RETURN TO THE AAR GLACIER. 305 



for this simpler process. " Once below these 

 slopes of snow," says the journal of young 

 de Pourtales again, " rocks almost vertical, or 

 narrow ledges covered with grass, served us 

 as a road and brought us to the glacier of the 

 Grindelwald. To reach the glacier itself we 

 traversed a crevasse of great depth, and some 

 twenty feet wide, on a bridge of ice, one or 

 two feet in width, and broken toward the end, 

 where we were obliged to spring across. Once 

 on the glacier the rest was nothing. The race 

 was to the fastest, and we were soon on the 

 path of the tourists." Reaching the village of 

 Grindelwald at three o'clock in the afternoon, 

 they found it difficult to persuade the people 

 at the inn that they had left the glacier of 

 the Aar that morning. From Grindelwald 

 they returned by the Scheideck to the Grim- 

 sel, visiting on their way the upper glacier of 

 Grindelwald, the glacier of Schwartzwald, and 

 that of Rosenlaui, in order to see how far these 

 had advanced since their last visit to them. 

 After a short rest at the Hospice of the Grim- 

 sel, Agassiz returned with two or three of his 

 companions to their hut on the Aar glacier 

 for the purpose of driving stakes into the 

 holes previously bored in the ice. He hoped 

 by means of these stakes to learn the f ollow- 



20 



