LIFE IN THE ALPS. 327 



member that Mr. Oliphant was once lifted from a 

 dangerous position by a device of this kind. 



I never lifted a man out of a crevasse by a rope of 

 clothes, but the lost guide to whom I have already re- 

 ferred, and myself, were once let down by such a rope 

 into a chasm, from which, by means of a real rope, 

 which had been entombed with himself, we rescued a 

 fellow-traveller. Even with the best of ropes, it would 

 require a very strong single man above, and an ex- 

 tremely expert ice-man below, to effect a rescue from a 

 crevasse of any depth. In most cases it would be impos- 

 sible. So that I think but little blame was incurred 

 by the omission of the clothes-rope experiment. 



If a doubt be at all permitted, it must, I think, be on 

 the ground that, having found rescuers, the gentleman 

 failed to accompany them back to the glacier. He 

 pleaded exhaustion, and it is a valid plea. With wider 

 knowledge, however, he might, perhaps, have had him- 

 self carried to the glacier rather than remain behind. 

 To a person dying of cold time is everything; and 

 time may have been lost by the guides in finding the 

 particular crevasse in which the unhappy traveller was 

 entombed. The survivor, however, may have been able 

 to describe with accuracy the position of the fissure. If 

 so, he was in my opinion blameless. 



Taking its whole tenor into account, the title of 

 this article, instead of being " Life in the Alps," might 

 perhaps, with more appropriateness, have been " Life 

 and Death in the Alps." 



SUPPLEMENT, 1890. 



There remain two little points the first of which I 

 have not seen noticed elsewhere which I should like, be- 

 fore we part, to mention to my "young companion." On 



