of which I ^'^'-"'""'^ 

 need not here repeat. But far below us, even from 

 the very start, yawned the deep abyss of the "Berg- 

 schrund," a chasm produced by the slipping away 

 of the Furggen Glacier from the mountain. Tied 

 together in three groups, about ten feet apart, we 

 moved only one at a time in each group and not 

 at all until the preceding man had secured a good 

 foothold, the constant question of the guides being 

 ^^ Etes vous bien place?'' — "Are you well fixed.?" 

 For not to be so even for a moment was a menace 

 to one's associates. 



The steepest pitch of the whole ascent is just 

 below the tiny refuge hut near the shoulder, which 

 I describe later on. Down the face of that seventy- Dangling 

 foot precipice dangled a rope made fast to an iron ^"^" 

 staple above, but swinging loosely below so that 

 one could climb hand over hand by resting his toes 

 on projecting irregularities of the mountain side. 

 That ropes were placed in difficult stretches along 

 the way we already knew; still we had hardly ex- 



C 261 : 



