312 THE LIFE OF JAMES D. FORBES. [CHAP. 



Italy. . . . The weather was magnificent, and the view 

 towards Italy opened upon us superbly so superbly, that 

 we determined to ascend the Wasenhorn, which rose on 

 our left. The summit of this mountain forms a sharp 

 ridge running from west to east, although when seen from 

 either of these directions it presents the appearance of 

 an abrupt peak. It was along the edge of this ridge that 

 we now worked our way up, finding it excessively rugged, 

 without, however, being at all dangerous ; the northern 

 face is extremely steep, and covered with ice, but our 

 guide affirmed that once, when a young man, he had 

 slid down this slope. 



' The view was one of the finest I ever beheld, and 

 withal, remarkable in many of its combinations, while in 

 all directions it was perfectly clear, without cloud or haze. 



* The Italian lakes were not visible, for the great ridge 

 of the Monte Leone and the Breithorn filled up a 

 large space towards the south, and then came the heights 

 beyond the village of Simplon, having the Fletschorn for 

 their culminating point : he towered above us, his height 

 seemingly increased by our proximity to him a magni- 

 ficent mountain ! . . . Through a narrow gap on one side 

 of him, I thought I saw part of the chain of Monte Rosa, 

 and further to the right appeared the magnificent moun- 

 tains of Saas, admirably grouped the Weishorn, the 

 llnbelliorii, and still further behind, the Dent Blanche/ 



The remainder of Forbes's stay at the hospice was 

 taken up with an examination of one of those small 

 isolated glaciers reposing in the cavities of high moun- 

 tains, called by De Saussure ' glaciers of the second order/ 

 which hangs from the slope of the Schonhorn imme- 

 diately behind the hospice. He established the fact of 

 its motion indeed, but motion of a very slow character, 

 averaging no more than one inch in twenty-four hours. 

 * This small result/ he observed, ' is quite conformable 

 with the dry and powdery condition of such elevated 

 glaciers, yielding little water, and capable of exerting on 

 their under parts a very trifling hydrostatic pressure/ 



