He objected to the courier, and with some show of reason, since he was about to venture upon new and untried ground; but I thought he might as well learn how to take care of the courier now as later, therefore I enforced my point.  I said that the trouble, delay, and inconvenience of traveling with a courier were balanced by the deep respect which a courier’s presence commands, and I must insist that as much style be thrown into my journeys as possible.

So the two assumed complete mountaineering costumes and departed.  A week later they returned, pretty well used up, and my agent handed me the following

Official Report

OF A VISIT TO THE FURKA REGION.  BY H. HARRIS, AGENT

About seven o’clock in the morning, with perfectly fine weather, we started from Hospenthal, and arrived at the Maison on the Furka in a little under quatre hours.  The want of variety in the scenery from Hospenthal made the KAHKAHPONEEKA wearisome; but let none be discouraged; no one can fail to be completely R’ECOMPENS’EE for his fatigue, when he sees, for the first time, the monarch of the Oberland, the tremendous Finsteraarhorn.  A moment before all was dullness, but a Pas further has placed us on the summit of the Furka; and exactly in front of us, at a HOPOW of only fifteen miles, this magnificent mountain lifts its snow-wreathed precipices into the deep blue sky.  The inferior mountains on each side of the pass form a sort of frame for the picture of their dread lord, and close in the view so completely that no other prominent feature in the Oberland is visible from this Bong-A-Bong; nothing withdraws the attention from the solitary grandeur of the Finsteraarhorn and the dependent spurs which form the abutments of the central peak.

With the addition of some others, who were also bound for the Grimsel, we formed a large XHVLOJ as we descended the STEG which winds round the shoulder of a mountain toward the Rhone Glacier.  We soon left the path and took to the ice; and after wandering amongst the crevices Un PEU, to admire the wonders of these deep blue caverns, and hear the rushing of waters through their subglacial channels, we struck out a course toward L’AUTRE Co^T’E and crossed the glacier successfully, a little above the cave from which the infant Rhone takes its first bound from under the grand precipice of ice.  Half a mile below this we began to climb the flowery side of the Meienwand.  One of our party started before the rest, but the HITZE was so great, that we found ihm quite exhausted, and lying at full length in the shade of a large GESTEIN.  We sat down with him for a time, for all felt the heat exceedingly in the climb up this very steep BOLWOGGOLY, and then we set out again together, and arrived at last near the Dead Man’s Lake, at the foot of the Sidelhorn.  This lonely spot, once used for