242 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 
‘placed?”) If John was “well placed” he would 
shout, “En avance!” (“Come on!”) I would | 
then call out, “Tirez!” (Pull!”) He would 
then draw up on the rope, which action made it 
much easier for me to scramble up than it would 
have been without this assistance. Then it became 
my turn to help up the next man; but he usually 
crawled up unaided, — having an aversion to being 
helped, which I did not share, but for which I was 
duly thankful. : 
After working along in this way for about three 
hours, John the Baptist told me to look up and I 
would see the upper hut and the ropes which came 
down from it. High above us we could see a little 
stone shanty under the shelter of a huge pinnacle of 
rock on the edge of a sharp precipice some fifty 
feet high. Down this precipice hung a rope, fast 
to an iron staple above, swinging loosely below. 
We had read in the guide-books that ‘ropes have 
been placed in the more difficult places on the 
Matterhorn.” We had imagined something such as 
we had seen in other mountains,— a rope railing 
alongside of a steep and narrow path. We were 
hardly expecting to go up hand over hand ona 
rope swinging loosely over infinity. 
John the Baptist started up on the rope, resting 
his toes on the projecting points of the rocks, where 
opportunity offered, until he reached a little shelf, 
an inch or two wide, where he could stand on one 
foot. It was growing very cold; the rope was 
white with frost. I put on my gloves and climbed 
up for a little distance; but when I came to rest 
my full weight of two hundred and ten pounds on 
