462 OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 



due to contrast with a series of most dismal days, that 

 made me think the Petersgrat so noble a standpoint for 

 a view of the mountains. The horizontal extent was 

 vast, and the grouping magnificent. The undoubted 

 monarch of this unparagoned scene was the Weisshorn. 

 At Flatten we found shelter in the house of the cure. 

 Next day we crossed the Lotschsattel, and swept round 

 by the Aletsch glacier to the ^Eggischhorn. 



Here I had the pleasure of meeting a very ardent 

 climber, who entertains peculiar notions regarding 

 guides. He deems them, with good reason, very expen- 

 sive, and he also feels pleasure in trying his own powers. 

 I would admonish him that he may go too far in this di- 

 rection, and probably his own experience has by this 

 time forestalled the admonition. Still, there is much in 

 his feeling which challenges .sympathy ; for if skill, cour- 

 age, and strength are things to be cultivated in the Alps, 

 they are, within certain limits, best exercised and devel- 

 oped in the absence of guides. And if the real climbers 

 are ever to be differentiated from the crowd, it is only 

 to be done by dispensing with professional assistance. 

 But no man without natural aptitude and due training 

 would be justified in undertaking anything of this kind, 

 and it is an error to suppose that the necessary know- 

 ledge can be obtained in one or two summers in the 

 Alps. Climbing is an art, and those who wish to culti- 

 vate it on their own account ought to give themselves 

 sufficient previous practice in the company of first-rate 

 guides. This would not shut out expeditions of minor 

 danger now and then without guides. But whatever be 

 the amount of preparation, real climbers must still re- 

 main select men. Here, as in every other sphere of 

 human action whether intellectual or physical, as indeed 

 among the guides themselves, real eminence falls only 

 to the lot of few. 



