THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW. EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY. VOL. VII. NEW SERIES. JANUARY 1 TO JUNE 1, 1870. (VOL. XIII. OLD SERIES.) LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1870. [The Right of Translation is referved.] AT half-past one o'clock the guide entered my bedroom, pronounced the weather fair, lighted my candle, and then vanished to complete his own preparations. I had been careful to learn whether he really wished to go with me-whether he was embarrassed by either doubt or fear; for it was the first time that a single guide had undertaken to lead a traveller up the mountain. There was no doubt about the matter: he really wished to go. His master (the proprietor of the hotel) had asked him whether he was not undertaking too much. undertaking no more than my companion," was his reply. "I am At twenty minutes past two we quitted the Bel Alp. The moon, which seven hours previously had cleared the eastern mountain-tops with a visible motion, was now sloping to the west. The light was white and brilliant, and shadows of corresponding darkness were cast upon the earth. The larger stars were out, those near the horizon especially sparkling with many-coloured fires. The Pleiades were near the zenith, while Orion hung his sword a few degrees above the eastern horizon. Our path lay along the slope of the mountain, parallel to the Oberaletsch glacier, the lateral moraine of which was close to us on our right. After climbing sundry grass acclivities, we mounted this moraine, and made it our pathway for a time. At a certain point the shingly ridge became depressed, opening a natural passage to the glacier. We found the ice "hummocky," and therefore crossed it to a medial moraine composed of granite débris, and loaded here and there with clean granite blocks of enormous size, Beyond this moraine we found smoother ice and better light, for we had previously journeyed in the shadow of the mountains. We marched upwards along the glacier chatting sociably at times, but at times stilled into silence by the stillness of the night. "Es tagt!" at length exclaimed my companion. It dawns! Orion |