158 HOURS OF EXERCISE IN THE ALPS. [1862

other. From this saddle a kind of couloir runsdownwards, widening out gradually and blendingwith the gentler slopes below. We held on to therocks to the left of this couloir, until we reached thebase of a precipice which fell sheer from the summitsabove. Water trickled from the upper ledges, andthe descent of a stone at intervals admonished usthat gravity had here more serious missiles atcommand than the drippings of the liquefied snow.So we moved with prudent speed along the base ofthe precipice, crossing at one place the ice-gulleywhere Mr. Whymper nearly lost his life. Imme-diately afterwards we found ourselves upon thesaddle which stretches with the curvature of a chainto the base of the true Matterhorn . The openingout of the western mountains from this point ofview is grand and impressive, and with our eyes andhearts full of the scene we moved along the saddle,and soon came to rest upon the first steep crags ofthe real Monarch of the Alps.

Here we paused, unlocked our scrip, and had somebread and wine. Again and again we looked to thecliffs above us, ignorant of the treatment that wewere to receive at their hands. We had gatheredup our traps, and bent to the work before us, whensuddenly an explosion occurred overhead. Welooked aloft and saw in mid-air a solid shot fromthe Matterhorn , describing its proper parabola, and