156 LIFE OF PROFESSOR HUXLEY chap, xi 



Berne, Sept. 3, 1856. 



I send you a line hence, having forgotten to write from 

 Interlaken, whence we departed this morning. 



The Weissthor expedition was the most successful thing 

 you can imagine. We reached the Riffelberg in 11^ hours, the 

 first six being the hardest work I ever had in my life in the 

 climbing way, and the last five carrying us through the most 

 glorious sight I ever witnessed. During the latter part of the 

 day there was not a cloud on the whole Monte Rosa range, so 

 you may imagine what the Matterhorn and the rest of them 

 looked like from the wide plain of neve just below the Weissthor. 

 It was quite a new sensation, and I would not have missed it 

 for any amount; and besides this I had an opportunity of ex- 

 amining the neve at a very great height. A regularly stratified 

 section, several hundred feet high, was exposed on the Cima di 

 Jazi, and I was convinced that the Weissthor would be a capital 

 spot for making observations on the neve and on other correl- 

 ative matters. There are no difficulties in the way of getting 

 up to it from the Zermatt side, tough job as it is from Macug- 

 naga, and we might readily rig a tent under shelter of the ridge. 

 That would lick old Saussure into fits. All the Zermatt guides 

 put the S. Theodul pass far beneath the Weissthor in point of 

 difficulty; and you may tell Mrs. Hooker that they think the 

 S. Theodul easier than the Monte Moro. The best of the joke 

 was that I lost my way in coming down the Riffelberg to Zer- 

 matt the same evening, so that altogether I had a long day of 

 it. The next day I walked from Zermatt to Visp (recovering 

 Baedeker by the way), but my shoes were so knocked to pieces 

 that I got a blister on my heel. Next day Voiture to Susten, 

 and then over Gemmi to Kandersteg, and on Thursday my foot 

 was so queer I was glad to get a retour to Interlaken. I found 

 most interesting and complete evidences of old moraine deposits 

 all the way do\yn the Leuk valley into the Rhine valley, and 

 I believe those little hills beyond Susten are old terminal mo- 

 raines too. On the other side I followed moraines down to 

 Frutigen, and great masses of glacial gravel with boulders, 

 nearly to the Lake of Thun. 



My wife is better, but anything but strong. 



Chamounix, Aug. 16, 1857. 

 My wife sends me intelligence of the good news you were 

 so kind as to communicate to her. I need not tell you how 

 rejoiced I am that everything has gone on well, and that your 



