178 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



whole of the time. We were in too bad a place to stop 

 to speak to one another ; but Zurbriggen, climbing up 

 a bit farther, got himself into a firm position, and I 

 scrambled up after him, so that in about ten minutes we 

 had passed this steep bit. 



Here we sat for a moment to recover ourselves, for 

 our nerves had been badly shaken by what had so 

 nearly proved a fatal accident. At the time everything 

 happened so rapidly that we had not thought much of 

 it, more especially as we knew that we needed to keep 

 our nerve and take immediate action ; but when it 

 was all over we felt the effects, and both sat for about 

 half an hour before we could even move again. I 

 learned that Zurbriggen, the moment I fell, had 

 snatched up the coil of rope which lay at his feet, and 

 had luckily succeeded in getting hold of the right end 

 first, so that he was soon able to bring me nearly to 

 rest ; but the pull upon him was so great, and he 

 was so badly placed, that he had to let the rope slip 

 through his fingers to ease the strain while he braced 

 himself in a better position, from which he was able 

 finally to stop me. He told me that had I been 

 unable to turn and grasp the rocks, he mus,t inevitably 

 have been dragged from his foothold, as the ledge 

 upon which he stood was literally crumbling away 

 beneath his feet. We discovered that two strands of 

 the rope had been cut through by the falling rock, so 

 that I had been suspended in mid-air by one single 

 strand." 



Signor Guido Rey, the famous Italian climber, has on 

 several occasions escaped the doubtful honour of being 

 included in the death roll of the Matterhorn. 1 Probably 

 1 See Bibliography, 32. 





