382 SCRAMBLES AMONGST THE ALPS,after I had taken a hand from Croz, or received a pull, Iturned to offer the same to Hudson; but he invariablydeclined, saying it was not necessary. Mr. Hadow, however,was not accustomed to this kind of work, and required con-tinual assistance. It is only fair to say that the difficultywhich he found at this part arose simply and entirely fromwant of experience.

The solitary difficult part was of no great extent.* Webore away over it at first, nearly horizontally, for a distanceof about 400 feet; then ascended directly towards thesummit for about 60 feet; and then doubled back to theridge which descends towards Zermatt . A long stride rounda rather awkward corner brought us to snow once more. Thelast doubt vanished ! The Matterhorn was ours ! Nothingbut 200 feet of easy snow remained to be surmounted !

You must now carry your thoughts back to the sevenItalians who started from Breuil on the nth of July. Fourdays had passed since their departure, and we were tormentedwith anxiety lest they should arrive on the top before us.All the way up we had talked of them, and many false alarmsof “ men on the summit ” had been raised. The higher werose, the more intense became the excitement. What if weshould be beaten at the last moment ? The slope eased off,at length we could be detached, and Croz and I, dashingaway, ran a neck-and-neck race, which ended in a dead heat.At 1.40 p.m. the world was at our feet, and the Matterhorn was conquered. Hurrah ! Not a footstep could be seen.

It was not yet certain that we had not been beaten. Thesummit of the Matterhorn was formed of a rudely level ridge,about 350 feet long,f and the Italians might have been at its

* I have no memorandum of the time that it occupied. It must havetaken about an hour and a half.

t The highest points are towards the two ends. In 1865 the northernend was slightly higher than the southern one. In bygone years Carreland I often suggested to each other that we might one day arrive uponthe top, and find ourselves cut off from the very highest point by a notchin the summit ridge which is seen from the ThCodule and from Breuil(marked D on the outline on p. 124). This notch is very conspicuousfrom below, but when one is actually upon the summit it is hardlynoticed, and it can be passed without the least difficulty.