OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 477 



greatly dissatisfied with the behaviour of the bersaglier 

 last year, and this feeling the Chanoine shared. He 

 wrote to me during the winter, stating that two new 

 men had scaled the Matterhorn, and that they were 

 ready to accompany me anywhere. He now drove, with 

 Hirst and myself, to Chatillon, where at the noisy and 

 comfortless inn we spent the night. Here Hirst quitted 

 me, and I turned with the Chanoine up the valley to 

 Breuil. 



At Val Tournanche I saw a maiden niece of the 

 Chanoine who had gone high up the Matterhorn, and 

 who, had the wind not assailed her petticoats too 

 roughly, might, it was said, have reached the top. I 

 can believe it. Her wrist as I shook her hand seemed 

 like a weaver's beam, and her frame a mass of potential 

 energy. The guides recommended to me by the Cha- 

 noine were the brothers Joseph and Pierre Maquignaz 

 of Val Tournanche, his praise of Joseph as a man of 

 unshaken courage and proved capacity as a climber be- 

 ing particularly strong. Previous to reaching Breuil 

 I saw this Joseph, who seemed to divine by instinct my 

 name and aim. 



Carrel was there, looking very gloomy, while Bich 

 petitioned for a porter's post; but I left the arrange- 

 ment of these matters wholly in the hands of Ma- 

 quignaz. He joined me in the evening, and on the 

 following day we ascended one of the neighbouring 

 summits, discussing as we went our chances on the 

 Matterhorn. In 1867 the chief precipitation took 

 place in a low atmospheric layer, the base of the 

 mountain being heavily laden with snow, while the 

 summit and the higher rocks were bare. In 1868 the 

 distribution was inverted, the top being heavily laden 

 and the lower rocks clear. An additional element of 

 uncertainty was thus introduced. Maquignaz could 



