244 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



top still seeming to hang over our heads. How to. 

 get up was evident from the long lines of hanging 

 ropes. We went up these slowly, one after another ; 

 and at last we came to prefer these ledges with 

 their ropes to the lower slopes, which, although 

 less steep, offer nothing but rocks and snow to cling 

 to. One of these ropes had had one of its strands 

 cut by the sharp edge of some rock, and the other 

 two strands were partly untwisted. This rope may 

 break for somebody, but it did not break for us. 



It is hard enough to climb this part of the 

 mountain with the aid of the ropes. It seems next 

 to impossible without it; yet some one carried 

 up these ropes and the iron staples by which they 

 are hung, and fastened them all there. The man 

 who did this was John the Baptist. At last the 

 ropes ceased, and crossing over to the north side 

 of the mountain, we found there an easier slope 

 by which we soon reached the summit. It was 

 now a little after noon. 



The top of the mountain is a narrow crest, lying 

 nearly east and west and rising toward a point on 

 the Swiss side. This crest is about twenty feet 

 long and from one to three feet wide. Its north 

 side is a rocky slope, while the south side is nearly 

 perpendicular, and at the time of our visit it was 

 covered with a long overhanging snow-bank or 

 " cornice." It was as cold as midwinter. The 

 north wind whistled and howled, so that we dared 

 not rise to our feet, and the snow fell thick and 

 fast. I should hardly say that the snow fell; it 

 is made up there, arid every cloud which touches 

 the mountain is a snow-storm. Most of the time 



