1 86 1 AMONG THE SWISS GLACIERS AGAIN 267 



sack at four in the afternoon, and marched alone up 

 the long, rough valley of the Hasli Thai to the 

 Grimsel, which I reached well tired at half-past ten. 



* I met Tyndall there and some other friends, spent 

 a day on the Rhone glacier, and ascended the Seidel- 

 horn alone. Next day, Tyndall not being very well, 

 I walked to Obergestalen, and the day following 

 crossed with a guide over a famous pass called the 

 Ober Aar Joch to the ^Eggischorn. It took thirteen 

 hours, ten of which were spent on the ice. The pass 

 is about 11,500 feet high. 



1 In the meanwhile Louisa and the party came round 

 by the Gemmi Pass, great part of which can be done on 

 horseback, and the second day after my arrival joined 

 me at the ^Eggischorn. We took them up a moun- 

 tain over 10,000 feet high, and on the Great Aletsch 

 glacier, which is the longest in Europe. Thence 

 we went to Visp, in the Rhone Valley, and next morn- 

 ing at six they rode and I walked up the valley to 

 Zermatt, which we reached about six o'clock at night. 



' We stayed at Zermatt six days, on one of which 

 I, with some others, ascended the Lyskamm, 14,891 

 feet high. There were eight of us, with five guides 

 and two porters to carry provisions. Having slept 

 at the Riffelberg, which saves a climb of some 2000 

 or 3000 feet, we started at twenty minutes to two in 

 the morning and crossed the Great Gorner glacier by 

 the light of a full moon. At dawn we were at the 

 foot of Monte Rosa on the snow, and by 11.40 we 

 reached the top of the Lyskamm. We went in two 

 parties, all roped together. The final ascent was 

 excessively steep, all on snow and ice. Sometimes 

 we had one leg in Italy and the other in Switzerland. 

 That part took nearly three hours. The descent 



