268 THE LIFE OF JAMES U. FORBES. [CHAP. 



some chalets on the neighbouring glacier of Aletsch, 

 where we slept after a very fatiguing walk of twelve 

 hours over glaciers in every form. Yesterday morning 

 we started at six, being prevented accidentally from going 

 sooner, for the Jungfrau, preceded by the rather ambi- 

 guous emblems of axe, rope, and ladder. We had four 

 and a half hours' rapid and not difficult walking over 

 the glacier of Aletsch before we began to mount consi- 

 derably, and then we had much snow to cross and con- 

 cealed crevasses to avoid, going cautiously over them 

 tied together by the rope. When quite at the foot of 

 the steep part, we had on one hand nothing but precipices 

 of snow and ice before us, and on the other of rock. The 

 former alone appeared assailable. We crossed a great 

 crevasse, opening nearly vertically, by means of the 

 ladder, and then had to make our way up a wall of 

 snow which overhung it in such a way that if our foot- 

 ing failed we must have gone right into it The risk 

 was, however, rather apparent than real ; for the snow 

 being moderately soft and yet consistent, we could dig in 

 our feet so as to keep a good hold, and thus we gained 

 first a more moderate slope, and finally a Col which 

 separates the glacier of Aletsch (see Keller's map) from 

 the valley of Lauterbrunnen. But the worst was to 

 come, for we had yet 800 or 900 feet to ascend of the 

 final peak, composed of a surface highly inclined and 

 terminating below in precipices some thousand feet high, 

 on the one side in the Both-Thai (near Lauterbrunnen), 

 on the other side in the Aletsch valley. Had this surface 

 been of snow, as before, it would not have troubled us 

 much, but it was almost all solid ice. Every step was 

 made with a hatchet, and every foot secured before the 

 other could be moved, so that we were two hours in 

 ascending. When we reached the top, we found it a 

 point on which one man could not stand before the snow 

 was beaten down ! Of six travellers and seven guides 

 who started four of each reached the top. We were 

 obliged to stand upon it in succession, and planted a flag. 

 The view was clear in some directions and very magni- 



