144

HOURS OF EXERCISE IX THE ALPS.

[1862

needed no guide in addition to my faithful Bennen;but simply a porter of sufficient strength and skill tofollow where he led. In the village of Laax Bennenfound such a porter—a young man named Bielander,who had the reputation of being both courageousand strong. He was the only son of his mother,and she was a widow.

This young man and a second porter we sent onwith our provisions to the Grotto of the Faulberg,where we were to spend the night. Between the/Eggischhom and this cave the glacier presents nodifficulty which the most ordinary caution cannotovercome, and the thought of danger in connectionwith it never occurred to us. An hour and a halfafter the departure of our porters we slowly wendedour way to the lake of Marjelin, which we skirted,and were soon upon the ice. The middle of theglacier was almost as smooth as a carriage-road, cuthere and there by musical brooks produced by thesuperficial ablation. To Lubbock the scene openedout with the freshness of a new revelation, as,previously to this year, he had never been amongthe glaciers of the Alps. To me, though not new,the region had lost no trace of the interest withwhich I first viewed it. We moved briskly alongthe frozen incline, until, after a couple of hours’march, we saw a solitary human being standing onthe lateral moraine of the glacier, near the point