OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 479 



effect. On Saturday Maquignaz saw his confessor, and 

 arranged with him to have a mass at 2 a.m. on Sun- 

 day ; after which, unshaded by the sense of duties un- 

 performed, he would commence the ascent. 



The claims of religion being thus met, the point of 

 next importance, that of money, was immediately ar- 

 ranged by my accepting, without hesitation, the tariff 

 proposed hy the Chanoine Carrel. The problem being 

 thus reduced to one of muscular physics we pondered 

 the question of provisions, decided on a bill-of-fare, and 

 committed its execution to the mistress of the hotel. 



A fog impenetrable to vision had filled the whole of 

 the Val Tournancbe on Saturday night, and the moun- 

 tains were half concealed and half revealed by this fog 

 when we rose on Sunday morning. The east at sunrise 

 was lowering, and the light which streamed through the 

 cloud-orifices was drawn in ominous red bars across the 

 necks of the mountains. It was one of those uncom- 

 fortable Laodicean days, which engender indecision — 

 threatening, but not sufficiently so to warrant postpone- 

 ment. Two guides and two porters were considered 

 necessary for the first day's climb. A volunteer joined 

 us, who carried a sheepskin as part of the furniture 

 of the cabin. To lighten their labour the porters took 

 a mule with them as far as the quadruped could climb, 

 and afterwards divided the load among themselves. 

 While they did so I observed the weather. The sun had 

 risen with power and had broken the cloud-plane to 

 pieces. The severed clouds gathered themselves into 

 masses more or less spherical and were rolled grandly 

 over the ridges into Switzerland. Save for a swathe of 

 fog which now and then wrapped its flanks, the Mat- 

 terhorn itself remained clear, and strong hopes were 

 entertained that the progress of the weather was in the 

 right direction. 



