A TRAMP ABROAD By Mark Twain

two other trifles brought nearly their weight in gold;

and an Englishman offered a pound sterling for a single

breeches-button.

CHAPTER XLI

[The Fearful Disaster of 1865]

One of the most memorable of all the Alpine catastrophes

was that of July, 1865, on the Matterhorn–already

sighted referred to, a few pages back. The details

of it are scarcely known in America. To the vast

majority of readers they are not known at all.

Mr. Whymper’s account is the only authentic one.

I will import the chief portion of it into this book,

partly because of its intrinsic interest, and partly

because it gives such a vivid idea of what the perilous

pastime of Alp-climbing is. This was Mr. Whymper’s

NINTH attempt during a series of years, to vanquish

that steep and stubborn pillar or rock; it succeeded,

the other eight were failures. No man had ever accomplished

the ascent before, though the attempts had been numerous.

MR. WHYMPER’S NARRATIVE

We started from Zermatt on the 13th of July, at half

past five, on a brilliant and perfectly cloudless morning.

We were eight in number–Croz (guide), old Peter

Taugwalder (guide) and his two sons; Lord F. Douglas,

Mr. Hadow, Rev. Mr. Hudson, and I. To insure steady

motion, one tourist and one native walked together.

The youngest Taugwalder fell to my share. The wine-bags

also fell to my lot to carry, and throughout the day,

after each drink, I replenished them secretly with water,

so that at the next halt they were found fuller than

before! This was considered a good omen, and little short

of miraculous.

On the first day we did not intend to ascend to any

great height, and we mounted, accordingly, very leisurely.

Before twelve o’clock we had found a good position

for the tent, at a height of eleven thousand feet.

We passed the remaining hours of daylight–some basking

in the sunshine, some sketching, some collecting;

Hudson made tea, I coffee, and at length we retired,

each one to his blanket bag.

We assembled together before dawn on the 14th

and started directly it was light enough to move.

One of the young Taugwalders returned to Zermatt.

In a few minutes we turned the rib which had intercepted

the view of the eastern face from our tent platform.

The whole of this great slope was now revealed, rising for

three thousand feet like a huge natural staircase.

Some parts were more, and others were less easy, but we

were not once brought to a halt by any serious impediment,

for when an obstruction was met in front it could always

be turned to the right or to the left. For the greater part

of the way there was no occasion, indeed, for the rope,

and sometimes Hudson led, sometimes myself. At six-twenty we

had attained a height of twelve thousand eight hundred feet,

and halted for half an hour; we then continued the ascent

without a break until nine-fifty-five, when we stopped

for fifty minutes, at a height of fourteen thousand feet.

We had now arrived at the foot of that part which, seen from

the Riffelberg, seems perpendicular or overhanging.

We could no longer continue on the eastern side. For a little

distance we ascended by snow upon the ARE^TE–that is,

the ridge–then turned over to the right, or northern side.

The work became difficult, and required caution. In some places

there was little to hold; the general slope of the mountain

was LESS than forty degrees, and snow had accumulated in,

and had filled up, the interstices of the rock-face, leaving

only occasional fragments projecting here and there.

These were at times covered with a thin film of ice.

It was a place which any fair mountaineer might pass

in safety. We bore away nearly horizontally for about four

hundred feet, then ascended directly toward the summit

for about sixty feet, then doubled back to the ridge

which descends toward Zermatt. A long stride round

a rather awkward corner brought us to snow once more.

That last doubt vanished! The Matterhorn was ours! Nothing

but two hundred feet of easy snow remained to be surmounted.

The higher we rose, the more intense became the excitement.