OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 457 



ehove. At all events the slope was so steep that the 

 guide shot down it with an impetus sufficient to carry 

 him clear over the schrund. We all afterwards shot 

 the chasm in this pleasant way. Jenni was behind. 

 Deviating from our track, he deliberately chose the 

 widest part of the chasm, and shot over it, lumbering 

 like behemoth down the snow-slope at the other side. 

 It was an illustration of that practical knowledge which 

 long residence among the mountains can alone im- 

 part, and in the possession of which our best English 

 climbers fall far behind their guides. 



The remaining steep slopes were also descended by 

 glissade, and we afterwards marched cheerily over the 

 gentler inclines. We had ascended by the Kosegg 

 glacier, and now we wished to descend upon the Mor- 

 teratsch glacier and make it our highway home. It 

 was while attempting this descent that we were com- 

 mitted to that ride upon the back of an avalanche, a 

 description of which is given in the ' Times ' newspaper 

 for October 1, 1864. 1 



In July 1865 my friend Hirst and myself visited 

 Grlarus, intending, if circumstances favoured us, to 

 climb the Todi. Checked by the extravagant demands 

 of the guides, we gave the expedition up. Crossing 

 the Klausen pass to Altdorf, we ascended the Gotthardt 

 Strasse to Wasen, and went thence over the Susten 

 pass to Gadmen, which we reached late at night. We 

 halted for a moment at Stein, but the blossom of 1863 

 was no longer there and we did not tarry. Before 

 quitting Gadmen next morning I was accosted by a 

 guide, who asked me whether I knew Professor Tyndall. 

 ' He is killed, sir,' said the man ; 6 killed upon the 

 Matterhorn.' I then listened to a somewhat detailed 

 1 See also Alpine Journal, vol. i. p. 437. 



