ix.j ALPINE TRAVELS, 1841. 2C7 



haps even sixty persons who had all to be lodged in 

 clean dormitories of the establishment. At this hour we 

 generally took tea, in which the whole Grimsel party 

 above named often joined us. Many and pleasant were 

 the evenings we thus spent ! ' 



On the 27th the weather cleared, and they accord- 

 ingly started for the Ober-Aar Joch, a pass which at that 

 time had been only traversed twice before, with the inten- 

 tion of afterwards attempting the ascent of the Jungfrau. 

 A full account of these expeditions forms an appendix to 

 Forbes's work on 'Norway and its Glaciers/ published 

 in 1853. 



The following letter conveyed to his sister a sketch 

 of this, his first considerable ascent in the Alps : 



To Miss FORBES. 



<BRIEG, 29th August, 1841. 



1 You will probably be surprised when I tell you that 

 I have just returned from the summit of the Jungfrau, 

 where M. Agassiz and I and two Frenchmen, with 

 four guides, arrived yesterday afternoon at 4 o'clock. 

 You thought me wiser than to undertake any such ex- 

 pedition, and I own that but for Agassiz, who had 

 an intense anxiety to ascend the Virgin Alp, so often 

 assailed in vain, the idea would never have occurred to 

 me. Since it succeeded, I am, you may believe, very 

 to have made the attempt; not only for the tiling 

 f, but because it me a perfect idea of what 1 have 



long wi.-ln-d to know, the real amount and kind of ditlieulty 

 of the most formidable Alpine ascents, for I suppose that 

 there is no doubt that the ax-ent of Mont Blanc, though 

 longer, is by f;ir l.-.s formidable. \\Y commenced on the 

 iruM by a very interesting walk from the (Jrimsel, 

 by the vaat mass of ;Ja<-icrs which iill up the Oberland, 

 6 betwern it and the Yallais (as you 

 will ser by the map). \ lid. d the U pp.-r - l.ic i. -r .f 



Dg ii ( '..1 nearly l 1,000 fed high, de- 

 scended with much labour, but without much dan^T. th,- 

 Glacier de Viesch for about five hours, until we reached 



