Ere long a score of men had started to ascend the Hohlicht heights, above Kalbermatt and Z’Mutt, which commanded the plateau of the Matterhorngletscher.  They returned after six hours, and reported that they had seen the bodies lying motionless on the snow.  This was on Saturday, and they proposed that we should leave on Sunday evening, so as to arrive upon the plateau at daybreak on Monday.  We started at 2 A.M. on Sunday, the 16th, and followed the route that we had taken on the previous Thursday as far as the Hornli.  From thence we went down to the right of the ridge, and mounted through the “seracs” of the Matterhorngletscher.  By 8:30 we had got to the plateau at the top of the glacier, and within sight of the corner in which we knew my companions must be.  As we saw one weather-beaten man after another raise the telescope, turn deadly pale and pass it on without a word to the next, we knew that all hope was gone.  We approached.  They had fallen below as they had fallen above—­Croz a little in advance, Hadow near him, and Hudson behind, but of Lord Francis Douglas we could see nothing.[50] We left them where they fell, buried in snow at the base of the grandest cliff of the most majestic mountain of the Alps.

AN ASCENT OF MONTE ROSA[51]

BY JOHN TYNDALL

On Monday, the 9th of August, we reached the Riffel, and, by good fortune on the evening of the same day, my guide’s brother, the well-known Ulrich Lauener, also arrived at the hotel on his return from Monte Rosa.  From him we obtained all the information possible respecting the ascent, and he kindly agreed to accompany us a little way the next morning, to put us on the right track.  At three A.M. the door of my bedroom opened, and Christian Lauener announced to me that the weather was sufficiently good to justify an attempt.  The stars were shining overhead; but Ulrich afterward drew our attention to some heavy clouds which clung to the mountains on the other side of the valley of the Visp; remarking that the weather might continue fair throughout the day, but that these clouds were ominous.  At four o’clock we were on our way, by which time a gray stratus cloud had drawn itself across the neck of the Matterhorn, and soon afterward another of the same nature encircled his waist.  We proceeded past the Riffelhorn to the ridge above the Goerner Glacier, from which Monte Rosa was visible from top to bottom, and where an animated conversation in Swiss dialect commenced.

Ulrich described the slopes, passes, and precipices, which were to guide us; and Christian demanded explanations, until he was finally able to declare to me that his knowledge was sufficient.  We then bade Ulrich good-by, and went forward.  All was clear about Monte Rosa, and the yellow morning light shone brightly upon its uppermost snows.  Beside the Queen of the Alps was the huge mass of the Lyskamm, with a saddle stretching from the one to the other; next to the Lyskamm came two white, rounded mounds, smooth and pure, the Twins Castor and Pollux, and further to the right again the broad, brown flank of the Breithorn.  Behind us Mont Cervin[52] gathered the clouds more thickly round him, until finally his grand obelisk was totally hidden.  We went along the mountain side for a time, and then descended to the glacier.