DELAY AT THE START. 325 



ing the whole vault and receiving from its icy 

 walls its exquisite reflected color. 1 



Once across the fields of snow and neVe*, a 

 fatiguing walk of five hours brought them to 

 the chalets of Meril, 2 where they expected to 

 sleep. The night which should have prepared 

 them for the fatigue of the next day was, 

 however, disturbed by an untoward accident. 

 The ladder left by Jacob Leuthold when last 

 here with Hugi in 1832, nine years before, 

 and upon which he depended, had been taken 

 away by a peasant of Viesch. Two messen- 

 gers were sent in the course of the night to 

 the village to demand its restoration. The 

 first returned unsuccessful ; the second was 

 the bearer of such threats of summary pun- 

 ishment from the whole party that he carried 

 his point, and appeared at last with the re- 

 covered treasure on his back. They had, in 

 the mean while, lost two hours. They should 

 have been on their road at three o'clock ; it 

 was now five. Jacob warned them therefore 

 that they must make all speed, and that any 

 one who felt himself unequal to a forced 



1 The effect is admirably described by M. Desor in his 

 account of this excursion, Sejours dans les Glaciers, p. 367. 



2 Sometimes Moril, but 1 have retained the spelling of M. 

 Desor. E. C. A. 



