ALPThrE ADVENTURE. * To any one who remembers the dread feeling
which accompanies a full beating heart, short thick breathing, laxity of leg, and the inexpressible failing of the nerves at the critical moment, when an adventure among the cliffs of even our Southern coasts is achie- ved, and the subsequent revulsion of almost stupid satisfaction, we specially recommend the series of interesting narratives just published by the members of the Alpine Club. And yet before we arrive at any extract or selection from their hairbreadth es- capes, sometimes very ably detailed, let us avow our disappoint- ment that they have not acknowledged, as became them, their obligations to the gentleman who first familiarized English travellers with the comparative accessibility of Mont Blanc and its neigh- bourhood. His name is not even mentioned once in the book, and this is hardly fair considering that his unaffected readiness to facilitate any such expeditions, by whatever experience he had aired, must have been experienced by one or more of the travel- ers. Is it because he has made show of their temple, and pro- faned his enterprise by commercial tendencies? because he has simply turned his journey to a profitable account, that he has forfeited his claims upon the courteous recognition of amateur mountain climbers ? Surely this cannot be. Accident or inad- vertence, or at least some not discreditable cause, which we cannot divine, must have occasioned the suppression of hie name by gentlemen who owe so much to his example, and who must be conscious that the world regards them as his pupils. We would fain attribute their silence to anything rather than to motives which would argue such vulgarity of mind. And with this proem in favour of fair play, let us directly commend the labour of love by the Alpine Club, which in this volume is representeedn.by Messrs. Wills, -Tyndall, Hawkins, Ma- thews junior, HinhhBall, Davies, E. L. Ames, Anderson, Hardy, Bunbury, Kennedy, Forster, and Ramsay. l'heir nanies deserve this reintroduction, for besides the daring and hardihood. which honourably distinguish those who bear them, their cautri butions are intrinsically valuable as indirectly advancing the general amount of scientific information and positive result de- rivable from the several excursions they record. Here, however, are Mr. Binchcliff's reasons for attempting the Trift Pass which leads from Zermatt to the Val D'Annivers.
"In the first place, it was evident that from the upper part of the Trift glacier there must be a remarkably interesting view of the Saasgrat and Monte Rosa group with the various passes to the eastward ; then Caehat himself, ever of the boldest, had represented the descent to the Zinal gla- cier as passablement di, ficile ; and, while it was admitted that scarcely any of the Zermatt guides had attempted to cross the Col, one of them was known to have returned from it with the avowed resolution of never at. tempting it again. Such being the allurements held out to us, what moun- taineer can wonder at our yielding ?"
Having arrived at the highest part of their route without much difficulty, here commenced the serious part of the enterprise.
" We waited a little longer on the crest to observe the magnificent view which we were about to leave behind us. Right opposite were the Cima di fasi and the Weiss Thor, and, as the late? seemed at exactly the same height as the place on which we stood, we all judged that we were about 12,000 feet above the sea. Cachet's bright eye twinkled as he seemed to enjoy our evident astonishment at the situation, but the Zermatt men looked very quiet, and apparently- felt a return of their apprehensions at seeing the nature of the work before them. The wind was rather keen, and stepping carefully, a few paces to the right, we sat down as best we could in a nook partly sheltered by some overhanging rocks. Here Cachet found a bottle left by himself two years before in a hole which contained the card of Mr. Chapman : no other had followed; no human foot had since disturbed the sublimity of this solitude.
"Each took a glass of wine and a piece of bread, while we looked at one another, wondering not a little where we were to go, for there seemed to be zit possible outlet except by returning to Zermatt as we came. Presently Taugwald rose silently, taking the axe, and disappeared round the corner of the • Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers. A Series of Excursions by Members of the Al-
pine Club. Edited by John Ball, F.L.8., President of the Alpine Club. Published by Longman and Co. rock to the right, treading carefully on a narrow ledge, and steadying him- self with his hand on a similar place above. Ina few momenta we heard his axe at work, and then all was silent again ; young Kronig followed, and they were both absent for a few minutes longer : presently they returned together, looking serious, Cachet tossed off his glass of wine, and said, with a laugh, Comment le trouves-vous ? " Ah ! diffieile, tres-difficile, presqu' impossible,' was the encouraging reply. Comment se trouve Is couloir ? ' Tangwald replied gravely, On ne pout pas le passer.' Then Cachet disap- peared with the axe, winch we again heard at work, and in a few minutes he returned looking, as usual, full of confidence, and saying that, though we could not pass the couloir, he had found another way. " We were then securely roped together, Cachet going first, myself next, and the others following, Taugwald being in the middle of the line, and young Kronig bringing up the rear : we had agreed to take the latter to Sierre, as he was very anxious to keep with Taugwald. One by one we crept round the corner, and in a moment saw at least some of our way be- fore us. Close to us was the couloir, which, though not many yards wide, was pronounced impassable ; and so it was. All who are acquainted with the high mountains know that these steep beds of ice are among the most serious difficulties they have to contend with. When, however, they consist of hard ice, they are passed by cutting deep steps for the feet ; and when they are covered with plenty of firm snow, they can be crossed by treading carefully ; in the present instance the couloir, which was frightfully steep, and stretched down farther than we could see, was covered with such a depth of loose, dry snow, that no steps could be cut in the ice, while the softness of the snow made it slip down in small avalanches at every attempt to stand upon it. " Cachet now began crawling cautiously down the rocks to the left of this couloir, supported by us behind with the rope; we followed carefully, and a little lower down came upon a smaller couloir of ice, filling up a chim- ney-like cleft in the rock immediately below us, by which we thought we could descend. Stooping as far as possible, and held up by the rope, he cut steps which had enabled us to descend about half way, when, to our horror, the axe-handle, which had been made at Chamouni of unsound wood, broke nearly short off I Poor Cachet held up the useless weapon, shaking his head more in anger than anxiety, and we saw that another system must be adopted. Creeping down at the very edge of the couloir, and with the point of my alpenstock making holes large enough to support a couple of fingers of the right hand, we passed the difficulty safely, and paused to look around us for a moment.
