AN ASCENT OF THE MATTERHORN. 239 
rocks, on the other by blue ice, from the edge of 
which often hang long icicles. We walked on in 
silence above this Bergschrund, thinking that our 
way would be easier by-and-by, when suddenly 
our path ceased. At this point John the Baptist 
left us, and climbing fly-like up the side of the 
rock, he showed us our path about ten feet higher 
up on another shelf formed by a projecting stra- 
tum. He threw the end of his rope to the guide 
Victor, who put it around his waist. Then John 
stood in the attitude of the Colossus on the edge 
of the precipice, and hauled him up. Next came 
my turn, and I dangled serenely over the edge of 
the mountain, while John and Victor pulled on the 
rope. This mode of mountain climbing gives a 
view that you can get in no other way of the 
mountains on the other side. And so one by one 
came up the rest. 
But our path did not improve as we went on. 
From this point to the top, about six hours’ climb, 
there was not a single yard of level walking or, 
indeed, of any walking at all. One could not any- 
where take three steps without watching each step 
and making a mental calculation as to whether his 
feet would hold. There was hardly a place where 
astumble ora slip of the foot would not, except 
for the help of others, send the person who slipped 
to the foot of the mountain. Every step was on 
the edge of a precipice, and every step made the 
precipice higher, — though there is little real 
choice between falling a hundred feet and falling a 
mile. The boys appreciated this, and fell not at 
all. They clung with fingers and toes to every 
