ix.] -tl.PlXE TRAVELS, 1841. 269 



ficent. On one side we had only clouds, but such clouds ! 

 I noticed one which seemed to extend from the very 

 valley of Grindelwald to 2,000 or 3,000 feet above us. 

 A single cloud of 12,000 feet high was a thing I never 

 saw before. The thermometer was 25, and we soon 

 descended. We were obliged to come all the way down 

 the icy slope backwards, taking every step (about 700) 

 as we had come up. By the admirable provisions of 

 our guides (of whom the chief, Leuthold, is by far the 

 best in the Alps) this was much less nervous work. . . .' 



' YAL TRAVERS, NEAR NEUCHATEL, 2lst Sept. 1841. 

 ' .... I wrote to John a few supplementary notes on 

 the Jungfrau business, with one or two scraps in expla- 

 nation. I had a sharp inflammation of the eyes after I 

 wrote, which you can but too well sympathise with ; 

 and I am sure you would think the ascent of the 

 Jungfrau dearly purchased by any permanent injury. 

 Fortunately my cure was rapid and complete, and I 

 took the advice of an English Indian doctor, who was 

 very obliging, and who advised me to avoid glaciers for 

 a time. It is very curious that the glaciers properly so 

 called never affected me in the least degree : it was the 

 intense whiteness of the snow and the force of the sun 

 above 10,000 feet. I then spent nearly a week at the 

 north foot of Monte Rosa : 



" At the foot of Parnassus contented to stop, 

 For fear of a kick from the nag on the top ! " 



At Zermatt Forbes lost the companion of his previous 



journeys, parting from Mr. Heath on the summit of the 



Theodule pass, which the latter soon after crossed on 



his way to Courmayeur and Paris. Forbes lingered a 



lays lMn.'_r'T at /crmatt, vi>ited the Riffelberg, and 



explored the glaciers of Gorncr and Zmutt, after which 



he retraced his steps down the Rhone valley, devoting 



a day to the examination of the .W-///.s-,///r polished rocks 



and moraines in the neighbourhood of Veniayaz. The 



evidence he there fund, seems to have removed from 



