432 OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 



plied, falling into the patois which he employed when 

 his feelings were stirred : ' What could I do, sir ? not 

 one of them would accompany me.' It was the accurate 

 truth. 



To reach the point where we halted in 1862 one 

 particularly formidable precipice had to be scaled. It 

 had also to be descended on our return, and to get down 

 would be much more hazardous than to climb. At the 

 top of the precipice we therefore fastened a rope, and 

 by it reached in succession the bottom. This rope had 

 been specially manufactured for the Matterhorn by Mr. 

 Good, of King William Street, City, to whom I had 

 been recommended by his landlord, Appold, the famous 

 mechanician. In the summer of 1865, the early part 

 of which was particularly favourable to the attempt, one 

 of the Italians (Carrel dit le Bersaglier) who accom- 

 panied me in 1862, and who proved himself on that 

 occasion a first-rate cragsman, again tried his fortune 

 on the Matterhorn. He reached my rope, and found it 

 bleached to snowy whiteness. It had been exposed for 

 three years to all kinds of weather, and to the fraying 

 action of the storms which assail the Matterhorn ; but 

 it bore, on being tested, the united weights of three 

 men. 1 By this rope the summit of the precipice which 

 had given us so much trouble in 1862 was easily and 

 rapidly attained. A higher Nachtlager was thus 

 secured, and more time was gained for the examination 

 of the mountain. Every climber knows the value of 

 time in a case of the kind. The result of the scrutiny 

 was that a way was found up the Matterhorn from the 

 Italian side, that way being the ridge referred to in my 

 conversation with Bennen three years before. 



Committed thus and in other ways to the Matter- 

 horn, the condition of my mind regarding it might be 



1 A yard of this rope is now in my possession. 



