ASCENT OF THE JUNGFRAU. 327 



der, or the more dangerous ones, masked by 

 snow, over which they trod cautiously, tied 

 together by the rope. But there was nothing 

 to appall the experienced mountaineer with 

 firm foot and a steady head, until they reached 

 a height where the summit of the Jungfrau 

 detached itself in apparently inaccessible iso- 

 lation from all beneath or around it. To all 

 but the guides their farther advance seemed 

 blocked by a chaos of precipices, either of 

 snow and ice or of rock. Leuthold remained 

 however quietly confident, telling them he 

 clearly saw the course he meant to follow. 

 It began by an open gulf of unknown depth, 

 though not too wide to be spanned by their 

 ladder twenty-three feet in length. On the 

 other side of this crevasse, and immediately 

 above it, rose an abrupt wall of icy snow. 

 Up this wall Leuthold and another guide led 

 the way, cutting steps as they went. When 

 half way up they lowered the rope, holding 

 one end, while their companions fastened the 

 other to the ladder, so that it served them as 

 a kind of hand-rail, by which to follow. At 

 the top they found themselves on a terrace, 

 beyond which a far more moderate slope led to 

 the Col of Roththal, overlooking the Aletsch 

 valley on one side, the Roththal on the other. 



