OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 489 



ing, but with the usual result. My reply was, " Whera 

 you go I follow, whether it be up or down." It took 

 him half an hour to make up his mind. Had the other 

 men not yielded so utterly, he would have tried longer. 

 As it was our occupation was gone, and hacking a length 

 of six feet from our ladder, we planted it on the spot 

 where we halted.' So much is due to the memory 

 of a brave man. 



Six hundred feet, if the barometric measurement can 

 be trusted, of very difficult rock-work now lay above us. 

 In 1862 this height had been under-estimated by both 

 Bennen and myself. Of the 14,800 feet of the Mat- 

 terhorn, we then thought we had accomplished 14,600. 

 If the barometer speaks truly, we had only cleared about 

 14,200. Descending the end of the arete we crossed a 

 narrow cleft and grappled with the rocks at the other 

 side of it. Our ascent was oblique, bearing to the right. 

 The obliquity at one place fell to horizontality, and we 

 had to work on the level round a difficult protuberance 

 of rock. We cleared the difficulty without haste, and 

 then rose straight against the precipice. Joseph Maquig- 

 naz drew my attention to a rope hanging down the cliff, 

 left there by himself on the occasion of his first ascent. 

 We reached the end of this rope, and some time was 

 lost by the guide in assuring himself that it was not too 

 much frayed by friction. Care in testing it was doubly 

 necessary, for the rocks, bad in themselves, were here 

 crusted with ice. The rope was in some places a mere 

 hempen core surrounded by a casing of ice. Over this 

 the hands slid helplessly. With the rope in this con- 

 dition it required a considerable effort to get to the 

 top of the precipice, and we willingly halted there to 

 take a minute's breath. The ascent was now virtually 

 accomplished, and a few minutes' more of rapid climb- 



