the pass to the southern side of the Alps, in the company of my
sinister guide alone. During the ascent an extremely sad sight
kept meeting my eyes; an epidemic of foot-rot had broken out
among cows in the Upper Alps, and several herds passed me in
single file on their way to the valley, where they were going to
be doctored. The cows had become so lean that they looked like
skeletons, and dragged themselves pitiably down the slopes, and
the smiling country with the fat meadow-land seemed to take a
savage delight in gazing on this sad pilgrimage. At the foot of
the glacier, which stood out sheer and steep before me, I felt so
depressed, and my nerves were so overwrought, that I said I
wished to turn back. I was thereupon met by the coarse sarcasm of
my guide, who seemed to scoff at my weakness. My consequent anger
braced up my nerves, and I prepared myself at once to climb the
steep walls of ice as quickly as possible, so that this time it
was he who found difficulty in keeping up with me. We
accomplished the walk over the back of the glacier, which lasted
nearly two hours, under difficulties which caused even this
native of Grimsel anxiety, at least on his own account. Fresh
snow had fallen, which partially concealed the crevasses, and
prevented one from recognising the dangerous spots. The guide, of
course, had to precede me here, to examine the path. We arrived
at last at the opening of the upper valley which gives on to the
Formazza valley, to which a steep cutting, covered with snow and
ice, led. Here my guide again began his dangerous game of
conducting me straight over the steepest slopes instead of going
in a safe zig-zag; in this way we reached a precipitous moraine,
where I saw such unavoidable danger ahead, that I insisted upon
my guide going back with me some distance, until we struck a path
that I had noticed which was not so steep. He was obliged to give