252 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 
hard husk mattress, and an insufficient equipment 
of comfortless quilts, as heavy and as warm as 
though made of sheet-lead. With all these condi- 
tions and worse as I have sometimes found them, 
I have now only to lie still and think back to that 
night on the Matterhorn, and the whole atmosphere 
becomes fairly tropical. 
In the morning we rose early and went out to 
look at the sunrise. The air was intensely clear. 
The whole Matterhorn was white with new-fallen 
snow and glistening with frost. Far below us the 
clouds hung white and heavy over the valley of 
Zermatt, their thick folds hiding all of the land- 
scape which was not snow-covered, their upper out- 
lines seemingly continuous with the white surface 
of the great glaciers. Far beyond the valley of 
Zermatt rose the giants of the Oberland. Nearer 
to us were the Dent Blanche, the Weisshorn, the 
Rothhorn, the three peaks of the Mischabel, and 
,to the right of these the Allalin, the Strahlhorn, 
the Rympfischhorn, and a host of other “ horns,” 
named and unnamed, rose before us. To the east 
was the long crescent of Monte Rosa, the Cima di 
Jazzi, the Lyskamm, Zwillinge, and Breithorn, with 
the great Gorner glacier winding about their feet. 
It was the sight of a life-time, which can never fade 
from the memory. 
“ With drifts of snow, fantastic wreath on wreath; 
And peak on peak against the turquoise blue, 
The Alps like towering campanili stand, 
Wondrous with pinnacies of frozen rain, 
Silvery, crystal, like the prism in hue. 
Oh, tell me, love, if this be Switzérland, ~ 
Or is it but the frostwork on the pane?” — ALDRICH. 
