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. Itseems 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, and every cloud which touches 
the mountain is a snow-storm. Most of the time 
