i86o-6i 
VISIT TO SWITZERLAND 
103 
In the following August Owen visited Switzer- 
land, and he has left an account of his first visit 
to a glacier and his first mountain climb in a letter 
to his son, dated Riffelburg, August 24, i860 : — 
‘On Wednesday evening, August 22, the 
party was made for the ascent of the Cime de Jazi, 
a mountain of the Monte Rosa range, and the 
itext to it eastwards, the summit of which, 13,200 
leet above sea, commands a view of the lakes, hills, 
and plains of Italy, including Milan and part of 
Tyrol — Mr. Hinchliff, secretary of the Al2iine 
Club ; Mr. Hardman, a stout friend of H.’s ; Mr. 
Clerk, son of Sir George ; Mr. and Mrs. H. Cole,^ 
niyself, and a young German botanist. We had 
five guides ; two were to leave us on gaining the 
summit, and to go on to their native place in a 
"^’alley on the Italian side. Mr. Glerk had his own 
§nide, and our two were to return with us. 
'We were to start at daybreak, weather being 
lavourable. Butat4 a.m. appearances led theguides 
*^0 think that it would not do ; at 5 things looked 
fietter, and we breakfasted all round, and were oft 
due supplies, ropes, &c., by 6.15. The mists 
rising from the valleys, and we were soon 
them, but the sun had risen too, and we were 
often amused by the mist rainbows. Our main 
^oute to the Gorner glacier was along a narrow 
rough footpath along the steep sides and often 
^hove precipices of the Gornergratz. Fortunately 
^ Sir Henry Cole. 
