326 LIFE IN THE ALPS. 



also protects the ice, causing it to rise as a spine which 

 attains in some places a height of fifty feet above the 

 surface of the glacier. 



It is easy to understand that with a substance like 

 glacier ice, when some parts of it are held back by 

 friction, while other parts tend to move forward, strains 

 must occur which will crack and tear the ice, forming 

 clefts or fissures, to relieve the strains. The crevasses 

 of glaciers are thus produced. 



And here we have another conspicuous danger of 

 the Alps. Crevasses have been the graves of many a 

 gallant mountaineer. They are especially dangerous 

 when concealed by roofs of snow, which is frequently 

 the case in the higher portions of the glacier. Of this 

 danger my own experience furnishes examples not to 

 be forgotten. Passing them by, I may mention that, 

 during the present year, an esteemed English clergy- 

 man was lost upon an easy glacier of the Engadine, 

 through the yielding of a snow bridge over which he 

 was passing. The crevasse into which he fell could not 

 have been deep, as he was able to converse with a com- 

 panion above, and to make the tapping of his ice-axe 

 heard. He did not, as far as I know, complain of 

 being hurt, but desired his companion to hasten to 

 procure a rope. The distance to be passed over, how- 

 ever, before the rope and the necessary help could be 

 obtained, was considerable ; and when rope and help 

 arrived, the clergyman was dead. 



A discussion followed in the newspapers as to the 

 amount of blame to be assigned to the gentleman who 

 went for the rope. It was said by one writer that he 

 ought to have tied his clothes together, and, by their 

 aid, to have drawn up his friend. The reader of Mr. 

 Laurence Oliphant's last remarkable volume will re- 



