BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
77 
from the summit. They were walking along what is called a 
cornice, when it broke, and they were hurled to death. The 
proprietor, though accustomed to mountaineering, said that 
only the experienced and expert guides knew from certain 
signs the conditions of the ice and snow, and no one should 
ever undertake any excursion without a guide. These men 
who tried the Jungfrau ascent refused to allow any guide to 
accompany them, though several offered their services free. 
They made the ascent by a new route, from the Lauterbrunnen 
side called the Rotthal. . . . Miss Boss said they were quite 
in pieces when found, and were brought down the mountain 
in racks. Several other fatal accidents have occurred in the 
same neighborhood. The proprietor said that nothing, how¬ 
ever, deterred an Englishman from making the ascent, though 
a hundred had been killed the same day. 
“A party of Americans were at ‘The Bear’ on my return. 
Their vulgar talk and actions repelled me, and I gladly took 
the carriage to return. . . . 
“It is advisable to travel out of the season, and the quiet¬ 
ness of the surroundings with the magnificent scenery helped 
to restore my head to a better state than when I left Zurich. 
A life near these mountains would be the medicine for the 
nerve wear and tear of city anxieties and worry. I thought 
of a home near one of these lovely lakes where existence could 
be made absolutely blissful. 
“At the return to the ‘White Cross,’ Interlaken, a supper 
awaited me; then bed. From my window, the moon poured 
a flood of light over the Jungfrau, and the snowy chain and a 
few brilliant stars looked like lamps before some sacred 
shrine.” 
On her return to Berne, she had several hours to wait, and 
spent them on the terrace by the old Cathedral where she 
obtained another fine view of the snowy Alps. At a garden 
dating from the fourteenth century, she bought a few flowers 
of the old gardener, and gave them to the three pretty children 
that were playing near the water’s edge at the foot of the hill, 
at the base of the terrace. They “smiled at me and reminded 
me of the ‘little maids from school.’” 
