484 OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 



to push forward. We skirted the Cravatte, and reached 

 the ridge at its western extremity. This we ascended 

 along the old route of Bennen and myself to the conical 

 peak already referred to which, as seen from Breuil, 

 constitutes a kind of second summit of the Matterhorn. 

 From this point to the base of the final crag of the 

 mountain stretches an arete, terribly hacked by the 

 weather, but on the whole horizontal.* When I first 

 made the acquaintance of this savage ridge it was 

 almost clear of snow. It was now loaded, the snow 

 being bevelled to a sharp edge. The slope to the left 

 falling towards Zmutt was exceedingly steep, while the 

 precipices on the right were abysmal. No part of the 

 Matterhorn do I remember with greater interest than 

 this. It was terrible, but its difficulties were fairly 

 within the grasp of human skill, and this association is 

 more elevating than where the circumstances are such 

 as to make you conscious of your own helplessness. On 

 one of the sharpest teeth of the Spalla Joseph Ma- 

 quignaz halted, and turning to me with a smile, re- 

 marked, " There is no room for giddiness here, sir." In 

 fact, such possibilities, in such places, must be alto- 

 gether excluded from the chapter of accidents of the 

 climber. 



It was at the end of this ridge, where it abuts 

 against the last precipice of the Matterhorn, that my 

 second flagstaff was left in 1862. I think there must 

 have been something in the light falling upon this pre- 

 cipice that gave it an aspect of greater vertically when 

 I first saw it than it seemed to possess on the present 

 occasion. Or, as remarked in my brief account of our 

 attempt in the " Saturday Review," we may have been 

 dazed by our previous exertion. I cannot otherwise 

 account for our stopping short without making some 

 * By Italian writers this ridge is called the " Spalla " (shoulder). 