"The vast slopes of unsullied whiteness on our left, terminated in the bed of the Zinal glacier, now right before us, but apparently at a hopeless distance below, considering the nature of the ground we had to traverse. If any reader has enjoyed the sea breeze from the edge of the cliffs of Beach), Head, he will not forget the effect ; and if he will fancy the cliffs four or five times as high, but of rock instead of chalk, with the ocean below changed into s. field of ice and snow, and slanting downwards very steeply towards Newhaven, he will have a very good notion of the Western side of the Trift pass."
Down they go descending the rocks till they reach the great slope from the Gabelhorn, and upon a fine open plateau of the neve they halt for refreshment.
" The provision knapsacks were emptied and used as seats ; bottles of red wine were stuck upright in the snow ; a goodly leg of cold mutton on its sheet of paper formed the centre, garnished with hard eggs and bread and cheese, round which we ranged ourselves in a circle. High festival was held under the deep blue heavens, and now and then, as we looked up at the wondrous wall of rocks which we had descended, we congratulated ourselves on the victory with a quiet nod, indicative of satisfaction. M. Seiler's beautitul oranges supplied the rare luxury of a desert, and we were just in the full enjoyment of the delicacy when a booming sound, like the discharge of a gun far over our heads, made us all at once glance upwards to the top of the Trifthorn. Close to his craggy summit hung a cloud of dust, like dirty smoke, and in a few seconds another and a larger one burst forth several hundred feet lower. A glance through the telescope showed that a fall of rocks had commenced, and the fragments were leaping down from ledge to ledge in a series of cascades. Each block dashed off others at every point of contact, and the uproar became tremendous ; thousands of fragments making every variety of noise according to their size, and pro- ducing the effect of a fire of musketry and artillery combined, thundered downwards from so great a height that we waited anxiously for some con- siderable time to see them reach the snow-field below. As nearly as we could estimate the distance, we were 500 yards from the base of the rocks, so we thought that, come what might, we were in a tolerably secure posi- tion. At last we saw many of the blocks plunge into the snow after taking their last fearful leap ; presently much larger fragments followed, taking proportionably larger bounds ; the noise grew fiercer and fiercer, and huge blocks began to fall so near to us that wejumped to our feet, preparing to dodge them to the best of our ability. 'Look out' ! cried some one, and we opened out right and left at the approach of a monster, evidently weigh- ing many hundredweight, which was coming right at us like a huge shell fired from a mortar. It fell with a heavy thud not more than twenty feet from us, scattering lumps of snow into the circle where we had just been dining; but scarcely had we begun to recover from our astonishment when a still larger rock flew exactly over our heads to a distance of 200 yards be- yond us The malice of the Trifthorn now seemed to have done its worst; a few more blocks dropped around us, and then after an incessant fire for about ten minutes, the falling masses retired in regular gradation till no- thing remained in transitu but showers of stones and small debris pouring down the side of the mountain ; the thundering noise died away into a tinkling clatter ; and, though clouds of dust still obscured the precipice, silence was soon restored.
" We resumed our seats on the knapsacks now bespattered with snow, and lighted the pipe of tranquillity, all agreeing that we had never before seen such a sight, and wondering at the force which could _project such masses for six or seven hundred yards through the air at a single bound. Even Cachet looked somewhat bewildered, and with a moat comical expres- sion of face he exclaimed Ah! si ma femme pouvait savoir oe je suis pr6sent! Je lui ai dit en partant de Chamouni que j'allais voyager avec des messieurs qui etaint lea plus tranquilles du monde, et—me vein. 'I The fact was that the fall had taken place too near to the line of our descent for the remembrance of it to be altogether pleasant."
Here our extract must be arrested for all danger is over. The views whit* decorate the volume and the maps are carefully drawn, and wear a vraisemblance which is undeniable ; the whole book testifies to the hearty businesslike aim which attends even the excitements of curiosity and adventure in the English- men of this day, just as distinctly it helped the spirit and enter- prildse of a Drake, a Frobisher, and a Raleigh in the brave days of o.
Previous page
