CHAT’. I.

the cnuncn in difficulties.

5

of Zermatt, shining through the trees, seemed to say, “ Nevermind a guide, hut come along down, I’ll show you the way;” sooff I went through the forest, going straight towards them. Thepath was lost in a moment, and was never recovered. I was trippedup hy pine-roots, tumbled over rhododendron hushes, fell overrocks. The night was pitch dark, and after a time the lights ofZermatt became obscure, or went out altogether. By a series ofslides, or falls, or evolutions more or less disagreeable, the descentthrough the forest was at length accomplished ; hut torrents offormidable character had still to he passed before one could arriveat Zermatt. I felt my way about for hours, almost hopelessly; hyan exhaustive process at last discovering a bridge, and about mid-night, covered with dirt and scratches, re-entered the inn which Ihad quitted in the morning.

Others besides tourists get into difficulties. A day or two after-wards, when on the way to my old station,near the Hornli, I met a stout cure whohad essayed to cross the Theodule pass.His strength or his wind had failed, andhe was being carried down, a helplessbundle and a ridiculous spectacle, on theback of a lanky guide ; while the peasantsstood hy, with folded hands, their rever-ence for the church almost overcome hytheir sense of the ludicrous.

I descended the valley, diverging from the path at Banda tomount the slopes of the Dom,* in order to see the Weisshorn faceto face. The latter mountain is the noblest in Switzerland, andfrom this direction it looks especially magnificent. On its norththere is a large snowy plateau that feeds the glacier of which aportion is seen from Banda, and which on more than one occasionhas destroyed that village. From the direction of the Dom (that

The highest of the Misohubelhciruer.